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Nikki Haley, once Trump’s UN ambassador, to take him on in 2024

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WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley will kick off her campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination this month, squaring off against her one-time boss, former President Donald Trump, two sources familiar with her plans said on Wednesday.

The move would make her just the second declared Republican candidate and could set the stage for a more combative phase of the campaign, potentially putting her in the sights of the combative former U.S. president.

Haley’s campaign sent an email to supporters on Wednesday inviting them to a Feb. 15 event in Charleston. There she will declare her candidacy, the sources said.

South Carolina is expected to host one of the first Republican nominating primaries in 2024 and will play an important role in picking the eventual candidate.

The daughter of two Indian immigrants who ran a successful clothing store in a rural part of the state, Haley has gained a reputation in the Republican Party as a solid conservative who has the ability to address issues of gender and race in a more credible fashion than many of her peers.

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She has also pitched herself as a stalwart defender of American interests abroad, having served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump from 2017 to 2018. During that time, the United States pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, which was inked under Democratic President Barack Obama and was highly unpopular among Republicans.

One Haley associate said she chose to launch her campaign this early to try to grab voters’ attention and shake up a race that had so far been dominated by Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has not yet declared whether he will run.

Many key Republican donors and elected officials in South Carolina have been looking for alternatives to Trump amid concerns about his electability, according to conservations in recent weeks with more than a dozen party officials and strategists.

Several prominent Republicans, including Haley and U.S. Senator Tim Scott opted to skip a Trump campaign appearance in Columbia on Saturday, which was intended to showcase his support in the state.

Trump told reporters on Saturday that Haley had called him to say she was considering a run and that he told her “go by your hear if you want to run,” according to multiple media reports.

[1/3] Former Trump administration U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley campaigns for Georgia Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Herschel Walker at a rally with supporters in Hiram, Georgia, U.S. November 6, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Haley received national attention in 2015 when, as governor, she signed a bill into law removing the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol, following the murder of nine black churchgoers by white supremacist Dylann Roof.

If she were to win the nomination, Haley would be the first woman at the top of the Republican presidential ticket in history, as well as the party’s first non-white nominee.

Among her major challenges will be nailing down a consistent message. Even in a field where most candidates have changed their mind about key issues multiple times, Haley is particularly chameleonic.

She has distanced herself from Trump several times, only to later soften her rhetoric, saying he has an important role to play in the Republican Party.

While she has criticized Republicans for baselessly casting doubt on the results of the 2020 presidential election, she campaigned on behalf of multiple candidates who supported Trump’s false election fraud claims during the 2022 midterms.

Even as she has at times adopted a conciliatory message on racial issues, she often opts for a less measured tone. In November, she said at a campaign rally that Democratic Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, a Black man born in Savannah, should be “deported.”

Playing into Haley’s hands may be geography: South Carolina is historically the third state to host the Republican nominating contest, and it often plays an outsized role in the race. Haley, who governed the state from 2011 to 2017, is popular there, polls show.

Trump and DeSantis have both been active in the state.

While Haley comes into the race as an underdog – most national polls show her support in the single digits – she is used to running from behind, having gained a reputation in political circles for coming out on top in tough-to-win races.

A campaign spokesperson declined to comment on Wednesday.

Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Gram Slattery; Editing by Ross Colvin, Daniel Wallis and Andrew Heavens

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Gram Slattery

Thomson Reuters

Washington-based correspondent covering campaigns and Congress. Previously posted in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Santiago, Chile, and has reported extensively throughout Latin America. Co-winner of the 2021 Reuters Journalist of the Year Award in the business coverage category for a series on corruption and fraud in the oil industry. He was born in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard College.

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It’s ‘now or never’ to stop Japan’s shrinking population, PM says

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Jan 23 (Reuters) – Japanese Prime minister Fumio Kishida pledged on Monday to take urgent steps to tackle the country’s declining birth rate, saying it was “now or never” for one of the world’s oldest societies.

Japan has in recent years been trying to encourage its people to have more children with promises of cash bonuses and better benefits, but it remains one of the most expensive places in the world to raise a child, according to surveys.

Births plunged to a new record low last year, according to official estimates, dropping below 800,000 for the first time – a watershed moment that came eight years earlier than the government had expected.

That most likely precipitated a further population decline in a country where the median age is 49, the highest in the world behind only the tiny city-state of Monaco.

“Our nation is on the cusp of whether it can maintain its societal functions,” Kishida said in a policy speech at the opening of this year’s parliamentary session.

“It is now or never when it comes to policies regarding births and child-rearing – it is an issue that simply cannot wait any longer,” he added.

Kishida said he would submit plans to double the budget for child-related policies by June, and that a new Children and Families government agency to oversee the issue would be set up in April.

Japan is the third-most-expensive country globally to raise a child, according to YuWa Population Research, behind only China and South Korea, countries also seeing shrinking populations in worrying signs for the global economy.

Other countries are also coming to grips with ageing and shrinking populations. Last week, China reported that its population dropped in 2022 for the first time in 60 years.

Reporting by Sakura Murakami; Editing by John Geddie and Gerry Doyle

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Iran reroutes plane carrying soccer star’s wife, blames UK over unrest

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DUBAI, Dec 26 (Reuters) – Iranian authorities rerouted a flight bound for Dubai on Monday and prevented the wife and daughter of former national soccer team captain Ali Daei, who has supported anti-government protests, from leaving the country, state media reported.

Amid a concerted clampdown, Tehran also said the arrests in Iran of citizens linked to Britain reflected its “destructive role” in the more than three months of unrest.

People from across Iran’s social spectrum have joined one of the most sustained challenges to the country’s ruling theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, relying heavily on social media platforms – which the government is trying to shut down – to organise and spread news of demonstrations.

A service that could help Iranians circumvent internet restrictions is Starlink, a satellite-based broadband service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Musk said on Monday that the company was getting close to having 100 active Starlink satellite receivers inside Iran.

Meanwhile Daei’s wife was banned from travelling abroad, Iran’s judiciary said, after authorities ordered the Mahan Air plane she had been a passenger in to land on Iran’s Kish Island in the Gulf.

“I really don’t know the reason for this. Did they want to arrest a terrorist?” Daei told semi-official news agency ISNA.

After he voiced support for the protests on social media, authorities this month shut down a jewellery shop and a restaurant he owned.

The protests were triggered by the Sept. 16 death in detention of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian held for wearing “inappropriate attire” under Iran’s strict Islamic dress code for women.

Iran has accused Western countries, Israel and Saudi Arabia of fomenting the unrest, allegations accompanied by arrests of dozens of dual nationals, part of an official narrative designed to shift blame away from the Iranian leadership.

Asked by a reporter to comment on Sunday’s announcement of the arrest of seven people linked to Britain, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said: “Some countries, especially the one you mentioned, had an unconstructive role regarding the recent developments in Iran.

“Their role was totally destructive and incited the riots.”

The British foreign ministry had said it was seeking further information from Iranian authorities on the reported arrests.

Rights group HRANA says about 18,500 people have been arrested during the unrest. Government officials say most have been released.

Besides arrests, authorities have imposed travel bans on dozens of artists, lawyers, journalists and celebrities for endorsing the protests.

HRANA also said that as of Dec. 25, 507 protesters had been killed, including 69 minors, as well as 66 members of the security forces.

Iran’s troubled rial currency on Monday fell to a record low of 415,400 against the dollar, according to forex site Bonbast.com. It has lost about 24% of its value since the protests began, as Iranians grappling with official inflation of about 50% buy dollars and gold in an effort to protect their savings.

Reporting by Dubai newsroom, additional reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru;
Editing by Mark Heinrich and John Stonestreet

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Taliban bans female NGO staff, jeopardizing aid efforts

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  • Taliban orders NGOs to stop female staff from working
  • Comes after suspension of female students from universities
  • U.N. says order would seriously impact humanitarian operations
  • U.N. plans to meet with Taliban to seek clarity

KABUL, Dec 24 (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s Taliban-run administration on Saturday ordered all local and foreign NGOs to stop female employees from working, in a move the United Nations said would hit humanitarian operations just as winter grips a country already in economic crisis.

A letter from the economy ministry, confirmed by spokesperson Abdulrahman Habib, said female employees of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were not allowed to work until further notice because some had not adhered to the administration’s interpretation of Islamic dresscode for women.

It comes days after the administration ordered universities to close to women, prompting global condemnation and sparking some protests and heavy criticism inside Afghanistan.

Both decisions are the latest restrictions on women that are likely to undermine the Taliban-run administration’s efforts to gain international recognition and clear sanctions that are severely hampering the economy.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Twitter he was “deeply concerned” the move “will disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions,” adding: “Women are central to humanitarian operations around the world. This decision could be devastating for the Afghan people.”

Ramiz Alakbarov, the U.N. deputy special representative for Afghanistan and humanitarian coordinator, told Reuters that although the U.N. had not received the order, contracted NGOs carried out most of its activities and would be heavily impacted.

“Many of our programmes will be affected,” he said, because they need female staff to assess humanitarian need and identify beneficiaries, otherwise they will not be able to implement aid programs.

International aid agency AfghanAid said it was immediately suspending operations while it consulted with other organisations, and that other NGOs were taking similar actions.

The potential endangerment of aid programmes that millions of Afghans access comes when more than half the population relies on humanitarian aid, according to aid agencies, and during the mountainous nation’s coldest season.

“There’s never a right time for anything like this … but this particular time is very unfortunate because during winter time people are most in need and Afghan winters are very harsh,” said Alakbarov.

He said his office would consult with NGOs and U.N. agencies on Sunday and seek to meet with Taliban authorities for an explanation.

Aid workers say female workers are essential in a country where rules and cultural customs largely prevent male workers from delivering aid to female beneficiaries.

“An important principle of delivery of humanitarian aid is the ability of women to participate independently and in an unimpeded way in its distribution so if we can’t do it in a principled way then no donors will be funding any programs like that,” Alakbarov said.

When asked whether the rules directly included U.N. agencies, Habib said the letter applied to organisations under Afghanistan’s coordinating body for humanitarian organisations, known as ACBAR. That body does not include the U.N., but includes over 180 local and international NGOs.

Their licences would be suspended if they did not comply, the letter said.

Afghanistan’s struggling economy has tipped into crisis since the Taliban took over in 2021, with the country facing sanctions, cuts in development aid and a freeze in central bank assets.

A record 28 million Afghans are estimated to need humanitarian aid next year, according to AfghanAid.

Reporting by Kabul newsroom; additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington
Editing by Mark Potter and Josie Kao

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Iran top court accepts rapper Yasin’s appeal against death sentence

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Dec 24 (Reuters) – Iran’s Supreme Court has accepted an appeal by rapper Saman Seydi Yasin against his death sentence even as it confirmed the same sentence against another protester, the judiciary said on Saturday.

Yasin, a Kurd who raps about inequality, oppression and unemployment, had been accused of attempting to kill security forces, setting a rubbish bin on fire and shooting three times into the air during anti-government protests, charges which he denied.

Yasin’s mother last week pleaded in a video for help to save her son. “Where in the world have you seen a loved one’s life is taken for a trash bin?” she said in the video posted on social media.

The court had initially said it had accepted the appeals of Yasin and another protester, but in a subsequent statement the judiciary’s Mizan news agency said only Yasin’s appeal had been accepted.

“The public relations of the Supreme Court of Iran has corrected its news: ‘The appeal of Mohammad Qobadloo has not been accepted … Saman Seydi’s appeal has been accepted by the Supreme Court,” the agency said.

Explaining the decision in its original statement, it cited flaws in investigating the case and said it had been referred back to the court for re-examination.

Qobadloo had been charged with killing a police agent and injuring five others with his car during the protests.

Unrest erupted across Iran in mid-September after the death in custody of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police enforcing the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women.

Late on Saturday, the 100th day of the protests, videos posted on social media showed night demonstrations said to be in areas including the capital Tehran, the northeastern city of Mashhad, Karaj west of Tehran, and Sanandaj, the centre of Kurdistan province in the northwest.

Dozens of protesters were seen braving rain and snow to chant slogans including “Death to the dictator” and “Death to (Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei!” Reuters could not immediately verify the videos.

DEATH PENALTY

Saturday’s announcement follows the Supreme Court’s suspension of protester Mahan Sadrat’s death sentence 10 days ago. He had been charged with various alleged offences such as stabbing a security officer and setting fire to a motorcycle.

Iran hanged two protesters earlier this month: Mohsen Shekari, 23, who was accused of blocking a main road in September and wounding a member of the paramilitary Basij force with a knife, and Majid Reza Rahnavard, 23, who was accused of stabbing to death two Basij members, and publicly hanged from a construction crane.

Amnesty International called on the international community to pressure Iran to halt Qobadloo’s execution and “not allow Iran’s machinery of death to claim another victim while (the) world’s attention is on celebrating the festive season”.

Amnesty has said Iranian authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 26 people in what it called “sham trials designed to intimidate those participating in the popular uprising that has rocked Iran”.

It said all of those facing death sentences had been denied the right to adequate defence and access to lawyers of their choosing. Rights groups say defendants have instead to rely on state-appointed attorneys who do little to defend them.

Rights group HRANA said that, as of Friday, 506 protesters had been killed, including 69 minors. It said 66 members of the security forces had also been killed. As many as 18,516 protesters are believed to have been arrested, it said.

Officials have said that up to 300 people, including members of the security forces, had lost their lives in the unrest.

Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, David Holmes and Nick Macfie

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Trump will challenge NY sex abuse law in writer’s defamation lawsuit

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Dec 21 (Reuters) – Donald Trump plans to argue that a New York law allowing a writer to sue the former U.S. president over claims that he raped her decades ago is unconstitutional, according to a court filing.

Lawyers for Trump said in a filing made on Monday in Manhattan federal court that they would move to dismiss the lawsuit filed last month by E. Jean Carroll in part on grounds that the law spurred by the #MeToo movement is invalid.

Trump has denied Carroll’s claim that he raped her in a dressing room in a Bergdorf Goodman department store 27 years ago. The former Elle magazine columnist is suing Trump for defamation and battery under New York’s Adult Survivors Act.

The law created a one-year period that began last month when adult victims of alleged sexual abuse can file lawsuits that otherwise would have been barred because the cases were too old.

Trump’s lawyers in the filing said the law “is an improper ‘claim revival’ statute which violates the United States Constitution and the New York State Constitution.”

Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for Carroll, declined to comment.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in an order on Wednesday gave Trump until Feb. 23 to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Carroll had sued Trump for defamation in 2019 for denying her allegations, and a trial is scheduled in that case for April.

Lawyers for Carroll have asked Kaplan to send the newer claims to trial at the same time, but Trump’s lawyers have said that would be improper.

Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by David Gregorio

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Daniel Wiessner

Thomson Reuters

Dan Wiessner (@danwiessner) reports on labor and employment and immigration law, including litigation and policy making. He can be reached at daniel.wiessner@thomsonreuters.com.

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Iran top legal cleric says morality police shut down

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  • Protesters call for economic boycott from Monday to Wednesday
  • Raisi visits Tehran University on Wednesday for Student Day
  • Interior ministry silent on the morality police’s status

DUBAI, Dec 4 (Reuters) – Protesters in Iran called on Sunday for a three-day strike this week, stepping up pressure on authorities after the public prosecutor said the morality police whose detention of a young woman triggered months of protests had been shut down.

There was no confirmation of the closure from the Interior Ministry which is in charge of the morality police, and Iranian state media said Public Prosecutor Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was not responsible for overseeing the force.

Top Iranian officials have repeatedly said Tehran would not change the Islamic Republic’s mandatory hijab policy, which requires women to dress modestly and wear headscarves, despite 11 weeks of protests against strict Islamic regulations.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the unrest which erupted in September after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who was detained by the morality police for flouting the hijab rules.

Protesters seeking to maintain their challenge to Iran’s clerical rulers have called for a three-day economic strike and a rally to Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square on Wednesday, according to individual posts shared on Twitter by accounts unverified by Reuters.

President Ebrahim Raisi is due to address students in Tehran on the same day to mark Student Day in Iran.

Similar calls for strike action and mass mobilisation have in past weeks resulted in an escalation in the unrest which has swept the country – some of the biggest anti-government protests since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The activist HRANA news agency said 470 protesters had been killed as of Saturday, including 64 minors. It said 18,210 demonstrators were arrested and 61 members of the security forces were killed.

Iran’s Interior Ministry state security council said on Saturday the death toll was 200, according to the judiciary’s news agency Mizan.

Residents posting on social media and newspapers such as Shargh daily say there have been fewer sightings of the morality police on the streets in recent weeks as authorities apparently try to avoid provoking more protests.

On Saturday, Montazeri was cited by the semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency as saying that the morality police had been disbanded.

“The same authority which has established this police has shut it down,” he was quoted as saying. He said the morality police was not under the judiciary’s authority, which “continues to monitor behavioural actions at the community level.”

Al Alam state television said foreign media were depicting his comments as “a retreat on the part of the Islamic Republic from its stance on hijab and religious morality as a result of the protests”, but that all that could be understood from his comments was that the morality police were not directly related to the judiciary.

EXECUTIONS

State media said four men convicted of cooperating with Israel’s spy agency Mossad were executed on Sunday.

They had been arrested in June – before the current unrest sweeping the country – following cooperation between the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards, Tasnim news agency reported.

The Islamic Republic has long accused arch-enemy Israel of carrying out covert operations on its soil. Tehran has recently accused Israeli and Western intelligence services of plotting a civil war in Iran.

The prime minister’s office in Israel, which oversees Mossad, declined to comment.

Iranian state media reported on Wednesday that the country’s Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence handed out to the four men “for the crime of cooperating with the intelligence services of the Zionist regime and for kidnapping”.

Three other people were handed prison sentences of between five and 10 years after being convicted of crimes that included acting against national security, aiding in kidnapping and possessing illegal weapons, the Mehr news agency said.

Reporting by Dubai Newsroom
Editing by Dominic Evans, Raissa Kasolowsky, William Maclean and Susan Fenton

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Iran state body reports 200 dead in protests, Raisi hails ‘freedoms’

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DUBAI, Dec 3 (Reuters) – President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday hailed Iran’s Islamic Republic as a guarantor of rights and freedoms, defending the ruling system amid a crackdown on anti-government protests that the United Nations says has cost more than 300 lives.

A top state security body meanwhile said that 200 people, including members of the security forces, had lost their lives in the unrest, a figure significantly lower than that given by the world body and rights groups.

The protests, in their third month, were ignited by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police enforcing strict mandatory hijab rules.

The demonstrations have turned into a popular revolt by furious Iranians from all layers of society, posing one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.

Meanwhile, a social media video appeared to show authorities demolishing the family home of Elnaz Rekabi, a climber who competed in an international contest without a headscarf in October. Rekabi later she had done so unintentionally, but she was widely assumed to have expressed support for the protests. read more

State media on Saturday quoted the head of the judiciary in northwestern Zanjan province as saying the ruling to demolish the villa had been issued four months ago as the family had failed to obtain a construction permit.

Unfazed by the brutal crackdown, protesters have raised slogans against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and repeatedly demanded an end to the Islamic government.

Social media videos showed renewed protests late on Saturday in some parts of the capital Tehran, including the eastern Haft Howz area where protesters could be heard chanting: “Murderer Khamenei should be executed.” Reuters could not immediately verify the footage.

The authorities blame the revolt on foreign enemies, including the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

“Iran has the most progressive constitution in the world” because it marries “ideals with democracy,” Raisi said in a speech to parliamentarians, quoting an unidentified African lawyer he said he met several years ago.

“The constitution guarantees the (existence) of the Islamic system,” he said, adding that it also “guarantees fundamental rights and legitimate freedoms.”

The judiciary’s Mizan news agency quoted the interior ministry’s state security council as saying 200 people lost their lives in the recent “riots”.

Amirali Hajizadeh, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander was quoted as saying on Monday that 300 people, including security force members, had been killed in the recent unrest.

Javaid Rehman, a U.N.-appointed independent expert on Iran, said on Tuesday that more than 300 people had been killed in the protests, including more than 40 children.

Rights group HRANA said that as of Friday 469 protesters had been killed, including 64 minors. It said 61 government security forces had also been killed. As many as 18,210 protesters are believed to have been arrested.

A prominent Baluch Sunni Muslim cleric, Molavi Abdolhamid, has called for an end to the repression of protests through arrests and killings, and a referendum on changing Iran’s government system.

“The people’s protest has shown that the policies of the last 43 years have reached a dead end,” he said in late November.

dubai.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com, Editing by William Maclean and Louise Heavens

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Niece of Iran’s Supreme Leader urges world to cut ties with Tehran -online video

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DUBAI, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s niece, a well known rights activist, has called on foreign governments to cut all ties with Tehran over its violent crackdown on popular unrest kindled by the death in police custody of a young woman.

A video of a statement by Farideh Moradkhani, an engineer whose late father was a prominent opposition figure married to Khamenei’s sister, was being widely shared online after what activist news agency HRANA said was her arrest on Nov. 23.

“O free people, be with us and tell your governments to stop supporting this murderous and child-killing regime,” Moradkhani said in the video. “This regime is not loyal to any of its religious principles and does not know any rules except force and maintaining power.”

Khamenei’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

HRANA said 450 protesters had been killed in more than two months of nationwide unrest as of Nov. 26, including 63 minors. It said 60 members of the security forces had been killed, and 18,173 protesters detained.

The protests, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini after her arrest for “inappropriate attire”, pose one of the strongest challenges to the country’s clerical establishment since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Jalal Mahmoudzadeh, a member of parliament from the mainly Kurdish city of Mahabad, said on Sunday that as many as 105 people had been killed in Kurdish-populated areas during the protests. He was speaking in a debate in parliament as quoted by the Entekhan website.

WIDESPREAD OPPOSITION

Challenging the Islamic Republic’s legitimacy, protesters from all walks of life have burned pictures of Khamenei and called for the downfall of Iran’s Shi’ite Muslim theocracy.

People light a fire during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic’s “morality police”, in Tehran, Iran September 21, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

The video was shared on YouTube on Friday by her brother, France-based Mahmoud Moradkhani, who presents himself as “an opponent of the Islamic Republic” on his Twitter account, and then by prominent Iranian rights activists.

On Nov. 23, Mahmoud Moradkhani reported her sister’s arrest as she was heeding a court order to appear at the Tehran prosecutor’s office. Farideh had been arrested earlier this year by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and later released on bail.

HRANA said she was in Tehran’s Evin security prison. Moradkhani, it said, had earlier faced a 15-year prison sentence on unspecified charges.

Her father, Ali Moradkhani Arangeh, was a Shi’ite cleric married to Khamenei’s sister and recently passed away in Tehran following years of isolation due to his stance against the Islamic Republic, according to his website.

Farideh Moradkhani added in her video: “Now is the time for all free and democratic countries to recall their representatives from Iran as a symbolic gesture and to expel the representatives of this brutal regime from their countries.”

On Thursday, the United Nations’ top human rights body decided by a comfortable margin to establish a new investigative mission to look into Tehran’s violent security crackdown on the anti-government protests.

Criticism of the Islamic Republic by relatives of top officials is not unprecedented. In 2012, Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, the daughter of late former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was sentenced to jail for “anti-state propaganda”.

Iranian authorities released on bail the activist and blogger Hossein Ronaghi on Nov. 26 to undergo medical treatment, according to his brother writing on Twitter.

Concerns had been growing about Ronaghi’s health after he went on a hunger strike last month.

Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Tom Perry, Mark Heinrich and Hugh Lawson

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Iranian fans savour victory but wrangle over protests

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AL RAYYAN, Qatar, Nov 25 (Reuters) – Iran’s national soccer team sang during the playing of their national anthem at their second World Cup match against Wales on Friday having refrained from doing so in their opening game earlier this week in apparent support for protesters back home.

Loud jeers were heard from Iranian supporters as the anthem played, with the team singing quietly before going on to win 2-0, prompting euphoric celebrations outside the stadium where government supporters tried to drown out chants by its opponents after the game.

Ahead of the match, several fans said security had prevented them or friends from taking symbols of support for the protesters into the stadium. One said he was detained. Another said security forces made him take off a T-shirt declaring “Women, Life, Freedom” – a slogan of the protests.

In the stadium, a woman held aloft a soccer jersey with “Mahsa Amini – 22” printed on the back and blood red tears painted beneath her eyes – commemorating the woman whose death in police custody ignited the protests more than two months ago.

Iranian authorities have responded with deadly force to suppress the protests calling for the downfall of the Islamic Republic, one of the boldest challenges to Iran’s clerical rulers since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

After the match, jubilant Iranians danced and cheered as they streamed out of the ground.

A few wore T-shirts commemorating Amini, who was arrested for allegedly flouting Iran’s strict dress codes, or held banners declaring “Women, Life, Freedom”.

Fans waving the official Iranian flag tried to drown them out with their own chants.

One of them stepped in front of a group of women with WOMEN LIFE FREEDOM on their shirts and began chanting over them. He was wearing a T-shirt printed with a picture of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Qassem Soleimani, a powerful Iranian general who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2020.

The win sets up a decisive match against the United States on Tuesday.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, part of a hardline establishment that has condemned the protests as riots fomented by Iran’s enemies, praised the team for “bringing the sweetness of victory to the people of our country”.

In contrast to Monday, when Iranian state television cut away from the broadcast while the anthem was playing, Iranian state media reported the players had sung on Friday, and showed footage of pro-government fans in the stadium.

State TV showed people celebrating on streets of several cities across Iran.

Ahead of the World Cup, protesters had taken heart from apparent shows of support from a number of Iran’s national teams which refrained from singing the national anthem.

On Monday, ahead of their opening game against England, the players had been solemn and silent as the anthem was played.

Iranian fans were in good spirits as the game approached, with big cheers around the stadium as their players emerged from the tunnel for warm-ups, emitting a roar as star striker Sardar Azmoun, who has spoken in support of the protest movement, was announced in the starting lineup.

Team Melli, as the soccer team is known, have traditionally been a huge source of national pride in Iran, but they have found themselves caught up in politics in the World Cup run-up, with anticipation over whether they would use soccer’s showpiece event as a platform to get behind the protesters.

‘BEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE’

Ahead of the match, a man wearing a jersey declaring “Women, Life, Freedom” was escorted into the stadium by security officers, a Reuters witness said.

Reuters could not immediately confirm why the man was being accompanied by three security officers in blue.

A spokesperson for the organising supreme committee referred Reuters to FIFA and Qatar’s list of prohibited items, but without saying which prohibited item he was carrying.

The rules ban items with “political, offensive, or discriminatory messages”.

The media liaison at the stadium for world governing body FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while the stadium media manager was not aware of the incidents but would respond later.

Payam Saljoughian, 36, a U.S.-based lawyer, said security forces had made him and his father take off “Women, Life, Freedom” shirts but his two siblings and mother were not told to remove theirs. “It was the best moment of my life – despite everything,” he told Reuters.

Iranian-American fan Shayan Khosravani, 30, told Reuters he had been detained by stadium security 10 minutes before kick-off.

He said he had been detained after he was told to put pro-protest materials away, which he did. But he was wearing a “free Iran” shirt.

Additional reporting by Dubai newsroom; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Toby Chopra, Gareth Jones, William Maclean

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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