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 the execution of exiled Iranian journalist Ruhollah Zam by Tehran. In a Twitter statement, Biden's nominee for Secretary of State Antony Blinken and nominee for National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan denounced the "horrifying" act and called out the Shi’ite regime. Their 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 the Iranian journalist was sentenced for "exercising his universal rights". Further in his tweet, he called out the execution and asserted that they 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 economic protests in 2017. As per the Iranian public broadcaster, Zam was hanged in the wee hours of December 12.

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

Iran-US relations

US-Iran tensions have flared manifold under the Trump administration with the Republican leader withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and redisposing harsh sanctions on Tehran. Iran, on the other hand, has accused Trump of jeopardising the safety and prosperity of the nation. Both nations were on the 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 announcing fresh sanctions on 18 major Iranian banks. The US State Department said that the new tranche of sanctions was aimed at choking off the funds used to carry out "its support for terrorist activities and nuclear extortion."

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