Jailed Iranian Activist Transferred To Hospital Without Mandatory Hijab

“We will ensure close coordination of any future measure to diminish Iran’s ability to acquire, produce, or transfer weapons to support its destabilizing regional activities,” read the statement released Wednesday by G-7 finance ministers following negotiations on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group Spring Meetings in Washington, DC.

The ministers also warned against any regional escalation and its concomitant economic risks, particularly those to international shipping.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who hosts this round of G7 summit, said Thursday that the foreign ministers of the group “will address the most sensitive issues on the agenda.” He elaborated, “We will certainly discuss the Middle East issue. We are friends of Israel, and we support Israel, but we want de-escalation in that area. We will also have to address how to sanction Iran in some way for the attack with hundreds of missiles and drones against Israel.”

“We will also have to deal with the other situation in the Middle East, and the maritime traffic through Suez and the Red Sea, an issue that involves all our countries since the merchant traffic is threatened by the Houthis,” he added.

Since November, Iran-backed Yemeni Houthis have been engaged in a blockade in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in a bid to force a ceasefire on Israel. The group launched its campaign to attack Israeli vessels but it has since expanded to all global shipping.

On Saturday, Iran's Revolutionary Guard seized a Portuguese-flagged cargo ship that they said was "affiliated with" Israel near the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, European Union leaders pledged more sanctions against Iran, urging the regime and its proxies to put an end to their attacks in the region.

The EU “will take further restrictive measures against Iran, notably in relation to unmanned aerial vehicles and missiles,” said the statement issued Wednesday after the first day of the bloc leaders’ summit in Brussels.

On Saturday night, Iran launched its first ever direct offensive against Israeli territory with more than 350 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles.

French President Emanuel Macron stressed that the new sanctions should target “those who are helping to produce the missiles and drones that were used” in Iran’s offensive.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz welcomed the EU's decision to ramp up Iran’s sanctions, calling it “an important step on the way to defanging the snake.” According to Katz, “Iran must be stopped now before it is too late.”

Amid a wave of international condemnation, the Permanent Representatives of 48 countries at the United Nations condemned Iran’s attack on Israeli territory in a joint statement on Wednesday.

“We unequivocally condemn the April 13 attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its militant partners on the State of Israel, which involved launching several hundred ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and attack drones against multiple targets, and note this large-scale attack could have caused significant damage and loss of life,” read the statement.

They also lambasted Iran’s move to “violate” the airspace of several regional countries such as Jordan which helped intercept the barrage, noting that it endangered the lives of innocent people.

According to Hengaw Human Rights Organization, Hassan Omarpour, 29, who went on strike to protest his prison conditions and the prosecutor's harsh treatment of his family who have also been intimidated since his imprisonment, has been deprived of all his fundamental rights since Sunday.

Omarpour was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March last year on the charge of "cooperating with Israeli intelligence and espionage."

A year earlier, he and nine other citizens were arrested on similar charges. Following several months of torture in solitary cells, four were executed in January, according to Hengaw.

Omarpour self-immolated in February in response to prison guards attacking him and his inmates.

Kurds continue to come under disproportionate oppression in Iran along with minorities such as the Bahai and Baluch.

Of last year’s record numbers of executions, large numbers were Kurds and minorities.

In an op-ed for Wall Street Journal Wednesday, President Biden called on the US Congress to pass military aid for Israel to ensure that it’s “fully stocked and ready” to defend herself.

“If Iran succeeds in significantly escalating its assault on Israel, the US could be drawn in,” Biden warned. “Israel is our strongest partner in the Middle East; it’s unthinkable that we would stand by if its defenses were weakened and Iran was able to carry out the destruction it intended this weekend.”

President Biden has been trying hard since October 7 to avert a full-scale war in the Middle East, exhausting overt and covert diplomatic channels to restrain Israel and Iran. His job has become much more difficult since April 13, when the Iranian regime launched more than 300 drones and missiles towards Israel in response to the bombing of one of its buildings in the Damascus embassy, which killed the IRGC’s top commander in Syria and his deputy.

In the past few days, officials in both Israel and Iran have hardened their rhetoric, uttering threats that seem to get more severe by the day.

On Wednesday, Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said that Israel’s response to Iran’s attack should inflict a “disproportionate toll” and “rock Tehran” so that the leaders of the country “regret the moment they even thought about firing”.

Smotrich is the leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party, He is not a member of the war cabinet, but wields considerable power because a ‘coalition deal’ means he is technically also a minister in Israel’s defense ministry. Speaking to Israel’s Army Radio (GLZ), he called for an Israeli retaliation that would make the Iranian regime “realize they shouldn’t mess with” Israel. “This is the language spoken in the Middle East,” he said.

In Tehran, President Ebrahim Raisi proved that this was indeed the language spoken in the Middle East. Even the “tiniest” Israeli attack on Iran, he said at a military parade, would bring “a severe and harsh response.” The IRGC commander in charge of missiles and drones, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, seconded the president. Asked by a reporter if they would strike Israel again if they retaliate against Iran's attack, he said “one-hundred percent.”

But this wasn’t the end. There were more threats to come from Israel.

Former director of intelligence at Mossad, Zohar Palti, suggested in an interview that targeting nuclear facilities can be an option. “Everything is on the table right now,” he told the British broadcaster Sky News. Asked whether that included targeting nuclear facilities, he said, “including everything.”

Palti is not an Israeli official. But Smotrich is. So are Raisi and Hajizadeh and many more voices on both sides calling for severe measures to establish ‘deterrence.’

The Biden administration –and other world leaders to a lesser extent– will have a difficult task de-escalating a situation that seems to be getting more tense by the day.

The US and the EU have announced their intention to impose more sanctions related to Iran, targeting those individuals and entities that help Tehran's destabilizing activities. However, that the effective way to exert pressure is to enforce the oil export sanctions already in place that the Biden administration has not pursued vigorously.

"I thank our friends for their support for Israel's defense, both in words and in deeds. They also have various proposals and advice, which I appreciate, but I want to clarify that we will make our own decisions. The State of Israel will do whatever is necessary to defend itself…,” Netanyahu said.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had traveled to Jerusalem amid the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel,

Experts say their visit was likely intended to express solidarity following Iran's attack on Israel and to discuss the ongoing war in Gaza, including the humanitarian aid situation.

While Cameron emphasized the importance of minimizing escalation and ensuring a “smart” approach, he told reporters after the meeting that “it's clear the Israelis are making a decision to act".

The British Foreign Secretary also wrote on X that during the meeting he told the Israeli Prime Minister that they “must maintain [their] focus on getting more aid into Gaza and getting hostages out".

Echoing those comments, Baerbock reiterated Germany's solidarity with Israel while she cautioned against escalation, stating that “everyone must now act prudently and responsibly”.

“A spiraling escalation would serve no one, not Israel’s security, not the many dozens of hostages still in the hands of Hamas, not the suffering population of Gaza, not the many people in Iran who are themselves suffering under the regime, and not the third countries in the region who simply want to live in peace,” Baerbock said.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi meanwhile threatened that even the slightest incursion into Iran would trigger severe retaliation, like increasing the diplomatic pressures on Israel to avoid a major escalation.

Speaking today at Iran’s annual Army Day, which was relocated to a barracks without any explanation from the authorities, Raisi warned that even the "tiniest invasion" by Israel would be met with a "massive and harsh" response from Iran.

G7 foreign ministers are also meeting this week in Italy to discuss targeted sanctions against Iran and are widely expected to issue a joint plea urging Israel to show restraint in its response to Iran.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who is hosting the talks, told AFP that the ministers were "working" on implementing some form of sanctions against Iran.

The US, Israel's key ally, has similarly pledged to impose further sanctions in the coming days.

The denouncements follow reports of widespread arrests and police violence throughout the country.

Prominent Iranian scholar and university professor, Sedigheh Vasmaghi, denounced her arrest for defying mandatory hijab laws.

Currently imprisoned in Tehran's Evin Prison, Vasmaghi, in a message dated April 2024, condemned the authorities' actions as "antipatriotic and against national interests."

"Ordering engagement with people, particularly women, for a specific reason like hijab enforcement is not only unpatriotic and unforgivable, but also detrimental to the nation's well-being," Vasmaghi's message from prison reads. "The inevitable consequences of this order will undoubtedly fall on those who issued it and those who carry it out."

Jailed Iranian human rights activist and Nobel laureate, Narges Mohammadi, joined the chorus of condemnation. "Desperate to mask its crumbling legitimacy and failing authority," she asserted from Evin Prison, "the Islamic Republic has transformed the streets into a battleground against women and youth, wielding fear and intimidation as weapons."

Mohammadi further emphasized that the regime's "shameful domestic domination and brute force" are a pathetic attempt to compensate for its "weak and absurd claims" on the world stage. "The ongoing civil disobedience and brave resistance of Iranian women in the streets," she concluded, "have shaken the foundations of the Islamic Republic."