Iranian President Hassan Rouhani waves towards the media as he exits Mecca Masjid following Friday prayers in Hyderabad, India February 16, 2018. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui The Trump administration reportedly waived sanctions on Iran’s chief propaganda outlet due to a secret deal forged between the Obama administration and the Iranian regime.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the Obama administration and Iranian regime came to an agreement in 2013 where the State Department would waive sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) every six months provided that the IRIB ceased its practice of censoring content.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson decided to waive sanctions on the IRIB yet again in January, even though there is evidence that the Iranian propaganda outlet continues to jam “broadcasts and other signals it finds objectionable.”
“This waiver is vital to the national security of the United States because it furthers the free flow of information into Iran, a key element of the president’s new U.S. strategy on lran,” Tillerson told Congress.
Iranian dissidents and protestors were furious at the decision, as the Trump administration had promised to slap the IRIB with a new batch of sanctions. Tillerson’s State Department seems to think that the secret agreement needed to be upheld.
According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, the IRIB has a penchant for “jamming international satellite broadcasts” in addition to local broadcasts. The IRIB also broadcasts coerced confessions from prisoners, show trials and other propaganda from the Iranian regime.
“IRIB continues to be a central tool of state repression; it has not earned the continuation of the waiver,” Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, told the Center for Human Rights in Iran in 2014.
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