Heidari-Fard: The Order to Dispatch to Kahrizak Was Mine

Reviewing the newspapers on Saturday, October 14, 2017, the newspaper Jahane San'at in its front page titled "The Fate of the JCPOA is in Congress's Hands" wrote: "Donald Trump, the President of the United States, spoke on Friday night at the White House about his government's policies regarding the Iran nuclear deal and stated that he does not certify Iran's compliance with its commitments, handing the fate of the JCPOA over to Congress." According to this newspaper, the US President said: "My policy is based on a clear strategy regarding Iran. The Iranian government has spread destruction and death throughout the world. They occupied the US embassy in Iran, took Americans hostage, and Iran has supported bombings that killed Americans. After the September 11 attacks, Iran sheltered Osama bin Laden's son, the then-leader of al-Qaeda. Iran's actions and policies continue. This country supports the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Hamas." Jahane San'at quoted the US President as saying: "The previous US government lifted sanctions against Iran through a controversial agreement. As I have said before, the JCPOA was one of the worst agreements the US entered into" and "the JCPOA reduced pressures on Iran and allowed this country access to financial resources. This country received a lot of money from the US, much of which ended up in their hands. Worst of all, the JCPOA allows Iran to continue its nuclear program. We have very weak inspections, and in return, there has been very little delay in Iran's access to nuclear weapons." The newspaper reported that Donald Trump stated, "We will not certify the JCPOA and will not do so," and said: "I instruct the government to work closely with Congress to address the deficiencies of the JCPOA," while on the other hand, "the JCPOA has remained silent on Iran's missile programs, and Congress has already taken action and is looking to add several clauses to prevent Iran's missile program," but "if we cannot reach an agreement with our allies, the JCPOA will be annulled." Simultaneously, the newspaper Iran published Hassan Rouhani's response to Donald Trump on its front page, stating: "The President responded to Donald Trump's accusatory remarks about Iran and in a live televised speech, described the US President's statements as insults and a bunch of baseless accusations against the great nation of Iran." This government-affiliated newspaper quoted Hassan Rouhani as saying: "How can the President not remember the name of the famous, historical, and global Gulf, the Persian Gulf, which unfortunately American fleets continuously and unjustifiably navigate in this region? At least he should ask his military personnel how this region is named on the maps they have; therefore, it is necessary for them to study geography more." According to the newspaper Iran, Hassan Rouhani stated that "the JCPOA is a multilateral treaty, an international document, and has been approved by the United Nations. Can a President unilaterally annul this document? Apparently, he does not know that it is not a bilateral document between Iran and the US that he can act as he wishes." Hassan Rouhani also said: "We respect the JCPOA as a multilateral and international treaty as long as our rights are secured and our interests require it, and as long as we benefit from it, we will respect it within the framework of our national interests and benefits. We have cooperated with the Agency so far and will continue to cooperate with the Agency within the framework of international treaties and the JCPOA, but if one day our national interests are not secured and our counterparts want to violate their commitments, they should know that Iran will not hesitate for a moment and will respond to them." According to the newspaper Iran, Hassan Rouhani also stated about missile programs: "Our defensive and missile activities have always been important for us, and today they are even more important. We have always strived to build the weapons we need, and from now on, we will make even greater efforts. These weapons are for our defense, and we will continue our activities to defend and strengthen our defense." Hamidreza Hajibabaei, the head of the Principlist faction in the tenth parliament, wrote in a note titled "Avoiding Hasty JCPOA Decisions" in the newspaper Iran: "In such circumstances, more than the behavior of the Americans, our reaction in Iran to this behavior will be important. Just as we must avoid passive and slow reactions in these circumstances, we must also steer clear of rapid and uncalculated responses. In other words, remaining in or exiting the JCPOA should not be Iran's variable for staying in or exiting this international agreement." The author of the note in the newspaper Iran stated that "the current situation is actually a critical juncture that can convey two different images of Iran and the US to the world" and "therefore, the main expectation from our diplomatic apparatus in a situation where the Americans have begun a new game regarding the JCPOA should be summarized in reasonable steadfastness. This means that we are neither willing to back down from our rights and international commitments nor are we inclined to uncalculated and hasty policies." The newspaper Etemad in its front page emphasized that "Trump did not say anything new," stating: "Donald Trump, the President of the United States, finally announced his historic decision regarding Iran on the thirteenth day of October after nine months of resorting to the language of threats and force; a decision that reflects his administration's approach to the nuclear agreement with Iran as only one aspect of it and, on a broader level, shows Washington's nuanced behaviors towards Tehran during Trump's four years in office." This newspaper emphasized that "Donald Trump, the President of the United States, in his speech on Friday asked the Treasury Department to impose the strictest sanctions against the IRGC," stating: "In the text of the US Treasury's announcement, the IRGC is sanctioned due to the activities of the Quds Force in support of terrorist groups Hezbollah, Hamas, and also the Taliban." According to Etemad, previously the US Secretary of State had stated that the IRGC would not be listed as a terrorist group, citing the complexity of the situation in the battlefield, and now with this new decision, "the IRGC is sanctioned as a claim of support for terrorism, which is different from being listed as a terrorist group," and "this change will not significantly alter the status of the IRGC, as the IRGC is already sanctioned, and American companies are not allowed to deal with the IRGC." This newspaper noted that "it seems that Republicans have been aware of Trump's plan for the JCPOA for several days," stating: "This is why on Thursday evening, Senator Bob Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, published a draft according to which if Iran crosses certain red lines set by Congress, nuclear sanctions will automatically be reinstated," but "there are two factions in Congress, one of which consists of Republicans, most of whom seek to dismantle the JCPOA, and the other consists of Democrats who want to preserve Obama's legacy, making it almost impossible to reach a consensus to dismantle the nuclear agreement in such a chess game." The newspaper Javan, affiliated with the IRGC, also wrote: The US President announced that he could not certify Iran's compliance with the nuclear agreement for the third time, thus leaving its fate to the US Congress. Donald Trump, as expected, did not announce the exit from the JCPOA but stated that he would instruct US officials to work closely with Congress to address the loopholes in the JCPOA." This newspaper emphasized that the US President "held the sword of Damocles over the JCPOA and stated that if his officials do not reach an agreement with Congress and US allies regarding the JCPOA, it will be considered over, and at any moment he may announce the exit from it as the President of the United States." Kayhan in its front page wrote: "Trump preserved the JCPOA, concessions for the US, restrictions for us." This newspaper emphasized that "the IRGC formula worked, Trump did not dare to place the IRGC on the list of terrorist groups" and stated: "Sanctioning the IRGC comes while it was previously announced that Trump would place the IRGC on the list of terrorist groups, but the threat from the IRGC commander that in this case, the IRGC would consider the US army equivalent to ISIS, proved effective and forced Trump to retreat" and "the Americans announced that due to the specific complexities of this issue, they refrained from including the IRGC in their list of terrorist groups." The newspaper Khorasan described the US President's statements as "Trump unveiling a wounded JCPOA strategy" and wrote: "Essentially, looking at Trump's statements, the US considers the JCPOA necessary but insufficient, applicable only in the technical containment of Iran's nuclear program and does not cover all of Iran's threatening areas." Dr. Abuzar Gohari Moghadam, in a note titled "Trump's Political Statement and the Future of Confrontation with Iran" in the newspaper Khorasan, wrote: "From the US perspective, the reduction of US-Iran relations in the nuclear sphere is seen as a negative consequence of the JCPOA, and the JCPOA is a document that has led to violations and destabilizing actions by Iran in the region. Accordingly, the US believes that the JCPOA has failed to bring Iran closer to the global community, thus Iran is considered a violator of the spirit of the JCPOA, and in this regard, renegotiation should occur, and to compel Iran to renegotiate, increasing JCPOA-related pressures and non-nuclear sanctions, utilizing the oversight capacities of the JCPOA, and pressuring allies and other countries not to cooperate with Iran will be seriously pursued." According to this newspaper, "regional issues are a significant part of Trump's declared strategy regarding Iran and seem to comprise the most critical aspect of this policy. The US uses the JCPOA as leverage and enters its policy regarding Iran, but ultimately, the regional issue holds particular importance for this country," and based on this, "increasing pressure on Iran's regional arm, particularly the IRGC, aims to neutralize Iran's influence in the region and create a balance of power against the Islamic Republic through America's regional allies, with claims of Iran's support for terrorism in the region and cutting off Iran's financial and supportive resources to resistance groups being part of this policy." Nasratollah Tajik, a foreign affairs analyst, wrote in a note in the newspaper Qanoon: "Whatever decision Trump makes, as long as Iran adheres to its JCPOA commitments, he can no longer create a global consensus against Iran as before, meaning sanctions will be ineffective" and "of course, Donald Trump may seek to impose US sanctions against Iran under other pretexts such as human rights or Iran's missile activities, interpreting them in his own way, which has a historical precedent since the revolution." The author of the note in the newspaper Qanoon noted that "diplomacy is the way of modeling the behavior and speech of diplomats to impose their will on the parties involved in international games," stating: "We must engage in discourse to persuade public opinion and bring them, who have soft and influential power, behind our reasoning, in the use of words and also in expressing our desires, will, views, and foreign policy goals. During Trump's era, we will not have the opportunity for understanding and reconciliation with him, but we must not give him an excuse." The newspaper Shargh published an interview with Ali Akbar Heidari-Fard, who was the deputy of the first branch of the security prosecutor's office in Tehran in 2009 and one of the accused in the Kahrizak detention center crimes, stating: "The order to dispatch to Kahrizak was mine." Malihe Hosseini, a reporter for Shargh, wrote in the introduction of this interview that it was conducted when Ali Akbar Heidari-Fard had not yet been arrested and imprisoned on multiple charges, but is currently imprisoned in Ward 8 of Evin Prison. Ali Akbar Heidari-Fard introduced himself as being born in the city of Marvdasht in Fars province and stated that since his student days, he had formed a "self-styled" group called "Nasihoun" that physically confronted youth in Marvdasht in addition to enjoining good and forbidding wrong, and during his acceptance of a scholarship at Imam Baqir University, he was "recommended" by "Saeed Emami," who was later arrested as one of the main suspects in the chain murders, and was a colleague of "Alireza Zakani in the Basij of Tehran University." This accused in the Kahrizak case stated that "during my student years, I had a picture of Judge Mortazavi taped above my bed," stating that after graduating in 2002, due to his acquaintance with Elyas Mahmoudi, the then head of the protection and information center of the judiciary, he was invited to work and during five years from "the deputy of the public and revolutionary prosecutor's office" in Ardabil and Fasa, with the recommendation of Ahmad Hashemi, a representative of Fars province in the Assembly of Experts, he was transferred to Tehran and became the head of "the first branch of the security prosecutor's office of the security deputy of the Tehran prosecutor's office," and in this position, in 2009, he interrogated thousands of protesters after the elections, releasing some of them under various bail conditions and sending others to detention centers with temporary arrest warrants. According to Shargh, Ali Akbar Heidari-Fard stated about the events of July 9, 2009: "Three days before July 9, 2009, there was no anti-security unrest in Tehran. Tehran was closed due to air pollution, and all routes were...