Displaying items by tag: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Nazanin under consideration for clemency
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, currently on temporary release from a five-year jail sentence, is, for the first time, under formal consideration for clemency. A decision will be made by the highest level of Iran’s multi-layered government. There is no guarantee that clemency will be granted, or that she will be allowed to return to the UK. The supreme leader will present a recommendation to the deputy prosecutor. He could either approve clemency or recommend to the supreme leader not to grant it; or it could just sit on his desk for a bit. Now is the time to pray that the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei releases a strongly worded recommendation to the prosecutor general’s office for her immediate release. Pray also that the prosecutor-general will decide that now is the time to allow Nazanin to take the steps towards freedom.
Iran: New Chief Of Revolutionary Guards appointed
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has appointed a new chief commander of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), just days after the United States designated the paramilitary force as a foreign terrorist organization.
Iranian state media reported on April 21 that Khamenei appointed General Hossein Salami as the new head of the IRGC, replacing Mohammad Ali Jafari, who had been in charge for more than 11 years.
Salami, 59, had been serving as a deputy commander in the IRGC. State media gave no reason for Khamenei’s decision to replace the IRGC commander.
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on April 8 designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization in an unprecedented move that drew Iranian condemnation.
Tehran responded by designating the U.S. military's Central Command as a terrorist organization.
The estimated 100,000-strong IRGC is a branch of the military that also plays a major role in Iran’s economy.
It is in charge of Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs and runs its own intelligence operations.
The IRGC has been involved in enforcing Islamic codes and crushing dissent at home, experts say, while taking part in covert operations, arms smuggling, and other efforts aimed at expanding Iran's influence abroad. It answers directly to Khamenei.
The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but not the organization as a whole.
Pray that the devious and manipulative actions of the IRGC will be thwarted
Pray for the people of Iran, who yearn for freedom of speech and true democracy