TOP STORIES
Iran is training Hezbollah fighters to carry out drone attacks on northern Israel at a rapidly-expanding top secret base, The Telegraph can reveal. The drone facility in Iran has tripled in size since it was set up in 2006, in spite of US sanctions, according to leaked classified Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) documents. Located just five miles from Iran’s holy city of Qom, the centre, under the command of the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has expanded from a runway of 500 metres to 1,500 metres today. Intelligence reveals the country’s dictator ordered the concentration, strengthening and rapid development of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) manufacturing activities by the regime’s main drone manufacturer, Qods Aviation Industry Company in 2004. In spite of being on the US Treasury sanctions list since Dec 12 2013, the drone HQ which belongs to Qods, has continued to expand.
The UN Nuclear Watchdog Chief Travels To Iran As Its Monitoring Remains Hampered | Associated Press
The head of the United Nations’ atomic watchdog traveled Monday to Iran, where his agency faces increasing difficulty in monitoring the Islamic Republic’s rapidly advancing nuclear program as tensions remain high in the wider Middle East over the Israel-Hamas war. Rafael Mariano Grossi already has warned Tehran has enough uranium enriched to near-weapons-grade levels to make “several” nuclear bombs if it chose to do so. He has acknowledged the agency can’t guarantee that none of Iran’s centrifuges may have been peeled away for clandestine enrichment. Those challenges now find themselves entangled in attacks between Israel and Iran, with the city of Isfahan apparently coming under Israeli fire in recent weeks despite it being surrounded by sensitive nuclear sites. Grossi is likely to attend an Iranian nuclear conference there while on his two-day trip to Iran.
Iran's judiciary has filed charges against several journalists and media activists who disseminated a BBC World Service report concerning the alleged "sexual abuse and murder" of protester Nika Shakarami during the 2022 protests. The BBC report, released on April 29, cited a "highly confidential" government document that allegedly names those responsible for Shakarami's death and senior commanders involved in a subsequent cover-up. The report, which claimed that Shakarami was abused and killed after being detained by security forces, was dismissed by the judiciary's media center as "fake, incorrect, and error-ridden." The center accused the individuals involved of publishing "false, insulting, and anti-regime propaganda" on the internet. "The media individuals have been summoned to the Tehran Prosecutor's Office as part of our legal duty to counter disruptors of societal psychological security," a spokesperson for the judiciary's media center said. Activists say the report is further evidence of the repressive nature of the regime against protesters, particularly those involved in the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement.
UANI IN THE NEWS
UK Defense Secretary Dismisses Iranian Sanctions | Iran International
UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps has branded recent sanctions imposed on him by Iran as a misguided attempt at intimidation.…Among the sanctioned US entities are defense firms such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics Corporation, and Skydio. Notably, the sanctions also targeted individuals including Jason Brodsky, Policy Director of United Against Nuclear Iran, and US Army General Bryan P. Fenton. Iran, branded the world's number one state sponsor of terror by the US last year, claimed the British individuals and entities faced sanctions for their "deliberate support and facilitation of the Israel regime’s actions..." The British entities include defense companies Elbit Systems and Parker Meggitt, while the individuals include British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, Commander of the British Army Strategic Command James Hockenhull, and Chief of Defense Intelligence Adrian Bird.
Just over two weeks have passed since Israel conducted its surgical strike against the regime in Iran in retaliation for its unprecedented direct attack on Israeli territory. Once the strike was over, policymakers, experts and commentators rushed to announce the end of the tit-for-tat escalation between the Islamic Republic and Israel. But if you think things are “settling down”, then think again – all the signs indicate the next ten months of the US election cycle will produce extreme volatility and once again bring the region to the brink. When the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – the Iranian regime’s ideological military and paramilitary organization – pulled the trigger, which included 170 drones, 110 ballistic missiles and 30 cruise missiles, it did so knowing full well that Israel would retaliate. For its part, Israel’s response was very limited, firing 3 missiles from outside of Israeli territory, but successfully penetrating the Islamic Republic’s air defense system. And while US officials announced that the strike was precisely limited as Israel intended to showcase its capabilities but de-escalate, the Islamic Republic will certainly not view it in this light.
…Campaign group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) had raised the alarm about the source of the reputed Iraqi cargo during its discharge from the Vietnamese-owned 105,200-dwt Abyss (built 1998) to the Oceania. The group claimed the Abyss had been spoofing its position and had loaded the cargo at the Iranian port of Bandar Mahshahr. The legal dispute centres on the agreement struck by Malaysian company Silk Straits to secure three months of storage on the Oceania at $20,000 per day from Euronav. Silk Straits in turn rented out the space to Black Swan Petroleum. But Black Swan Petroleum claims it was not part of an agreement in the original deal to settle any dispute at arbitration in London. Euronav’s own investigation backed UANI’s claims.
…According to Kasra Aarabi, an expert on Iran, ”putting IRGC on the EU terror list is an important step to protect the national security, to protect our communities, particularly the Iranian diaspora and the Jewish community because there is a genuine terror threat and because they are not only targeting and conducting terror plots but theyr are also nurturing homegrown Shia islamist radicalisation, using the Isis and Al Qaeda methods.” “However, because IRGC is not proscribed (as a terror group), these activities are not outlawed. The current sanctions regime doesn’t prohibit the IRGC’s ability to disseminate jihadist propaganda. Proscribing IRGC would help on that front but it is not going to change IRGC’s calculus. The only thing that will change the IRGC’s calculus at this point is targeted strikes against IRGC’s military intelligence assets in the region and inside of Iran,” Aarabi, a director of IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) in London, told European Jewish Press.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
UN Atomic Watchdog Chief Rafael Grossi Arrives In Iran: Media | AFP News
UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi arrived Monday in Iran, where he is expected to speak at a conference and meet officials for talks on Tehran's nuclear programme. "The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Tehran on Monday at noon at the head of a delegation to participate in the nuclear conference and negotiate with top nuclear and political officials of the country," Tasnim news agency said, with other agencies reporting the same details.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
The historic Kashan bazaar in central Iran once sat on a major caravan route, its silk carpets known the world over. But for the weavers trying to sell their rugs under its ancient arches, their world has only unraveled since the collapse of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers and wider tensions with the West. Rug exports, which exceeded $2 billion two decades ago, have plummeted to less than $50 million in the last year in the Persian calendar that ended in March, according to government customs figures. With fewer tourists coming and difficulties rising in making international transactions, Iranian rugs are going unsold as some weavers work for as little as $4 a day. “Americans were some of our best customers,” said Ali Faez, the owner of one dusty carpet shop at the bazaar. “Rugs are a luxury product and they were eager to buy it and they used to make very good purchases. Unfortunately this has been cut — and the connection between the two countries for visitors to come and go has gone away.”
Iran Bans 5 US Entities, 7 Individuals Over Supporting Israel | Iran International
The ministry claims the targets have been allegedly involved in “terrorist acts and gross violations of human rights through their support for the Zionist regime’s brutal actions against Palestinians, particularly the people in the Gaza Stip.” Among the sanctioned entities are the Lockheed Martin Corporation, General Dynamics Corporation and Skydio, which Iran’s Foreign Ministry claims have armed Israel in its war against the Iran-backed Palestinian militants, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Chevron Corporation has also been targeted due to its “cooperation with Israel in the drilling of gas wells in the eastern Mediterranean,” the statement said, further adding that an intelligence company called Kharon has been banned over collaborating with the US Treasury and trying to cut off Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s access to the cryptocurrency exchange network. US government reports reveal that the IRGC has been using cryptocurrency in recent years to fund Palestinian militant groups. Families of victims of the Hamas terror attacks of October 7 and the families of hostages taken to Gaza have sued cryptocurrency exchange Binance for its role in funding the terror group between 2017 and 2023.
US Senators Raise Alarm: Iran’s Bitcoin Mining Poses National Security Threat | Blockzeit
US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Angus S. King, Jr. have raised a fresh round of warnings to the Biden administration on the dangers of Iran’s Bitcoin mining operations to national security. The US lawmakers wrote a letter this Wednesday addressed to some key government officials including the US Secretary of Defence, Secretary of Treasury, and National Security Adviser on the matter while seeking answers to some vital questions. Warren and King had on May 1, written a letter to Defence Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen, and the National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan “to inquire about the Biden administration’s efforts to combat Iran’s rampant evasion of U.S. and international sanctions through cryptocurrency (crypto) mining.” The letter revealed how Iran legalized crypto mining – a process used in verifying crypto transactions and minting new crypto – in 2019 and has since raised millions of dollars allowing it to import goods, move funds within and internationally, and fund Hamas and other terror groups.
TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
…As an Iranian journalist and activist living in exile in the United States aired criticism of Iran’s human rights abuses, Tehran was listening too. Members of an Eastern European organized crime gang scouted her Brooklyn home and plotted to kill her in a murder-for-hire scheme directed from Iran, according to the Justice Department, which foiled the plan and brought criminal charges…An April report from Reporters Without Borders called London a “hotspot” for Iranian attacks on Persian-language broadcasters, with British counterterrorism police investigating an attack one month earlier on an Iranian television presenter outside his home in London. In Britain and elsewhere in Europe, harassment and attacks targeting Russians, including a journalist who fell ill from a suspected poisoning in Germany, have long been blamed on Russia’s intelligence operatives despite denials from Moscow.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Rap Music In Iran: 'Crossing The Red Line Into Politics Makes You A Target' | France 24
The last time Justina spoke to Toomaj Salehi was in November 2023. The dissident rapper had just been released on bail after spending more than a year in prison. "It was brief, I just wanted to check on him, but I didn't want him to get into trouble for having been in contact with me. So we didn't talk much," recalled Iranian rap artist Justina, who lives in exile in Sweden. Less than two weeks later, after making a video where he denounced his detention conditions, Salehi was arrested again. In the footage, the emaciated but determined rapper directly faced the camera and recounted how his hands and legs were broken. "They hit me in the face. I tried to protect myself with my hands, but they broke my fingers," he said of his torturers. "No one, no authority should be above the law. It is the people who decide the laws," he continued, before passing on a message of hope to his fans: "I hope that better days will come. I think we can build a beautiful Iran together.”
2022 Protest Detainees Transferred To Unknown Location In Iran | Iran Wire
Four detainees arrested in Ekbatan town of Tehran during the 2022 nationwide protests have been transferred to an undisclosed location. On April 30, Mohammad Mehdi Hosseini, Mehdi Imani, Milad Armon, and Navid Najaran were moved from Ghezelhesar prison, according to human rights group HRANA. Their current whereabouts and condition are unknown. A source close to the families of those arrested suspects they may be held at an IRGC intelligence detention center. These arrests stemmed from the death of Basij member Arman Alivardi during protests being quelled in Ekbatan in November 2022. A total of 14 suspects have been indicted over the alleged killing of a member of the paramilitary Basij force during protests in Ekbatan town on October 28, 2022. The judiciary said they had been charged with "waging war against God," "participation in murder," and "collusion against national security," offenses that can carry a death sentence.
Life ‘On Hold’ For Family Of French National Detained In Iran | Asharq Al Awsat
The life of Noémie Kohler has been put on hold since her sister, Cécile Kohler, was detained on May 7, 2022 in Iran with her partner. “We’re constantly anxious because we know where my sister is, we know she's being held in extremely difficult conditions, but we see almost no progress in her case,” the 34-year-old graphic designer told AFP. On Tuesday, the family of Cécile will mark the second anniversary of the day she disappeared from their lives. Cécile, a French teacher, was on holiday in Iran with her partner Jacques Paris when she was detained on charges of espionage. Her sister still hopes for her release. Last September, the Iranian judiciary announced that the investigation of Kohler and Paris had concluded and that the case had been referred to a court, where the two will go on trial. Since the detention of Cécile, life has been “on hold” without any glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, says Noémie.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
Israel Confirms Retaliatory Strike On Iran After Drone, Missile Attack | Iran International
Late on Saturday, Miri Regev, a member of Israel's security cabinet and Minister of Transportation, officially confirmed that Israel had launched a strike on an Iranian air base in Isfahan. The action was in direct retaliation to Iran's unprecedented missile and drone strike on Israeli territory last month. Regev's statement marked the first time an Israeli official publicly acknowledged responsibility for the attack in April. "We responded with a message which was received by Iran and the world which observed that Israel is no sucker," Regev stated in an interview with the right wing Channel 14. Following Iran's first-ever direct assault on Israel, which involved over 350 cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and drones, mostly intercepted by Israel and a US-led coalition of allies, Israel's counter strike aimed to recalibrate the balance without escalating to full-blown conflict. The destruction of a key component of the S-300 air defense system at the Isfahan base, revealed through satellite imagery analysis, illustrates the precise nature of Israel's military response.
Iranian IRGC Warship Crosses Equator For First Time | Radio Free Europe
An Iranian warship equipped with drones and missiles has crossed the equator into the Southern Hemisphere, Iran's IRIB state radio reported on May 4. The report did not reveal the exact location of the Shahid Mahdavi, a converted container ship operated by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) that was unveiled more than a year ago. This is reportedly the first time that the IRGC has sent a warship on a long-range mission. Iranian forces in February test-launched medium-range missiles capable of reaching targets at a distance of around 1,700 kilometers for the first time.
IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION
Kurdistan Region President Visits Tehran To Calm Tensions | Iran International
The President of the Kurdistan region visited Tehran in a bid to calm tensions between the government and the flashpoint area. The relationship between Kurdistan and Tehran has been marked by conflict sparked by Iran's military actions against Kurdish exile groups and accusations of Kurds harboring Israeli Mossad agents. An escalation occurred in January when Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeted a location in Kurdistan, alleging it was a Mossad base. The IRGC missiles hit a civilian house in Erbil belonging to Peshraw Dizayee, killing him and 4 members of his family. Dizayee was a business mogul and head of Falcon Investment Group. Following the raid, IRNA, the Iranian state news agency, released a report that accused Dizayee of collaborating with Israel. The president of the region, Nechirvan Barzani, arrived in Tehran on Sunday. Accompanied by a delegation of senior officials, including Interior Minister Reber Ahmed, President Barzani is scheduled to meet with Iran's leaders including President Ebrahim Raisi, and Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
The Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah claimed to target Israel with “dozens” of katyusha rockets on May 6. The attack targeted the Golan where sirens were heard in several areas in the central Golan. Hezbollah said it had targeted the “Golan division headquarters” in a statement to Al-Mayadeen. The report on the attack said that “the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon - Hezbollah announced that it had targeted, on Monday morning, the headquarters of the Golan Division (210th) at the Nafah base with dozens of ‘Katyusha’ rockets.” This is part of a series of Hezbollah escalations in the last days. It also attacked Kiryat Shmona on May 5 with 20 rockets and carried out an additional attack in the north with around 40 projectiles on May 5. Hezbollah always claims its attacks are in “response” to Israeli actions. In this case, Hezbollah blamed Israel for an “attack that targeted the Bekaa region.”
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Kuwait-Egypt Confirmation On ‘Durra’ Field Angers Iran | Asharq Al Awsat
Iran has refused to accept a joint Kuwait-Egypt position regarding the ownership of the offshore Durra gas field, insisting on fresh negotiations for a lasting solution, an Iranian Foreign Ministry official said. This disagreement persists despite Saudi Arabia and Kuwait’s repeated declarations that they solely own the natural resources in the “divided submerged zone,” including the entire Durra field. Iran’s rejection came after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Kuwait’s Emir, Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, discussed the Durra field during their recent talks in Cairo. In a joint statement, the two sides underscored that the Durra field is entirely located within Kuwait’s territorial waters and that the ownership of the natural resources in the submerged area, adjacent to the divided zone in which the entire Durra field is located, belongs only to Kuwait and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
In a significant step towards strengthening economic ties, the UAE and Iran convened the inaugural session of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) in Abu Dhabi. Chaired by H.E. Abdulla bin Touq al Marri from the UAE and H.E. Mehrdad Bazrpash from Iran, the meeting aimed to foster collaboration in key sectors such as the new economy, tourism, transport, entrepreneurship, and renewable energy. During the session, officials from both sides discussed strategies to elevate bilateral economic relations, emphasizing mutual interests and shared aspirations for growth. H.E. Bin Touq highlighted the UAE’s commitment to expanding economic cooperation with Iran, in alignment with the vision of the UAE’s leadership.
AFGHANISTAN & IRAN
Iran Says Wall On Afghan Border Can Thwart Terror Amid Rising Threats | Iran International
Iran's Deputy Police Chief, Qasem Rezaei, has claimed that the construction of a border wall with Afghanistan will help prevent drug trafficking, the movement of outlaws, and terrorist infiltrations. The border fortification plan, which was revealed last month, entails building a four-meter concrete wall, along with barbed wire, fencing, and proper roads along the northwestern and eastern borders, all scheduled for completion within the next three years. Rezaei highlighted, "This initiative specifically targets areas known for frequent illegal activities, including drug trafficking and the movement of outlaws, as well as potential terrorist threats." Iran's Deputy Interior Minister, Majid Mirahmadi, announced last week an investment of three billion euros to "quickly start sealing the borders," amidst ongoing clashes with Taliban forces. "This comprehensive effort includes the installation of fences, walls, and intelligent border control systems, ensuring a robust defense of our national borders," Mirahmadi added.
MISCELLANEOUS
Ex-Iranian FM Slammed For Comment On Protests In US | Iran International
Iran's former foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, stirred controversy by claiming that American student protestors were “brutalized” by US security forces. “American student protestors being brutalized by US security forces have a much greater claim to protecting Palestinians than the Custodians of Holy Mosques,” he wrote in his Sunday tweet. However, Zarif's comments quickly sparked outrage on social media, particularly in light of recent revelations concerning the sexual assault and murder of 16-year-old Nika Shakarami by agents of the Islamic Republic. Critics accuse Zarif of being complicit in the crimes of the regime he once represented. Ashkan Kalashy, responding to Zarif's post, highlighted the hypocrisy of his statement: "Seriously? You were the foreign minister of one of the most brutal regimes in the world. During your tenure, more than 1,500 protesters were killed in less than a week. How can you talk about US students with a straight face?" Another user predicted Zarif's imminent accountability in court for his involvement in the regime's actions against humanity. “Javad you are finished. You will be very soon seen in courts for being a partner in crime of IR devastating acts against humanity. We will take back our lovely IRAN from you occupiers.