Showing the extent of the vicious paranoia at the top of the Iranian mullah regime, Iran hanged former defense officials Ali Reza Akbari, once a close associate of top security official Al Shamkhari. Hanging Akbari infuriated British authorities, calling the act barbaric but reflecting Iran’s 83-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, fearful about the mullah regime under siege by Iran’s youthful population still reeling from the Sept. 16, 2022 death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini. Khamenei has watched the nationwide protests for months, fearing it could eventually topple the mullah regime. “This was a callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of its own people,” said British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly summoned the chargé d’affaires Mohammed Jafar Montazeri over Akbari’s hanging.
Iran’s mullah government charged Akbari with serving as a double agent, passing state secrets to Britain’s MI6 security service, the equivalent of the U.S. CIA. Akabari held dual citizenship with the U.K, a prerequisite to the government accusing him of spying for the U.K. Akbari was arrested in 2019, accused of espionage on Iran, forced to make a false confession, before hanging him recently. Anyone accused of spying are held against their will, not provided with legal counsel, often executed behind closed doors. Human rights groups claim criminal defendants in Iran are not given access to legal counsel, only charged and promptly vaporized. “By using physiological and psychological methods, the broke my will, drove me to madness and forced me to do whatever they wanted,” Akbari said in an audio message. “By the force of a gun and death threats they made me confess to these false and corrupt claims,” Akbari said.
United Nations human rights watch warned against “weaponization” of the death penalty. State Department Spokesman Vendant Patel criticized Iran’s treatment of Akbari. “The charges against Ali Reza Akbari and his sentencing to execution were politically motivated. His execution would be unconscionable,” Patel said. “We are greatly disturbed by the reports of Mr. Akbari’s was drugged, tortured while in custody, interrogated for thousands of hours, and force to false confession,” Patel said. Knowing the arbitrary nature of the criminal justice system in Iran, it’s inconceivable that the Biden administration tried to cut a new nuclear deal with Iran, knowing any agreement would be worthless from the start. “More broadly, Iran’s practices of arbitrary and unjust detentions, forced confessions and politically motives executions are completely unacceptable,” said Patel.
Biden’s foreign policy toward Iran has tried to reinstate the 2015 Iran Nuke Deal cancelled by former President Donald Trump May 8, 2018, largely because the Ayatollah was at war with Saudi Arabia. But like other foreign policy blunders, including the Ukraine War, Biden can’t get anything right with Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. State Department officials recognize Iran’s active role in state-sponsored terrorism, only recently supply Kamikaze drones to Moscow to fight the Ukraine War. “The Islamic Republic’s unjust detentions, forced confessions, sham trials and politically motivated executions must end,” wrote Robert Malley, U.S. special envoy to Iran. State Department officials have no clout with Iran since the U.S. has no diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic. Akbari’s hanging should remind the White House that cutting deals with the Ayatollah is fruitless.
French President Emmanuel Macron found Akbari’s hanging especially egregious, signaling a desperate state by the mullah regime, under constant pressure from violent street demonstrations around the country. Macron called Akbari’s hanging “a heinous and barbaric act,” noting the lack of civil institutions in the Islamic Republic. Ayatollah has been blaming the U.S. and Israel for nationwide street protests over Mahsa Amini’s death. Akbari was instrumental in negotiating a 1988 ceasefire between Iran and Iraq, to end a bloody 10-year war. Akbari was deputy defense minister under Shamkhari in the reformist government of Mohammed Khatami. Shamkari serves as secretary of Iran Supreme National Security Council under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Shamkhari evidently ratted out Akbar for apparently spying for the MI6, prompting his arrest and eventual hanging.
Akbari’s hanging was especially egregious in the U.K. where he enjoyed close relations, prompting the espionage accusations. World leaders were treated to just a glimpse of the brutality of the mullah regime, currently engaged in a nationwide crackdown from the Mahsa Amini street demonstrations. Nearly 20,000 Iranians have disappeared over the last four months, with at least 520 known deaths. Whether admitted to or not, most of the 20,000 arrests have probably been liquidated by the mullah regime. White House officials must recognize that the U.S. cannot enter into any agreement with the mullah regime, for one reason alone, it can’t be verified or enforced. Biden’s White House is too consumed with the Ukraine War to recognize the necessity of dealing with other hot spots around the globe. As long as all resources are poured into Ukraine, there’s nothing left to manage U.S. foreign policy.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
