Australia and New Zealand voice support for Iranian women on Mahsa Amini anniversary

Ali Akbar Velayati said he hoped reports of the event were false, describing it as “anti-Islamic and against the dignity of Shiites.”

Such a move by Baku, he added, was unprecedented and suggested it might be tied to efforts to widen the Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim states normalized ties with Israel.

The remarks appeared aimed at the Conference of European Rabbis, scheduled for Nov. 4–6 in Baku, where Jewish leaders from across Europe are due to convene.

Velayati’s comments come as Azerbaijan deepens international links, including through a landmark peace deal reached in Washington last month. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed the accord at the White House with US President Donald Trump, granting exclusive US development rights to a transit corridor through the South Caucasus.

The route will connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave across southern Armenia. The White House said the project, named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, would expand energy and resource exports.

Tehran has objected to the corridor, warning it sidelines Iranian trade routes and diminishes its role in the region. Iranian officials have also accused Azerbaijan of permitting Israeli activity on its soil, intensifying mistrust.

The dispute over the rabbinical gathering now adds a cultural and religious dimension to already fraught relations between Iran and Azerbaijan.

“Iranian intelligence services have increasingly attempted to kill, kidnap, and harass political opponents abroad, following a disturbing and unacceptable pattern of transnational repression, and clearly undermining state sovereignty,” the joint statement said.

The signatories included the G7 states—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union—alongside associate members Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Sweden. They cited Iranian efforts to intimidate journalists and Jewish communities, as well as operations to obtain and expose personal information in order to divide societies.

“The G7 RRM stands in solidarity with our international partners whose citizens and residents have also been targeted by Iran,” the statement added, pledging to continue countering foreign interference and safeguarding national sovereignty.

Canberra expelled ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi late last month following an ASIO-led investigation linking Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) to two anti-Semitic attacks in Melbourne and Sydney.

Separately, Canberra announced the renewal of counter-terrorism sanctions against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

“The Albanese Government has zero tolerance for foreign interference and violence in Australia,” Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in an X post, reiterating calls for the release of hostages taken on October 7, 2023.

Hamas is now considered one of the Iran's armed militant proxy forces in the region, alongside the Lebanese Hezbollah, Yemeni Houthis and a collection of Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria.

Afkari's death remains a searing reminder of Tehran's willingness to crush dissent, even when the world is watching.

As former wrestlers, we tried to raise his case at the highest levels. And US president Donald Trump took note—in what became the first known public effort by an American president to halt the execution of an athlete.

“Hearing that Iran is looking to execute a great and popular wrestling star, 27-year-old Navid Afkarai, whose sole act was an anti-government demonstration on the streets,” he posted on Twitter on Sep. 3, 2020.

“I would greatly appreciate if you would spare this young man’s life, and not execute him. Thank you!”

Afkari was convicted of killing a security guard during 2018 protests but said in an appeal that he had been tortured into a confession used against him in court and later broadcast on state television.

Spurned pleas

Trump’s message amplified Afkari’s plight, alongside appeals from UFC president Dana White, decorated Olympians, and thousands of athletes worldwide. Yet the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and United World Wrestling confined themselves to quiet, private appeals.

IOC president Thomas Bach later admitted he had made “direct personal appeals to the Supreme Leader and to the President of Iran” asking for mercy.

Those backchannel efforts failed and Afkari was hanged.

Two years later, on September 16, 2025, Mahsa Jina Amini died in morality police custody, igniting the Woman, Life, Freedom protest movement. Both Amini and Afkari became cause célèbres of those who oppose the theocracy.

Iranian athletes continue to pay a heavy price: karate champion Mohammad Mehdi Karami was executed in 2023, footballer Amir Reza Nasr-Azadani is serving a 26-year sentence, and swimmer Parham Parvari faces a possible death penalty.

Iran’s National Olympic Committee is run not by athletes but by loyalists to the Islamic Republic, including a former bodyguard to supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

International sport has long offered the rulers in Tehran prestige they deny their own people. Cutting that lifeline could matter more than another round of statements.

The IOC and federations should commit to automatic bans if athletes are executed for dissent. Washington and its allies can reinforce this with sanctions targeting sports and security officials complicit in abuses.

Admittedly, sanctions or suspensions carry a cost: innocent Iranian athletes risk losing their chance to compete internationally, and the authorities will use this to stoke nationalist anger.

But the alternative—allowing executions to pass without consequence—leaves the regime with impunity and athletes with no protection at all.

Clear, consistent penalties would make it harder for Tehran to treat sportsmen and women as expendable.

Afkari and Amini are remembered as symbols of courage. Honoring them today requires action, not silence.

Members of the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union), joined by associate members Australia and New Zealand, issued a joint statement Friday condemning what they described as Iran’s growing campaign of transnational repression.

The statement cited recent declarations by Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK, and the US, which detailed what they called increased attempts by Iranian intelligence services to kill, kidnap, and harass political opponents overseas.

The attempts, the G7 said, follow "a disturbing and unacceptable pattern of transnational repression, and clearly undermine state sovereignty."

Last month, UN human rights experts condemned what they called Iran’s intensifying campaign of repression against journalists working for Iran International and the intimidation of their families, particularly after the 12-day war with Israel.

"Reports suggest that journalists have been followed, had tracking tags attached to their cars, and their cars repeatedly broken into. Women journalists have faced threats of death and sexual violence on social media and instant messaging services, some receiving hundreds of messages a day."

The statement came after Iran International filed an urgent appeal with the experts urging them to take action against Iran over serious risks to the lives and safety of their journalists worldwide and relatives inside Iran.

In July, British lawmakers warned that Iran is among several foreign governments engaged in transnational repression on UK soil.

A report from parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights said Tehran’s tactics include “assassination plots, physical attacks, intimidation of family members, asset freezing, judicial proceedings, smear campaigns, online abuse, surveillance and digital attacks such as hacking, doxing and impersonation."

Beyond targeting dissidents, the G7 on Friday warned of other malign operations linked to Iran, including what it described as efforts to obtain and publish journalists’ personal information and actions designed to “divide societies and intimidate Jewish communities.”

“The G7 RRM stands in solidarity with our international partners whose citizens and residents have also been targeted by Iran,” the group said, vowing to continue countering foreign interference.

The RRM was launched in 2018 to address foreign threats to democracy.

"Five years ago today, the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran executed Navid Afkari after years of torture and a sham trial," the State Department said in a post on its Persian X account.

The State Department said Navid Afkari’s case "reflects a broader pattern of systematic impunity for torture, forced confessions, and executions carried out without due process in Iran’s judiciary."

Afkari was arrested in 2018 and later sentenced to death for killing government employee Hassan Torkaman during antigovernment protests in Shiraz.

Before being executed in 2020, Afkari sent several audio messages from prison in which he said he had confessed to the murder only under physical and psychological duress.

"Through sham judicial procedures, this regime seeks to create the illusion of justice while denying fairness, fair trial, and accountability," the State Department said in its post on X.

"The United States condemns these actions and reaffirms its unwavering support for the Iranian people in their pursuit of justice, freedom, and human dignity."

At the height of Iran’s 2022 protests against the Islamic Republic, Donald Trump praised the demonstrations by the Iranian people.

“The people of Iran are bravely protesting against their corrupted and brutal regime, courageously facing down violence, persecution, jail, torture, and even death... we are with you and we will always be with you.”