Tehran seems determined to demonstrate that the nuclear agreement struck by the Obama administration will not alter the nature of the Iranian regime one whit.
President Obama’s proffered, outstretched hand to Iran, as proposed before the 2008 presidential election, has been repaid with a poke in the eye.
Iranians today are still encouraged, as they have been for 30 years, to chant “death to America“ (though this supposedly refers to U.S. policy, not the American people—wink, wink).
Overall, the regime is promoting a new surge of anti-American sentiment.
This targeting of the United States is connected with a new crackdown on the media. Independent journalism is as dangerous an occupation in Iran as it ever was, and according to the organization Reporters Without Borders, four Iranian journalists were arrested on Nov. 2.
As “reported” by the Revolutionary Guard “news agencies” Tasnim and Fars, the journalists were charged with being “members of an illegal network linked with the governments of the United States and Britain who were active in Iranian media.”
The four journalists arrested were: Afarine Chitsaz of the daily Iran; Ehssan Mazandarani, editor of the daily Farhikhteghan; Saman Safarzai of the monthly Andisher Poya; and Issa Saharkhiz, a well-known independent journalist who used to edit several reformist newspapers.
