Iran news in brief, February 14, 2018

Iran news in brief, February 14, 2018

1- US Says Ex-intel Official Defected To Iran, Revealed Secrets

 A former U.S. Air Force counterintelligence specialist who defected to Iran has been charged with revealing classified information to the Tehran government, including the code name and secret mission of a Pentagon program.

The Justice Department said Wednesday that Monica Elfriede Witt, 39, defected in 2013 after attending a conference in Iran aimed at "condemning American moral standards." She is currently at-large, along with four Iranian hackers who, prosecutors say, used the information she provided to target her former colleagues in the U.S. intelligence community.

2- Iranians Express Support for the Resistance and Regime Change in Warsaw Major Rally

In a major rally in Warsaw on February 13, Iranians called for a regime change while expressing support for the Iranian resistance, namely the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK/PMOI).

The Iranians urged the international community to recognise the right of the Iranian people to overthrow the clerical regime ruling Iran and establishment of democracy.

A video message by Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, was broadcast to the demonstration. Madame Rajavi said that the Iranian people’s “immediate demand from the world and their lawful expectation from the Warsaw Summit is for them to recognise the right of the Iranian People’s Resistance to overthrow the mullahs’ theocratic regime to achieve freedom.”

Renowned personalities no less than former New York city mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sid Ahmed Ghozali, former Algerian Prime Minister took to the stage.

said Mr. Giuliani: “Iran is the number one state sponsor of terrorism in the world. We should not be doing business with a regime that supports terror. The Warsaw Summit should be focused on how we change Iran. How do we change their behaviour against their people.”

he added“We believe the alternative to this regime is Madam Maryam Rajavi. We want that the people of Iran can have their country back. We want to see a democratic Iran. A non-monarchy, non-mullah dictatorship,”.

3- Women Heads Of Households Excluded From Poverty Prevention Plan

Approximately 88 percent of women heads of households who are eligible for government support for pregnant and lactating women’s nutrition have been excluded from this plan. According to the clerical regime’s Deputy Minister of Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare, 5,000 of more than 40,000 women heads of households, who were supposed to be covered by the poverty prevention plan for pregnant and lactating women, were included in the plan, which means only 12.5 percent were included.

At the fifth meeting of the coordination workgroup council of the women heads of households’ empowerment held on Tuesday, February 12, 2019, the Deputy Minister of Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare, Ahmad Maidari said, “40,000 of these women were introduced by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education to be covered by the poverty prevention plan for pregnant and lactating women, but due to insufficient financial resources, only 5,000 of these women were included in the plan.”