UN in Nigeria to investigate Iranian arms seizure

Nigeria's Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia has said that a group of UN experts arrived in Nigeria to inspect an illegal shipment of arms seized in Apapa seaport in Lagos on 27th October 2010. The shipment, sent from an Iranian port, of 13 containers labeled as building materials included rockets, grenades and ammunition.

Ajumogobia told AFP the group was in Nigeria to, "meet with relevant government officials as part of a neutral fact-finding mission following up on the report that we filed with the sanctions committee in November last year".

Nigeria alerted the UN Security Council, in November 2010, after seizing the shipment sent from Iran in an apparent breach of sanctions. It is thought that the shipment would have been reloaded and sent to Gambia. Tehran has since said the cargo was being shipped by a private company to a "West African country" and was the subject of a "misunderstanding" that has now been cleared up.

Ajumogobia met with the six UN members along with intelligence service chiefs, national security personnel and immigration representative, "to clarify several issues that arose from the report we filed".

Last month a Nigerian high court charged an Iranian, identified as a member of the Iran Revolutionary Guard, over the illegal arms cargo. Azim Aghajani was granted a $130,000 bail and ordered to return to court on 31st January. He was charged along with three Nigerians.

Sources: BBC News, AFP, Vanguard, Reuters

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

Former senior IRGC officers reveal tensions in Iranian regime

A remarkable series of interviews with former members of the Iran's Revolutionary Guard today offer a rare insight into one of the world's most oppressive regimes.

The four men, who have fled Iran and are in hiding in Turkey and Thailand, speak out in a documentary produced by Guardian Films and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

In testimony provided by the men, at least one of whom was part of last year's crackdown on opposition to the Iranian regime, the film reveals:

> Deep divisions within the Revolutionary Guard, the powerful military organisation at the heart of the Iranian state, which have widened since last year's repression of the so-called green opposition.

> Firsthand accounts of the measures taken to crush the popular protests that erupted in the wake of last June's presidential elections. The men interviewed describe the widespread use of rape and torture by the regime.

> A ruling elite so unsettled by the uprising that it had a plane on standby ready to fly the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, to Syria at a moment's notice.

One former guard interviewed for the film says that until he fled the country earlier this year, he was part of the security team surrounding Khamenei. "I want people outside to know what is happening and what this regime is doing to them," says Muhammed Hussein Torkaman. He accuses the regime of betraying the values of the 1979 revolution in an effort to keep a grip on power.

Another former guard accuses the government of filling the ranks of the guards with young men from the countryside willing to carry out brutal assaults which more senior officers would not countenance. "The majority of these recruits ... have no idea of right or wrong," he says. The regime "hands them weapons and these young people come into the streets and commit acts of murder".

Iran's opposition leaders have called off rallies to mark the anniversary of last year's presidential election, in which Ahmadinejad controversially claimed victory. The decision is being seen as a setback for the pro-democracy movement.

Source: Guardian News

For more news and expert analysis about Iran please see Iran Strategic Focus or visit Menas Associates Newsroom.