ICYMI: Regime Appointments Underscore Reality That Iran Can’t Be Reformed

(New York, N.Y.) — With dissent building inside the Islamic Republic, regime leaders are signaling through key appointments that they have no intention of moderating their behavior, according to an op-ed published on Monday in 19FortyFive by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) Policy Director Jason Brodsky. He calls attention to the elevation of Ahmad-Reza Radan to serve as Chief of Iran's Law Enforcement Command, and how this is indicative of a broader authoritarian direction that the regime is moving toward.  

“The appointment of hardliner Ahmad-Reza Radan as national police chief is the latest reminder that the Iranian system is unreformable … Radan’s ascendance is a signal from Khamenei that rather than being serious about responding to the Iranian people’s demands, he is doubling down, fearing that compromise begets expectations for more compromise. This explains why revolutionary sentiment is in the air, with the gap between state and society widening over a system at a dead end.”  

Radan’s career in the Law Enforcement Command includes a track-record of participation in beatings of detainees and expressions of various ideological sentiments, including authorizing the use of force against women who are not abiding by the Iranian dress code. According to UANI’s Iran Human Rights Sanctions Tracker (IHRST), a database of current and former Iranian regime officials sanctioned by the U.S., EU, U.K., and Canada for human rights abuses, Radan has been sanctioned by the U.S. and the EU since 2011, and by the U.K. since 2020. He is not, however, sanctioned by Canada.  

Presently, there are 170 current and former Iranian regime officials and entities designated by the U.S. for human rights abuses, 118 by the EU, and 96 by the U.K. that are not yet designated by Canada. It is essential that the U.S., EU, U.K. and Canada harmonize their respective human rights sanctions designations and apply additional human rights sanctions against human rights abusers.  

To read Jason Brodsky’s op-ed in 19FortyFive please click here.  

To read UANI’s resource Iran Human Rights Sanctions Tracker (IHRST), please click here.