After Embarrassment, Iran Calls For AFC Match To Be Rescheduled

The incident occurred at the Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources on Monday, but as of Wednesday, there is no available information regarding her current condition, as reported by the Students Trade Unions Council.

The incident echoes a disturbing trend, with a teenage girl still in a coma following a similar encounter with hijab enforcers, reminiscent of the night when Mahsa Amini lost her life.

On Sunday, Armita Geravand lost consciousness when her head struck a pole, during a dispute over her hijab with enforcers who pushed her against a subway car pole in Tehran. A photo of her in a coma at Fajr Hospital's intensive care unit was shared by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.

The regime has stationed hijab police at all subway stations in Tehran as part of intensified hijab enforcement, which has become increasingly stringent since last September when 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini died in police custody, sparking the Women, Life, Freedom protests.

In response to Armita's situation, Annalena Baerbock, the German Foreign Minister, expressed her distress on X, stating, "It’s unbearable."

Iranian authorities are handling the situation in a manner similar to Mahsa Amini's case. They arrested a journalist attempting to report on Geravand’s situation and aired a video of her parents at the hospital, describing the incident as an accident.

Member of the European Parliament Hannah Neumann has also urged the EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell to reconsider its policy towards the Iranian regime, stating, " another young woman beaten into coma for not wearing her Hijab properly."

On Tuesday, embittered by the region’s rapidly warming ties to Iran’s archenemy Israel, he stated that governments engaging in normalization would be “betting on a losing horse”.

In response, Deputy US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel commented during a press briefing, "I’m not sure that we are really interested in the supreme leader’s point of view on this, when it comes to what we think could be a potentially transformative normalization agreement for the region."

Referring to US-brokered talks underway to formalize Saudi-Israel relations, he asserted that the benefits of normalization, including building a united force against Iran’s regional proxies, far outweighs any such talk of risk.

Saudi would be the latest country to join the transformative normalization begun under the Abraham Accords in 2020, when countries including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain broke a decades long stalemate, resulting in huge economic benefits in addition to security ties.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also dismissed the Iranian leader’s statement.

“While Khamenei’s terrorist regime exports ruin and destruction, Israel is advancing progress and peace,” Netanyahu said.

Representatives Joe Wilson and Jared Moskowitz, members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sponsored the bill. If enacted into law, it would prevent Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi from attending the next UN General Assembly in New York.

Announcing the bill, Rep. Wilson stated, "Mass murderer and terrorist Ebrahim Raisi hates the United States, pledges death to America, yet applies for and is granted permission to travel to New York annually for the United Nations. This hypocrisy is unacceptable."

Iranian activists have long called for such measures, particularly opposing Raisi's presence in New York due to his involvement in the infamous 'Death Committee' responsible for the summary execution of up to five thousand Iranian political prisoners in 1988.

"[This bill] ensures that the oppressors of freedom in Iran do not get to visit the United States to enjoy the liberties here that they deprive their citizens of at home in Iran," Rep. Wilson added in a statement introducing the bill.

Rep. Moskowitz, cosponsoring the bill, questioned on X (formerly Twitter): "The United Nations is meant to be a forum for peace & stability. Why would we give the Iranian regime and other malign actors a platform, given their kidnapping of Americans and support for global terrorism?"

This year's UN General Assembly coincided with a deal to release US hostages in Iran between the United States and the Islamic Republic. Five Iranian-American prisoners were allowed to leave Iran in exchange for the release of $6 billion in frozen Iranian oil revenues from South Korea. The Biden administration faced criticism for this deal, with concerns that it might embolden the Islamic Republic to take more hostages. Additionally, the Biden administration agreed to the release of $2.7 billion from Iraq.

The new bill, named the 'No Paydays for Hostage-Takers Act,' includes extensive sections on Iran's frozen assets and the $6 billion release. It requires the US President to submit an itemized list of all transactions involving the use of these funds, including details of parties involved, financial institutions, goods purchased, destinations, end users, notification dates, and transaction dates.

The bill also mandates the US President to review all cases of hostage-taking by the Iranian regime every six months, determining whether those responsible meet the criteria for sanctions under the Levinson Act.

The bill's namesake, Robert Levinson, was a former DEA and FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007. He was declared dead in custody in 2020 despite efforts by his family to secure his release.

Rep. Moskowitz expressed his commitment to the bill, emphasizing Levinson's case as a constituent matter: "When Iran wrongfully detains one of our own, they must know that the U.S. will not sit back; we will take action and respond."

Additionally, the bill requires the Secretary of State to assess whether US travel to Iran poses "an imminent danger to the public health or physical safety of US travelers" and whether to invalidate US passports for travel to Iran. The US Secretary of State has the authority to restrict American travel to foreign countries, as demonstrated in the case of North Korea in 2017 following the torture and death of Otto Warmbier.

On September 27th, Iran announced the satellite's successful launch using the Qased Space Launch Vehicle, which incorporates technology crucial for the development of a long-range ballistic missile system. The announcement comes at a time of escalating tensions between Iran and Western nations.

“Iran has taken this action despite repeated calls from the UN Security Council to halt its ballistic-missile program. Iran’s actions further prove its disregard of international restrictions and highlight the grave threat posed by the regime to global security,” the Foreign Office declared in a statement on Tuesday.

“Alongside partners, the UK remains committed to taking every diplomatic step to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and to hold the regime to account for its malign activity around the world."

The controversy is not new for the regime. The United States has also accused Iran of contravening the UN Security Council regulations over the years through its satellite programme. As far back as 2017, then-US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert called Iran's latest launch "provocative", stating it violated Tehran's 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers. She said: "We consider that to be continued ballistic-missile development."

Iran has a track record of promptly announcing successful space launches through its state-run television channels while often remaining silent on failed attempts. Over the past decade, Iran has launched several short-lived satellites into orbit and even sent a monkey into space in 2013. However, there have been five consecutive unsuccessful launches in the Simorgh program, which involves satellite-carrying rockets.

Additionally, in a separate incident, a fire at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in February 2019, resulted in the deaths of three researchers, as reported at the time.

The United States agreed in August to allow the release of $6 billion blocked in South Korea and five Iranian regime agents in US prisons to free five American Iranian dual nationals arrested and held in Iran.

Qatari Emir’s office highlighted the call by issuing a statement saying, "During the call, the strategic relations between the two countries and aspects of supporting and strengthening them in various fields were reviewed.”

The White House said the two leaders "discussed their commitment to deepen defense and security cooperation in the region."

Many US lawmakers and analysts criticized the White House for having agreed to pay the “largest ransom” in history and warned that such a large monetary reward for hostage taking will inevitably endanger more Americans around the world.

Qatar is considered a US ally in the region by hosting American military forces but is also one of the few friends Iran has among Arab countries. Last year, Biden designated Qatar as a major non-NATO ally of the United States, fulfilling an earlier promise that he had made to them.

The prisoner release deal, preceded by a US approval to free $2.7 billion of Iran’s money blocked in Iraq is seen as a step to reduce tension and facilitate talks over Iran’s nuclear program.

Qatar has recently held separate bilateral meetings with the United States and Iran that touched on Iran's nuclear program and US concerns about Iranian drone transfers to Russia, sources have told Reuters.