Iran Launches ‘Resistance’ Award Named After Soleimani

Debris burns outside Baghdad International Airport where a US drone strike killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimaniand and seven others on January 3. Iraqi Security Media Cell via Reuters
Debris burns outside Baghdad International Airport where a US drone strike killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimaniand and seven others on January 3. Iraqi Security Media Cell via Reuters
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Iran Launches ‘Resistance’ Award Named After Soleimani

Debris burns outside Baghdad International Airport where a US drone strike killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimaniand and seven others on January 3. Iraqi Security Media Cell via Reuters
Debris burns outside Baghdad International Airport where a US drone strike killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimaniand and seven others on January 3. Iraqi Security Media Cell via Reuters

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani approved a resolution by the Islamic Republic's Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution to launch a new award named after slain military commander Qassem Soleimani, who was targeted by a US airstrike last January.

The award is granted in the main category of "struggle and resistance" and six sub-fields of "people and society", "culture and art", "politics", "education and research", "media", and "sports".

A 19-member body would oversee the award to be held biennially. The body consists of representatives from militias and factions allied with Tehran including Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine Jihad, and Houthis. It also includes, inter alia, the Islamic Republic's Foreign Minister, and the head of the state-run Radio and Television Organization.

The body would set general policies of culture and education in the country on all levels, as well.

The award will be presented to individuals from “the field of struggle and resistance,” IRNA said. Iran uses the term “resistance axis” to describe its network of proxies, allies, and terrorist organizations in the region.

This isn’t the first time Iran declares publicly its link to armed factions and militias in the regions, after the killing of Soleimani upon orders by US President Trump in Baghdad. Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the aerospace division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, appeared in a press conference earlier and behind him, several flags of Tehran allies were raised. This stirred criticism from close circles at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as it indirectly proves the US criticism against the IRGC regarding its role outside the Iranian borders.



US Judge Orders Dismantling of Trump's 'Alligator Alcatraz'

President Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants, visited the center last month. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP
President Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants, visited the center last month. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP
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US Judge Orders Dismantling of Trump's 'Alligator Alcatraz'

President Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants, visited the center last month. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP
President Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants, visited the center last month. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP

A US federal judge on Thursday barred the Trump administration and Florida state government from bringing any new migrants to the detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz" and ordered much of the site to be dismantled, effectively shuttering the facility.

Florida's government swiftly announced it would appeal the decision, said AFP.

The detention center was hastily assembled in just eight days in June with bunk beds, wire cages and large white tents at an abandoned airfield in Florida's Everglades wetlands, home to a large population of alligators.

President Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants, visited the center last month, boasting about the harsh conditions and joking that the reptilian predators will serve as guards.

The White House has nicknamed the facility "Alligator Alcatraz," a reference to the former island prison in San Francisco Bay that Trump has said he wants to reopen.

The center was planned to hold 3,000 migrants, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

But it has come under fire from both environmentalists and critics of Trump's crackdown on migration, who consider the facility to be inhumane.

The new ruling on Thursday by District Judge Kathleen Williams comes after a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity.

The environmental groups argue that the detention center threatens the sensitive Everglades ecosystem and was hastily built without conducting the legally required environmental impact studies.

Sixty-day deadline

Earlier this month, Williams had ordered further construction at the center to be temporarily halted.

Now she has ordered the Trump administration and the state of Florida -- which is governed by Republican Ron DeSantis -- to remove all temporary fencing installed at the center within 60 days, as well as all lighting, generators and waste and sewage treatment systems.

The order also prohibits "bringing any additional persons onto the... site who were not already being detained at the site."

Several detainees have spoken with AFP about the conditions at the center, including a lack of medical care, mistreatment and the alleged violation of their legal rights.

"They don't even treat animals like this. This is like torture," said Luis Gonzalez, a 25-year-old Cuban who called AFP from inside the center.

He recently shared a cell with about 30 people, a space enclosed by chain-linked fencing that he compared to a chicken coop.

The Trump administration has said it wants to make this a model for other detention centers across the country.