The Islamic Iran Nation’s Union Party sought the release of secretary-general Azar Mansouri, the Shargh newspaper said on Monday, after her arrest along with other members of the Reform Front, an umbrella body of Iranian reformists and moderates.
A campaign of mass arrests and intimidation has led to the arrests of thousands as authorities seek to deter further protests after last month’s crackdown on the bloodiest unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
On Sunday, state media said three senior figures from Iran’s Reform Front were arrested, among them Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, Mohsen Aminzadeh, and Azar Mansouri, who acts as the front’s head.
Shargh said at least two more Reform Front members were asked to report to the prosecutor’s office in Tehran’s Evin prison on Tuesday.
The Reform Front’s spokesperson, Javad Emam, was also arrested, Mansouri’s lawyer, Hojjat Kermani, said on Monday, adding that it was unclear what charges those detained faced.
“We basically don’t know what caused these arrests, because the Reform Front has not yet issued a statement about the recent events (protests),” Kermani told the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA). “Individuals may have commented on their own.”
On Sunday, the judiciary’s media outlet Mizan said “four important political elements supporting the Zionist (regime) and the United States” were indicted, but gave no details.
Tehran has blamed unrest-related violence on “rioters and armed terrorists,” it says, who were backed by its key enemies, Israel and the United States.
Past Reform Front statements have been highly critical of authorities. After the 12-day war against Israel, its members warned that “incremental collapse” awaited the country if it did not adopt fundamental reforms.
Kermani said the recent arrests were not related to a judicial case launched against the Front after that statement, however.
Who is the Islamic Iran Nation’s Union Party?
The Islamic Iran Nation’s Union Party was approved as a political party by the Interior Ministry in April 2015.
Mansouri became the deputy secretary-general in 2017 and the secretary-general in 2021.
The party initially faced accusations that it serves as a front for the Islamic Iran Participation Front, which was banned by the regime in April 2010 following the Green Movement protests, but the party has denied this allegation.
The party currently has one member in Iran’s parliament, the Majlis, affiliated with the Iranian Reformists movement, led by President Masoud Pezeshkian.