Jailed Americans displayed

Tehran

Iranian state television this week aired footage of two Americans confessing to a plot to overthrow the Iranian government. Haleh Esfandiari, 67, a prominent scholar, and Kian Tajbakhsh, 45, an urban planner who works for George Soros’ Open Society Institute, were shown separately, speaking in Farsi. Esfandiari says that her work at the Woodrow Wilson Foundation was intended to bring down the regime in Iran and “bring democracy.” Tajbakhsh says that Soros “targets the Islamic world.” The clips were trailers for a forthcoming Iranian documentary titled In the Name of Democracy, which argues that the U.S. is trying to destabilize Iran through pro-democracy foundations. Human-rights groups condemn the “confessions” and the Americans’ continued confinement as blatant violations of international law.

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