Biden's foreign policy aides condemn Iranian execution of exiled journalist Ruhollah Zam

Senior foreign policy officials within US President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration have condemned  execution of exiled Iranian journalist Ruhollah Zam by Tehran. In a Twitter statement, Biden's minee for Secretary of State Antony Blinken and minee for National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan deunced "horrifying" act and called out Shi’ite regime. ir remarks come as Biden aims at re-establishing diplomatic relations with Iran, which was severed by Donald Trump.

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Terming it a "human rights violation", Sullivan wrote that Iranian journalist was sentenced for "exercising his universal rights". Furr in his tweet, he called out execution and asserted that y will "stand up to Iran’s abuses". Blinken retweeted Sullivan's post.

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Associated Press on December 12 reported that authorities in Iran had executed Ruhollah Zam over his online work that helped inspire nationwide ecomic protests in 2017. As per Iranian public broadcaster, Zam was hanged in wee hours of December 12.

journalist who was in exile in France was sentenced to death in June this year. Zam’s website and a channel he created on popular messaging app Telegram had published timings of protests and embarrassing information about officials that directly challenged Iran’s Shiite ocracy. 

Iran-US relations

US-Iran tensions have flared manifold under  Trump administration with Republican leader withdrawing from Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and redisposing harsh sanctions on Tehran. Iran, on or hand, has accused Trump of jeopardising safety and prosperity of nation. Both nations were on brink of war earlier this year.

In January, US drone strikes killed Iranian Military General Qassem Soleimani and in retaliation, Tehran launched a missile strike on US troops stationed in Iraq. In October, US targeted Iran’s financial sector by anuncing fresh sanctions on 18 major Iranian banks. US State Department said that new tranche of sanctions was aimed at choking off funds used to carry out "its support for terrorist activities and nuclear extortion."

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