Special to WorldTribune.com

Iran has stepped up its persecution of religious minorities after U.S. President Barack Obama de-linked “demands for improvements in religious freedom and human rights in Iran from the nuclear negotiations,” according to U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk.

Kirk, an Illinois Republican, told The Jerusalem Post of “the Iranian regimes systematic persecution of Christians, as well as Baha’is, Sunni Muslims, another other religious minorities, is getting worse not better.”

Iranian President Hassan Rowhani had pledged during his campaign in 2013 to guarantee the rights of religious minorities. But the self-declared moderate is seen ignoring the crackdown on Christians and other human rights violations.

Todd Nettleton, director of media communications for the American-Christian organization Voice of the Martyrs, said that Rouhani “is still someone who wants to protect the Islamic Republic of Iran. He wants to protect the mullahs who are in charge of that country. And he sees Christianity as a direct threat to his government and particularly to the mullahs there.”

Saba Farzan, the German-Iranian executive director of Foreign Policy Circle, a strategy think tank in Berlin, said that “they [nuclear talks] never made sense and never will. The West can’t discuss arms control with a leadership that oppresses religious minorities and human rights activists.”

Last month, 18 Christian converts received sentences that totaled nearly 24 years on charges including evangelism, propaganda against the Islamic Republic and founding home-based churches, according to the website of Radio Farda.

Also last month, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom wrote: “Over the past year, there were numerous incidents of Iranian authorities raiding church services, threatening church members, and arresting and imprisoning worshipers and church leaders, particularly Evangelical Christian converts.”

The report added that “since 2010, authorities arbitrarily arrested and detained more than 500 Christians throughout the country.”

“The Islamic regime of Iran treats Christians cruelly, while Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, claims that no one is in jail in Iran for their beliefs,” Mansour Borji of the Article 18 Committee initiative of the United Council of Iranian Churches (Hamgaam) told Iranian Christian outlet Mohabat news.

“Despite President Rouhani’s promises in his campaign, not only do we see no relief of suppression of Christians, but we see an increase in the number of arrests and unfair sentences, and the security atmosphere imposed by the Islamic regime on the Iranian Christian community still continues.”

Article 18 of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right “to change his religion or belief.”

  Barack Obama, Hassan Rowhani, Religious freedom in Iran seen worsened after Obama de-linked from nuclear deal, Sen. Mark Kirk, WorldTribune.com