Iran ramps up state executions amid nuclear talks with US

Iran has carried out 1,051 state executions since President Masoud Pezeshkian took office on July 8, 2024 – a surge that security experts say the U.S. must weigh as it resumes nuclear negotiations with Tehran.

The figure, reported to Fox News Digital by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), represents a more than 20% increase from the number of Iranians killed in 2023, which saw 853 Iranians executed by the regime. 

In his race for the presidency, Pezeshkian aligned himself with moderates and reformists angry with the regime following the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini and the subsequent protests.

In a 2024 televised debate just days before he won the election in a record-low turnout, he reportedly said, ‘We are losing our backing in the society, because of our behavior, high prices, our treatment of girls and because we censor the internet.’

‘People are discontent with us because of our behavior,’ he added, prompting hope that Pezeshkian – who has also expressed a willingness to engage with the U.S. in nuclear negotiations – might bring some reform Iranians had long pushed for from the oppressive regime. 

But executions targeting those arrested for drug-related offenses, dissents and those involved in the 2022 protests have only increased – including the increased killings of women and those who were minors at the time of their alleged offense.

‘Such levels of savagery and brutality reflect the deadly deadlock in which the ruling religious fascism in Iran is trapped,’ the NCRI said in a statement on Monday. ‘[Supreme Leader of Iran Ali] Khamenei is desperately trying to prevent a nationwide uprising and the inevitable overthrow of his regime through executions and killings.’

Amnesty International reported earlier this month that girls as young as 9 years old can be sentenced to execution, while for boys it starts at age 15. 

‘At least 73 young offenders were executed between 2005 and 2015. And the authorities show no sign of stopping this horrific practice,’ the organization added, noting that the U.N. reports there are at least 160 people facing death row for crimes they committed while under the age of 18, though it also notes that that number is likely a low representation of the actual figures. 

The human rights atrocities come as the U.S. is looking to secure a nuclear deal with Tehran, and officials are calling on the international community to consider Iran’s record of abuse in its negotiations with the regime.

Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the NCRI, has ‘urged the international community to condition any dealings with the regime on the cessation of torture and executions, refer Iran’s human rights violations file to the U.N. Security Council, and, as requested by the U.N. special rapporteur in the July 2024 report, bring Ali Khamenei and other regime leaders to justice for crimes against humanity and genocide.’

‘After suffering irreparable setbacks in the region and facing the growing threat of an uprising and overthrow, the regime has brutally accelerated executions and massacres,’ she said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

She has also called on the Iranian people, ‘especially the youth,’ to protest the executions by joining the ‘No to Execution’ movement.

However, students across Iran face a real threat in opposing the regime, as Pezeshkian and Iran’s minister of education, Alireza Kazemi, have reportedly dispatched State Security Forces to tamp down on what Khamenei has deemed ‘cultural infiltration, the enemy’s lifestyle, and hostile temptations’ targeting Iran’s youth.