Rafsanjani’s Daughter Defends Remark that Trump was Good for Iran

Faezeh Hashemi, Ensaf News
Faezeh Hashemi, Ensaf News
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Rafsanjani’s Daughter Defends Remark that Trump was Good for Iran

Faezeh Hashemi, Ensaf News
Faezeh Hashemi, Ensaf News

Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, slammed a number of figures and parties in Iran for being “more dangerous bullies” than the outgoing US President Donald Trump.

Hashemi accused those she addressed of placing the country on the “verge of destruction.”

In an open letter, she responded to harsh criticism she had received from members of her family and fellow comrades in the Executives of Construction Party.

Hashemi had made highly controversial statements earlier in support of Trump’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran and said that chances for reform in the cleric-led country are diminished now that US President-elect Joe Biden will rise to power.

Responding to her brother, Mohsen Hashemi, who had asked her to apologize, Hashemi on Tuesday accused him of “mapping a future for himself” and seeking to “protect his interests,” an apparent reference to plans beyond his current position as Chairman of Tehran’s City Council.

She reiterated that Iran’s leaders had pursued policies wasting resources and leading the country to a dead-end.

The war of words between Hashemi and her brother on the fourth anniversary of their father’s death has made headlines in Iranian newspapers.

The official newspaper affiliated with the Executives of Construction Party ran a front page displaying a picture of Hashemi and her brother under the headline “Brother Slams Sister.”

“In Iran, there are individuals and entities that are far more dangerous than Trump in bullying and failing to abide by rules and regulation. They have put the country on the slippery slope of ineffectiveness, mismanagement and inefficiency, dogmatism and even taking it to the point of collapse at times,” Hashemi said in defense of her statements.

In an implicit reference to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is considered a moderate reformer, Hashemi said: “These days we are witnessing deviations that are much deeper than that caused by Ahmadinejad.”



Nearly 450,000 Afghans Left Iran since June 1, Says IOM

Afghans in their thousands have streamed over the border from Iran at the Islam Qala border point in Afghanistan's Herat province in recent weeks. Mohsen KARIMI / AFP
Afghans in their thousands have streamed over the border from Iran at the Islam Qala border point in Afghanistan's Herat province in recent weeks. Mohsen KARIMI / AFP
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Nearly 450,000 Afghans Left Iran since June 1, Says IOM

Afghans in their thousands have streamed over the border from Iran at the Islam Qala border point in Afghanistan's Herat province in recent weeks. Mohsen KARIMI / AFP
Afghans in their thousands have streamed over the border from Iran at the Islam Qala border point in Afghanistan's Herat province in recent weeks. Mohsen KARIMI / AFP

Nearly 450,000 Afghans have returned from Iran since the start of June, the UN's refugee agency said on Monday, after Tehran ordered those without documentation to leave by July 6.

The influx comes as the country is already struggling to integrate streams of Afghans who have returned under pressure from traditional migrant and refugee hosts Pakistan and Iran since 2023, said AFP.

The country is facing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises after decades of war.

This year alone, more than 1.4 million people have "returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan", the United Nations refugees agency UNHCR said.

In late May, Iran ordered undocumented Afghans to leave the country by July 6, potentially impacting four million people out of the around six million Afghans Tehran says live in the country.

Numbers of people crossing the border surged from mid-June, with some days seeing around 40,000 people crossing, UN agencies have said.

From June 1 to July 5, 449,218 Afghans returned from Iran, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration told AFP on Monday, bringing the total this year to 906,326.

Many people crossing reported pressure from authorities or arrest and deportation, as well as losing already limited finances in the rush to leave quickly.

Massive foreign aid cuts have impacted the response to the crisis, with the UN, international non-governmental groups and Taliban officials calling for more funding to support the returnees.

The UN has warned the influx could destabilize the country already grappling with entrenched poverty, unemployment and climate change-related shocks and urged nations not to forcibly return Afghans.

"Forcing or pressuring Afghans to return risks further instability in the region, and onward movement towards Europe," the UN refugees agency UNHCR said in a statement on Friday.

Taliban officials have repeatedly called for Afghans to be given a "dignified" return.

Iranian media regularly reports mass arrests of "illegal" Afghans in various regions.

Iran's deputy interior minister Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian said on Thursday that while Afghans illegally in the country were "respected neighbors and brothers in faith", Iran's "capacities also have limits".

That the ministry's return process "will be implemented gradually", he said on state TV.

Many Afghans travelled to Iran to look for work, sending crucial funds back to their families in Afghanistan.

"If I can find a job here that covers our daily expenses, I'll stay here," returnee Ahmad Mohammadi told AFP on Saturday, as he waited for support in high winds and dust at the IOM-run reception center at the Islam Qala border point in western Herat province.

"But if that's not possible, we'll be forced to go to Iran again, or Pakistan, or some other country."