(MENAFN – Arab News) Al-Qaeda only operates in separatist regions or areas beset with tribal conflict; whilst it thrives wherever there is a sectarian atmosphere. The same applies to Iranian policy in our region, for Tehran is supporting the Baathist, secular and Alawite Assad, whilst at the same time supporting the extremist Sunni Al-Qaeda organization, which – for its part – is coexisting with the (Shiite) Houthi movement in Yemen! Yesterday, Asharq Al-Awsat published an astonishing report in cooperation with Britain’s The Guardian newspaper, revealing the frenetic Iranian movement to support the southern separatists in Yemen. This report clearly indicates the danger of what Iran is doing in our region, whether in Yemen, Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria or the Gaza Strip with regard to distributing funds and arms, establishing poisonous media outlets – whether we are talking about television or newspapers or the Internet – whose sole objective is to allow Iran to infiltrate our countries, including Egypt and the Arab Maghreb.

LONDON, May 10 (UPI) — A nine-year prison sentence for an Iranian human rights lawyer is a sign the government is consistently repressing its people, a British official said.Iranian lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah was sentenced to nine years in prison this week by Iranian authorities. He was convicted of spreading propaganda against the government.

British Minister for the Middle East Alistair Burt said he was troubled by the sentencing of Dadkhah and the death penalty handed down in 2010 to Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani.x

The Christian pastor on death row in Iran has reportedly written a letter thanking his supporters and blasting those who he said use “insulting words” against Islam in what he considers a misguided effort to help his cause.

Washington-based human rights group American Center for Law and Justice released what it says is a letter written by Youcef Nadarkhani earlier this week from a prison in the Lakan Province of Iran, where he is currently being held  for charges of practicing Christianity and renouncing Islam. If the letter is real, it is the first time Nadarkhani has been heard from in a year.

“First, I would like to inform all of my beloved brothers and sisters that I am in perfect health in the flesh and spirit,” begins the letter, which is addressed to “All those who are concerned and worried about my current situation.”

 Iran has stepped up efforts to harass journalists and media companies in the past several weeks, Reporters Without Borders says.Cartoonist Mahmud Shokraieh, who drew a caricature portraying a local member of parliament as a soccer player, was sentenced to 25 lashes. “The court ruled that Shokraieh had ‘insulted’ the parliamentarian, who sued both him and the newspaper’s editor. The editor was acquitted,” according to the media watchdog.Cartoonist Martin Rowson of The Guardian called Shokraieh’s sentence “outrageous, appalling and barbaric.”“The surest mark of a healthy society is the degree to which public figures accept the right of everyone else to laugh at them, something which cartoonists and caricaturists have helped enable for centuries,” Rowson wrote.The cartoon depicts the member of parliament, Lotfi Ashtiani, dressed as a soccer player in a stadium. He has an enlarged forehead with a smudge in the middle, which is supposed to be a sign that he has prayed frequently.