Iran's Malign Behavior Tracker

Iran is slowing the rate at which it’s stockpiling near weapons-grade uranium, the U.N. nuclear watchdog is expected to conclude next month, adding to an easing of Persian Gulf tensions that’s already seen Tehran and Washington discuss the release of prisoners and more oil pour onto global markets. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors are preparing to circulate their quarterly Iran safeguards report ahead of the Vienna-based agency’s September 11 board meeting. Some nuclear officials predict the IAEA data will show Iran is moderating its production of highly-enriched uranium, a key component of an atomic bomb. Iran says its program is peaceful. (Bloomberg)

A student group says officials at Ferdowsi University in the city of Mashhad have decided to segregate classes by gender for the upcoming school year. The Student Guild Councils of Iran published photos on August 28 showing an internal memo approved by Abolfazl Ghaffari, the school's vice president for cultural, social, and student affairs, that outlines the implementation of the plan, which was sent to the dean of the Mathematics Department and will be issued to other department heads as well. In the directive, Ghaffari references a decision by Iran’s Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, which mandates the observance of Islamic guidelines in educational settings, endorsing the separation of male and female students in classes. Gender segregation has long been a contentious issue at Iranian universities. (Radio Free Europe)

Iran is pressing its proxy group, Hezbollah, to attack Israel along its northern border, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the United Nations Secretary-General as he urged him to ensure that the organization’s peacekeeping force is empowered to monitor the situation. "The potential for escalation on the northern border is increasing following a blatant violation of Lebanon's sovereignty by Hezbollah’s military build-up,” Gallant said. “The U.N. must urgently intervene to reduce tensions by strengthening the freedom of movement of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon in the region, and implementing its mandate on the northern border,” Gallant told Guterres. (Jerusalem Post)

The Jordanian army said it downed a drone heading from Syria in the third such incident this month, linked to Iran-backed militias. Meanwhile, officials said an increase in weapons being smuggled across the border was raising concerns about a new Iranian-instigated threat beyond drugs. The army said in a statement that the drone was brought down in its territory but did not say what it was carrying. Officials have recently revealed weapons were being smuggled as well as narcotics by drone. Jordanian officials said the increasing use of drones carrying explosives was adding a new dimension in a relentless cross-border billion-dollar drug war the staunch U.S. ally has long blamed on Iranian-backed militias that hold sway in southern Syria. (Iran International)

The Israel Defense Forces cleared for publication that security forces foiled an attempt to smuggle Iranian-made explosives into Israel from Jordan last month. The smuggling attempt was thwarted by troops of the IDF’s 417th Regional Brigade and members of the Matilan Border Police counterterrorism unit on July 24 in the Jordan Valley just south of the Sea of Galilee, near the Ashdot Ya’akov kibbutz. Initially, few details were permitted for publication by the Military Censor, including the type of contraband seized by the forces, and its origins. Later, the censor allowed for media to publish that troops had seized Iranian-made explosives. (Times of Israel)

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi told a summit of the BRICS group of nations that Tehran is determined to help member states ditch the U.S. dollar in their economic dealings. Raisi was delivering his speech in Johannesburg, South Africa, only a day after BRICS — currently formed by Brazil, Russia, India and China — sent out invitations to Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Ethiopia and Argentina to become new members as of 2024. "Iran decisively backs up BRICS' efforts toward de-dollarization … using national currencies and strengthening the bloc's mechanisms for payment and financial interactions," Raisi said in comments aired live by Iran's state TV. Sanctioned by the United States and squeezed by banking restrictions, Iran has long been knocking on doors to try to remove the dollar from its foreign business and restore payments for its vital oil sales. (Al-Monitor)

Iranian authorities are arresting activists and pressuring citizens not to resume antigovernment protests, seeking to head off a new outbreak of civil disobedience around the anniversary of last year’s nationwide demonstrations. The tactics signaled deepening concerns among Iran’s clerical leadership that the grievances that sparked protests last year haven’t abated, and that a resumption of clashes that brought parts of the country to a near standstill remains possible, even though calm has reigned for months. Last year’s protests began in mid-September. Demands for greater freedom quickly escalated into calls for the overthrow of the clerical leadership, in one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic Republic since its founding four decades ago. (Wall Street Journal)

A former senior official of Iran’s Foreign Ministry and a lawmaker have warned that "infiltrators" in the upper echelons of the government pose a threat to national interests. A former Director General for the Middle East, Mohammad Ali Sobhani, has said in an interview with Entekhab website last week that "a radical group of infiltrators are furthering measures that prevents the Iranian government from normalizing its relations with other countries." In April 2021, former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had said that Russia interfered in Iran's domestic affairs particularly by dictating ideas to the top-level commanders of the revolutionary Guards (IRGC). Zarif said that Russia summoned former IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani to Moscow on a few occasions. (Iran International)

Iran, which Amnesty International recently slammed for turning its prisons into "killing fields," has executed at least eight individuals – most of whom were incarcerated for drug offenses – in a span of three days, local activists said. The Baluch Activists Campaign said on August 21 that four executions – all linked to drug-related offences – took place at the Zahedan prison. The group identified the victims as Abdulsamad Khadem, a 29-year-old from Zahak; Yaqub Ejbari, a father of eight from Qarqaruk village; Mohammad Anwar Barahui and an individual with the surname Qanbarzehi, both of whom were from Zahedan, which is located in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan. (Radio Free Europe)

Hardliners hold such a strong sway within Iran's regime that media discuss their intentions to seize control of the political system for the upcoming decade. They have almost been in total control of the presidential administration since 2021, while also holding the majority of seats in the parliament (Majles) following the controversial elections of 2020, when no moderate or reformist regime loyalists were allowed to run. The ultraconservatives' near-monopoly of power is already strong enough so that traditional conservatives such as the elderly members of the Islamic Coalition Party find it hard to consider themselves as players in the upcoming parliamentary election in March. (Iran International)

An Iranian scientific network led by a regime loyalist who has links to Iran’s brutal Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is trying to engage U.K.-based academics with expertise in dual-use technologies. Mohammad Hussain Ataee Dolat Abadi, director of International Conference of Research in Europe (ICRE), has persuaded leading scientists and engineers from universities including Cambridge, Birmingham, Glasgow Caledonian, and University College London to share their ideas and address conferences in Tehran. The network was personally backed by the former Iranian minister of science and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and is an official partner of the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, which has been subject to U.K. and E.U. sanctions due to its involvement with Iran’s nuclear weapons program since 2012. (Jewish Chronicle)

The intensification of international sanctions against Russia has made Iran a potentially major trade partner for Moscow, a website in Tehran said. According to Rouydad24, Iranian officials have started to think of Russia as a $100 billion market for Iranian goods. This, however, is an outlandish expectation given Iran’s own isolation due to sanctions, its crippled economy, and the need for technology and raw materials hard for Iran to acquire. The volume of trade between Moscow and Tehran reached $4 billion between January and October 2022, a far cry from the $100 billion figure. Russian officials have said that the volume of trade will reach $7.5 billion by 2025. (Iran International)

Iran announced that it has achieved the ability to produce supersonic cruise missiles, a potentially significant military achievement at a time of heightened tensions with the United States. Iranian military scientists said they gained the “technical know-how” to manufacture cruise missiles that can travel at supersonic speeds and that the homegrown missile is currently in the testing stage. The development will “open a new chapter in Iran’s defense technologies,” the semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported. (Al-Monitor)

The head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' elite Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, arrived in Beirut ahead of a meeting with Hezbollah's Nasrallah, according to Walla News. Citing reports, the Israeli news outlet noted this comes after a visit to Syria. The Quds Force is responsible for clandestine missions outside of Iran, aiding proxies hostile to Israel in the region, most notably the Hezbollah terrorist organization. Iranian activity has also come under scrutiny in the West Bank by Jerusalem's defense establishment for fomenting terrorism against Israelis. (i24 News)

Tehran is using partnerships between universities in Iran and the U.K. to develop their arms industry, an Iranian government document has reportedly shown. The document, discovered by Kasra Aarabi who heads the Iran Programme at the Tony Blair Institute, allows Iran's military access to sensitive research conducted by Iranian universities and their international partners that could be used to expand its capabilities. The document, which was issued by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, also gives the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), amongst other security services, powers to obtain the research, prompting Aarabi to state that research between the U.K. and Iranian universities is "being utilized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and will end up in their hands." (The New Arab)

Iran's Defense Ministry said it had mass-produced the country's first long-range naval ballistic missile with a host of new combat features, designed to "completely destroy" enemy carriers, state media outlets reported. "We have employed artificial intelligence within the software of the naval missile's trajectory planning," Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani announced at a televised ceremony in Tehran. The ceremony marked the delivery of dozens of the projectiles to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran's regular army, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. The missile is dubbed Abu Mahdi after Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iraqi's Tehran-backed Popular Mobilization Units. (Al-Monitor)

Bolivia is interested in obtaining Iranian drone technology to protect its borders and combat smuggling and drug trafficking, the Andean country’s defense minister confirmed a day after Argentina demanded information on an agreement reached by Iran and Bolivia that has raised security concerns in the region. Edmundo Novillo dismissed those concerns, saying they were “exaggerated” and came from an Argentine lawmaker “who, I understand, has Israeli origins,” whom he did not name. (Associated Press)

Iran began an annual air force drill in the central part of the country, state media reported, as the United States sends more fighter planes to the region to deter the Islamic Republic from seizing commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf area. The official IRNA news agency said 11 Iranian air force bases participated in the drill, dubbed Fadaeian Velyat-11, or Devotees of the Supreme Leader-11. It said an air base at the southern port of Bandar Abbas at the mouth of the strategic Strait of Hormuz is active in the drill. The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20 percent of all crude oil passes. (Associated Press)

Iran has assembled a heavily armed unit comprised of thousands of fighters from across the region capable of conducting attacks on U.S. troops in Syria as well as against neighboring Israel, according to a document shared with Newsweek by a member of an intelligence agency of a nation allied with the United States. The intelligence official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the information, told Newsweek that U.S. officials had been briefed on the contents of the document, which covered the existence of the "Imam Hossein Division," said to be linked to the expeditionary Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). (Newsweek)

From Tehran to rural regions, people are posting videos to social media complaining of days on end in the heat without running water, their faucets emitting nothing but murky drops. The water shortages, which experts say are driven in large part by decades of mismanagement, are a long-standing problem. But they have grown more severe as climate change accelerates — and are an increasing driver of discontent, sparking protests and confrontations in recent years.  In public messaging, Iran’s leaders have sought to deflect blame to the Taliban, which rules in neighboring Afghanistan, for restricting water flow in the Helmand River. Officials have also blamed floods and fallen rocks, for disrupting the operation of dams around Tehran, and ordinary citizens, for their consumption of water and electricity. (Washington Post)

Iran's top military officer said that his country has gained sufficient military prowess to make its foes forego the option of a military strike against the Islamic Republic. "It's been years since they have stopped talking about the military option," said the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, in an interview with Tasnim news agency. Enumerating "criminal" foes, including the United States and Israel, Bagheri said they have also come to the conclusion that "a ground battle against the Islamic Republic will be doomed in failure." Despite engaging in on-and-off diplomacy with Tehran over the past decade, the United States has warned that "everything remains on the table" in its treatment of threats posed by the Islamic Republic's nuclear and missile programs. (Al-Monitor)

President Ebrahim Raisi has sacked the head of Iran's Statistics Center and the Social Security Organization, as hardliners purge officials outside their circle. Javad Hossein-Zadeh was removed from his position as the head of the only government institution issuing statistics on the struggling economy, which somewhat differed from frequent rosy claims and predictions by the president and his immediate aides. He was replaced by Daryush Abouhamzeh, who will serve as the interim head for the moment. Although Iran's Statistics Center is administered and funded by the government and operates under the umbrella of Planning and Budget Organization, it maintained a veneer of credibility as one of the very scarce sources of data – both economic and social. (Iran International)

An article at the pro-Iran Al-Mayadeen media highlighted the presence of new weapons among Hamas members, especially since it was translated to English to reach a broader audience. The claim of new weapons, then, should be viewed in the context of Israel’s operation in Jenin earlier this month and Iran’s attempts to increase threats in the West Bank. The report claimed that the “Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announces that its fighters in Jenin have developed an Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP), or a self-forming warhead in Jenin.” (Jerusalem Post)

Iranian media reported that two other men were publicly hanged in Fouladshahr, Esfahan province, on charges of moharebeh (enmity against God) and corruption on earth. According to the Judiciary's Mizan website, the two men identified as Mohammad Ghaedi Nasab, 35, and Sadegh Mahmoudi Baram, 25, were publicly hanged after a criminal court sentenced them to death for participation in murder. It is alleged that the two defendants fought and disarmed officers, killing one and causing another to lose a finger on November 18, 2021. The executions bring this week's total of public hangings to four. (Iran International)

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant revealed that Israel and other intelligence partners thwarted more than 50 attempts to attack Jewish and Israeli targets worldwide, all orchestrated by Iran. Most of them were at the last stages of execution and were stopped at the "last moment." In his visit to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, Iran's northern neighbor, Gallant accused Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei of overseeing a terrorist campaign "of unprecedented measure" targeting Israelis and Jews. (Fox News)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on July 12 launched into a condemnation of Western attitudes on homosexuality during a visit to Uganda, which has just introduced some of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world. "The West today is trying to promote the idea of homosexuality and by promoting homosexuality they are trying to end the generation of human beings," Raisi said. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed a law in May making "aggravated homosexuality" a capital offense and same-sex relations punishable by life in prison, triggering outrage among human rights groups, the United Nations, LGBT activists, and Western powers. (Radio Free Europe)

Azerbaijan's security agencies thwarted a terrorist attack on the Israeli embassy in Baku, the latest in a wave of Iranian plots against Israeli targets abroad. According to media reports, an Afghan citizen, Fawzan Mosa Khan, has been arrested. In a video released by Azerbaijan's State Security Service, Khan discussed how he would monitor the target of the attack. Photographs suggested Musa Khan had been surveilling the Hyatt Regency hotel complex in Baku, where the Israeli embassy is located. (Iran International)

Iran accused an Iraqi man who recently burned a copy of the Quran in Sweden of being an agent of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi citizen living in Sweden, stomped on the Quran and set several pages alight outside a Stockholm mosque on June 28, triggering widespread anger among Muslims around the world. Swedish police had granted Momika a permit for the demonstration, citing free speech protections. (Al-Arabiya News)

Iran has sentenced a popular rapper to six years and three months in prison over his participation in protests that rocked the country last year, his supporters said. A social media account run by supporters of Toomaj Salehi announced the sentence, as did Ye-One Rhie, a member of the German parliament who has campaigned on his behalf. There was no immediate word from Iranian authorities. (Associated Press)

Israel says Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia in southern Lebanon, has set up more than two dozen military outposts along the countries’ border in violation of international agreements, a development it says risks increasing confrontation. Under a United Nations Security Council resolution following the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, armed fighters from Hezbollah are not permitted to enter the border area. Troops from the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon — or UNIFIL — are stationed there to make sure both sides keep to the rules. Yet in the past year, Israeli military officials say, those outposts have sprung up along the Blue Line, the boundary set by the U.N. (Bloomberg)

The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has expressed dissatisfaction with Iran's level of cooperation with the nuclear watchdog. Rafael Grossi made these remarks during a press conference after visiting the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station in Japan. "The situation is difficult. Efforts related to the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] have currently stalled, so there is not much progress on that front. Cooperation with Iran is ongoing, but it is not at the level that I would prefer. I have conveyed this to my Iranian counterparts. We have several unresolved issues," Grossi stated. He further mentioned that he had visited Iran in March, where he agreed on a joint statement and certain necessary steps to resolve existing disagreements. (Iran International)

Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized a tanker holding 900 metric tons of "smuggled fuel" and 12 crew members based on a court order, a report by the semi-official Fars news agency said. "A vessel carrying 900 tons of smuggled fuel with 12 crew members was seized by the Revolutionary Guards' Navy patrol vessels in the Persian Gulf with a court order," Fars news reported from Iran's southern port of Bandar Abbas. (Reuters)

Iran tried to seize two oil tankers near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, firing shots at one of them, the U.S. Navy said. It said that in both cases, the Iranian naval vessels backed off after the U.S. Navy responded, and that both commercial ships continued their voyages. "The Iranian navy did make attempts to seize commercial tankers lawfully transiting international waters," said Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, spokesman for the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet. "The U.S. Navy responded immediately and prevented those seizures." He said the gunfire directed at the second vessel did not cause casualties or major damage. (Associated Press)

Iran joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) during the group’s virtual summit, representing a foreign policy achievement amid its isolation. This is the first time Tehran joins a regional pact since the 1979 revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic. The SCO also known as the Shanghai Pact is a Eurasian political, economic and security alliance formed in 2001 with Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, with one of its goals being cooperation against extremism. India and Pakistan joined the pact in 2017 and Belarus is also slated to become a member. (Iran International)

Palestinian Islamic Jihad chief Ziad Nakhaleh said in an interview that his Iran-backed terror group was working to establish cells of fighters throughout the West Bank. Speaking with Iranian Arabic-language newspaper Al-Vefagh, Nakhaleh said Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — with whom he met two weeks ago in Tehran — was supportive of “moving from a state of calm to one of resistance” in the West Bank, while reiterating his support for arming Palestinians there. “The most important thing is that we strengthen the resistance,” the Damascus-based Nakhaleh said. (Times of Israel)

Iran’s Damavand destroyer, located on the land-locked Caspian Sea, has been outfitted with new missiles and a gun, Iranian media reported. Iran’s main warship on the Caspian Sea was ordered back in 2006 and completed in 2013. Iran can use this sea to expand its strategies in Central Asia and protect shipments of weapon systems, such as drones, to Russia. Iran reportedly ships drones and items for a drone factory via the Caspian Sea, according to a June 9 report at CNN. (Jerusalem Post)

As women en-masse defy the mandatory hijab in Iran, an Iranian member of parliament urged modesty rules for men as well. Alireza Pak-Fetrat said that men with tattoos must keep them covered, so as not to break Islam, which forbids tattoos as an unholy and unnecessary body ornament, defacing the sacred physical body. He also stressed that men must ensure their clothing appropriately covers their bodies, such as when riding bikes or sitting in public places, so as not to tempt women by revealing bare skin. Heated debates over a new bill about how to deal with women who refuse to observe compulsory hijab continues inside and outside the Iranian parliament. (Iran International)

A group of hackers has reportedly leaked government documents suggesting Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi approved the use of at least 100 trillion Iranian rials ($200 million) to put down protests during the recent nationwide unrest sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in September while she was in police custody for an alleged head-scarf offense. The hackers, known as Uprising Until Overthrow and affiliated with the exiled opposition Mujahedin-e Khalq organization (MKO), reportedly hacked and released the highly confidential correspondence between the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the Thar Allah Headquarters in Tehran, and Raisi's office. (Radio Free Europe)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) received at least $6 billion from the Iranian government, and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi pushed to provide them with even more amid the protests that swept Iran last year, according to documents leaked by the Ghyam Sarnegouni ("Rise to Overthrow") dissident hacker group this week. The leaked documents included a letter from the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Mohammad Bagheri, to Raisi noting that, because of the nationwide protests, the IRGC and police needed at least 10 trillion tomans (equivalent to about $2.4 billion) in immediate funding, including funds for vehicles, military equipment, clothing and operational costs. (Jerusalem Post)

Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution claims the Iranian regime employs “state terrorism” to intimidate and eliminate opposition members. It cautioned that Iranians residing in Germany could be targeted by Iranian intelligence and security services for abduction and espionage operations. “Fighting opposition groups and individuals at home and abroad is the focus of Iranian intelligence activities,” reads the Constitutional Protection Report 2022, which has just been released. The report further claimed that spying activities against (pro-)Israel and (pro-)Jewish targets in Germany are still part of Iran's field of espionage. (Iran International)

Five more teachers who supported anti-government protests in Iran have been summoned to the Revolutionary Court, the latest in a series of similar moves, including trials, of teachers in other cities across the country. The Iranian Teachers' Union's Coordination Council has confirmed the collective summons of teachers and cultural rights activists in the central Iranian city of Yazd. Three of the teachers, Ahmad Changizi, Mehdi Kalantari, and Hamideh Zare, were previously arrested following a nationwide teachers' rally in May 2022, which coincided with Teacher's Day in Yazd. The other two are Mansor Mirzaei and Mohammad Fakhralhosseini. (Radio Free Europe)

The leaders of Palestinian militant groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas held talks with top Iranian officials in Tehran as deadly violence flared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi received Islamic Jihad chief Ziad al-Nakhalah while Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh held talks with Ali Akbar Ahmadian, the newly appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), ahead of meeting with other top officials. "The most efficient way to end the more than 75 years of occupation of Palestine is resistance," Ahmadian told Haniyeh, according to the Nournews website close to the SNSC. (AFP)

Iran tested a suicide drone against a practice vessel in the Gulf and fired one other missile or drone without warning ships in the area, a U.S. official in the region said. The one-way drone was launched from the Jask area of Iran 8-9 miles out to sea - within Iran's territorial waters - against a practice barge, the official said, citing U.S. intelligence data. "Essentially practicing hitting merchant vessels. That's the only reason why you would do that in the Gulf of Oman," the official said. (Reuters)

Universities in the United Kingdom have aided the Iranian regime in developing and improving military weapons including drones and fighter jets, according to a report from the Jewish Chronicle. Eleven British schools, including the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London, conducted at least 16 studies with connections to the Iranian regime's use of military technology. The technology that U.K. scientists have developed has likely been used in Iranian weapons deployed in Ukraine as Russia leans on the Iranians for military aid. (Washington Free Beacon)

An Iranian draft law that would set new penalties for women not wearing a headscarf in public has sparked heated debate within the Islamic Republic's leadership as more women flout the country's strict dress code. Iran's conservatives, who dominate the country's parliament and leadership, have passionately defended the dress code and believe relaxing rules would begin a process leading to profound shifts in "social norms." But with many Iranians demanding change, in May the judiciary and the government proposed a "Support for the Culture of Hijab and Chastity" bill to "protect society" and "strengthen family life." The text proposes increased fines for "any person removing their veil in public places or on the internet" but withdraws the threat of a prison sentence. (AFP)

American officials told Semafor that Tehran has stepped up its movement of arms to Moscow via the landlocked body of water, the Caspian Sea, which has prevented interdiction efforts by putting shipments beyond the reach of U.S. and NATO naval power. The U.S. has successfully intercepted seabound shipments of Iranian weapons to other war zones, such as Yemen. (Semafor)

The U.S. Navy said its sailors and the United Kingdom Royal Navy came to the aid of a ship in the crucial Strait of Hormuz after Iran's Revolutionary Guard "harassed" it. Three fast-attack Guard vessels with armed troops aboard approached the merchant ship at a close distance, the U.S. Navy said in a statement. It offered black-and-white images it said came from a U.S. Navy Boeing P-8 Poseidon overhead, which showed three small ships close to the commercial ship. The U.S. Navy's guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul and the Royal Navy's frigate HMS Lancaster responded to the incident, with the Lancaster launching a helicopter. (Associated Press)

Iran is only allowing a “fraction” of the monitoring equipment at its nuclear sites that the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog expects, the organization's head said. Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, revealed Iran has for the first time allowed devices at two plants to detect uranium enrichment levels. Earlier this year, Mr. Grossi visited Iran and met President Ebrahim Raisi, after which a Joint Statement was issued stating Tehran “will allow the IAEA to implement further appropriate verification and monitoring activities.” The director general said for the first time the IAEA has installed an enrichment monitoring device at two uranium enrichment sites, at Fordow and Natanz. (The National)

Amnesty International is calling for the release of an Iranian man who is spending his 1,000th day in solitary confinement in jail. Vahid Afkari, 37, was convicted, along with his two brothers, of murdering a security officer during protests over the cost of living five years ago. One of the brothers, champion wrestler Navid, was executed. The other brother, Habib, was released last year amid international pressure. (BBC)

Iran is developing an underground uranium-enrichment site, integral to the construction of a nuclear missile, so deep that it could evade the United States purpose-built “bunker buster” bomb, according to satellite pictures. The Natanz enrichment site is 80-100 meters deep, according to analysis by the James Martin Centre for Non-proliferation Studies, and has four entrances dug into the mountainside, each six meters wide by eight meters high. Experts exclusively told Express.co.uk that as Iran’s relationship with Russia continues to be “cemented” by a hatred of the West and an alliance over the war in Ukraine, the theocratic regime could prepare to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons. (Daily Express)

Iran is arming militants in Syria for a new phase of lethal attacks against U.S. troops in the country, while also working with Russia on a broader strategy to drive Americans from the region, intelligence officials and leaked classified documents say. Iran and its allies are building and training forces to use more powerful armor-piercing roadside bombs intended specifically to target U.S. military vehicles and kill U.S. personnel, according to classified intelligence reports obtained by The Washington Post. Such attacks would constitute an escalation of Iran’s long-running campaign of using proxy militias to launch rocket and drone strikes on U.S. forces in Syria. (Washington Post)

Iran plans to ramp up its exportation of weapons and other military equipment in the coming months, one of the country's top generals said. The chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Baqeri, said Iran plans to share both its equipment and military expertise with friendly countries in the region and around the world. "Introducing the Islamic Republic’s defense and military capabilities and sharing them [with friendly countries] can expand the country’s defense relations and strengthen deterrence," Baqeri said at a Wednesday press conference, according to Iranian state-run Press TV. (Fox News)

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has resolved nuclear issues with Iran relating to one of three sites being investigated over the presence of uranium particles, Iranian media reported. The agency’s alleged case regarding the findings of uranium particles with 83.7 purity has also been closed, a source told the semi-official Mehr news agency. (Reuters)

Iran is preparing to unveil a hypersonic missile in the near future, a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander said. This comes after Iran last week unveiled a new ballistic missile capable of reaching a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) and carrying warheads weighing over a ton. “The hypersonic missile has passed its tests and will be unveiled soon,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the IRGC’s aerospace unit, as saying. “This new missile is capable of passing through all missile defense systems. It targets the enemy’s anti-missile systems and is a big leap in the field of missiles,” he added. (Al-Arabiya)

Iranian media highlighted its use of drones in anti-submarine warfare. The article at Fars News didn’t elaborate a lot on Iran’s new capabilities but did say that Iran’s navy commander Shahram Irani has discussed the use of anti-submarine drones for operations. Iran claims it can use these drones out to a distance of 1,000 kilometers. Iran says it uses a weapon known as the Mark 46 torpedo which can be mounted on a drone. The drone can carry several types of torpedoes, the article claims. It is not clear if it can carry more than one at a time. “In addition to the anti-submarine torpedo, the anti-submarine drone can also carry an anti-ship torpedo,” the report said. (Jerusalem Post)

Authorities showed off the Khorramshahr-4 to journalists at an event in Tehran, with the missile on a truck-mounted launcher. Defense Minister Gen. Mohammad Reza Ashtiani said the missile could be prepared for launch in a short period. “One of the prominent characteristics of this missile is its ability to evade radar detection and penetrate enemy air defense systems, thanks to its low radar signature,” the general told journalists. (Associated Press)

A British-Iranian hunger striker calling for the U.K. to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) is to resume his public protest this week after a fatwa was allegedly issued against him. Vahid Beheshti, 46, was recently discharged from hospital after spending two months on hunger strike in a tent outside London’s Foreign Office and is believed to be recovering in a 'safehouse'. He told the JC that “nothing” would stop him from returning to Whitehall to protest, despite being “strongly advised” not to by counterterrorism operatives. (Jewish Chronicle)

Israel accused the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) of turning commercial ships into platforms for launching missiles, drones and commandos, saying the objective was to spread Tehran's clandestine naval clout well beyond the Gulf. Showing images of six purportedly repurposed Iranian vessels, five of them named, Gallant told the Herzliya Conference security forum that these were "floating terror bases" and that one had recently sailed toward the Gulf of Aden. (Reuters)

Iranian lawmaker Gholamreza Nouri Ghezeljeh told Khabar Online website that the current ultraconservative-dominated parliament is working hard in extraordinary sessions to pass an amendment to Iran's Election Law to serve the hardliners by giving even more power to the conservative-dominated Guardian Council to disqualify any candidate who does not belong to the ultraconservative camp. (Iran International)

Iran has executed three men detained during anti-government protests despite a public outcry over their convictions and objections by rights groups and several governments who say authorities held rushed trials, forced "confessions," and denied the accused due process. According to a report published by the Mizan News Agency, affiliated with Iran's judiciary, Saleh Mirehashemi, Majid Kazemi, and Saeed Yaqoubi were executed at dawn on May 19 in a prison in the central Iranian city of Isfahan. (Radio Free Europe)

An Iranian-backed militia in northern Iraq was behind the drone attack that killed a U.S. military contractor in northeast Syria on March 23 and wounded more than two dozen American civilian and military personnel, according to U.S. officials. The Iraqi origin of that attack has not been previously reported but was acknowledged by a senior U.S. military official in response to questions from The Wall Street Journal.  It was one of four attempted drone attacks launched from Iraqi territory by Iranian-backed militias against U.S. forces outside the country since August. (Wall Street Journal)

Iran has stressed its right to retaliate against any Israeli action on the country’s nuclear program, threatening to hold the U.S. accountable. In a letter, Iran's permanent representative to the U.N., Saeid Iravani, made the comments to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council's president. The ambassador's threats came after U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Washington stood ready to do whatever it could to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and that "freedom of action" was given to Israel. (Iran International)

Masih Alinejad, a leading Iranian dissident based in the U.S., has been put under 24-hour police protection in the U.K. after the Metropolitan police received credible threats to her life. Alinejad has become one of the main amplifiers of the protests inside Iran, appearing at the U.N. and meeting European leaders such as France’s Emmanuel Macron and the Netherland’s Mark Rutte. The Met, Alinejad said, told her “‘because of the level of the threats we are going to be with you and protect you everywhere you go. So give us your schedules, we have to know everything in advance to prepare close protection.’” (The Guardian)

The Boraq 85 is a relatively new weapon system fielded by Gaza's Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A source in the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group told i24NEWS that the rocket that hit the central Israeli city of Rehovot, killing one person, was Iranian-made. Police said four others were also wounded, and six people were being treated for anxiety. The same source also said that the rocket intercepted the day before by Israel's David's Sling air defense system was the Iranian Boraq 85 model.  (i24 News)

German federal prosecutors announced the arrest of two alleged members of Hezbollah suspected of recruiting and organizing activities for the Iran-backed group. Named only as Lebanese national Hassan M. and German-Lebanese dual citizen Abdul-Latif W., the pair were detained in northern Germany, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement. It said Abdul-Latif W. joined the organization “at the latest” in 2004 and Hassan M. in 2016. They are both now facing charges of “membership of a foreign terrorist organization.” (Al-Arabiya)

According to Iran International's Mojtaba Pourmohsen, the head of Iraq’s section of the Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU), Hamid al-Husseini, has managed to get the right to broadcast football (soccer) matches in Iraq for the Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iranian controlled Shia umbrella organization of more than 60 different armed factions, with around 128,000 fighters. According to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global anti-money laundering watchdog, the cash-rich sport is among the most vulnerable to money laundering, with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimating that about $140 billion is laundered globally through soccer each year. (Iran International)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met with anti-Israel groups during his two-day visit to Syria, Tehran's close ally, where he also signed several agreements. Heading a high-ranking politico-economic delegation, Raisi arrived in Damascus. The visit was the first by an Iranian president since the civil war broke out in Syria in 2011. (Iran International)

Iran is using a state-controlled media group to spread antisemitic messaging to English-speaking audiences online, according to a report. Iran’s Press TV, an English-language government mouthpiece, uses social media to evade broadcast bans and disseminate propaganda, said the report by the Anti-Defamation League and the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a U.K.-based nonprofit. Press TV was founded by the regime in 2007 to “break the global media stranglehold of Western outlets.” (Times of Israel)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi bashed Israel, saying that Israel "cannot defend itself" because of what he called "the new world order." "The Zionist entity cannot supply itself with security because the conditions are significantly different from the past," he said, "Today, it's clear to everyone that the Sharm al-Sheikh, Camp David and Oslo agreements cannot supply Israel with security. The Zionist entity knows very well that it can never clash with Iran." (Jerusalem Post)

The Islamic Republic of Iran organized an exhibition in Afghanistan’s third-largest city of Herat that advocated the “nuclear extinction” of Israel in April as part of the month-long Al-Quds Day celebrations. “This exhibition is an example of the Iranian regime's exporting of its antisemitic ideology. There is a permissive environment in Afghanistan for the Iranian system to do so now, especially with the Taliban in charge, and there are natural linkages to the Hazara community, which have a significant presence in Herat," Jason Brodsky, policy director for the US-based United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told The Jerusalem Post. The Herat exhibit that urged the nuclear obliteration of the Jewish state coincided with the antisemitic Al-Quds Day event. (Jerusalem Post)

Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman in international waters, the U.S. Navy said, the latest in a series of seizures or attacks on commercial vessels in sensitive Gulf waters since 2019. According to the International Maritime Organization shipping database, the Advantage Sweet is owned by a China-registered company called SPDBFL No One Hundred & Eighty-Seven (Tianjin) Ship Leasing Co Ltd. (Reuters)

Iran's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of Iranian-German dual national Jamshid Sharmahd on charges of "corruption on earth," a judiciary spokesperson said. The Islamic Republic's hardline judiciary handed down the death penalty against Sharmahd in February after convicting him of heading a pro-monarchist group accused of a deadly 2008 bombing and planning other attacks in the country. (Reuters)

Russian ships are ferrying large quantities of Iranian artillery shells and other ammunition across the Caspian Sea to resupply troops fighting in Ukraine, Middle East officials said. Over the past six months, cargo ships have carried more than 300,000 artillery shells and a million rounds of ammunition from Iran to Russia, according to the officials and documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal. (The Wall Street Journal)

Iran’s defense ministry has delivered the army with more than 200 new drones equipped with missile capabilities and electronic warfare systems, state media reported. In a ceremony broadcast on television, Defense Minister Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani handed over “more than 200 long-range strategic drones” to army chief Abdolrahim Mousavi, the official news agency IRNA said. Produced by the Iranian defense ministry, the drones are designed for reconnaissance and strike missions, and can carry air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, IRNA said. (AFP)

Iranian hackers known as "Mint Sandstorm" have been refining their tactics and targeting energy and transportation infrastructure in the U.S., including ports, energy companies and transit systems, Microsoft Threat Intelligence reported. Mint Sandstorm is the new name used by Microsoft to track the activity of the collection of hacker groups formerly known as Phosphorus, a collection of threat actors assessed to be associated with an intelligence arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The groups included under Mint Sandstorm have also been referred to as APT35, APT42, Charming Kitten, and TA453. (Jerusalem Post)

Iran’s president reiterated threats against Israel while marking the country’s annual Army Day, though he stayed away from criticizing Saudi Arabia as Tehran seeks a détente with the kingdom. The comments by Ebrahim Raisi came as fighter jets and helicopters flew overhead in Tehran, and as Iranian submarines sailed across its waters during a ceremony carried live by state television. The day celebrates Iran’s regular military, not its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, whose expeditionary forces operate across the wider Mideast and aid Iranian-allied militia groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah. (Associated Press)

Iran’s parliament speaker helped oust the country’s chief banker in December because he resisted giving more money to the IRGC’s Quds extraterritorial force. Iran International has obtained information that Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and his aide Jamaleddin Aberoumand pushed former governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), Ali Salehabadi, out of office to pave the way for stepping up financial support for proxy forces under the command of IRGC’s Quds force (Qods) Force—a division responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations. Both Ghalibaf and Aberoumand were senior officers in the Revolutionary Guard. (Iran International)

Tens of thousands of Iranians, some chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” marched in the capital of Tehran to mark Jerusalem Day, an annual show of support for the Palestinians. Senior Iranian officials attended the rally, including President Ebrahim Raisi. Since Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, the rallies marking what is also known as al-Quds Day have typically been typically held on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (Associated Press)

The long shadow war between Iran and Israel is moving into an unpredictable new phase after one of the Islamic Republic’s most powerful military commanders began rallying allies across the Middle East to launch a fresh wave of attacks on Israeli targets. People familiar with the discussions said Esmail Qaani, who leads the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, has held a series of clandestine meetings with militant leaders across the region in recent weeks, including some operating in Syria and Iraq. (Wall Street Journal)

Iran has used earthquake relief flights to bring weapons and military equipment into its strategic ally Syria, nine Syrian, Iranian, Israeli and Western sources said. The sources told Reuters that the goal was to buttress Iran's defenses against Israel in Syria and to strengthen Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Reuters is the first to report this development. After the February 6 earthquake in northern Syria and Turkey, hundreds of flights from Iran began landing in Syria's Aleppo, Damascus and Latakia airports bringing supplies, and this went on for seven weeks, the sources said. (Reuters)

A rocket attack Monday targeted a base in eastern Syria where U.S. troops are based causing no injuries or damage, the U.S. military said. The military said in a statement that one rocket struck the Mission Support Site Conoco in eastern Syria on Monday evening and another rocket was found at the attack point of origin. No one claimed responsibility for the attack. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said that Iran-backed fighters based in eastern Syria might have been behind the attack. (Associated Press)  

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has claimed it has developed its latest suicide drone as the regime steps up military drone production. Known as the Meraj 532, it will be used by the IRGC ground force with a one-way range of 450km. Spokesperson Ali Kouhestani said the easy-setup drone can fly up to a height of 12,000 feet for 3 hours after taking off from a vehicle, adding that with its 50 kg warhead, it has high accuracy. (Iran International)

Thirty-four rockets were fired from southern Lebanon, with 25 intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system over northern Israel, the military said. At least three people were injured and several buildings were damaged. In the evening several mortar shells impacted near the northern town of Metula, not causing any injuries or damage. Israel blamed Lebanon-based Hamas forces for the afternoon attacks, with Israeli official sources saying it would not have been carried out without Hezbollah’s consent. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is currently in Lebanon. (Times of Israel)

A senior Israeli security official revealed the alleged identity of a handler in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who recruited a pair of Pakistani nationals accused of planning to attack a Chabad house in Athens. The handler’s name is Mohammad Mohsen Reza, a 65-year-old Pakistani national living in the Iranian city of Qom, the security official told reporters. The official said that Reza has been running a network of fellow Pakistani nationals that has been planning attacks on targets of the IRGC around the globe. (Times of Israel)

The identity of four of the suspects in the shooting of Azerbaijani MP Fazil Mustafa was published by Azerbaijani media, with the reports alleging that the three were working on the order of Iranian security forces. The four were identified as Azer Sarijanov, Sabuhi Shirinov, Elshad Askerov and Emin Aliyev, according to the Azerbaijani Turan news site. According to Azerbaijani reports, the suspects visited Iran often and Sarijanov is a religious activist known as "Haji Azer" who posts speeches on YouTube. (Jerusalem Post)

China's Da-Jiang Innovations Science & Technology Co. (DJI)—a global leader in drone technology with a large presence in America—has been marketing its equipment in Iran, according to evidence collected by United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI), a research and advocacy organization. UANI researchers discovered "multiple and explicit examples of DJI products being sold in Iran," according to a March 28 letter sent from the watchdog group to DJI's North American office in Los Angeles. (Washington Free Beacon)

Greek police arrested two Pakistani nationals who were allegedly planning mass-casualty terrorist attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets in the country. Israel’s Mossad spy agency, which aided the Greek investigation, said in a statement that the two were part of an Iranian terror network. The Iran-born pair, aged 27 and 29, were being held at police headquarters in central Athens, Greek authorities said. A third man, who is not in Greece, was wanted for questioning and charged in absentia. (Times of Israel)

The Pentagon said a drone attack on a U.S. base killed a contractor and injured five U.S. troops and another contractor. That was followed by two simultaneous attacks on U.S. forces in Syria, according to U.S. officials. The officials said that based on preliminary information, there was a rocket attack at a Conoco plant, and one U.S. service member was injured but is in stable condition. At about the same time, several drones were launched at Green Village, where U.S. troops are also based. One official said all but one of the drones were shot down, and there were no U.S. injuries there. (Associated Press)

An assistant coach with Iran's national soccer team has been fired amid a campaign by hard-liners to oust him over social media posts he made criticizing the government's response to protests sparked by the death of a young woman while in police custody. Rahman Rezaei, a former star player on the Iranian men's national soccer team, had come increasingly under fire after being named last week as an assistant coach for his comments online about the regime's crackdown on demonstrators, including one last October where he said, "Enough is enough. You should be tried in the nation's courts." (Radio Free Europe)

Iran hanged a Kurdish man viewed as a political prisoner by activists, rights groups said, amplifying alarm over the soaring number of executions in the country this year. Mohayyedin Ebrahimi, 43, was hanged at dawn at Urmia prison in northwestern Iran, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Hengaw rights groups said in separate statements. Five other men were also executed on drug-related charges at Urmia on Friday morning, the groups added. (AFP)

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval arm claims that it has put “laser-guided missiles” and “air defense” on its fast attack boats. This comes after a series of recent claims by the IRGC about upgrading its navy. The IRGC has its own naval ships while Iran has an official navy as well. The two compete for resources from the regime although the two also have different missions. The IRGC Navy carries out the harassment of foreign navies and is also involved in developing new weapons while the regular navy has larger ships and conducts longer-range missions. In recent years, the IRGC navy has sought to improve its fast attack boats, of which it has several types and hundreds of boats. (Jerusalem Post)

Iran has reached a deal to buy advanced Su-35 fighter planes from Russia, Iranian state media said, expanding a relationship that has seen Iranian-built drones used in Russia's war on Ukraine. "The Sukhoi-35 fighter planes are technically acceptable to Iran and Iran has finalized a contract for their purchase," the broadcaster IRIB quoted Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York as saying. IRIB's report did not carry any Russian confirmation of the deal, details of which were not disclosed. The mission said Iran had also inquired about buying military aircraft from several other unnamed countries, IRIB reported. (Reuters)

Iran has sentenced Franco-Irish citizen Bernard Phelan to 6.5 years in prison for "providing information to another country," his sister said in a statement, adding that her 64-year-old brother was at risk of dying in custody. Ties between France and Iran have deteriorated in recent months with Tehran detaining seven French nationals in what Paris has said are arbitrary arrests that are equivalent to state hostage taking. One of those, Iranian-French academic Fariba Adelkhah, was released, but it is still unclear how much longer she will have to stay in Iran before returning to France. (Reuters)

News broke March 2 of the emergence of a new ultraconservative political coalition in Iran, indicating jostling for next year’s parliamentary elections. Iranian journalist Saleh Meftah reported on Twitter two days later that a new coalition has emerged among members of the ultraconservative Paydari Party, which has the upper hand in the Iranian parliament. According to the report some 500 ultraconservative politicians took part in a meeting in Velenjak at a building where former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad meets his aides. The meeting was called by Roads and Housing Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash, a leading member of Paydari and at least two other Paydari leaders, firebrand cleric Mahmoud Nabavian who is known for his opposition to the 2015 nuclear deal and former populist presidential candidate Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi. (Iran International)

Hackers linked to the Iranian government were behind a cyberattack last month that shut down the operating systems of an Israeli university, Israel’s cyber authority said. The group responsible for the hack was identified as MuddyWater, which is affiliated with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, the National Cyber Directorate said in a statement. The Feb. 12 attack on the Israel Institute of Technology, also known as Technion, used malware to encrypt the operating systems, the Israeli investigation found. (Bloomberg)

Reports of Iranian schoolgirls being poisoned at school continue to stream in from across Iran, with over 1,000 students in more than 50 schools impacted so far, according to opposition reports this week. The poisonings were first reported in late November, with the pace of reports rising in recent weeks. At least eight schools throughout Iran reported poisoning incidents in one day, according to opposition media. (Jerusalem Post)

Iran’s parliament has approved legislation to allow the government to allocate 3 billion euros to the Armed Forces “to strengthen the country's defense infrastructure.” Based on the approved legislation, the General Staff of the Armed Forces is allowed to export three billion euros worth of crude oil and oil products through small private refineries after the approval of the country's budget organization. In the budget bill for the next Iranian year, starting March 21, the government had granted new permits to some departments such as the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic to sell oil on behalf of the government and earn some of the income. (Iran International)

Iranian media sources say a "defensive" joint exercise by the Revolutionary Guard and the Islamic Republic Army will be held to counter "enemy aerial threats." Brigadier General Abbas Farajpour, the spokesman for the "joint air defense exercise", said that the drills will be conducted in "two-thirds of the country's skies." This comes after the National Security Committee of Iranian Parliament held a meeting with the officials of the ministry of intelligence regarding "recent events in Isfahan and Karaj." Residents near Karaj, west of Tehran, published videos of explosions and anti-aircraft fire, which the government media described as military drills by the IRGC. One of these videos showed anti-aircraft tracer rounds soaring into the sky while an explosion can also be seen on the ground. There was no prior public notification of planned military exercises. (Iran International)

Two Iranian warships docked in Rio de Janeiro after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government granted permission despite pressure from the United States to bar them. The IRIS Makran and IRIS Dena warships both arrived at the port, Rio's port authority said in a statement. Reuters earlier this month reported that Brazil had bowed to U.S. pressure and declined Iran's request for the vessels to dock in Rio in late January, in a gesture from Lula as he flew to Washington to meet U.S. President Joe Biden. (Reuters)

Iran is openly talking about upgrading Syrian air defenses to help Damascus fend off continued Israeli airstrikes. However, as has been the case for a decade now, Israel will undoubtedly take preemptive military action if Tehran takes any serious steps toward implementing this stated objective. On Feb. 24, Iranian state television reported Tehran's intent to supply its advanced, long-range indigenous air defense missile systems to Damascus. Any deployment of the Khordad 15 would almost certainly incur immediate Israeli strikes. The indigenous Iranian system carries Sayyad-3 missiles with a purported 120-mile range, which could potentially constrain Israel's Syria air campaign if successfully deployed. (Forbes)

The news organization controlled by the Islamic Republic of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei urged that the Iranian authorities seize and prosecute German diplomats in Tehran in response to Berlin's expulsion of two Iranian diplomats. Kayhan, the news outlet that serves as Khamenei's mouthpiece, demanded that German embassy staff not be allowed to leave Iran in response to Berlin's eviction of two Iranian diplomats due to the clerical regime imposing the death penalty on the German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd, who is also a legal resident of California. (The Jerusalem Post)

Iran has developed a cruise missile with a range of 1,650 km (1,025 miles), a top Revolutionary Guards commander said, in a move likely to raise Western concerns after Russia's use of Iranian drones in the Ukraine war. Separately, Amirali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace force, also spoke of Iran's often repeated threat to avenge the U.S. killing of a top Iranian commander, saying "We are looking to kill (former U.S. President Donald) Trump." (Reuters)

The Islamic Republic’s Assembly of Experts, the deliberative body empowered to appoint the Supreme Leader, has renewed its loyalty to Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei. The Secretariat of the Assembly – also translated as the Assembly of Experts of the Leadership or as the Council of Experts – issued a statement, reiterating obsequious remarks about Khamenei. In their statement, the members of the assembly described Khamenei as a force of “solidarity and national unity," and decried the slogans and slurs that are chanted against him during popular protests for over five months. Members of the Assembly are elected from the inner circle of the regime and people very close to the Khamenei, which explains their full loyalty. The assembly is in charge of supervising, dismissing and electing the Supreme Leader. (Iran International)

Iran might soon receive advanced Su-35 Flanker-E multirole fighter jets from Russia and possibly other military equipment, including S-400 air defense missile systems. How substantially these acquisitions could ultimately affect the power balance in the Middle East remains to be seen. A mockup of a Su-35 recently photographed by satellite outside Iran's southern underground Eagle 44 airbase further fueled speculation that Iran expects to receive that aircraft as part of its most substantive fighter order in over 30 years. (Forbes)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Iran was responsible for a reported attack on an oil tanker. An attack on the Liberian-flagged Campo Square was confirmed by the ship's captain, who said it was lightly damaged by an airborne object on Feb. 10 while sailing through the Arabian Sea. Shipping databases linked the tanker to Zodiac Maritime, which is controlled by Israeli shipping magnate Eyal Ofer. "Last week Iran again attacked an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and harmed the international freedom of navigation," Netanyahu said at a weekly cabinet meeting.  (Reuters)

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant delivered a speech at the opening of the 59th Security Conference in Munich, Germany, where he denounced Iran's efforts to export lethal weapons despite the embargo imposed on it. The minister called on the international community to unite against the Islamic Republic's efforts and work on regulating an alternative mechanism to the embargo on ground-to-ground missiles and drones that is set to expire at the end of this year. "Below and above the surface, Iran is relentlessly working to destroy the State of Israel. It does so both directly and through its proxies - the terrorist armies that operate near Israel's borders. Iran threatens not only Israel but also the security and stability of Europe and the world at large," said Gallant. (i24 News)

U.S. forces shot down an Iranian-made drone flying over a base housing American troops in northeastern Syria, the U.S. military said. The incident comes more than a week after a deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked Turkey and Syria, followed by a significant de-escalation of violence across the war-torn country. U.S. Central Command said in a statement that the reconnaissance drone flew over Mission Support Site Conoco before American forces shot it down. (Associated Press)

Iran warned it would firmly respond to any move threatening its security, saying the U.S. was responsible for any action taken by its ally Israel. The Israeli army said its Defense Forces and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) launched Juniper Oak, a joint drill focused on air defense, cyber security, intelligence, and logistics. Some 6,400 US and over 1,500 Israeli troops, over 140 aircraft, 12 naval vessels, and artillery systems are taking part, making it the nations' largest-ever joint drill. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Australian security agencies have disrupted a foreign interference plot by Iran that was targeting an Iranian-Australian on Australian soil, the government has said. The plot allegedly included individuals monitoring the home of a critic of the Iranian regime and extensively researching the person and their family. The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, revealed the incident in a speech to the Australian National University on Tuesday while also describing foreign interference as “one of the core threats our democracy faces.” (The Guardian)

As Iranians struggle to survive years of an unrelenting economic crisis, a new budget bill proposed cuts in the health and public sectors, and granted an increase in the budget of military and security forces. Lawmakers on 22 January approved the outlines of the budget bill, submitted by conservative President Ebrahim Raisi, for the Iranian year beginning on 21 March. (Middle East Eye)

Iran appears to be modifying the attack drones it’s providing to Russia so that the explosive warheads can inflict maximum damage on infrastructure targets inside Ukraine, according to a new investigative report obtained exclusively by CNN. An unexploded warhead from an Iranian Shahed-131 drone found in the Southern Ukrainian region of Odesa in October 2022 was examined last month by the UK-based investigative organization Conflict Armament Research, along with the Ukrainian military. CAR provided its findings first to CNN. The composition of the warhead helps explain how Russia’s onslaught on Ukrainian energy infrastructure over the last several months has proven so effective. (CNN)

Released documents show that Iran, along with Russia, China and some other authoritarian governments had access to the private data of Facebook users. Internal documents in a related privacy litigation that emerged late last month have trigged the chairs of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, to write a letter to Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg asking fresh questions about what he and his company knew about how much user data the platform was leaking in previous years. “It appears from these documents that Facebook has known, since at least September 2018, that hundreds of thousands of developers in countries Facebook characterized as “high-risk,” including the People’s Republic of China (PRC), had access to significant amounts of sensitive user data,” they write. (Iran International)

Iran's army unveiled its first underground base for fighter jets designed to withstand possible strikes by U.S. bunker-busting bombs, state media reported. The base, named Oghab 44 (Persian for eagle), can accommodate "all types of fighter jets and bombers, in addition to drones," the official news agency IRNA said, releasing images and videos from inside the base. The exact location of the base was not revealed, but state media said it was "at the depth of hundreds of meters under the mountains," and capable of withstanding "bombs by strategic U.S. bombers." (AFP)

The Guardian spoke to 11 protesters, women and men, who claim that they were also subjected to rape, sexual violence, beatings and torture while being detained by security forces. Some say they were assaulted in a police van or on the streets; others while in custody in police stations or prisons. A nurse from a hospital in Gilan says she has encountered several women in the past few months who showed signs of sexual assault and rape. “I’ve treated at least five female protesters under 30 who came in with vaginal infections and told me they were assaulted in police custody. Some of them were bleeding from their genitals,” she says. (The Guardian)

The Iranian regime-controlled Channel 4 ran a series of broadcasts with British and American Holocaust deniers in January shortly before International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27. British Holocaust denier Nicholas Kollerstrom told the Iranian regime outlet it is time to put the "nightmare hallucination narrative" of the Holocaust "to bed," and that the aim of "this holo-hoax tale" was to crush Germany's spirit, according to a translation by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). (The Jerusalem Post)

Iran's ultra-hardliners have been pushing for further restrictions on social freedoms and freedom of expression. Commenting on the issue of hijab, lawmaker Hossein-Ali Haji-Deligani said in an interview with Entekhab news website recently that he believes the country should have an entity dedicated to “promotion of virtue and prevention of vice” as a completely independent organization to enforce hijab. “Our society and religion do not accept today’s kind of [lenient] hijab,” he said. (Iran International)

A U.N. watchdog report shows Iran is being inconsistent in meeting its nuclear obligations, the United States, Britain, France and Germany said in a joint statement. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) criticized Iran for making an undeclared change to the interconnection between the two clusters of advanced machines enriching uranium to up to 60% purity, close to weapons grade, at its Fordow plant. Iran said the IAEA's position on Tehran's nuclear work was not correct. (Reuters)

Azerbaijan's Interior Ministry has detained around 40 people it suspects of being part of an Iranian spy network that used religion to push pro-Iranian propaganda. Local media reported on February 1 that the suspects were arrested in Baku and other regions of the country as a result of the operation conducted by the ministry. Some reports a day earlier put the number of people detained at seven. Law enforcement bodies have neither confirmed nor rejected the reports. (Radio Free Europe)

Iranian pro-government media reported extensively about the Saqr missile, noting that it had been used in Yemen by the Iran-backed Houthi group, as well as in Iraq, to target U.S. forces and also in Syria. This links Iran to all these attacks, without explicitly taking credit for them. The Tasnim report noted that this “mysterious” missile has been used in many places, all of them linked to pro-Iran forces around the Middle East. It explains how the missile behaves like a cruise missile and a “loitering” munition, that it can detect targets with optical and thermal systems. (The Jerusalem Post)

Elite French special forces seized a boatload of Iranian-supplied weapons and ammunition bound for militants in Yemen as part of a deepening effort to contain Tehran, according to officials familiar with the operation. On Jan. 15, the officials said, a French warship stopped a suspected smuggling ship off the Yemeni coast where the specially trained French team boarded the boat. On board, the officials said, the French military discovered more than 3,000 assault rifles, at least a half million rounds of ammunition and over 20 antitank guided missiles. (The Wall Street Journal)

Iran's biggest warship and one of its frigates are sailing across the Pacific in a first-of-its-kind journey likely meant to show off Tehran's growing naval force to friends and foes alike. The two ships appear to be the frigate IRIS Dena and the forward base ship IRINS Makran. They were spotted by the French and Australian navies in early January as they sailed through the South Pacific. The ships have been granted permission to dock in Rio de Janeiro, reportedly arriving on January 23. (Business Insider)

The Department of Justice has charged three members of an Eastern European criminal group with ties to Iran with attempting to assassinate a prominent U.S. journalist and activist critical of the Iranian regime. In a 25-page indictment unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Department of Justice said the three men were enlisted last year to murder an American citizen of Iranian origin on U.S. soil. The indictment did not identify the victim by name but said the person wrote critically about Iran’s treatment of women, protesters and other issues. (NBC)

Iranian and Russian hackers are targeting British politicians and journalists with espionage attacks, officials have warned. The National Cyber Security Centre has issued a fresh alert about increasing attempts to steal information from specific groups and individuals. NCSC said the hackers usually target those doing research and work about Iran and Russia. (BBC)

An activist group says sixteen young people arrested in Urumieh in November, including several minors, have been tortured and threatened with rape to incriminate each other. Follow Up Iran (komite-ye Peygiri-ye Bazdashtshodegan) which on its twitter account introduces itself as a group of activists said in a brief report on its Telegram page that the IRGC’s intelligence organization in West Azarbaijan Province has been torturing these young people to “confess” against each other and say their group was in contact with foreign intelligence services. State media reported in November that intelligence bodies had arrested 25 members of Youth of Urumieh Neighborhoods and accused them of trying “to deceive young people and incite them [to riot].” (Iran International)    

Iranian authorities have arrested three female journalists in the past two days, local media said, amid months of protests triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini. "In the past 48 hours, at least three female journalists, namely Melika Hashemi, Saideh Shafiei and Mehrnoush Zarei, have been arrested in Tehran," reformist newspaper Etemad quoted the Tehran journalists' union as saying. The paper said the three women had been transferred to Evin prison, where many of those arrested in connection with the protests are being held. (AFP)

Islamic Republic’s education minister says parts of the documents obtained during the US embassy takeover in 1979 will be included in school textbooks as of next year. [Education Minister] Yousef Nouri said that the move was done upon a call by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the materials will be included in textbooks in all levels from the elementary school to the end of high school according to the level of understanding of the students. (Iran International)

Four young men have been executed in connection with the nationwide protests that erupted in Iran four months ago, while 18 other people have been sentenced to death. Human rights groups have said they were convicted after grossly unfair sham trials. Mohammad Mehdi Karami, a 22-year-old karate champion, was hanged on 7 January, just 65 days after his arrest. Sources have told BBC Persian that he had less than 15 minutes to defend himself in court. (BBC)

A Kurdish rights group says during the first 15 days of 2023, at least 96 Kurdish citizens have been arrested by Islamic Republic government forces. Hengaw Human Rights Organization announced in a tweet that 13 children, five university students, four teachers, and five women are among the detainees. Iranian security forces used excessive and lethal force against protesters in Kurdish regions since the beginning of nationwide protests following the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September. (Iran International)   

The Islamic Republic has announced its intention to change the content of textbooks in foreign language schools after criticism by Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei. Head of Non-Governmental Schools and Centers Ahmad Mahmoudzadeh told ILNA Sunday that “We will have a call to produce content of language books for schools, which will be implemented in line with the order of the Supreme Leader.” Changing the content of textbooks based on the government's propaganda policies has been implemented in the last few years upon the order of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. However, this is the first time that these changes will be applied to the language teaching books of private institutes. (Iran International)

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian traveled to Beirut to meet with senior Lebanese officials and political figures such as Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah said in a statement that Nasrallah and Amir-Abdollahian discussed Israel’s new, hardline government and regional developments. He also held a meeting with Secretary-General of Palestinian Islamic Jihad Ziyad al-Nakhalah during his trip to Lebanon. (Iran International)

Iran's navy is set to station warships for the first time in the Panama Canal. Rear Admiral Shahram Irani, the commander of Iran's navy, said that his forces will establish a presence in the Panama Canal later this year, marking the first time Iran's military has entered the Pacific Ocean. Iran in recent years has placed a greater focus on moving its military into Latin American territories as it strengthens relations with anti-American dictators in the region, most notably in Venezuela. (Washington Free Beacon)

Iran has pursued the establishment of a comprehensive aerial defense network in Syria by sending equipment and personnel to the war-ravaged Arab nation in a project Israel has sought to thwart through repeated airstrikes, an intelligence source from a nation allied with the United States told Newsweek. However, the source told Newsweek that over the course of "the last two years" Iran has shifted its strategy, "promoting the deployment of aerial defense capabilities on its behalf in Syria at a cost of tens of millions of dollars in order to deal with the Israeli airstrikes." (Newsweek)

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has appointed Ahmad Reza Radan as the country's new police chief. Radan replaced outgoing Hossein Ashtari after his eight-year term of service ended, state media reported. Radan, who served as acting commander of police from 2008-2014, is known for his violent crackdown on the 2009 mass protests over a disputed presidential election. He also imposed tough measures against women who don't fully observe the hijab law. (Radio Free Europe)

An audio file shared on social media has revealed that the regime threatens Iranians abroad for taking part in anti-government protests and expressing opposition. In the audio file published by the VOA Farsi service, a security agent of the Islamic Republic, who introduces himself as an agent of the intelligence ministry, threatens "Massi Kamri", an Iranian activist living in France, saying if she does not stop acting against the regime, they will imprison her parents and family members in Iran. Apparently, she participated in rallies against the Islamic Republic’s bloody crackdown on anti-government protests that have engulfed Iran following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. (Iran International)

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, speaking on the third anniversary of the US killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, said that revenge for the slain commander was “certain.” “We have not forgotten and will not forget the blood of martyr Soleimani, and let them know that revenge for the blood of martyr Soleimani is certain,” Raisi said in a televised speech. (Al Arabiya News)

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei celebrated the new year by praising slain Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a U.S. airstrike nearly three years ago and was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. service members and allies. Khamenei also lauded Esmail Qaani, Soleimani's replacement as head of the U.S.-designated terrorist organization the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, which was designated by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization in 2019. (Fox News)

At least 100 Iranians arrested over more than 100 days of nationwide protests face charges punishable by death, Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) has said. The NGO published a report that said many of them had limited access to legal representation. “By issuing death sentences and executing some of them, [the authorities] want to make people go home,” said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. “It has some effect … [but] what we’ve observed in general is more anger against the authorities. Their strategy of spreading fear through executions has failed.” (AFP)

A member of an Iranian intelligence network (Kiya Sadeghi) attempted to hire a private investigator in Canada to conduct surveillance on anti-regime activists, The Fifth Estate has learned. Kiya Sadeghi is wanted by the FBI in the United States along with three other Iranian intelligence operatives for allegedly plotting to kidnap exiled Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad from her home in New York City. According to a June 2021 indictment filed in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, Sadeghi used false pretenses to hire private investigators in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom to conduct surveillance on Alinejad and other dissidents. (CBC)

A 14-year-old girl in Iran was reportedly raped and killed for removing her hijab in school in amid ongoing protests rocking the Islamic Republic. The New York Times reports that the teen, identified as Masoomeh, was from a poor neighborhood in Tehran and took her headscarf off at school in protest.  School cameras identified the girl and she was arrested. She was later treated at a hospital for "severe vaginal tears," The Times reported, citing the Center for Human Rights in Iran, a New York-based watchdog organization. (Fox News)

Taraneh Alidoosti, a prominent Iranian actress, was arrested by the local authorities after she posted messages on social media expressing solidarity with antigovernment protests that have rocked Iran for nearly three months. Ms. Alidoosti, 38, was arrested in connection with what state news media described as “unsubstantiated comments about recent events” and “the publication of provocative material.” It is one of the highest-profile detentions the Iranian authorities have made in their effort to crack down on a women-led uprising that started in September. (New York Times)

Iran said that its uranium enrichment capacity has increased to record levels, a day before U.N. nuclear monitors are set to visit the country. “Currently, the enrichment capacity of the country has reached more than twice the entire history of this industry,” Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA. “Nuclear energy and atomic power production have great economic savings for the country and are effective in reducing fossil and non-renewable fuel consumption and environmental problems,” he added. (Times of Israel)

An Albanian court has convicted an Iranian man on terrorism-related charges and sentenced him to ten years’ imprisonment, court officials said. In a ruling, Albania’s Special Court on Corruption and Organized Crime found Bijan Pooladrag guilty of funding terrorism and being a member of a terrorist organization. No details on Pooladrag’s age, home city, or when he had come to Albania were made known. Pooladrag denied the charges. He has the right to appeal the verdict. (Associated Press)

Iran says it has publicly hanged a 23-year-old in what is the second execution linked to the recent anti-government protests. Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was hanged in the city of Mashhad, the judiciary said. A court convicted him of "enmity against God" after finding he had stabbed to death two members of the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force. Rahnavard was hanged just 23 days after his arrest. (BBC)

Vladimir Putin could seek to help Iran develop its nuclear weapons program in exchange for Tehran's continued support of his war in Ukraine, US intelligence has claimed. Weapons supplied by the Islamic Republic have been used by the Russian military in the conflict—particularly Iranian-manufactured Shahed-136 drones which are playing a central role in ongoing attacks on civilian populations and key energy infrastructure. This “sordid” alliance led British foreign secretary James Cleverly to announce a sanctions package targeting “high-level” figures from both countries as he condemned the embattled Iranian regime for making deals with Russia in “a desperate attempt to survive.” (Daily Mail)

Iran’s nuclear chief said traces of enriched uranium found on its territory by U.N. inspectors were brought into the country from abroad, disputing claims of secret nuclear activity. The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, has for months been pressing Tehran to explain the presence of the nuclear material at three undeclared sites. The discovery further complicated efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that has been hanging by a thread since the United States unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump. (AFP)

Iranian security forces are targeting women at anti-regime protests with shotgun fire to their faces, breasts and genitals, according to interviews with medics across the country. Doctors and nurses – treating demonstrators in secret to avoid arrest – said they first observed the practice after noticing that women often arrived with different wounds to men, who more commonly had shotgun pellets in their legs, buttocks and backs. While an internet blackout has hidden much of the bloody crackdown on protesters, photos provided by medics to the Guardian showed devastating wounds all over their bodies from so-called birdshot pellets, which security forces have fired on people at close range. Some of the photos showed people with dozens of tiny “shot” balls lodged deep in their flesh. (The Guardian)

Iranian authorities have executed more than 500 people this year, according to data released by Iran Human Rights. Up more than 50 percent on 2021’s figure of 333, the spike in executions marks a dramatic shift following years of decline, with numbers only likely to climb amidst the government’s brutal response to protests in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody. Five further death sentences were handed out to protesters yesterday, for killing a member of the security forces, bringing to 11 the total number arising from the protests. (Arab News)

A person sentenced to death over the current anti-government protests in Iran has been subjected to mock executions three times in prison, a source has told BBC Persian. A Revolutionary Court in Tehran found Sahand Noormohammadzadeh, 26, guilty of "enmity against God" last month. He was accused of setting a bin on fire and blocking traffic, which he denied. Before his trial, the source said, Noormohammadzadeh was "asked to go on a chair blindfolded to be hanged.” (BBC)

Iran began construction on a new nuclear power plant in the country’s southwest, Iranian state TV announced, amid tensions with the U.S. over sweeping sanctions imposed after Washington pulled out of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear deal with world powers. The new 300-megawatt plant, known as Karoon, will take eight years to build and cost around $2 billion, the country’s state television and radio agency reported. The plant will be located in Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province, near its western border with Iraq, it said. (Associated Press)

Last year, the Iranian rapper was arrested for songs criticizing the government and denouncing those he described as apologists for the Iranian government abroad. He was released on bail earlier this year, but it was not long before he found himself in prison again — and this time he may pay the ultimate price. The 31-year-old was among the thousands of Iranians who took to the streets across the country to protest the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman in custody of the so-called morality police. Mahsa (Jina) Amini was arrested on Sept. 13 for allegedly wearing an improper hijab and died three days later, sparking a nationwide uprising. (Washington Post)

The families of Iran’s World Cup soccer team have been threatened with imprisonment and torture if the players fail to “behave” ahead of the match against the USA, a source involved in the security of the games said. Following the refusal of Iranian players to sing the nation’s national anthem in their opening match against England on November 21, the source said that the players were called to a meeting with members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The source said that they were told that their families would face “violence and torture” if they did not sing the national anthem or if they joined any political protest against the Tehran regime. (CNN)

With media access inside Iran severely constrained, CNN went to the region near Iraq’s border with Iran, interviewing eyewitnesses who'd left the country and verifying accounts from survivors and sources both in and outside Iran. CNN corroborated several reports of sexual violence against protesters and heard accounts of many more. At least one of these caused severe injury, and another involved the rape of an underage boy. In some of the cases CNN uncovered, the sexual assault was filmed and used to blackmail the protesters into silence, according to sources who spoke to the victims. (CNN)

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has appointed another Revolutionary Guard commander to a civilian post as Tehran governor. In a decision of the cabinet, Alireza Fakhari was appointed governor of Tehran province. Fakhari was suggested by Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who is another high-ranking IRGC officer. Raisi’s move in effect changed the civilian governorship in Tehran into a military governorship. Alireza Fakhari was the deputy coordinator of Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarter of the IRGC until earlier this year. (Iran International)

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) board formally rebuked Iran, demanding that it start cooperating with the agency’s investigation into undeclared nuclear material found by the IAEA in Iran in recent years. Many officials believe the traces of nuclear material found in Iran were related to the nuclear weapons work Iran did until at least 2003. The IAEA probe is a major sticking point in nuclear negotiations. Iran has said that Western powers must commit to close the investigation before a revived nuclear deal is fully implemented. (The Wall Street Journal)

The Biden administration has determined that Iranian threats against former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and one of his former top aides remain credible and persist nearly two years after they left office. The State Department notified Congress last week that both Pompeo and Brian Hook, who served as special representative for Iran during the Trump administration, were still both subject to a “serious and credible threat from a foreign power or agent of a foreign power” stemming from their work while in government. The determinations — which mean Pompeo and Hook will continue to receive government protection — were signed by Deputy Secretary of State for Management Brian McKeon on Nov. 8. (Associated Press)

The U.N. atomic watchdog said it believes that Iran has further increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and criticized Tehran for continuing to bar the agency’s officials from accessing or monitoring Iranian nuclear sites. In its quarterly report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that according to its assessment, as of Oct. 22, Iran has an estimated 62.3 kilograms (137.3 pounds) of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity. That amounts to an increase of 6.7 kilograms since the IAEA’s last report in September. That enrichment to 60% purity is one short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Nonproliferation experts have warned in recent months that Iran now has enough 60%-enriched uranium to reprocess into fuel for at least one nuclear bomb. (Associated Press)

Iranian lawmakers have urged the country’s judiciary to “show no leniency” to protesters in a letter cited by state-run Press TV, as thousands of people continue to rally on the streets despite the threat of arrest. In an open letter signed by 227 of Iran’s 290 members of Parliament, the lawmakers called for protesters to be taught a “good lesson” to deter others who threaten the authority of the Iranian government. (CNN)

Iran is seeking Russia’s help to bolster its nuclear program, U.S. intelligence officials believe, as Tehran looks for a backup plan should a lasting nuclear deal with world powers fail to materialize. The intelligence suggests that Iran has been asking Russia for help acquiring additional nuclear materials and with nuclear fuel fabrication, sources briefed on the matter said. The fuel could help Iran power its nuclear reactors and could potentially further shorten Iran’s so-called “breakout time” to create a nuclear weapon. Experts emphasized to CNN, however, that the nuclear proliferation risk varies depending on which reactor the fuel is used for. And it is also not clear whether Russia has agreed to help – the Kremlin has long been outwardly opposed to Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. (CNN)

Across Iran, schoolgirls have defiantly taken off their headscarves, stomped on pictures of the supreme leader and chanted for freedom, producing some of the most iconic images from the country’s anti-government uprising. Now, the state is coming for them. In interviews with The Post in recent weeks, three students and two parents described the assaults on schools, where teachers are under pressure to squash any sign of dissent and are often powerless to stop security forces from targeting the minors in their care. School attendance lists, report cards and security cameras have become tools of repression. Parents are warned to keep their children in check. (Washington Post)

Iranian authorities announced they will hold public trials for 1,000 people in the capital, Tehran, over the protests that have convulsed the country. The mass indictments mark the government’s first major legal action aimed at quashing dissent since unrest erupted over six weeks ago. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency quoted judicial officials as saying that a thousand people who had a central role in the protests would be brought to trial in Tehran alone over their “subversive actions,” including assaulting security guards, setting fire to public property and other accusations. (Associated Press)

Two female journalists who were instrumental in reporting the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman whose death in the custody of Iran’s morality police has sparked nationwide protests, have been labelled as CIA foreign agents by the Iranian regime. Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, who were arrested shortly after news broke of Amini’s death and who are reportedly being held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, were accused of being foreign agents in a joint statement released by Iran’s ministry of intelligence and the intelligence organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards last night. (The Guardian)

Iran is a problem that is ever more "relevant", the U.N. nuclear watchdog's chief, Rafael Grossi, said, in an apparent reference to the growing number of advanced centrifuges the Islamic Republic is using to enrich uranium. The International Atomic Energy Agency has said in recent confidential reports to member states seen by Reuters that Iran has been installing and enriching with more cascades, or clusters, of advanced centrifuges at its underground enrichment plants at Natanz and Fordow. (Reuters)

Iran has reportedly turned to child soldiers in an attempt to crack down on the ongoing riots in the country, a tactic the Islamic Republic has used in the past and a potential violation of international law. "The Iranian regime’s use of child soldiers is a sign of both its desperation and its abhorrent ideology," Orde Kittrie, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital. Kittrie's comments come after an FDD report revealed that Iran was attempting to crush protests in the country by using minors, citing recent pictures that have emerged on social media showing children wearing Basij militia uniforms, which is a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. (Fox News)

Iranian personnel have been working in Crimea to train Russian pilots to use Iranian-made drones, the U.S. said, as Moscow attempts to maintain its hold on the territory in southern Ukraine. The statement by John Kirby, the National Security Council’s Coordinator for Strategic Communications, marks the first official U.S. accusation that Iran is directly involved in the war in Ukraine. Mr. Kirby said the U.S. is worried that Russia is also seeking to obtain surface-to-surface missiles from Iran for use in Ukraine. Such a move, former U.S. officials say, could provide a significant boost to Russia as its supply of missiles dwindles. (The Wall Street Journal)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi blamed President Biden for inciting “chaos” and “terror” amid anti-regime protests happening around the country. In a statement through the country’s official news agency, Raisi, who was elected Iran’s president last year, gave a stern warning to Biden about the ongoing crisis in his country. “The American president, who allows himself through his comments to incite chaos, terror and destruction in another country, should be reminded of the eternal words of the founder of the Islamic Republic, who called America the great satan,” Raisi reportedly said. (The Hill)

Iranian security forces stepped up their crackdown on Kurdish regions of the country overnight, deploying militia troops, as authorities pursued their deadly suppression of nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death in police custody. Nearly four weeks after Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, was detained in Tehran for "inappropriate attire", the protests show no sign of abating in a bold challenge to Iran's clerical rulers, even if the unrest does not seem close to toppling them. (Reuters)

Iran is rapidly expanding its ability to enrich uranium with advanced centrifuges at its underground plant at Natanz and now intends to go further than previously planned, a confidential U.N. nuclear watchdog report seen by Reuters showed. While indirect talks between Iran and the United States on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have stalled, Tehran has brought onstream a larger number of advanced centrifuges the deal bans it from using to produce enriched uranium. (Reuters)

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded publicly to the biggest protests in Iran in years, breaking weeks of silence to condemn what he called “rioting” and accuse the U.S. and Israel of planning the protests. Khamenei said he was “heartbroken” by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police, which set off the nationwide protests. However, he sharply condemned the protests as a foreign plot to destabilize Iran, echoing authorities’ previous comments. “This rioting was planned,” he told a cadre of police students in Tehran. “These riots and insecurities were designed by America and the Zionist regime, and their employees.” (Associated Press)

An American citizen, a mother, and her 1-day-old infant are among the 14 people who were killed this week by a barrage of Iranian missiles fired at Iranian Kurdish opposition groups in northern Iraq. Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) targeted Kurdish opposition groups in northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region with dozens of missiles and explosives-laden drone aircraft. In a statement carried by Iranian state TV, the IRGC, which the U.S. government considers a terrorist group, said its "operation will continue with our full determination until the threat is effectively repelled, terrorist group bases are dismantled, and the authorities of the Kurdish region assume their obligations and responsibilities." (CBS)

Iran faced more international criticism over the death of a woman in police custody that triggered nationwide protests after Tehran accused the United States of using the unrest to try to destabilize the country. Iran has cracked down on the biggest demonstrations since 2019, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16 after she was detained by morality police enforcing the Islamic Republic's strict restrictions on women's dress. The case has drawn widespread condemnation. (Reuters)

Iran unveiled a new medium-range ballistic missile during a military parade commemorating the Iran-Iraq war, state television said. “The liquid-fueled Rezvan ballistic missile has an operational range of 1,400 kilometers (870 miles),” said the station, which aired images of the missile mounted on a military vehicle. The Rezvan missile was presented in Tehran during an annual parade of the armed forces to commemorate the start of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. (AFP)

Iranians experienced a near-total internet blackout amid days of mass protests against the government over the death of a woman held by the country’s morality police for allegedly violating its strictly-enforced dress code. An Iranian official had earlier hinted that such measures might be taken out of security concerns. The loss of connectivity will make it more difficult for people to organize protests and share information about the government’s rolling crackdown on dissent. (Associated Press)

The head of Iran’s morality police has reportedly been suspended from his post as protests swept across Iran for a third day over the killing of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who was detained by the police after being accused of not wearing the hijab appropriately. A number of respected Iranian news outlets reported that Col Ahmed Mirzaei, the head of the moral security police of Greater Tehran, had been suspended from his role after the death of Mahsa Amini. Tehran police denied he had been suspended or fired. (The Guardian)

The Justice Department unsealed an indictment alleging that three Iranian men encrypted hundreds of systems around the world and demanded ransoms to unlock them. But the unsealed indictment said the men did so independently of the Iranian government, while the Treasury Department said they were linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). That called attention to how — for some of the United States’ top adversaries in cyberspace — the lines between nation-state hacker and cybercriminal, between government employee and freelance contractor, aren’t always clear. (Washington Post)

Albania blamed the Iranian government for a cyberattack against computer systems used by Albanian state police — just days after the White House condemned Tehran for a hack that disrupted Albanian government services in July. The latest hack forced Albanian officials to temporarily take offline its Total Information Management System (TIMS), a system for tracking the data of those entering and leaving Albania, according to a statement from Albania’s interior ministry. The cyberattack was the work of the “same aggressors” that carried out the July hack, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama alleged in a tweet. (CNN)

During his election campaign, Ebrahim Raisi vowed not to further restrict the internet in Iran, where authorities already block tens of thousands of websites and regularly throttle or cut Internet connectivity. But since the hardline president assumed power in August 2021, experts say his administration has been secretly implementing a highly controversial draft bill designed to intensify online censorship and limit Internet access. The Cyberspace Protection Bill would hand over control of Iran's Internet gateways to the armed forces and criminalize the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) that mask Internet users’ locations and enable them to view blocked websites. (Radio Free Europe)

Iranian authorities confirmed the arrest of 25 people during a protest on August 24 against a cut in water supplies in the western Iranian city of Hamedan. Mohammad Ali Mohammadi, the governor of Hamedan, accused the detainees – who were attending three different demonstrations – of creating insecurity and panic among the public. Water cuts in Hamedan have led to weeks of street protests and were initially tolerated by security forces, but as they continued, police began moving in on gatherings, such as the demonstrations on August 24 where they arrested many protesters. (Radio Free Europe)

An elderly American wrongfully held in Iran for more than six years must undergo urgent surgery "to clear life-threatening blockages in his left internal carotid artery," his family said. Baquer Namazi, 85, and his son, Siamak Namazi are both considered wrongfully detained by the U.S. State Department, and the elder is in need of the surgery "within weeks," his family said. They are urging the Iranian government to release his Siamak on furlough to be with his father during and after the surgery. (CNN)

As the Biden administration seeks to temporarily restrict Tehran from building an atomic bomb, a damning new Swedish intelligence report accuses the Islamic Republic of Iran of illegal attempts to secure nuclear weapons technology in the Scandinavian nation during 2021. The Swedish document places new question marks over the efficacy of the controversial Iran nuclear deal that rewards the clerical regime with up to $275 billion in economic benefits during the first year of an agreement and as much as $1 trillion by 2030, according to one estimate. (Fox News)

Iran has stepped up its actions against Baha’i citizens, arresting 12 believers accused by Tehran of being “heretics” and having links to Israel in a continuing crackdown that has been condemned by Iranian and global rights groups. Iranian state media on September 4 said the arrests took place in different cities in Mazandaran Province, the same area where 14 members of Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority were arrested on August 31. Baha'is – who number some 300,000 in Iran and have an estimated 5 million followers worldwide – say they face systematic persecution in Iran, where their faith is not officially recognized in the constitution. (Radio Free Europe)

The U.S. Navy stopped an Iranian ship from seizing an American maritime drone in the Persian Gulf, in a fresh confrontation that underscored the sharp tensions between Tehran and Washington, U.S. defense officials said. The episode began when the U.S. Navy observed an Iranian ship towing the Saildrone Explorer, an unmanned U.S. vessel equipped with camera, radars, and sensors. The U.S.S. Thunderbolt, a patrol coastal ship, and a Navy helicopter moved toward the scene. The Iranians dropped the tow line and eventually left the area, the defense officials said. (The Wall Street Journal)

Three U.S. service members were injured in rocket attacks in Syria carried out by suspected Iran-backed militants, according to U.S. Central Command, the latest in a slew of attacks on American personnel that U.S. officials said were directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Rockets landed at two separate sites in northeastern Syria starting at roughly 7:30 p.m. local time, the command said late Wednesday in a press release. Several rockets struck inside the perimeter of Mission Support Site Conoco, followed by additional rockets that landed in the vicinity of Mission Support Site Green Village. (Politico)

One of Iran's biggest cash cows, the Mobarakeh Steel Company, is reeling from the release of a lengthy parliamentary investigation that alleges corruption amounting to $3 billion tied to the administration of former President Hassan Rohani. Since the Iranian parliamentary investigatory commission read out its damning allegations on August 18 following a three-year investigation, the Iranian stock exchange suspended trading of Mobarakeh shares and hardline President Ebrahim Raisi has called for company personnel implicated in the report to be fired. (Radio Free Europe)

Iranian operatives have targeted several senior members of US-based advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) through surveillance and cyber operations. According to a report by The Dispatch, members of the New York-based think tank have been the subject of suspected Iranian surveillance operations carried out on U.S. soil as well as various phishing operations believed to be carried out by a cyber warfare group linked to the Islamic Republic. (Iran International)

Dozens of female civil activists have called on Iranian authorities to release a woman who was arrested for protesting mandatory head-scarf rules after she appeared on television and gave a "confession" they allege was made under duress. According to the Free Union Workers of Iran's Telegram channel, the women took to the streets of Tehran carrying placards asking, "Where is Sepideh Rashno?" and demanded to know her status after the 28-year-old writer and artist was arrested on June 15 after a video of her arguing with another woman who was enforcing rules on wearing a head scarf on a bus in Tehran went viral. (Radio Free Europe)

An attack with drones hit a compound run by American troops and U.S.-backed Syrian opposition fighters in eastern Syria, the U.S. military said, adding that there were no casualties or damage. The military said the attack took place in the vicinity of al-Tanf base near where the borders of Syria, Jordan and Iraq meet. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack. The attack occurred hours after Israeli airstrikes on western and central Syria killed three soldiers, wounded three others and caused material damage. (Associated Press)

According to court documents, beginning in October 2021, Shahram Poursafi, aka Mehdi Rezayi, 45, of Tehran, Iran, attempted to arrange the murder of former National Security Advisor John Bolton, likely in retaliation for the January 2020 death of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Qods Force (IRGC-QF) commander Qasem Soleimani. Poursafi, working on behalf of the IRGC-QF, attempted to pay individuals in the United States $300,000 to carry out the murder in Washington, D.C. or Maryland. Poursafi offered the CHS $250,000 to hire someone to “eliminate” the former National Security Advisor. This amount would later be negotiated up to $300,000. Poursafi added that he had an additional “job,” for which he would pay $1 million. Poursafi directed the source to open a cryptocurrency account to facilitate payment, but stipulated that the CHS would likely have to carry out the murder before he/she could be paid. (U.S. Justice Department)

According to a criminal complaint filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, the suspect, Khalid Mehdiyev, was observed by law enforcement officials near the Brooklyn home of Masih Alinejad, a prominent human rights activist critical of the Islamic Republic of Iran. During a subsequent search of the vehicle, investigators found a loaded AK-47-style assault rifle in a suitcase on the rear seat, the court document shows. Masih Alinejad, an exiled journalist and women’s rights advocate living in New York, has long been critical of the regime in Tehran. Last year, four Iranians were charged with conspiring to kidnap her and take her to the Middle Eastern country, possibly via a daring maritime mission. (Washington Post)

Tehran gave assurances that its nuclear policy was unchanged and that it still adhered to a fatwa banning weapons of mass destruction, after an Iranian official said the country was able to make atomic bombs. It is the second time in the past 18 months that Iran has reiterated its opposition to nuclear weapons following comments by an official. "In regard to the topic of weapons of mass destruction, we have the fatwa", or religious edict, by Iran's supreme leader that prohibits the manufacture of such weapons, said foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani. The fatwa declares the use of atomic bombs and other weapons of mass destruction to be "haram", or forbidden by Islam, and it is often cited by Iranian authorities as a guarantee of Tehran's good intentions. (France 24)

Raveling to Iran, Mr. Putin worked to solidify an Iranian-Russian alliance that has been emerging as a significant counterweight to American-led efforts to contain Western adversaries. He met with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, who issued a declaration of support for Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine of the kind that even other countries close to Russia have so far stopped short of making. “War is a violent and difficult endeavor, and the Islamic Republic is not at all happy that people are caught up in war,” Mr. Khamenei told Mr. Putin, according to the supreme leader’s office. “But in the case of Ukraine, if you had not taken the helm, the other side would have done so and initiated a war.” Mr. Khamenei’s endorsement of the war went well beyond the much more cautious support offered by another key Russian ally, China, embracing Mr. Putin’s claim that the West had left the Kremlin no choice but to act. (New York Times)

A legal U.S. resident and German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd faces public execution in Iran for being a journalist. A Tehran regime lawyer told the family a "death sentence is certain." Sharmahd’s daughter said a sixth hearing of her father’s "sham trial" might unfold this week. Iran’s regime refused to allow an independent lawyer to represent Sharmahd. The clerical regime kidnapped the 67-year-old Sharmahd in July 2020 while he was staying at a hotel in Dubai. Sharmahd has lived in California since 2003. Tehran’s opaque justice system claims Sharmahd played a role in a 2008 terrorist attack at a mosque in Shiraz, Iran that left 14 dead and more than 200 injured. (Fox News)

A woman has been arrested after a video of her arguing with another woman who was enforcing rules on wearing a head scarf on a bus in Tehran went viral. The woman, identified as Sepideh Rashno, a 28-year-old writer and artist, was confronted by a woman who warned her she would send video to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) showing Rashno riding the bus without the mandatory hijab. The notorious Guidance Patrols, or morality police, have become increasingly active and violent. Videos have emerged on social media appearing to show officers detaining women, forcing them into vans, and whisking them away. (Radio Free Europe)
 

Israeli forces on Monday downed a drone that Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group apparently flew over the border, the military said. It did not specify how the drone was brought down as it entered Israeli airspace; however, it was believed to have been using electronic warfare means. “The drone likely belongs to the Hezbollah terror group,” the IDF said. In an image shared by the army, the drone appears to be a commercially available quadcopter manufactured by Chinese company DJI. Defense officials have previously noted that at least some of the drones Hezbollah apparently uses for surveillance purposes are commercially available devices. (Times of Israel)

A cyberattack disrupted access to the Health Ministry website to users from abroad, the ministry said Sunday. Though the site was still functioning for local Israelis, those trying enter from outside the country were unable to do so intermittently, the ministry said in a statement. A group of pro-Iranian hackers based in Iraq and calling itself Altahrea Team claimed responsibility for the assault, according to Hebrew media reports. On its Telegram channel, the group reportedly wrote that the attack was carried out in response to the bombing of the Gaza Strip over the weekend and a list of other ills. (The Times of Israel)

Iran unveiled military advances on Friday that have put armed drones aboard its warships, creating a new threat for the U.S. and its allies in the Persian Gulf, as President Biden tours the region in part to help build security partnerships to counter Tehran. Iranian state television broadcast a report showing some of Iran’s biggest warships and submarines launching drones at sea. The drones are able to fly for up to 24 hours and 600 miles, it said. The U.S. and its allies in the region have accused Iran of using drones to target adversaries including Israel and Saudi Arabia as well as ships in the Persian Gulf. The new developments are expected to give Tehran an expanded ability to target foes across the Middle East. (The Wall Street Journal)

Iran may be planning to assassinate top members of Donald Trump’s administration, including the former president himself, in revenge for the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a US intelligence report has warned. Issued by the National Counterterrorism Center, the report also identifies threats against former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Kenneth McKenzie, former head of US Central Command, The Independent reported. “Since January 2021, Tehran has publicly expressed a willingness to conduct lethal operations inside the United States and has consistently identified former president Donald Trump, former secretary of state Michael Pompeo, and former CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie as among its priority targets for retribution,” the report said. “Iran would probably view the killing or prosecution of a US official it considers equivalent in rank and stature to Soleimani or responsible for his death as successful retaliatory actions.” (Arab News)

The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group threatened Israel with military escalation if a future deal over the disputed maritime border between the two countries is not in Lebanon’s favor. Sayyed Hassan Narallah said in a televised speech that Lebanon should be able to extract oil and gas in Lebanese waters. Lebanon claims the Karish gas field is disputed territory under ongoing maritime border negotiations, whereas Israel says it lies within its internationally recognized economic waters. Negotiations between Lebanon and Israel to determine their maritime borders commenced in October 2020, when the two sides held indirect U.S.-mediated talks in southern Lebanon. (Associated Press)

Iran is preparing to provide Russia with drones for the battlefield in Ukraine, as well as training for its forces to use them, a senior White House official said Monday. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. has information that Tehran “is preparing to provide Russia with up to several 100 UAVs, including weapons-capable UAVs on an expedited timeline.” At a briefing for reporters, Mr. Sullivan said Iran was preparing to train Russian troops to use them, beginning as soon as early this month. “It’s unclear whether Iran has delivered any of these UAVs to Russia already.” (The Wall Street Journal)

Iran added demands unrelated to discussions on its nuclear program during the latest talks and has made alarming progress on enriching uranium, the U.S. envoy for talks on reinstating a nuclear deal said on Tuesday. "They have, including in Doha, added demands that I think anyone looking at this would be viewed as having nothing to do with the nuclear deal, things that they've wanted in the past," Robert Malley, U.S. Special Envoy for Iran, said in an interview with National Public Radio. The demands included some that the United States and Europeans have said could not be part of negotiations. (Reuters)

Iran has carried out a second test of its Zuljanah satellite launcher, Iranian state TV reported on Sunday, in a move likely to irk Washington amid expectations of a resumption of indirect talks between the arch foes to revive a 2015 nuclear pact. The United States fears such long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into orbit could also be used to launch nuclear warheads. Tehran denies the U.S. accusation. The Zuljanah is a three-stage satellite launcher using a combination of solid and liquid fuels. (Reuters)

Iran executed more than 100 people in the first three months of 2022, continuing a worrying upward trend, according to a report by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "While 260 individuals were executed in 2020, at least 310 individuals were executed in 2021, including at least 14 women," she said, adding that the trend had continued this year. Between January 1 and March 20, she said, "At least 105 people were executed," many of whom belonged to minority groups." Guterres's report had noted with deep concern the increase of executions for lesser crimes, including for drug-related offenses, Nashif said. (VOA News)

False rocket warning sirens that were activated in Jerusalem and Eilat on Sunday evening were likely caused by a cyberattack, the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) confirmed on Monday morning. By Monday, there was rampant speculation that Iran was the perpetrator of the hack, with a slew of cyber experts opining as such in interviews about the possibility of Iranian involvement. A diplomatic source downplayed the significance of the attack, saying, “There is constant cyber activity against Israel. Part of the [Israel’s] multi-year plan is to build a cyber iron dome in cooperation with other nations.” On Sunday evening, rocket sirens sounded for almost an hour in Eilat and across several Jerusalem neighborhoods including Talpiot, Katamon and Beit Hakerem. (The Jerusalem Post)

Israeli and American intelligence officials have been watching each day as Iran digs a vast tunnel network just south of the Natanz nuclear production site, in what they believe is Tehran’s biggest effort yet to construct new nuclear facilities so deep in the mountains that they can withstand bunker-busting bombs and cyberattacks. Though the construction is evident on satellite photographs and has been monitored by groups that track the proliferation of new nuclear facilities, Biden administration officials have never talked about it in public and Israel’s defense minister has mentioned it just once. (New York Times)

Iran has started removing 27 surveillance cameras from nuclear sites across the country, the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog said, warning this could deal a "fatal blow" to the tattered nuclear deal as Tehran enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels. The development comes a day after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s board of governors censured Tehran for failing to provide "credible information" over manufactured nuclear material found at three undeclared sites in the country. (CBS News)

Iran has carried out a mass execution of 12 inmates at a prison in its southeast, an NGO said. The 11 men and one woman — convicted either on drugs-related or murder charges — were hanged in the main prison of Zahedan in Sistan-Baluchestan province, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) said. They were all members of the Baluch ethnic minority who mainly adhere to the Sunni strain of Islam rather than the Shiism that is dominant in Iran, it added. Activists have long expressed concern that executions in Iran disproportionately target members of Iran’s ethnic and religious minorities, notably Kurds in the northwest, Arabs in the southwest and Baluch in the southeast. (The Times of Israel)

Thai security forces have thwarted several recent Iranian attempts to harm Western and Israeli targets in the southeast Asian country, according to a report. The news comes as Iran has reportedly been trying to retaliate for several high-profile assassinations and mysterious deaths in the Islamic Republic in recent months, including of a senior IRGC official and a top scientist. According to Channel 12, security forces in Thailand were successful in preventing an Iranian agent from establishing a terror cell in the country and potentially carrying out attacks against Israelis. Nonetheless, Thai security forces remain on high alert. Iran is still believed to be planning attacks against Israelis in Thailand and elsewhere. (Times of Israel)

Iran has not credibly answered the U.N. nuclear watchdog's long-standing questions on the origin of uranium particles found at three undeclared sites despite a fresh push for a breakthrough, the agency said in a report seen by Reuters on Monday. A separate quarterly IAEA report seen by Reuters said Iran's stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%, close to the roughly 90% that is weapons grade and in a form that can be enriched further, is estimated to have grown by 9.9 kg to 43.1 kg. That amounts to slightly more than what the IAEA calls a "significant quantity," defined as "the approximate amount of nuclear material for which the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear explosive device cannot be excluded." (Reuters)

Iranian forces seized two Greek tankers in the Gulf, shortly after Tehran warned it would take "punitive action" against Athens over the confiscation of Iranian oil by the United States from a tanker held off the Greek coast. It said a similar incident took place on another Greek-flagged vessel near Iran, without naming the ship, adding both actions violated international law and Greece had informed its allies, as well as complained to Iran's ambassador in Athens. Greek authorities last month impounded the Iranian-flagged Pegas, with 19 Russian crew members on board, near the coast of the southern island of Evia due to European Union sanctions. The United States later confiscated the Iranian oil cargo held onboard and plans to send it to the United States on another vessel, Reuters reported on Thursday. (Reuters)

The new CENTCOM commander calls Iran the most destabilizing force in the Middle East, reiterating the position that the United States will not allow a nuclear Iran. General Erik Kurilla, who was on a tour of Saudi Arabia and Egypt as part of what he called a “listening tour”, told Al Arabiya on Thursday that countering the threat posed by Iran needs regional cooperation. “I view Iran as the most destabilizing force in the Middle East. The United States’ position is that we will not allow a nuclear Iran. However, our concerns about Iran go beyond its nuclear capability,” the top US military general for the Middle East said. Describing Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for proxies and Iran-backed militias in the region as other concerns for the US, Kurilla said, “The Iranian threat requires a firm effort from us and our security partners in the region... CENTCOM is committed to that effort.” (Iran International)

A short audio recording was published by Israeli media on Saturday with a photo of a man introduced as Iranian national Mansour Rasouli. In the audio recording, Rasouli says he was sent to Turkey by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) to establishing an operational network to assassinate an Israeli diplomat in Istanbul, a Germany-based US general, and a journalist in France. The audio recording surfaced hours after Iran International's report of the alleged Iranian triple assassination plot. Iran International's diplomatic sources said a member of the IRGC'S Qods Force had been detained in an unnamed European country for assassination plots in Germany, France and Turkey. Apparently duped by his interrogators' claim that they were from one of Iran's many intelligence bodies, Rasouli says in the recording that accepting to carry out the operation was a mistake that he will never make again. (Iran International)

Alexei Saab stands accused of preparing attacks against the U.S. from 2000 to 2005 at the behest of Hezbollah. His targets included U.S. infrastructure and popular venues like Rockefeller Center. He was planning to attack the U.S. in the event of a U.S. attack on Iran. He was charged with “providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy, receiving military-type training from a foreign terrorist organization, unlawful procurement of citizenship to facilitate international terrorism and citizenship application fraud,” and multiple surveillance videos of popular U.S. destinations were found in his possession at the time of his arrest. (NBC News)

A group of pro-Iranian hackers said it was behind a cyberattack that temporarily took down the Israel Airports Authority’s website on Wednesday. The targeting came in the form of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack during which the Airports Authority website servers were overwhelmed by near-simultaneous requests to connect. The Airports Authority was one of several Israeli websites targeted in an attack that the ALtahrea Team of pro-Iran hackers in Iraq said began at 1:02 a.m. on Wednesday, coinciding with the two-year anniversary of Qassem Soleimani’s assassination by the US in Baghdad. (The Times of Israel)

Reports that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) plans to dispatch a large number of fighters from its Iraqi affiliates to Yemen have raised fears that, if true, this will expand the war in Yemen into a regional one, analysts said. Such a move also would threaten any path towards the establishment of peace in Yemen, they said. In a February 17 report, Intelligence Online revealed that the IRGC is planning to send a large force of fighters from Iran-backed Iraqi militias to support the Houthis in Yemen. This will include fighters from Asaib al-Haq and Harakat al-Nujaba, it said, noting that the move follows massive Houthi losses in the battles of Marib and Shabwa. (Al Mashareq)

The Washington Examiner acquired a report, marked sensitive but unclassified, on the Diplomatic Security Service’s protection of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The report details the costs of protecting Pompeo at $2 million per month given the heightened threat against his life emanating from Iran, especially since the January anniversary of the death of Qassem Soleimani. “Additional protective measures” have been needed since January 2021, says the report. Furthermore, the report adds that the security services provided by the State Department to former U.S. officials will not be authorized by law after June 2022, unless included in the “2022 appropriations act or other legislation.” (The Washington Examiner)

At least two Iranians belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ covert-action Quds Force are plotting to assassinate former national security advisor John Bolton, according to a Justice Department official with direct knowledge of the investigation. John Bolton currently sits on the UANI advisory board, and he was instrumental in the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the JCPOA. The source tells the Washington Examiner that the department possesses indictable evidence against the Iranians but that Biden administration officials are resisting publicly indicting the men for fear that it could derail their drive for a nuclear deal with Iran, which at the time appeared to be nearing completion in negotiations in Vienna, Austria. It is possible but unlikely that there are sealed indictments against the men, but the DOJ source said the seriousness of the conspiracy and the evidence warranted public indictment without delay. (The Washington Examiner)

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei described homosexuality as part of the "moral deprivation" widespread in Western civilization, during a televised speech on Tuesday. "There is severe moral deprivation in the world today such as homosexuality and things that one cannot bring oneself to even talk about. Some have rightly called Western civilization a new age of ignorance," Khamenei said. Western rights groups have often criticized Iran, where homosexual acts among men can be punished by the death penalty. (Reuters)

Iran unveiled a new domestically-made missile with a range of 1,450 kilometers on Wednesday, state TV reported, a day after Tehran and Washington resumed indirect talks to salvage a 2015 nuclear deal. Iran, which has one of the biggest missile programs in the Middle East, says its ballistic missiles have a range of up to 2,000 km (1,200 miles) and are capable of reaching its arch-foe Israel and U.S. bases in the region. State TV displayed the new surface-to-surface "Kheibar Shekan" (Kheibar buster) missile. "This long-range missile is domestically manufactured by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) ... It has high accuracy and is propelled by solid fuel and is capable of penetrating missile shields," Iranian state media reported. (Reuters)

A little-known extremist group claimed a drone attack on the United Arab Emirates, raising the possibility that Iran has decided to mobilize its proxy militias from other countries in the region beyond Yemen. On the same day, according to the Iranian state news agency IRNA, Iran Foreign Minister Amirabdollahian stressed during a conversation [with his UAE counterpart] that ‘the Zionist regime’s presence is a threat to the regional security,’ in a reference to the normalisation of ties between Israel and some Gulf countries including the UAE. Alwiyat al-Waad al-Haq (True Promise Brigades), which is believed to be simply a cover name used by pro-Iranian factions operating in Iraq, said it launched four drones at dawn on Wednesday targeting the Gulf state. The UAE announced the interception and destruction on Wednesday of three "hostile drones,” which follows three previous drone and missile attacks claimed by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels since January 17. (The Arab Weekly)

The U.S. State Department provided an unclassified but non-public assessment to Congress on January 11 detailing the “specific threat [that] persists with respect to former special representative [for Iran] Brian Hook.” The threat has existed since at least January 2021, the State Department determined. Hook led the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran following the withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2018. While the report doesn’t explicitly name Iran as the threat, it comes amid public statements by top Iranian leaders threatening Trump administration officials. (The Washington Free Beacon)

Four rockets targeted the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the latest in a series of aerial attacks amid Iranian threats and political violence as Iraq’s factions struggle to form a new government. The rockets were launched against the backdrop of a spate of rocket and drone strikes against American personnel in Iraq and Syria that Biden administration officials have attributed to Iran-backed militias. Asked if the United States would retaliate for the latest barrage, Mr. Kirby would not specify what response, if any, was possible. (New York Times)

Amid public statements threatening U.S. officials, Iran imposed sanctions on over 50 U.S. officials. Iranian officials have made explicit their interest in killing one of the people involved in the U.S. strike that killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qassem Soleimani. In public remarks, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan made this concern apparent in saying that “should Iran attack any of our nationals, including any of the 52 people named yesterday, it will face severe consequences.” The Office of the Supreme Leader has also showcased a propaganda video depicting the assassination of former President Trump in Mar-a-Lago. Iranian media has likewise produced videos simulating an attack on Washington, D.C. (The Washington Examiner)

The Iran-aligned Houthi movement that controls northern Yemen hijacked a United Arab Emirates-flagged cargo vessel which it said was engaged in "hostile acts" but which the Saudis said was carrying hospital equipment. The ship was heading to the Saudi port of Jizan, just north of Yemen, from the Yemeni Red Sea Island of Socotra when it was attacked just before midnight on Sunday, Saudi state news agency SPA reported, quoting coalition spokesman Brigadier General Turki al-Malki. The cargo ship was hijacked off the western Yemeni port of Hodeidah, the coalition said. The Houthis' military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, confirmed seizure of the vessel which he said was carrying military equipment and engaged in "hostile acts targeting the security and stability of the Yemeni people.” (Reuters)

Iran announced Thursday a rocket launch carrying three research devices amid nuclear talks with world powers, although it was unclear if any reached orbit. Ahmed Hosseini, a defense ministry spokesman, said the ‘Simorgh’ satellite-carrier rocket had set the three devices at 470 kilometers (290 miles) altitude. Iran, which has one of the widest missile programs in the Middle East, has suffered several failed satellite launches in recent years due to technical issues. Israel and the United States have said it contravenes United Nations Security Council resolution 2231, which in endorsing the JCPOA banned Iran from “any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.” Washington left the JCPOA in 2018, imposing ‘maximum pressure sanctions’ on Iran. (Iran International)

U.S. 5th Fleet ships seized approximately 1,400 AK-47 assault rifles and 226,600 rounds of ammunition from a stateless fishing vessel during a flag verification boarding in accordance with customary international law in the North Arabian Sea, Dec. 20. U.S. Navy patrol coastal ships USS Tempest (PC 2) and USS Typhoon (PC 5) found the weapons during a search conducted by embarked U.S. Coast Guard personnel. The illicit weapons and ammunition were later transported to guided-missile destroyer USS O’Kane (DDG 77) where they await final disposition. The stateless vessel was assessed to have originated in Iran and transited international waters along a route historically used to traffic weapons unlawfully to the Houthis in Yemen. The direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer of weapons to the Houthis violates U.N. Security Council Resolutions and U.S. sanctions. (US CENTCOM)

Iran has begun the process of enriching uranium with advanced centrifuges at its Fordo plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday, in what would be a further violation of the multilateral nuclear accord that world powers are rushing to salvage. The UN’s nuclear watchdog reported that Tehran started the process of enriching uranium at Fordo, 135 kilometers from Tehran, to up to 20 percent purity with a cluster of 166 advanced IR-6 machines. Until now, Iran had been enriching uranium at Fordo, but mainly with less-advanced IR-1 machines, the report said, adding that Western negotiators fear that Tehran is seeking to create facts on the ground as talks in Vienna restart. (Times of Israel)

Bahrain security forces have arrested a number of suspects, and confiscated weapons and explosives ahead of a planned attack, the interior ministry said. The ministry did not say how many people were arrested or specify their nationalities. “Terrorists (were) arrested for plotting terrorist operations against security and civil peace,” the interior ministry wrote on Twitter on Monday. It described them as “linked with terrorist groups in Iran.” Bahrain, host to the United States Navy’s Fifth Fleet and other international naval operations, has often accused Shia Muslim Iran of seeking to destabilize the Sunni-ruled kingdom, which has a Shia majority population. Iran has denied such allegations. (Aljazeera)

A drone attack that targeted the Iraqi prime minister on Sunday was carried out by at least one Iran-backed militia, Iraqi security officials and militia sources said, weeks after pro-Iran groups were routed in elections they say were rigged. Some reports suggest while Iran may not have directly ordered the attack, it likely had foreknowledge of the operation. Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi escaped unhurt when three drones carrying explosives were launched at his residence in Baghdad. Several of his bodyguards were injured. Iraqi officials and analysts said the attack was meant as a message from militias that they are willing to resort to violence if excluded from the formation of a government, or if their grip on large areas of the state apparatus is challenged. (Reuters)

At least 125 people were injured Friday in Baghdad, according to Iraq’s Health Ministry, as supporters of Iran-backed armed groups gathered outside the fortified Green Zone complex to demand a recount of the country’s parliamentary elections. The broad contours of Iraq’s Oct. 10 election results are not in doubt, but they were a surprise: As Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s party emerged as the biggest winner, his expected main challenger — a powerful coalition of Iran-aligned groups — won more of the votes but saw its seats more than halved. While the discrepancy appeared to have resulted from superior electoral strategy on the part of Sadr’s party, supporters of the coalition’s militia network had camped outside Baghdad’s Green Zone for several weeks, spending their shifts inside tents on the sidewalk or sitting out under banners that denounce Iraq’s election as fraudulent. (Washington Post)

Thousands of Iranians gathered on Tehran streets Thursday for the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy, chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” and burning American and Israeli flags. The embassy takeover triggered a 444-day hostage crisis and break in diplomatic relations that continues to this day. The government-organized commemoration, long a venue for voicing anti-Western sentiment, typically draws angry crowds each year. Last year, authorities canceled the event due to the still-raging coronavirus pandemic but on Thursday, state TV said that 800 cities across Iran staged demonstrations. Protesters hoisted an effigy of President Joe Biden wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the Star of David, drops of red paint dripping from its mouth. It wasn’t clear whether the demonstrators were trying to make a point or were simply recycling old props from their 2019 parade, but the figure’s mop of orange hair resembled that of the effigy of former President Donald Trump used at the rally two years ago. (Associated Press)

Iran seized a Vietnamese-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman last month and still holds the vessel, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press, revealing the latest provocation in Mideast waters as tensions escalate between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard troops on Oct. 24 took control of the MV Southys, a vessel that analysts suspect of trying to transfer sanctioned Iranian crude oil to Asia, at gunpoint. U.S. forces had monitored the seizure, but ultimately didn’t take action as the vessel sailed into Iranian waters. Iran celebrated its capture of the vessel in dramatic footage aired on state television, the day before the 42nd anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. (Fox News)

A self-described hacking group calling itself Edalat-e Ali (Ali’s Justice) has leaked confidential documents to RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that appear to reveal the plight of prisoners at Evin prison, Iran’s most notorious facility. According to the prison documents, hunger strikes by prisoners and the publication of open letters by inmates is considered “criminal” behavior. In one document, a former official at Evin prison called for the punishment of inmates who refused to eat or released letters, statements, and audio files from prison. “In such cases, prisoners [accused] of violations should be held in isolation, their welfare [including private and public meetings] should be limited, and we should look into their demands,” the document says. (RFE/RL)

Hours after leaking the personal details of users of an LGBTQ dating app, Iran-affiliated hacker group Black Shadow continued to wreak havoc Tuesday night as it released private information on nearly 300,000 Israelis receiving medical treatment at the Mor Institute, including patient requests and test results. Patients' credit card information does not appear to have been leaked at this time. Black Shadow also published information on some 30,000 registered users of 103FM Radio's website and nearly 500,000 customers of Locker Ambin Ltd. As was the case in the Atraf leak, the hackers shared the information via an Excel file shared with a new group they created on Telegram. The hackers also provided links allowing others to download information obtained from the Atraf app. The messaging app was forced to take action on the matter after being ordered to do so by the State Attorney's Office. (Israel Hayom)

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday that the Arab nations who have improved ties with Israel have “sinned” and must reverse course. Four nations – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan – agreed to normalize ties in 2020, as the “Abraham Accords” led to Israel’s first treaties with Arab nations since reaching an agreement with Jordan in 1994. Jordan and Egypt were the only Arab nations to have existing diplomatic ties with Israel before the 2020 agreements. “Some governments have unfortunately made big errors and have sinned in normalizing [their relations] with the usurping and oppressive Zionist regime,” Khamenei said. “It is an act against Islamic unity, they must return from this path and make up for this big mistake.” (Jerusalem Post)

Iran is expanding its enrichment of uranium beyond the highly enriched threshold of 20% purity at a Natanz plant where it is already enriching to 60%, but the new activity does not involve keeping the product, the U.N nuclear watchdog said on Monday. The move is likely to help Iran refine its knowledge of the enrichment process - something Western powers generally condemn because it is irreversible - but since this time the product is not being collected it will not immediately accelerate Iran's production of uranium enriched to close to weapons-grade. It has, however, prompted the International Atomic Energy Agency to "increase the frequency and intensity of its safeguards activities" at the above-ground Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) at Natanz, the IAEA said in a report seen by Reuters. As of around 90% uranium is considered weapons-grade. (Reuters)

U.S. officials say they believe Iran was behind the drone attack last week at the military outpost in southern Syria where American troops are based. Officials said Monday the U.S. believes that Iran resourced and encouraged the attack, but that the drones were not launched from Iran. They were Iranian drones, and Iran appears to have facilitated their use, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not been made public. Officials said they believe the attacks involved as many as five drones laden with explosive charges, and that they hit both the U.S. side of al-Tanf garrison and the side where Syrian opposition forces stay. (Associated Press)

The head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog says his monitoring program in Iran is no longer “intact” after Tehran refused requests to repair cameras at a key facility, creating the possibility the world will never be “able to reconstruct the picture” of what the Iranians have been doing. In an interview with NBC News, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi says he’s been unable to establish the type of direct communication with Iran’s government that he had before a new hardline government run by President Ebrahim Raisi was elected in June. “I have never spoken to the new foreign minister,” Grossi says. “I hope to be able to have the opportunity to meet with him soon because it’s very important … so when there is a problem, when there is misunderstanding, when there is a disagreement, we can talk about it. I used to have it before, and I would assume it that I would be the normal thing.” Grossi spoke during a visit to Washington as the fate of the Iran nuclear deal hangs in the balance, with world powers urgently urging Iran to return to negotiations to restore the deal and the U.S. saying time is running out. (NBC News)

Iran on Tuesday kicked off a massive, two-day air defense drill in the country’s sprawling central desert, state TV reported, the latest show of force by the Islamic Republic. The report said both the army and the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard were taking part in the annual maneuvers dubbed “Velayat.” It said elite air force and air defense units as well as the Guard’s airspace division would participate. Iran regularly holds such drills and says they assess the troops’ combat readiness and demonstrate the nation’s military capabilities. (Associated Press)

Microsoft on Monday released evidence showing Iranian-linked hackers targeting and at times compromising systems of U.S. and Israeli defense technology companies.  In a blog post, Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center and Digital Security Unit assessed that a new cyber “activity cluster” linked to Iran had targeted hundreds of Microsoft Office 365 accounts beginning in July tied to groups including U.S. and Israeli defense companies, Persian Gulf entry ports, and global maritime transportation companies. Microsoft also observed targeting by the Iranian-linked hackers of defense companies that work with U.S., European Union and Israeli government partners on producing technology such as drones, satellites and emergency response communications systems. (The Hill)

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah thanked Iran late Thursday for standing by the Lebanese paramilitary group. “The Islamic Republic proved that it is the sincere and loyal ally who doesn’t abandon its friends despite the hard conditions,” said Nasrallah, the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar TV reported Friday. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is in Lebanon for an official visit. On Thursday, he met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati as well as President Michael Aoun and parliament speaker Nabih Berri. (Al-Monitor)

A newly discovered hacking group with alleged ties to the Iranian government has waged a yearslong campaign to steal information from aerospace and telecommunications companies in the Middle East, the U.S., Europe and Russia, according to cybersecurity researchers. The hacking group, dubbed MalKamak by the researchers, disguised its activities by using the U.S.-based file storage service Dropbox Inc. as the “command and control” server from which it orchestrated hacking operations, according to a report published by Cybereason Inc. on Wednesday. The use of Dropbox helped conceal the hackers’ activity, making it look like the network traffic from compromised computers was associated with legitimate uploads and downloads from the Dropbox website, Cybereason found. While the group has carried out a targeted spying operation since 2018, Cybereason said it only recently discovered it after identifying the group’s involvement in a hack on a Middle Eastern company. (Bloomberg)

Iran said it will start military exercises in its northwest on Friday after moving forces near to the border with Azerbaijan, a deployment that angered the Azeri president and thrust Tehran’s rivalry with Israel to the fore. The drills will involve armored units, drones and attack helicopters, and test electronic radar systems, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing a statement by Army Brigadier General Kioumars Heydari. Heydari didn’t specify where in Iran’s northwestern region -- which borders Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey and Iraq -- the maneuvers will be held. But Azerbaijan’s leader Ilham Aliyev has expressed concern over Tehran massing military assets near his country’s frontier for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union. (Bloomberg) 

An unmanned aerial vehicle that appeared at a weapons exhibition held earlier this year by the rebels ruling much of Yemen bears a striking resemblance to the kamikaze drone believed to have been used later in a deadly attack against an oil tanker off the coast of Oman, experts told Newsweek. The system used in that operation and others like it have been linked by U.S. officials and other analysts to Iran, but experts also noted the near impossibility of drawing a direct link to any single source. Mercer Street, a Liberia-flagged vessel operating on behalf of a company owned by an Israeli businessman, was hit by two back-to-back explosions in July while sailing through the Gulf of Oman. The latter blast killed the ship's captain, a Romanian national, along with its security officer, a citizen of the United Kingdom. (Newsweek)

Iran’s foreign minister said his nation’s "willpower is dedicated" to the elimination of Zionism at this week’s United Nations anti-racism conference. With the United States and 33 other nations boycotting a UN anti-racism conference due to its history of anti-Semitism, Iran’s new foreign minister invoked the destruction of the Jewish state, perhaps giving the countries who boycotted the conference more reason to have stayed away, observers say.  The event, known as Durban IV, had the theme of "Reparations, racial justice and equality for people of African descent." Wednesday’s event was to commemorate and adopt a statement 20 years after the first meeting in Durban, South Africa. While the original purpose of the event was combating racism, critics say it has been hijacked by an anti-Israel agenda that turned it into an anti-Semitic hate fest leading the U.S. and Israel to walk out of the first conference. (Fox News)

Iran’s demands for US forces to withdraw from a critical air base in Iraqi Kurdistan coupled with threats to expand operations against “American and Zionist mercenaries” are sending jitters across the Kurdish enclave, with many asking how far Tehran will go and what, if anything, the United States will do to stop it. Mohammed Bagheri, senior commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, appeared to be emboldened by America’s controversial withdrawal from Afghanistan, calling it “a defeat and an embarrassment worse than Vietnam.” In comments to Iran TV on Sunday, Bagheri said, “Iraq and its northern [Kurdish] region should not allow America and the Zionist regime and armed counter-revolutionary groups to have training bases, TV and radio stations, camps [and] military training, then attack our border regions and assassinate our officers.” (