Quotes of the Day: “Cameron Khansarinia, the Policy Director for the National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI), a nonpartisan organization of Iranian-Americans, told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday that “while most athletes fear the further cancellation of sporting events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, athletes in Iran fear being murdered by the Islamic Republic. After murdering champion wrestler Navid Afkari, the criminal regime occupying Iran intends to put fellow wrestler Mehdi Ali Hosseini to death.” Khansarinia continued that “the International Olympic Committee has as yet refused to take any serious actions against the regime in Tehran for its bloody assault against athletes, despite a coordinated campaign by Iranian athletic champions. The regime should be banned from all Olympic and international sports activities until it stops murdering athletes and lifts its gender apartheid laws towards female athletes and fans. The disregard for the lives of Iranians shown by international organizations including the IOC has removed any and all of their legitimacy as humanitarian bodies.” The Post sent press queries on Saturday to the IOC and United World Wrestling (UWW). Mariam Memarsadeghi, an Iranian-American expert on human rights in the Islamic Republic and leading proponent for a democratic Iran, told The Jerusalem Post: “Khamenei is ramping up executions, foreign kidnappings and assassinations, taking of foreign hostages, and torture in the dungeon to try and repress his way out of the mounting failures and crises inherent to his ideological regime.” She added that “He is testing the will of the Free World. The Biden administration and Europe will do him a big favor if they go back to the Iran Deal and business as usual.”” See “Iran’s regime to execute another champion wrestler,” Benjamin Weinthal, Jerusalem Post, January 10, 2021.
“New Bill Allows Guardian Council to Assess Iran Presidential Candidates’ Plans,” Tasnim, January, 10, 2021.
“Twitter removes Iran’s top leader Khamenei’s vaccine tweet for ‘violating’ rules,” Livemint, January 10 2021.