World

Iran was slapped with new sanctions Friday and activists called for fresh protests after the Islamic republic carried out its first execution over demonstrations that have shaken the regime for nearly three months.

Mohsen Shekari, 23, was hanged Thursday after being convicted of “moharebeh” — or “enmity against God” — after what rights groups denounced as a show trial.

The judiciary said Shekari was arrested after blocking a Tehran street and wounding a member of the Basij, a paramilitary force linked to Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran said it was exercising “utmost restraint” in the face of the protests that flared over the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, after her arrest for an alleged breach of the country’s strict dress code for women.

Britain announced sanctions against 30 targets, including officials in Iran whom it accused of pursuing “egregious sentences” against protesters.

Canada imposed sanctions on 22 senior members of Iran’s judiciary, prison system and police, as well top aides to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

European diplomats said the EU was also set to impose more punitive measures on Iran over the deadly crackdown that has killed at least 458 people, including more than 60 children, according to Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR).

Iran said on December 3 that more than 200 people were killed in the unrest, including security forces. 

In addition to Shekari, Iranian media reported on Friday the death of a paramilitary and the burial of another, both of whom were said to have been wounded in clashes with protesters.

– Hurried execution –

Shekari’s body was buried 24 hours after his execution in the presence of a few family members and security forces in Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, the 1500tasvir social media monitor reported.

UN rights chief Volker Turk described the execution as “very troubling and clearly designed to send a chilling effect to the rest of the protesters”.

Overnight, protesters nonetheless took to the street where Shekari was arrested, shouting, “They took away our Mohsen and brought back his body,” in a video shared by 1500tasvir.

Elsewhere, chants of “Death to the dictator” and “Death to Sepahi” were heard at a demonstration in Tehran’s Chitgar district, in reference to Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards.

1500tasvir said Shekari’s execution happened with such haste that his family had still been waiting to hear the outcome of his appeal.

It posted harrowing footage of what it said was the moment his family learnt the news outside their Tehran home, with a woman doubled up in pain and grief, repeatedly screaming his name. 

The families of political prisoners put to death in mass executions in 1988 joined in the condemnation.

“Mohsen’s execution is a reminder of the loss of our loved ones, who… just like Mohsen, were tried in minutes-long sham trials,” they said in a statement published by US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

Hamed Esmaeilion, an Iranian-Canadian activist who has organised mass protests in Berlin, Paris and other cities, said more demonstrations would be held at the weekend.

– ‘Chilling effect’ –

Western governments, which had already imposed waves of sanctions against Iran over the protest crackdown, also expressed anger.

Washington called Shekari’s execution “a grim escalation” and vowed to hold the Iranian regime to account for violence “against its own people”.

Germany summoned the Iranian ambassador, a diplomatic source said, without providing further details.

Spain condemned the execution “in the strongest terms”, calling on Tehran to “respect the fundamental rights of the Iranian population, including freedom of expression and peaceful demonstration”.

Iran has defended its response to the protests and accused the West of hypocrisy.

“In countering riots, Iran has shown utmost restraint and, unlike many Western regimes… Iran has employed proportionate and standard anti-riot methods,” its foreign ministry said.

“The same is true for the judicial process: restraint and proportionality,” it tweeted late Thursday, adding: “Public security is a red line.”

According to Amnesty, Iran executes more people annually than any nation other than China.

IHR this week warned the Islamic republic had already executed more than 500 people in 2022, a sharp jump on last year.

At least a dozen other people are currently at risk of execution after being sentenced to hang in connection with the protests, human rights groups warned.

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The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Friday to allow humanitarian aid to continue unhindered into countries targeted by UN sanctions, particularly frozen assets.

The text states that “payments of funds,” “economic resources” or “the provision of goods and services necessary to ensure the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance… are permitted and are not a violation of the asset freezes imposed by this Council.”

The resolution applies to UN agencies as well as humanitarian organizations participating in UN humanitarian work. 

The humanitarian community has been calling for the Council to ensure that “unintentional, second-order impacts don’t impede their work,” said US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. She said they wanted was a “clear, standard carve-out” for all UN sanctions regimes. 

“And that is exactly what we are voting on today,” she said, adding that the resolution would “save lives.” 

The text — which was also supported by several dozen states even outside the Security Council — gained 14 votes in favor in the Council, with only India abstaining.

“Our concerns emanate from proven instances of terrorist groups taking full advantage of such humanitarian carve-outs and making a mockery of sanctions regimes,” in particular those against the so-called Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda, said India’s ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, who is heading the Council this month. 

The resolution specifies that the exemption is only valid for two years for Al-Qaeda and IS. 

“There have also been several cases of terrorist groups in our neighborhood, including those listed by this council, reincarnating themselves as humanitarian organizations and civil society groups precisely to evade the sanctions,” the Indian ambassador said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross hailed the vote as “an important day in the history of humanitarian action,” expressing hope that the new rule would mean “better services for communities, such as medical care, drilling of wells for clean drinking water, or visits to people detained in conflict.”

There are currently more than a dozen UN Security Council sanctions regimes involving North Korea, Libya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Taliban. 

Last year, after the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Security Council implemented an exception for humanitarian aid to the war-torn country.

Iran was slapped with new sanctions Friday and activists called for fresh protests after the Islamic republic carried out its first execution over demonstrations that have shaken the regime for nearly three months.

Mohsen Shekari, 23, was hanged Thursday after being convicted of “moharebeh” — or “enmity against God” — after what rights groups denounced as a show trial.

The judiciary said Shekari was arrested after blocking a Tehran street and wounding a member of the Basij, a paramilitary force linked to Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran said it was exercising “utmost restraint” in the face of the protests that flared over the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, after her arrest for an alleged breach of the country’s strict dress code for women.

Amnesty International said it was “horrified” by Shekari’s execution, which followed a “grossly unfair sham trial”.

Britain announced sanctions against 30 targets, including officials in Iran whom it accused of pursuing “egregious sentences” against protesters.

Canada imposed sanctions on 22 senior members of Iran’s judiciary, prison system and police, as well top aides to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

European diplomats said the EU was also set to impose more punitive measures on Iran over the deadly crackdown that has killed at least 458 people, including more than 60 children, according to Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR).

Iran’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, had said on December 3 that more than 200 people were killed in the unrest, including security forces.

A paramilitary wounded in clashes with protesters in Tehran died on Friday after 22 days in a coma, the Fars news agency reported Friday.

Another paramilitary who last week succumbed to stab wounds inflicted by “rioters” in Shiraz in late October was buried Friday, state news agency IRNA said.

– Hurried execution –

Shekari’s body was buried 24 hours after his execution in the presence of a few family members and security forces in Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, the 1500tasvir social media monitor reported.

Overnight, protesters took to the street where he was arrested, shouting, “They took away our Mohsen and brought back his body,” in a video shared by 1500tasvir.

Elsewhere, chants of “Death to the dictator” and “Death to Sepahi” were heard at a demonstration in Tehran’s Chitgar district, in reference to Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards.

1500tasvir said Shekari’s execution happened with such haste that his family had still been waiting to hear the outcome of his appeal.

It posted harrowing footage of what it said was the moment his family learnt the news outside their Tehran home, with a woman doubled up in pain and grief, repeatedly screaming his name. 

IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said “Shekari was executed after a hasty and unfair trial without a lawyer”.

The families of political prisoners put to death in mass executions in 1988 joined in the condemnation.

“Mohsen’s execution is a reminder of the loss of our loved ones, who… just like Mohsen, were tried in minutes-long sham trials,” they said in a statement published by US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

Hamed Esmaeilion, an Iranian-Canadian activist who has organised mass protests in Berlin, Paris and other cities, said more demonstrations would be held at the weekend.

– ‘Chilling effect’ –

UN rights chief Volker Turk described the execution as “very troubling and clearly designed to send a chilling effect to the rest of the protesters”.

Western governments, which had already imposed waves of sanctions against Iran over the protest crackdown, also expressed anger.

Washington called Shekari’s execution “a grim escalation” and vowed to hold the Iranian regime to account for violence “against its own people”.

Germany summoned the Iranian ambassador, a diplomatic source said, without providing further details.

Iran has defended its response to the protests and accused the West of hypocrisy.

“In countering riots, Iran has shown utmost restraint and, unlike many Western regimes… Iran has employed proportionate and standard anti-riot methods,” its foreign ministry said.

“The same is true for the judicial process: restraint and proportionality,” it tweeted late Thursday, adding: “Public security is a red line.”

According to Amnesty, Iran executes more people annually than any nation other than China.

IHR this week warned the Islamic republic had already executed more than 500 people in 2022, a sharp jump on last year.

At least a dozen other people are currently at risk of execution after being sentenced to hang in connection with the protests, human rights groups warned.

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The United States on Friday expressed alarm over a “full-scale defense partnership” between Russia and Iran, describing it as “harmful” to Ukraine, Iran’s neighbors and the world.

Iran stands accused by Western powers of supplying drones to Russia for its war against Ukraine, as Moscow batters the country’s energy infrastructure in search of an advantage in the bloody conflict.

Washington has previously condemned Iran-Russia security cooperation, but on Friday described an extensive relationship involving equipment such as drones, helicopters and fighter jets.

“Russia is seeking to collaborate with Iran in areas like weapons development, training,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Moscow “is offering Iran an unprecedented level of military and technical support — that is transforming their relationship into a fully fledged defense partnership,” he said.

“We have also seen reports that Moscow and Tehran are considering the establishment of a joint production line for lethal drones in Russia. We urge Iran to reverse course (and) not to take these steps.”

Kirby said that the United States would sanction three Russian-based entities active in “the acquisition and use of Iranian drones.”

Last month, Tehran admitted it had sent drones to Russia, but insisted they were supplied before the invasion of Ukraine.

Kirby said the United States is also concerned that Russia “intends to provide Iran with advanced military components,” including helicopters and air defense systems.

– ‘Sordid deals’ –

Iranian pilots have reportedly been learning to fly advanced Sukhoi Su-35 warplanes in Russia, and Tehran may receive the aircraft within the next year, which would “significantly strengthen Iran’s air force relative to its regional neighbors,” Kirby said.

The United States also believes that Iran is considering the sale of “hundreds of ballistic missiles” to Russia, he said.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly took aim Friday at the “sordid deals” between Moscow and Tehran, saying in a statement that Iran had sent drones to Russia in exchange for “military and technical support” from Moscow.

This “will increase the risk it poses to our partners in the Middle East and to international security,” Cleverly said, vowing that “the UK will continue to expose this desperate alliance and hold both countries to account.”

Kirby on Friday announced a new $275 million aid package to help boost Ukraine’s air defenses, against Russian drones in particular.

He said the aid “will soon be on its way to provide Ukraine with new capabilities to boost its air defenses and counter the threats that Ukraine is facing from drones.”

The Pentagon released details on the package, saying it includes counter-drone equipment, as well as ammunition for Himars precision rocket systems, 80,000 155mm artillery rounds, some 150 generators, and other equipment.

The United States has previously said that generators were being provided to Kyiv to help Ukraine with its electricity needs amid repeated Russian strikes on energy infrastructure.

The latest package — which is made up of equipment taken from existing US stocks — brings Washington’s military assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s February 24 invasion to more than $19.3 billion.

Peru’s new President Dina Boluarte called for calm Friday as protests mounted after the impeachment and arrest of her predecessor Pedro Castillo, who stands accused of attempting a coup.

Police on Thursday fired tear gas and clashed with hundreds of protesters who demanded Castillo’s release.

Demonstrations continued on Friday, with protesters blocking roads with rocks, logs, and burning tires as they called for early elections.

Boluarte told journalists that if the situation “warrants it,” the government will consult with Congress on holding an early presidential vote.

She urged those “who are coming out in protest … to calm down.”

Peru was plunged into political crisis on Wednesday, when leftist Castillo — facing a third impeachment bid — tried to dissolve Congress and announced plans to rule by decree.

However, lawmakers quickly gathered to vote him out of office, and Castillo was arrested on his way to the embassy of Mexico, which had agreed to give him asylum.

The former rural school teacher, who won a shock election victory over Peru’s traditional elites in June 2021, is being held in provisional detention for seven days while prosecutors investigate charges of “rebellion and conspiracy.”

The charges carry a jail term of between 10 and 20 years.

Boluarte, who served as vice president under Castillo, was hastily sworn in as Peru’s first woman president just hours after the impeachment. She said she would form her government on Saturday.

However, doubt is mounting over her ability to hold onto the job until the end of her mandate in 2026 in a country prone to political instability that is now on its sixth president in six years.

Hundreds of protesters were blocking different sections of the Panamericana Sur highway for a second day on Friday, and further protests and blockades have been called in the capital Lima later in the day.

Protests have also been reported in several towns in Peru’s interior, where poverty is high, and Castillo drew a lot of support for his campaign as a humble man of the people.

Castillo, 53, landed in the crosshairs of the opposition-dominated Congress and prosecutors almost as soon as he took office.

He had six investigations opened against him during his short time as president, ranging from corruption to plagiarizing his thesis and heading a “criminal organization” involving his family and allies.

Dozens of scientists, experts and campaigners called for a ban on the release of genetically-edited organisms into the wild, in a statement Friday warning of potentially severe risks to the world’s pollinators.

The appeal was launched at crunch biodiversity talks in Montreal, where delegates from almost all the world’s countries were meeting to negotiate a strategy to halt human environmental destruction, which threatens the natural life support systems of the planet.

A host of new genome-editing tools that modify the genetic material of living beings have emerged in recent years, and are being researched and developed largely to target insects and plants in agriculture.  

Supporters argue that they could help human health, agriculture and even species conservation.

But their use in the wild carries “understudied risks which could accelerate the decline of pollinator populations and put entire food webs at risk,” according to the letter drafted by the French non-governmental organisation Pollinis. 

The signatories — including researchers specialising in insects, pollinators and agroecology — called for countries party to the UN biodiversity talks to oppose the deployment of genetic biotechnologies in nature. 

They said current scientific research was unable to provide “reliable and robust” risk assessments for potential harms to other species including pollinators and the plants, animals and whole ecosystems that rely on them.    

“Pollinating insects are already facing an alarming decline due to external stressors, adding hazardous and unassessed genetic biotechnologies to this fatal mix will aggravate the stress on pollinators and may precipitate their extinction,” the statement said.

The UN talks in Montreal are tasked with laying out an ambitious plan for how people can live “in harmony with nature” in the coming decades, as scientists warn a million species are threatened with extinction. 

One of the targets up for negotiation looks specifically at the potential risks of genetic biotechnology and the decision on this point could lead either to greater regulation or help facilitate their use.

– Engineered eradication –

Unlike genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which introduce an external gene into a plant or animal, new gene editing techniques directly modify the genome of a living being, without adding external elements.

One example is so-called gene drive technology, which uses tools such as CRISPR-Cas9 — DNA snipping “scissors” that can insert, delete or otherwise edit genes.    

This can push an engineered trait so it is passed down to a higher proportion of offspring than would have occurred naturally, across many generations.

A flagship project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has developed the technology to try to eradicate malaria. 

In 2018 researchers were able to wipe out an entire population of malaria-carrying mosquitos in the lab using a gene editing tool to programme their extinction.

The Pollinis letter said companies have filed patent applications describing the use of gene drive technology to target “hundreds” of agricultural pests.     

Another type of biotechnology uses “genetic silencing” to inhibit certain genetic expressions in animals or plants. 

This would make it possible to combat crop pests such as the Colorado potato beetle, which decimates potato crops, or fruit flies.

Some of these biotechnologies have already been approved for use in different parts of the world, the Pollinis statement said, calling for the issue to be “urgently addressed at the international level”.

– Into the wild? –

Advocates of these biotechnologies want permission to take these experiments out of the laboratory and conduct field trials. 

In Europe, Monsanto’s insect-resistant MON810 corn is the only GMO authorised for cultivation. 

But biotech products benefit from a much more flexible framework in the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Japan and India, among others.

Christophe Robaglia, professor of biology at the University of Aix-Marseille and a GMO expert with the European Food Safety Authority said the EU’s regulations on these biotechnologies were largely “obsolete”. 

When it comes to use on plants, he said the use of some of these so-called new breeding techniques could “improve” them, making them resistant to viruses or herbicides or make them more drought tolerant.  

In September 2021, a meeting of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) passed a motion which noted the particular importance of the “precautionary principle” with synthetic biology. 

The Pollinis statement is most concerned about the use of these techniques on insects that are not limited to a single area. 

It raised particular concern about “gene transfer” between species. 

This is the risk that modifications made to pests could potentially contaminate the genome of non-target species, potentially destabilising a cascade of other species.