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Iran Executes Four Kurdish Political Prisoners Charged as ‘Zionist Spies’
A Feb. 2023 protest in Washington, DC calling for an end to executions and human rights violations in Iran. Photo: Reuters/ Bryan Olin Dozier
Iran on Monday executed four Kurdish political prisoners accused by the Islamist regime of planning a bombing attack in the central city of Isfahan that was supposedly orchestrated by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.
The four men — Mohsen Mazloum, Mohammad Faramarzi, Vafa Azarbar, and Pejman Fatehi — were charged by the Iranian authorities with having illegally entered Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan, for the purpose of bombing a factory in Isfahan that produces equipment for the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics.
“The death sentence of four members of a group affiliated with the Zionist spy organization … was carried out this morning,” the Iranian judiciary’s website Mizan Online reported.
The four Kurds were all members of the left-wing Komala Party, one of several Kurdish organizations banned by the Iranian regime, according to the Kurdish news website Rudaw.
The US government condemned the executions in a statement on Tuesday, excoriating Iran’s “blatant disregard for human rights” and emphasizing that it had received reports of “torture and unfair trials.”
News that the Iranian authorities were refusing to hand the bodies of the executed prisoners to their fsmilies sparked an angry reaction across Kurdistan.
General strikes were held in protest of the executions at bazaars in the cities of Mahabad, Dehgolan, Marivan, Divandarreh, Kermanshah, Bukan, Saqqez, Sanandaj and Sarvabad, according to photos and videos published on Kurdish social media in Iran. Videos also depicted large numbers of people visiting the houses of the executed prisoners’ families in Bukan, Dehgolan, Kamyaran, and Mahabad to pay their respects and express solidarity with them, Rudaw reported.
According to the Kurdish Hengaw Organziation for Human Rights, internet and telephone services have been disrupted in many of Iran’s Kurdish cities, and helicopters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are patrolling the sky in several cities as well. A large number of security forces have been deployed to the areas where the strikes are being held.
In December, Hengaw reported that Iranian prisons had executed 144 Kurdish prisoners in 2023, a significant rise on the previous year, when Iran executed 52 Kurdish prisoners.
Many of those who are executed in Iran — which executes more prisoners annually than any other country bar China — are convicted based on confessions often obtained under duress, Hengaw stressed.
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Lebanon Must Disarm Hezbollah to Have a Shot at Better Days, Says US Envoy
Thomas Barrack at the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., November 4, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
i24 News – Lebanon’s daunting social, economic and political issues would not get resolved unless the state persists in the efforts to disarm Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy behind so much of the unrest and destruction, special US envoy Tom Barrack told The National.
“You have Israel on one side, you have Iran on the other, and now you have Syria manifesting itself so quickly that if Lebanon doesn’t move, it’s going to be Bilad Al Sham again,” he said, using the historical Arabic name for the region sometimes known as “larger Syria.”
The official stressed the need to follow through on promises to disarm the Iranian proxy, which suffered severe blows from Israel in the past year, including the elimination of its entire leadership, and is considered a weakened though still dangerous jihadist outfit.
“There are issues that we have to arm wrestle with each other over to come to a final conclusion. Remember, we have an agreement, it was a great agreement. The problem is, nobody followed it,” he told The National.
Barrack spoke on the heels of a trip to Beirut, where he proposed a diplomatic plan for the region involving the full disarmament of Hezbollah by the Lebanese state.
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Report: Putin Urges Iran to Accept ‘Zero Enrichment’ Nuclear Deal With US
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of a cultural forum dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Turkmen poet and philosopher Magtymguly Fragi, in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Oct. 11, 2024. Photo: Sputnik/Alexander Scherbak/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Russian President Vladimir Putin has told Iranian leadership that he supports the idea of a nuclear deal in which Iran is unable to enrich uranium, the Axios website reported on Saturday. The Russian strongman also relayed the message to his American counterpart, President Donald Trump, the report said.
Iranian news agency Tasnim issued a denial, citing an “informed source” as saying Putin had not sent any message to Iran in this regard.
Also on Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that “Any negotiated solution must respect Iran’s right to enrichment. No agreement without recognizing our right to enrichment. If negotiations occur, the only topic will be the nuclear program. No other issues, especially defense or military matters, will be on the agenda.”
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Syria’s Al-Sharaa Attending At Least One Meeting With Israeli Officials in Azerbaijan
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
i24 News – Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa is attending at least one meeting with Israeli officials in Azerbaijan today, despite sources in Damascus claiming he wasn’t attending, a Syrian source close to President Al-Sharaa tells i24NEWS.
The Syrian source stated that this is a series of two or three meetings between the sides, with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani also in attendance, along with Ahmed Al-Dalati, the Syrian government’s liaison for security meetings with Israel.
The high-level Israeli delegation includes a special envoy of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, as well as security and military figures.
The purpose of the meetings is to discuss further details of the security agreement to be signed between Israel and Syria, the Iranian threat in Syria and Lebanon, Hezbollah’s weapons, the weapons of Palestinian militias, the Palestinians camps in Lebanon, and the future of Palestinian refugees from Gaza in the region.
The possibility of opening an Israeli coordination office in Damascus, without diplomatic status, might also be discussed.
The source stated that the decision to hold the meetings in Azerbaijan, made by Israel and the US, is intended to send a message to Iran.
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