The Week in Review: January 20th – January 27th

Jan. 27 – A call for Iran’s regime to come to and end came from an unlikely source this week. Mahmoud Moradkhani, the nephew of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said there was a need for the “swift toppling of the regime in Iran,” during a press conference in Paris.

Moradkhani called Khamenei “the butcher of the people” and said he was the “most despised” figure among Iranians, during the interview, adding that the Supreme Leader was “devoid of religious and civil legitimacy.”

Moradkhani also criticized opposition parties, calling them “ineffective,” and said there was “no hope” for reform inside the country and that there was no alternative but to overthrow the regime.

Lawmakers, journalists and academics have been targeted by Iranian and Russian hackers in a spying campaign, according to GCHQ, Britain’s top intelligence agency.

Iran hacking group, Charming Kitten, which has been linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is believed to be one of two groups behind the cyber attacks.

The group uses phishing emails to make contact with individuals, and to extract information, and has been identified in a number of hacking attempts across the West in recent years.

And the U.S. House of Representatives showed their solidarity with Iranians engaged in protests against Iran’s theocratic government, in a bill passed by 420 votes to 1, on Wednesday.

The bill expressed admiration for protesters in the country risking imprisonment and the death penalty for demonstrating against the regime.

Speaking during a debate for the bill, a US lawmaker said, “It is vital that we in the U.S. House of Representatives, a body that is among the greatest symbols of freedom and democracy around the world, stand with one voice to affirm our support for the brave Iranian people.”