Displaying items by tag: Iran

Greek police have prevented an ‘imminent attack’ against Israelis and Jews after arresting two Pakistani nationals who are part of an Iranian terror network. The two arrests came after the police, aided by Israel’s Mossad spy agency, uncovered plans for mass-casualty terrorist attacks, one of the targets being a Jewish restaurant in Athens. It is a kosher restaurant which also hosts other religious services. The two suspects had chosen targets of ‘high symbolism’. A third man, who is not in Greece, is wanted for questioning and has been charged in absentia. A police statement said, ‘Their aim was to cause the loss of life of innocent citizens and also to undermine the sense of security in Greece, while hurting public institutions and threatening our international relations’.

Mehdi Rokhparvar, who was serving a five-year sentence for ‘acting against national security’ by ‘forming an illegal evangelical Christian group’, was released from Tehran’s Evin Prison in the same week as fellow convert Saheb Fadaie as part of a wider amnesty of prisoners on the occasion of the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Republic. However, such pardons, while welcome, do not address the original injustice of their sentencing and imprisonment as the government continues to regard rights and freedoms guaranteed in international law as crimes; including the right to freely adopt a religion of one’s choice, and manifest one’s faith in community with others.

Toxic chemical attacks across the Islamic republic are poisoning schoolgirls. Over 1,200 girls have been hospitalised so far. School authorities and government bodies deny or downplay the strange objects landing in schoolyards and loud bangs being heard. Many believe the attacks are ‘revenge’ tactics against young Iranian women leading a revolutionary movement that erupted in September. Iran's Ali Khamenei demanded punishment for the females involved in the uprising, saying the punishment for teenagers would be special because they're aware of what they are doing. Officials try to blame foreign ‘enemies’ for the attacks, but student’s families believe the real enemy is their government. Parents gathered in one school chanting ‘death to the child-killing regime.’ Meanwhile, widespread social media footage shows a concerned mother brutally attacked by plainclothes security forces for demanding answers about her poisoned daughter. Other parents demand to know why school security cameras were off when the poison gas spread.

The Government has confirmed reports that the Iranian regime plans to attack Jews and Israelis in the UK if Israel carries out a military attack on Iran. Last week the Jewish Chronicle reported Iran was mapping out the locations of Jews, Israelis and Iranian anti-regime activists in the UK. The security minister said, ‘We have very clear intelligence about the activities of hostile regimes in the UK and keep a very close eye on their agents' activities of surveillance. We know that Iranians are paying British crooks and criminal gangs to spy for them and you can be very clear that we do not issue these warnings lightly.’ He added, ‘All threats against UK people are taken very seriously and we highlight Israelis and Jewish communities because we see threats and Iranian operational activity directed against them.’

The war in Ukraine and the poor global economy have enabled dictators, regimes, and terrorists to take ad­vantage of the situation while the world’s attention was distracted. This will worsen in 2023, to the detriment of Christians. Ask God to protect China’s Christians as the crackdown on house churches accelerates. Pray for all the minorities in Myanmar, where the 2021 political coup has led to many attacks and bombings of churches. The internally dis­placed use churches as shelters. Iran has also taken the opportunity to crack down on churches, Christians, and Muslim-back­ground believers this year. Pray for Christian arrests and torture to diminish in 2023. Indian Christians need our prayers for an end to the anti-conversion laws being enforced in Hindu communities. Afghanistan has no national income and no natural resources, and all assets are frozen worldwide. Christianity is illegal. Those forced to stay or needing support to find safe havens need God's protection.

On 26 December intelligence agents raided Pastor Matthias house church during Christmas celebrations. Matthias and two other converts were arrested and transferred to Lakan Prison in Rasht. On 3 January Matthias’ wife Anna was summoned to intelligence offices, arrested, and also transferred to Rasht. Matthias was jailed in January 2022 for a six-year sentence on national security charges, saying that he was an enemy of the state. Although detained in prison, he was allowed regular leave, and continued to minister in the local house church. Friends are concerned about Anna’s health in detention as she has back problems. They request prayer that God will strengthen and encourage them, and that their teenage daughter will be adequately cared for while her parents are in prison. Criminal charges will not be brought against Matthias and Anna or the two other converts arrested at the Christmas gathering.

Saudi news channel Al-Hadath reported that hundreds of Iranian missiles armed with the lethal chemical thionyl chloride have arrived at a warehouse in Syria, with a bird’s eye view of Lebanon’s border nine miles away. They were transferred there by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The recipient was Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese terror army on Israel’s northern border. According to Saudi media, Hezbollah has Iran and North Korea to thank for the arsenal. Plans are reportedly in place to move them to a site three miles from Israel’s border. Israel’s defence ministry identified ten Syrian locations where Iran has facilities producing advanced weapons for its proxies in the region. Pray for Israel’s defence force to constantly look to God for guidance. May the Lord enable them to think outside the box as Gideon did when he divided the men into companies with trumpets and companies with jars containing torches (Judges 7:16).

The director of MI5 says Iran has plotted the assassination and kidnapping of at least ten British residents it accuses of being ‘enemies of the regime’. A Home Office statement said, ‘You may have seen Ken McCallum’s annual threat update, in which he said that Iran’s instability is bringing real-world consequences here in the UK. It has become the state-actor which most frequently crosses into terrorism, and we see the regime resorting to more and more extreme measures to silence its critics at home. We also see Iran projecting threats directly to the UK through its aggressive intelligence services. We know, at the most extreme end, its ambitions include kidnapping and killing British or UK-based individuals they perceive to be enemies of the regime.’

‘Someone’s crime was that her hair was flowing in the wind. Someone’s crime was that he or she was brave and outspoken.’ These lyrics could cost Iranian rap artist Toomaj Salehi his life. The underground rebel rapper was arrested and faces a death penalty. 14,000 Iranians have been arrested since September when an Iranian woman died after being detained by ‘morality police’ for not wearing her hijab properly. Salehi’s uncle had a phone call from his friend saying ‘Our whereabouts have been leaked’. Later fifty people raided Salehi’s residence. He is accused of propagandist activity against the government, cooperation with hostile governments, and forming illegal groups to create insecurity in the country. His uncle has information he was tortured. He said, ‘We still do not know anything about Salehi’s health condition, or if he is alive’. Pray for the family.

At least 15 people were killed and 40 others were injured in a terrorist attack at the Shahcheragh Shrine in the city of Shiraz. Two children were among the victims. Iranian security forces have arrested two of the suspected attackers, and a manhunt is underway to capture a third. The terror group ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, releasing a statement through its affiliated Amaq news agency that said one of its members had ‘targeted groups of Sunni refusal infidels inside the shrine with his Kalashnikov machine gun, causing the death of tens of them.’ The attack happened on the same day that clashes broke out throughout Iran and thousands of people came to the burial site of Kurdish Mahsa Amini to mark 40 days since her death. Iranian news ISNA said it’s unclear if the attack was related to the protests.