Those who protested in the streets of Iranian cities in November 2019 did so explicitly in response to the Islamic Republic’s mismanagement and injustices. Iran’s recent history has amply demonstrated the relationship between poor governance and unrest. Without such accountability, stability will always be at risk. Only with freedom of expression and the rule of law, for example, can officials be held accountable. Protecting basic civil rights and liberties promotes good governance, and good governance in turn promotes domestic stability. Indeed, the United States can more effectively address all of its key strategic interests regarding Iran-nuclear proliferation, missile production, regional conflict, terrorism, and oil markets-by affording human rights a central place in its foreign policy. That view overlooks the link between human rights and security concerns-including the spread of nuclear weapons.
Yet still the world remains fixated on the nuclear file, portraying it as the foremost issue to resolve with Iran. The judiciary has also issued increasingly harsh prison sentences to human rights lawyers and activists after unfair trials and meted out death sentences to protesters and dissidents. To crush them, security forces used indiscriminate, lethal violence. Societal discontent over worsening economic conditions and continued repression exploded in November 2019 into the most serious protests the country has seen in decades. The last four years have been dark ones for human rights in Iran. The new administration in Washington has the opportunity and the imperative to address a human rights situation in Iran that is not only deteriorating but also intimately connected to multiple areas of strategic concern. withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal left them focused on preventing the agreement’s collapse. European diplomats went largely silent on the issue, as the U.S. Under former President Donald Trump, the United States occasionally voiced concern about Iranian human rights abuses, but such advocacy was widely seen as little more than a political bludgeon, and as such it was ineffective. policy toward Iran, he would do well to put human rights at the center of the American agenda. The nuclear device had an estimated yield of 6 to 7 kilotons, bigger than previous tests in 20.As President Joe Biden sets the course for a new U.S. The regime conducted its last nuclear test in February 2013, three weeks after the United Nations increased sanctions against it following the launch of a long-range rocket and satellite the previous December. Washington and its allies would push to tighten U.N. North Korea, which has been targeted for international sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic-missile programs, insists that developing atomic weapons is the only way to deter a U.S.-led incursion.Ĭhina, North Korea’s only major ally, has tried to revive international talks aimed at convincing the country to abandon its nuclear program in return for aid.Īnother test explosion would deepen international concern about the North’s development of weapons of mass destruction, and doubtless anger and embarrass China. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. and South Korea military drills, which the country denounced as a dress rehearsal for an invasion. North Korea fired 87 missiles during February and March to partly coincide with joint U.S. Obama’s visit to South Korea coincides with an April 25 holiday in the North to celebrate the founding of its army, a day generally marked by military parades showing off the regime’s latest weapons. South Korean intelligence officials have concluded that North Korea is capable of conducting another test at any time, the Yonhap News agency reported today, citing a Defense Ministry official it did not identify.
He said North Korea’s threat to conduct a nuclear test showed it wasn’t interested in credible negotiations. In a briefing ahead of Obama’s departure Tuesday, the White House senior director for Asian affairs, Evan Medeiros, told reporters: “Right now we are going into an environment where there’s a growing number of threats and risks of provocation.” Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.
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