Iran's Malign Behavior Tracker

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is expected to visit Iran soon to discuss “political and field developments,” Hamas announced. The planned visit is seen by Palestinians as another sign of improved relations between Hamas and Iran after the tensions that erupted between the two sides over the civil war in Syria. Relations between Hamas and Iran were strained when the Palestinian group refused to come out in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad, a key ally of the Iranian regime in the Middle East. (Jerusalem Post)

Chinese drones have been used by the Myanmar military since 2015 to support counterinsurgency operations in the country’s restive north. But the unrest following the 2021 coup has increased demand for their use and for their spare parts, especially engines, which are widely believed to have been purchased from Iran. The Washington DC-based Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control and the U.S. watchdog United Against Nuclear Iran believe [the MD550 engine] is produced by Iranian manufacturer Oje Parvaz Mado Nafar Company or MADO. (Iran International)

Iranian authorities have been shutting down a large number of shops and businesses around the country they say are not observing the mandatory hijab law. According to reports from Iran, Ali Akbar Javidan, the police commander of Kermanshah Province, said the Public Places' Supervision Department, in cooperation with "other responsible agencies," has begun "the implementation of the chastity and hijab plan." Javidan said 45 businesses were closed after ignoring warnings they were not abiding by the compulsory hijab rule. (Voice of America)

State TV has long been recognized as one of the most powerful and influential institutions in the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, in the past two years, Vahid Jalili, a hardline figure, has taken the helm causing concern even among conservatives, with his primary goal to promote the Islamic Republic's ideology in the most hardline and extreme way. In 2021, a power struggle ensued between two like-minded groups of hard liners and conservatives vying for control of state TV. The state TV network holds a complete monopoly over domestic radio and television services, leaving no room for alternative channels in Iran. (Al-Monitor)

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Iran was the “driving force” of a recent multi-front escalation, while detailing the funding the Islamic Republic provides to its proxies across the region. Gallant told reporters in a briefing that Iran funds the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon with $700 million a year, as well as “knowledge and strategic weaponry,” such as precision-guided munitions. The Hamas terror group that rules the Gaza Strip is funded by Iran with $100 million annually, with additional funding worth tens of millions of dollars going to the second largest terror group in the Palestinian enclave, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Gallant said. (Times of Israel)

Iran's nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami says Tehran and U.N. atomic watchdog, the IAEA, are in constant contact and talks between the two sides are progressing. Eslami said that the talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency are pursued and experts report daily on the progress. During a trip to Tehran in early March, IAEA's director Rafael Grossi said he reached an agreement to ensure Iran's full cooperation and said more meetings would take place soon. (Iran International)

Indictments were filed against two Palestinian West Bank residents after they had been recruited to conduct operations on behalf of Hezbollah and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced. Yusuf Mansour and Maarsil Mansour allegedly agreed to smuggle and traffic military equipment in Israel for operatives who had identified themselves as representatives of Hezbollah. Yusuf is accused of gathering intelligence with assistance from Maarsil on IDF operations in the West Bank on behalf of the Lebanon-based terrorist organization. (Jerusalem Post)

General Ali Kouhestani, the head of the Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization of the IRGC Ground Force, announced during an interview with Tasnim news agency that there is a development of a powerful anti-tank guided missile called the Sadid-365. With a range of 8 km, the missile is capable of obliterating any armored equipment that it targets, according to Mehr news. "This optically guided missile is highly accurate in hitting the target and with the ability to attack from above, it can also pass through the active defense systems and destroy them," Kouhestani said. (Jerusalem Post)

Iran’s president delivered an unprecedented speech to an annual pro-Palestinian rally in the Gaza Strip, a display of Iran’s importance to the Hamas militant group that rules the territory. In a virtual address to hundreds of supporters of Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group gathered at a soccer field, Ebrahim Raisi urged Palestinians to press on with their struggle against Israel. “The initiative to self-determination is today in the hands of the Palestinian fighters,” Raisi said, dismissing Hamas’ domestic political rival, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, which has long sought to win Palestinian statehood through negotiations with Israel. (Associated Press)

China and Russia are in advanced secret talks with Iran to replenish the Islamic Republic’s supply of a key chemical compound used to propel ballistic missiles, diplomats familiar with the matter say, a move that would mark a clear violation of United Nations sanctions and possibly help Moscow replenish its depleted stock of rockets. Tehran has held concurrent negotiations with officials and government-controlled entities from both countries, including the state-owned Russian chemical maker FKP Anozit, to acquire large amounts of ammonium perchlorate, or AP, the main ingredient in solid propellants used to power missiles, said the diplomats, who requested anonymity in order to discuss confidential information. (Politico)

A website in Tehran says that former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, and his brother who is programming chief at state TV plan to win control of the next parliament. Khabar Online, wrote in an April 9 report that the Jalili brothers are determined to go from where they are in positions of power to the Iranian parliament (Majles) next year. Khabar Online added that all those who were in charge of the state television before were also political activists linked to major political groups. (Iran International)

As schools in Iran reopen after the new year holiday, female students are again being targeted by chemical attacks. It is not immediately clear who is responsible for the poisonings, but some Iranians suspect that their own government is the likely culprit. The attacks have targeted schools across the country and students are poisoned by unknown substances that spread through the buildings, according to media reports. Some of the victims have been admitted to hospitals with shortness of breath and other respiratory symptoms. (Voice of America)

The Israeli military said that three rockets were launched from Syria toward Israeli territory, a rare attack from the country's northeastern neighbor that comes after days of escalating violence on multiple fronts. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket launches, which caused no damage or casualties. Only one rocket managed to cross into Israeli territory and landed in a field in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, the Israeli military said. Fragments of another destroyed missile fell into Jordanian territory near the Syrian border, Jordan's military reported. (CBS)

Azerbaijan’s security services arrested six people accused of being recruited by Iran in order to overthrow Baku’s secular government and install a pro-Iranian religious regime. Those detained are all Azerbaijani nationals and are accused of being members of a group that’s received funding and instructions from Iran’s theocratic government to “undermine stability and start armed riots” in Azerbaijan, the State Security Service, the Ministry of Interior and the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a joint statement.  Dozens of Azerbaijani nationals have reportedly been arrested in the past few weeks for alleged links to Iran amid escalating tensions between the two countries over a range of issues including Israel and Azerbaijan’s conflict with Armenia. (Bloomberg)

Universities in Iran will bar female students who refuse to wear the hijab from education services. The Ministry of Science, Research and Technology said all universities and higher education centers under its supervision will be able to bar female students who do not wear a hijab from educational and welfare services, according to a statement carried by the judiciary's Mizan news agency. An education official from the health ministry said medical schools "are prohibited from providing any services to students without the Islamic hijab." (The National)

Iran’s judiciary chief has threatened to prosecute “without mercy” women who appear in public unveiled, Iranian media reported. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei’s warning comes on the heels of an interior ministry statement that reinforced the government’s mandatory hijab law. “Unveiling is tantamount to enmity with [our] values,” Ejei was quoted as saying by several news sites. (The Guardian)

Hard-line lawmakers in Iran have proposed new tougher measures to enforce the country's hijab law. The proposed measures would impose fines of up to $60,000 on women who violate the law as well as the confiscation of their passports and driver's licenses, according to lawmaker Hossein Jalali. Another member of parliament, Bijan Nobaveh, said the proposed measures also include using surveillance cameras to monitor if women in public are wearing the compulsory hijab. As punishment, offenders would be denied mobile phone and Internet services, he said. (Radio Free Europe)

Russia is helping Iran gain advanced digital-surveillance capabilities as Tehran seeks deeper cooperation on cyberwarfare, people familiar with the matter said, adding another layer to a burgeoning military alliance that the U.S. sees as a threat. The potential for cyberwarfare collaboration comes after Iran has, according to U.S. and Iranian officials, sold Russia drones for use in Ukraine, agreed to provide short-range missiles to Moscow and shipped tank and artillery rounds to the battlefield. Tehran is seeking the cyber help along with what U.S. and Iranian officials have said are requests for dozens of elite Russian attack helicopters and jet fighters and aid with its long-range missile program. (Wall Street Journal)

Two networks of alleged Iranian operatives were indicted for attempts to procure and export U.S. weapons technology to Tehran, the U.S. Department of Justice announced, and four connected companies were designated for sanctioning by the U.S. Treasury Department. The schemes would have supported Iran's ballistic missile, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and weapons programs, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Between 2012 and 2013, Iranian citizen Amanallah Paidar and Turkish citizen Murat Bükey conspired to secure a device to test fuel cells and a bio-detection system that has application in weapons of mass destruction research. (Jerusalem Post)

A human rights group says nearly 30,000 people were arrested for staging protests, political activities, or the expression of their opinions in the Iranian year ending on March 20. The report by the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) states that during the 12 months, 29,688 people were arrested in Iran, of which 28,419 were detained for exercising their rights free expression. 328 women's rights activists, 258 trade union activists, 235 ethnic minorities and 169 people of religious minorities were also among the detainees, according to the report. (Iran International)

The Islamic Republic has opened an office in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province to recruit young locals to join its proxies. Offering vulnerable young men a monthly salary of $200, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the Islamic Republic is on a new drive to recruit militants from one of the region’s poorest countries. It claimed that 80 men are working voluntarily in the office, part of the Islamic Republic's efforts to expand its military and political influence in Syria. (Iran International)

Prominent reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh, who is currently being held at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, says he and his cell mates were attacked by guards for their support of recent comments made by opposition figure Mir Hossein Mousavi on regime change. Tajzadeh, 65, said in a letter that he and fellow prisoners Saeed Madani and Hossein Razzaq were attacked after they were subjected to an "unusual and long search" of their cell over the weekend. (Radio Free Europe)

Russia has been capturing some of the U.S. and NATO-provided weapons and equipment left on the battlefield in Ukraine and sending them to Iran, where the U.S. believes Tehran will try to reverse-engineer the systems, four sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Over the last year, U.S., NATO and other Western officials have seen several instances of Russian forces seizing smaller, shoulder-fired weapons equipment including Javelin anti-tank and Stinger anti-aircraft systems that Ukrainian forces have at times been forced to leave behind on the battlefield, the sources told CNN. Russia believes that continuing to provide captured Western weapons to Iran will incentivize Tehran to maintain its support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, the sources said. (CNN)

The U.S. and Europe's top powers expressed alarm at Iran having produced a tiny amount of uranium enriched to 84% purity, very close to weapons grade, and said Iran must explain how it happened. The U.N. nuclear watchdog found uranium particles enriched to up to 83.7% at Fordow, a site dug into a mountain and the second place where it is continuously enriching uranium to up to 60%. Weapons grade is around 90%. (Reuters)

The head of Iran's army has said it has become one of the three countries to produce ballistic missiles capable of destroying mobile naval units. Tehran has begun mass producing the missiles, which will create "significant security" in its waters, Maj Gen Mohammed Bagheri told news agency Tasnim, affiliated to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The missiles will be able to operate at a distance of 1,000 km, he said. Iran's naval activity is often the source of tension with the US, including in the Gulf of Oman, where Iran attacked an Israeli commercial vessel in November with a Shahed-136 missile. (The National)

The alleged orchestrator of a shooting of a synagogue in Germany, according to five German security officials and two Western intelligence officials, was Ramin Yektaparast: a muscled Hells Angels leader wanted in the case of a gruesome biker gang murder in Germany. Yektaparast is suspected of directing attacks from Tehran through his criminal networks in Germany, allegedly at the behest of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the officials say. (Washington Post)

The British navy seized anti-tank missiles and fins for ballistic missile assemblies during a raid on a small boat heading from Iran likely to Yemen, authorities said, the latest such seizure in the Gulf of Oman. The raid took place February 23 after an American aircraft detected a small motorboat with cargo covered by a gray tarp heading from Iran, with a helicopter from the Royal Navy frigate HMS Lancaster chasing the vessel as it ignored being hailed by radio, the British Defense Ministry said. The boat tried to reenter Iranian territorial water, but was stopped before it could.  (Associated Press)

Iran has shown off what it claims are underground tunnels used for air defense systems. Iran showed off the tunnels during air defense drills this week. The drills are called “Guardians of Velayat Sky-1401.” The footage was released by Iran showing a 3rd Khordad air defense system apparently being driven out of a tunnel.  This is an advanced air defense system Iran used to shoot down a U.S. Global Hawk drone in 2020. According to the report the air defense system was operated by the IRGC’s Aerospace unit. The systems are kept in “subterranean tunnels” and can be easily moved out to ground level “when needed.” (Jerusalem Post)

Iran has renewed threats to target former President Donald Trump and top members of his former cabinet, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for the 2020 killing of its top military commander, Qasem Soleimani. "God willing, we are looking to kill Trump [and] Pompeo … and military commanders who issued the order should be killed," Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps aerospace force, told Iranian state television. The threats are nothing new, though this time they came as Tehran was announcing a new long-range cruise missile capable of flying more than 1,000 miles, which could give it additional striking capabilities to U.S. forces in the Middle East. (Fox News)

Israel's minister of defense issued an order indicating that an Iranian smuggling operation uncovered last May continues to be a concern. The smuggling operation involves the illegal trade of Iranian oil to Venezuela in return for gold bullion, which is used to fund the Lebanese-based Hezbollah terrorist organization. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant signed a document revealing that dozens of kilograms of gold were smuggled from Venezuela to Europe and Syria. The gold was transported from Caracas to Tehran via Mahan Air, a privately-owned Iranian airline based in Tehran. The profits from the smuggled gold were then transferred to Hezbollah, according to the findings. (All Israel News)

Iran’s deputy education minister says the serial poisoning of female students in the religious city of Qom and other cities have been "intentional." Younes Panahi said that "it was found that some people wanted all schools, especially girls' schools, to be closed." "It has been revealed that the chemical compounds used to poison students are not war chemicals, and the poisoned students do not need aggressive treatment, and a large percentage of the chemical agents used are treatable," he told a press conference. (Iran International)

Iranian state television has offered a defense against an accusation attributed to International Atomic Agency Organization inspectors that it enriched uranium to 84% purity. An Iranian official implicitly accepted the accusation, telling state television's English-language arm, Press T.V. that the allegation is a part of a “conspiracy” against Tehran amid tensions over its nuclear program. Iran’s Nuclear Agency Spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said that finding highly-enriched uranium particles in the pipes connecting centrifuges was a “normal issue.” (Iran International)  

After long airing forced televised “confessions” of dissidents, Iran's regime is increasingly coercing individuals to post dictated statements on social media. A video of a woman unveiling at an official event in Tehran went viral on social media. Then, the same woman posted a video of herself apologizing for her “rash” behavior. (Iran International)

Iran is hiring organized criminals to spy on Britain’s Jews in preparation for a potential assassination campaign against prominent members of the community, Security Minister Tom Tugendhat told the JC. The regime is “mapping” Jews in the diaspora to lay the ground for high-profile revenge murders should Israel launch a military attack against the theocracy. In response, the minister, who is responsible for MI5, said: “You were right. We have very clear intelligence about the activities of hostile regimes in the U.K. and we keep a very close eye on what their agents and those close to them are doing. We know that the Iranians are using non-traditional sources to carry out these operations, including organized criminal gangs.” (Jewish Chronicle)  

The Iranian government has been behind 15 credible threats to kill or kidnap British citizens or U.K.-based people in just over a year, security minister Tom Tugendhat has told parliament following intimidation that forced the closure of a Persian-language television station. Tehran had also tried to gather information on U.K.-based Jewish and Israeli individuals as “a preparation for future lethal operations”, the minister told the House of Commons in a statement. Tugendhat was speaking after Iran International, viewed by many Iranians as an opposition TV channel, temporarily ceased broadcasting from the U.K. over the weekend as a result of what Tugendhat called “very real and specific threats” towards members of its staff. (Financial Times)

United Nations atomic agency inspectors have detected uranium that has been enriched to near weapons-grade in Iran in recent weeks, three senior diplomats said, a finding that will deepen concerns about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Iran has been producing highly enriched, weapons-grade material of 60% purity since early 2021, but the material found was of 84% purity, according to the diplomats. Weapons-grade enriched uranium is generally considered to be from around 90%-enriched uranium. The diplomats said they had been informed that Iran doesn’t appear to be accumulating a stockpile of the 84% material. (The Wall Street Journal)

Recent reports indicate that Iran and Turkey are pushing ahead with their respective projects to build enormous factories in Russia and Ukraine for manufacturing large numbers of their homegrown Shahed and Bayraktar drones. On Jan. 5, a high-level Iranian delegation visited the Russian town of Yelabuga, about 600 miles east of Moscow. Iran and Russia have ambitious plans to build a large factory there that will manufacture at least 6,000 drones based on Iranian designs. Iran has already supplied Russia with hundreds of Shahed-131/136 loitering munitions – single-use, self-detonating drones – for the war against Ukraine. (Forbes)

Seif al-Adel, the apparent new leader of al Qaeda is in Iran, a United Nations report has said and the United States confirmed the information. State Department spokesperson Ned Price was asked during his daily press briefing to comment on the UN report. He said: “Our assessment aligns with that of the UN…offering safe haven to al Qaeda is another example of Iran’s wide-ranging support for terrorism, its destabilizing activities in the Middle East and beyond.” Asked by a reporter what the United States is ready to do if Adel is in Iran, Price said that the Biden administration is determined not to allow threats to emerge. (Iran International)

The number of cyberattacks by Iran on targets in Israel has doubled in the past year, the director general of the Israeli Nation Cyber Directorate (INCD) has told Tech Monitor. Speaking to Tech Monitor at the Cybertech Conference in Tel Aviv, Portnoy said his organization has thwarted 1,000 potential cyberattacks over the past year, far outstripping its neighbors. Iran’s cyberattacks against Israel doubled in the past year, explains Portnoy. Other countries in the region have felt the same pressure, from cyber espionage to ransomware and attacks on critical national infrastructure (CNI). (Tech Monitor)

Britain says it has for the first time presented evidence that Iran is supplying advanced weapons to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, after finding images of tests conducted at the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards in Tehran on the hard drive of an unmanned aircraft seized by the Royal Navy. Personnel from the British ship HMS Montrose seized the unmanned quadcopter along with a shipment of missiles and missile parts in February last year when they stopped and searched a number of fast-moving skiffs in the Gulf of Oman. The weapons and other evidence were presented to the United Nations as linking Iran to violations of Security Council resolutions barring weapons shipments to the Houthis, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Monday in London.  (Associated Press)

Iran has reportedly used the country's state-owned airline and boats to smuggle high-end drones to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine. Sources within Iran told The Guardian that at least 18 advanced drones have been delivered to Russia's military since November, including six Mohajer-6 drones plus 12 Shahed 191 and 129 drones. Iran has also provided 54 technicians – about three per drone – to help the Russian military put the aircraft into service, according to the report. (Fox News)

The adviser to Iran’s minister of intelligence has claimed that 90 countries are "customers" of Iranian drones, and China is in the "queue" to receive 15,000 of these drones. (Iran International)

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps displayed an apparent ballistic missile with the words “Death to Israel” emblazoned in Hebrew down the side, at an exhibition in the central city of Isfahan. Pictures posted by the Tasnim news agency show what appears to be a surface-to-surface missile in a launcher with elaborate Hebrew script running down its side. It was not clear if it was an actual missile or a mockup. (Times of Israel)

Baluch Activists Campaign say a teenager arrested during protests has attempted suicide in Zahedan prison, southeast of Iran, due to severe physical, sexual and mental torture. According to the human rights organization, the teenager was arrested by the Revolutionary Guard intelligence in Zahedan on January 3, but he tried to take his own life after being severely tortured. The 16-year-old has been identified as Benyamin Kouhkan, a citizen of Zahedan, the provincial capital of the largely Sistan-Baluchestan province largely populated by Sunnis of Baluch ethnicity. (Iran International)

Moscow and Tehran are moving ahead with plans to build a new factory in Russia that could make at least 6,000 Iranian-designed drones for the war in Ukraine, the latest sign of deepening cooperation between the two nations, said officials from a country aligned with the U.S. As part of their emerging military alliance, the officials said, a high-level Iranian delegation flew to Russia in early January to visit the planned site for the factory and hammer out details to get the project up-and-running. The two countries are aiming to build a faster drone that could pose new challenges for Ukrainian air defenses, the officials said. (The Wall Street Journal)

Iranian media responded to cooperation between Israeli and Azeri defense ministers by publishing antisemitic cartoons targeting Azerbaijan’s president. Iranian newspaper Javan, owned by the son of Ayatollah Hossein Mazakheri from Iran's central city of Isfahan, published on its frontpage a cartoon depicting Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev as a stereotypical Jew with a huge hooked nose, with the Israeli prime minister standing behind his back. The cartoon illustrated the article "Tel Aviv’s Trap for Baku" comes as Iran's reaction to the phone conversation between the defense ministers of Israel and Azerbaijan. (i24 News)

An Iranian government-backed hacking team allegedly stole and leaked private customer data belonging to French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, security researchers at Microsoft said. The magazine was hacked in early January after it published a series of cartoons that negatively depicted Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The caricatures were part of a media campaign that Charlie Hebdo said was intended to support anti-government protests in the Islamic nation. (Reuters)

The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened punishment for those behind the desecration of Islam’s holy book, the Quran, in Europe. “Today, we are the guardians of Islam and the Quran … We say to those who burned the Quran, this fire will catch your bodies and turn them into corpses,” state news agency IRNA quoted Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami as saying. “Live in secret from today and have nightmares every night, Muslims will not leave you even if decades pass,” added Salami. (Al Arabiya)

The Iranian parliament is planning to introduce new articles to the Islamic Penal Code which would criminalize "expressing opinions on social networks." If approved, this will further limit freedom of speech in the Islamic Republic. According to Iran's reformist daily newspaper Etemad in an article headlined "Be careful with your comments; If it is against the official reading, you will be punished!" (Middle East Monitor)

Iran International has obtained information that unravels some details about the inner workings of a Revolutionary Guard’s Quds force unit tasked with smuggling money from Iraq to Iran. According to the information, the Islamic Republic’s embassy in Iraq is also involved in the money laundering operations that aim to funnel the regime’s revenues from oil and gas exports to Iran. As per a repeatedly extended sanctions’ waiver by Washington, Tehran is only allowed to import medicine and some essential goods in exchange for its export to its neighboring country. (Iran International)

Iranian Navy Commander Shahram Irani said Iran is looking to expand operations on the coast of the Makran region in the Sistan and Baluchistan province. According to Irani, the navy and army want to focus on various fields such as fisheries and shipbuilding and providing facilities to repair ships. While these may be purely mundane discussions about improving Iran’s facilities along the coast, they could also be important, as this is the same area where Iran holds weapons – including drones – that have been used in naval drills. (The Jerusalem Post)

A newspaper in Iran says the parliament's plan to add two new articles to the “Islamic Penal Code” could further restrict civil liberties and freedom of speech. According to Etemad newspaper, based on the new legislation, making any comment about the state of affairs in the country can land people in trouble, particularly politicians, political activists and celebrities. The newspaper said that lawmakers at the Judiciary Committee wish to make sure that all public comments are identical with official version of developments. (Iran International)

Iran has sentenced an ethnic Iranian-Kurdish pregnant woman being held in Urmia Central Prison to death, according to a report by Iran Wire. Shahla Abdi, from the north-western province of West Azerbaijan and said to be in her early 20s, was initially arrested in Urmia in mid-October at the peak of mass protests that were triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody. Ms. Abdi is said to have received the death sentence after being accused of setting fire to a portrait of former Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. (The National)

Diplomatic efforts to prevent Iran developing a nuclear weapon should restart, said International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi, who warned that Tehran has amassed enough material for “several nuclear weapons.” Speaking ahead of a planned visit to Tehran, Grossi told a European Parliament subcommittee in Brussels that Iran has not yet built a nuclear weapon and the West should redouble efforts to stop it from doing so. Uranium enriched to more than 90% can be weaponized. Iran has 70 kilograms (154 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60% purity and 1,000 kilograms to 20% purity, according to Grossi. (CNN)

Amid new sanctions by Western countries on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard for human rights violations and other mischiefs, the multi-role organization is ramping up Syria’s air defense system, despite rampant poverty in Iran. According to a report by the Newsweek earlier in the month, the Islamic Republic has invested tens of millions of dollars from the country's public budget for the deployment of a comprehensive aerial defense network in Syria. Newsweek cited an unnamed intelligence source from a nation allied with the United States that the IRGC over the past two years has been “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.” (Iran International)

Iran expects to receive the first of the 24 Su-35 Flanker-E fighter jets it ordered from Russia as soon as March 21, the Persian New Year. Tehran also claims it has ordered helicopters and missile systems. Shahriar Heidari, a member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told Iranian state media that Iran has ordered other Russian military equipment, including helicopters, air defense systems, and other missile systems, and expects to receive them soon. While the specific equipment Iran expects in addition to Su-35s remains unclear, the seemingly imminent delivery of those two dozen air superiority fighters, originally built for Egypt, has dominated discussions and headlines. (Forbes)

Three drones targeted a U.S. base in Syria's Al-Tanf region but no American troops were injured, the U.S. military said in a statement. U.S. Central Command said two of the drones were shot down while the remaining drone hit the compound, injuring two members of the Syrian Free Army forces. (Reuters)

The recent interview [with the deputy commander of the Iranian Army for Training Affairs Brig.-Gen. Alireza Sheikh] reveals how Iran is following Russia’s military doctrine and also learning from Pakistan and how it is focusing on missiles and drones. Tehran is also warning its adversaries that it is practicing conducting raids that could destabilize the Gulf if Iran were confronted with a larger conflict. (The Jerusalem Post)

Iran has sought to develop an “unprecedented” mobile surveillance system, and discussed setting up the program with a pair of Western companies, according to research from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. Based on hacked documents that Citizen Lab verified were authentic, Iran’s ambitions focused on deeply integrating into mobile business systems. (Washington Post)

Iran will receive Russian Su-35 fighter jets within three months under an agreement with Moscow, an Iranian parliamentarian said, Anadolu reports. Shahriar Heidari, a member of the parliament's National Security Committee, told Tasnim News Agency that the jets will arrive in Iran in the coming Iranian year, which begins March 21. According to the MP, Tehran has also ordered a number of other military equipment from Russia, including air defense systems, missile systems and helicopters, most of which will arrive soon. According to media reports, Iran will receive 24 twin-engine, highly maneuverable fourth-generation fighter jets that will be used primarily for air superiority missions. (Middle East Monitor)

Iranian authorities may be using new technology to help enforce the country's strict dress code for women, expanding the use of facial recognition technology to issue fines and other penalties for those breaking the rules. "Many people haven't been arrested in the streets," Shaparak Shajarizadeh, who fled from Iran to Canada in 2018 after multiple violations of Iran's strict laws and became an activist, told Wired in a report. "They were arrested at their homes one or two days later." (Fox News)

The US intercepted a shipment of more than 2,000 Iranian assault rifles destined for Yemen, according to a statement from the US military. The interception took place in international waters in the Gulf of Oman, US Central Command said. A team from the USS Chinook, a patrol coastal vessel, boarded the other ship along a route historically used to smuggle weapons from Iran to the Houthis in Yemen. A photo from the USS The Sullivans shows the 2,116 assault rifles covering the deck of the guided missile destroyer. (CNN)

German police have taken into custody a 32-year-old Iranian citizen suspected of having procured deadly poisons cyanide and ricin to commit an "Islamist-motivated" attack, authorities in western Germany said. The residence of the suspect in the city of Castrop-Rauxel was searched as part of the investigation, according to a joint press release from the Duesseldorf public prosecutor's office and police in the cities of Recklinghausen and Muenster. Police said the Iranian was suspected of having planned a "serious act of violence endangering the state" by allegedly procuring cyanide and ricin to commit an Islamist-motivated attack. This carries a prison sentence of between 6 months to 10 years. (Reuters)

The executions of two young men in Iran, one a karate champion, the other a volunteer children’s coach, in connection with nationwide protests have sparked outrage around the world. Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini were hanged, state-affiliated Fars News reported. The pair, who allegedly took part in anti-regime protests last year, were convicted of killing Seyed Ruhollah Ajamian, a member of the country’s Basij paramilitary force, in Karaj on November 3, according to the Iran’s judiciary news agency Mizan. (CNN)

Two rockets struck a base housing American troops in eastern Syria without causing any human or material losses, the U.S. military said. The morning attack on Mission Support Site Conoco came as Iran and its allies in the region marked the third anniversary of the killing of Iran’s elite Quds force chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad. No one claimed responsibility for the attack in east Syria, where it is not uncommon for bases housing U.S. troops to come under rocket fire or mortar attacks. Iran-backed militia are based nearby as are sleeper cells of the Islamic State group that was defeated in Syria in March 2019. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the rockets were fired by Arab tribesmen in the region who are armed by Iran. (Associated Press)

Iranian police resumed warnings that women must wear mandatory headscarves even in cars, Iranian state media reported, as unrest continues following the death of Mahsa Amini. "The removal of hijab has been observed in your vehicle: It is necessary to respect the norms of the society and make sure this action is not repeated," read a message reportedly sent by police and posted on social media. Iran's morality police — known as Gasht-e Ershad, or "Guidance Patrol" — have a mandate to enter public areas to check on the implementation of the strict dress code. (AFP)

Iran held top military drills in a joint effort involving air, sea and land forces, in what one major general referred to as "the war before the war" while he spoke against the threat Israel and the U.S. pose. The drills, held in the Strait of Hormuz which sees roughly 25% of the world's oil transported through it, were dubbed "Zolfaghar-1401" and involved commandos, airborne infantry, drones, various aircraft and submarines, according to local reports. The drills were held to "improve readiness in confronting foreign threats and any possible invasion.” (Fox News)

Iranian pro-government media published an article on Sunday bragging about its “integrated missile network” and how it has armed the “resistance” in the Middle East. By “resistance,” the report was referring to a network of pro-Iranian groups and proxy groups it supports, particularly Hezbollah, the Palestinians and Yemen. (Jerusalem Post)

Hard-line Iranian lawmakers have proposed a plan to impose tougher penalties against those who publish news that is deemed to have "negative social consequences." According to the plan, those who publish "fake news" in the media will be responsible for the negative social consequences resulting from it. The rules would "apply to any type of news." Mohammad Taghi Naqdali, a member of the Legal and Judicial Commission of the Iranian Parliament, said prosecution and punishment are not only limited to those who publish news with negative consequences, but "punishment has also been determined for individuals or media outlets that exaggerate the news." (Radio Free Europe)

As protests spread in the country, much of the attention has focused on the Iranian government’s efforts to shut down the internet. But behind the scenes, some worry the government is using technology in another way: accessing mobile applications to surveil and suppress dissent. Human rights activists inside and outside of Iran have been warning for years about the Iranian regime’s ability to remotely access and manipulate protesters’ cell phones. And tech companies may not be well equipped to handle such incidents, experts say. (CNN)

Iran arrested the lawyer (Mohammad Ali Kamfirouzi) of two female journalists detained after reporting the death of a woman in custody, which sparked three months of protests, the Ham Mihan newspaper said. The arrest brings to 25 the number of lawyers detained in connection with the protests, the reformist daily said. (AFP)

Two young Kurdish men—Shadman Ahmadi and Shahriar Adeli—were killed by torture on the same day as the execution of Mohsen Shekari. These murders, like many others, were not adequately covered in the media. The numbers of reported killed, tortured, sentenced to death, and detained are likely underestimations, especially given the government-directed internet blackouts and the shut-down of communication services and platforms. (CBC)

A hardline newspaper close to Iran’s ruling clerics suggested authorities close the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy supplies, in response to alleged foreign support for the nationwide protests gripping the country. The suggestion came from the editor-in-chief of the hardline Kayhan newspaper, who is appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an editorial that could be seen as a trial balloon. “Closing the Strait of Hormuz to Western countries’ oil tankers and commercial vessels is Iran’s legal right,” Hossein Shariatmadari wrote. “We can even seize a part of their commercial cargo as compensation for the financial damage they have done to our country.” (Washington Post)

Britain is facing growing interference, threats and influence from state actors including Iran, security minister Tom Tugendhat has warned. Since 10 Iranian plots were revealed in November more incidents have come to light. Foreign meddling of this nature, he said, poses monumental challenges to freedom of speech in the UK and residents' way of life. Speaking at London-based think tank Policy Exchange, he said that “acute threats” to national security require an immediate response. (The National)

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that “support is flowing both ways,” as Moscow offers “an unprecedented level of military and technical support” to Tehran in exchange for Iranian drones, and potentially ballistic missiles, for use in Ukraine. “We are concerned that Russia intends to provide Iran with advanced military components,” Kirby said. He declined to specify what those components were but agreed “that could include air defense.” Russia’s S-400 air defense system is considered one of the world’s most capable. (Washington Post)

The Iranian government announced that it had hanged a 23-year-old prisoner, the first known execution of a person arrested in the protests that have engulfed the country for the past three months. The man, Mohsen Shekari, was accused of blocking a street in Tehran and of attacking a member of the Basij militia with a machete, according to the Mizan news agency, which is overseen by the country’s judiciary. He is one of 11 protesters who have so far been sentenced to death by the regime. (New York Times)

The Iranian regime’s suppression, specifically of religious and ethnic minorities, has reached a new peak. Some of the most violent attacks on protesters over the last three months have been occurring in provinces where minorities, including Kurds, Arabs, Sunnis and Balochis, reside. Three major institutions appear to be involved: The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its paramilitary group the Basij and the regime’s security forces. The deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, Adam Coogle, warned that attacks by IRGC forces “on residential areas in the Kurdistan region of Iraq (are) part of a long history of lethal attacks on civilians, including during the war in Syria.” (Arab News)

An Iranian patrol boat tried to temporarily blind U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz by shining a spotlight toward the vessels and crossing within 150 yards of them, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. A few days prior to this incident, the U.S. Navy intercepted more than 50 tons of ammunition rounds and “other illegal weapons” sent from Iran to Yemen, marking U.S. 5th Fleet’s second such seizure within a month, according to U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. (CNN)

An investigation by Human Rights Watch attributed phishing attack against Human Rights Watch staff members and at least 18 other high-profile activists, journalists, researchers, academics, diplomats, and politicians working on Middle East issues to an entity affiliated with the Iranian government known as APT42 and sometimes referred to as Charming Kitten. “Iran’s state-backed hackers are aggressively using sophisticated social engineering and credential harvesting tactics to access sensitive information and contacts held by Middle East-focused researchers and civil society groups,” said Abir Ghattas, information security director at Human Rights Watch. (Human Rights Watch)

Tehran has targeted former senior U.S. government officials; dissidents who have fled the country for the United States, Britain, Canada, Turkey and Europe; media organizations critical of the regime; and Jewish civilians or those with links to Israel, according to the officials and government documents. Iran’s intelligence and security services rely largely on proxies to carry out their plans, offering hundreds of thousands of dollars to jewel thieves, drug dealers and other criminals in murder-for-hire schemes, the officials said. The tempo of the plots has dramatically increased in the past two years, and they are among the most ambitious and far-reaching in recent memory, according to the officials and documents. Iran’s actions have led to diplomatic expulsions and warnings to potential targets from governments. (Washington Post)

A top Revolutionary Guard commander claimed that several people who were arrested during Iran’s “riots” were in touch with U.S. intelligence agencies. Iranian officials use the term “riot” to describe the nationwide antigovernment protests. Deputy commander of the IRGC Ali Fadavi said those arrested were not only in touch with “Iran International [TV], which is a branch of the enemy's spy services, but also were related to the intelligence and spy services of the United States.” (Iran International)

U.S. Navy investigators confirmed an explosive-laden drone that struck an oil tanker associated with an Israeli billionaire off the coast of Oman was an Iranian Shahed-136. The “suicide drone” attack on the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon on November 15 appeared to be part of a long-running shadow war between Israel and Iran that has included the targeting of Israeli-linked ships around the region. Western and Israeli officials said the recent attack, which caused damage but no injuries, was launched from an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) base in the southeastern Iranian city of Chabahar. (The Times of Israel)

Iran launched drones and missiles against Kurdish groups in northern Iraq, the second time in a week, as the Islamic Republic intensifies efforts to suppress a two-month-old protest movement inside its borders. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that it had targeted Kurdish military bases in Erbil and Sulaimaniya, alleging that factions there are fomenting unrest in Iran. The latest strikes are part of Tehran’s campaign to retaliate against outside groups and foreign governments that it has blamed for supporting the discord at home, which is posing the clerical establishment’s biggest challenge in decades. (The Wall Street Journal)

Moscow has quietly reached an agreement with Tehran to begin manufacturing hundreds of unmanned weaponized aircraft on Russian soil, according to new intelligence seen by U.S. and other Western security agencies. By acquiring its own assembly line, Russia could dramatically increase its stockpile of relatively inexpensive but highly destructive weapons systems that, in recent weeks, have changed the character of the Ukraine war. Moscow has shifted to a strategy of relentless air assaults on Ukrainian cities, using a combination of cruise missiles and self-detonating drones packed with explosives to knock out electricity and running water for millions of people. Iran’s leaders may believe that they can avert new sanctions if the drones are physically assembled in Russia, the officials said. (Washington Post)

Iran has plotted to kidnap or kill at least 10 British nationals or U.K.-based individuals perceived as enemies of the regime this year, Britain’s domestic spy chief said. Iran International T.V. in London said two of its journalists had been told by the Metropolitan Police that the threats against them pose “an imminent, credible and significant risk to their lives and those of their families.” The television network’s extensive coverage of the protests has enraged Iranian authorities, who have accused it of fomenting the demonstrations and allege it is a tool of Saudi Arabia. The powerful commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, has warned Saudi Arabia over the network without naming it, saying Riyadh should “be careful.” (NBC)

Iran has built a hypersonic ballistic missile, the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace commander as saying, in remarks likely to heighten concerns about Iranian missile capabilities. Hypersonic missiles can fly at least five times faster than the speed of sound and on a complex trajectory, which makes them difficult to intercept. However, there have been no reports of such a missile being tested by Iran and, while the Islamic Republic has developed a large domestic arms industry in the face of international sanctions and embargoes, Western military analysts say Iran sometimes exaggerates its weapons capabilities. (Reuters)

The attack near Abu Kamal—a border town often used as a transshipment point by militant groups with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—destroyed several vehicles and killed at least 10 people, including an unknown number of Iranians, according to the people and Iraqi militia members. Iraqi officials said the tanker convoy was carrying a legal shipment of fuel that Iran had sent to Lebanon. At least some of the vehicles were believed to be transporting munitions and missiles in addition to oil, the people familiar with the attack said. Israel has conducted hundreds of airstrikes aimed at interrupting Tehran’s smuggling of weapons to the Lebanese militant and political group Hezbollah and against Iran’s military forces and proxies in Syria. (The Wall Street Journal)

Iran held state-sponsored annual rallies, marking the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, as the clerical establishment that has ruled since then battles nationwide protests calling for its downfall. Radical students cemented the Islamic Revolution by storming the embassy soon after the fall of the U.S.-backed Shah, and 52 Americans were held hostage there for 444 days. The two countries have been enemies ever since and, as Iranian authorities urged security forces to swiftly stamp out anti-government protests that have spread to all layers of society, new bilateral tensions surfaced. (Reuters)

Iran is preparing to send approximately 1,000 additional weapons, including surface-to-surface short range ballistic missiles and more attack drones, to Russia to use in its war against Ukraine, officials from a western country that closely monitors Iran’s weapons program said. The shipment is being closely monitored because it would be the first instance of Iran sending advanced precision guided missiles to Russia, which could give the Kremlin a substantial boost on the battlefield. The last shipment of weapons from Iran to Russia included about 450 drones, officials said, which the Russians have already used to deadly effect in Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said last week that they have shot down more than 300 Iranian drones. (CNN)

Saudi Arabia shared intelligence with the U.S. warning of an imminent attack from Iran on targets in the kingdom, putting the American military and others in the Middle East on an elevated alert level, said Saudi and U.S. officials. In response to the warning, Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and several other neighboring states have raised the level of alert for their military forces, the officials said. They didn’t provide more details on the Saudi intelligence. Saudi officials said Iran is poised to carry out attacks on both the kingdom and Erbil, Iraq, in an effort to distract attention from domestic protests that have roiled the country since September. (The Wall Street Journal)

Protests in Iran entered a more violent phase as students, who defied an ultimatum by the Revolutionary Guards and a warning from the president, were met with tear gas and gunfire from security forces, social media videos showed. One video showed a member of Basij forces firing a gun at close range at students protesting at a branch of Azad University in Tehran. Gunshots were also heard in a video shared by rights group HENGAW from protests at the University of Kurdistan in Sanandaj. Videos from universities in some other cities also showed Basij forces opening fire at students. Across the country, security forces tried to block students inside university buildings, firing tear gas and beating protesters with sticks. (Reuters)

Russia’s expanding use of Iranian drones in Ukraine poses an increasing threat for the U.S. and its European allies as Tehran attempts to project military power beyond the Middle East. In recent weeks, Ukrainian officials say, Russia has launched more than 300 Iranian drones that have targeted military units, power plants and civilian buildings in the capital, Kyiv. The Ukrainian military said it has shot down more than 70% of the drones, but Ukrainian officials are asking the U.S. and NATO allies for more help to counter the threat. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has vowed to rush hundreds of drone jammers to Ukraine as part of a deepening effort to shore up Ukraine’s air defenses. (The Wall Street Journal)

By tightening curbs on women's rights, President Ebrahim Raisi has boosted his hardline credentials and possibly his prospects of becoming Iran's Supreme Leader, even at the cost of provoking mass protests and driving a wedge between many Iranians and the ruling elite, three analysts and a pro-reform official said. A year after Raisi's election marked the end of what many Iranians recall as more pragmatic, tolerant times, his government's tougher enforcement of hijab wearing in the weeks before Mahsa Amini's death in custody on Sept. 16 reflected a full reassertion of hardline influence. (Reuters)

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is conducting military exercises along the country's border with Azerbaijan amid signs of tensions between the two countries. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency has reported that the maneuvers, which commenced in the northwestern region, were being held in accordance with a pre-planned, annual activity calendar. The location of the exercises, which include Iran’s East Azerbaijan and Ardabil provinces, is home to a large ethnic Azerbaijani population. (Voice of America)

Forty-one journalists have been confirmed detained by Iran since protests broke out last month over the death of a woman in the custody of the country's so-called morality police. Mahsa Amini, 22, a Kurdish woman, was arrested in September for improperly wearing her hijab. She died three days after her arrest. Iran has violently suppressed the protests that followed, and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has documented that as of Wednesday, 41 journalists have been detained. A handful were later released on bail. Most are accused of taking part in the protests they were covering. (Voice of America)

Nearly two dozen children were killed last month during protests in Iran, according to a new report by a human rights watchdog that accuses the country’s security forces of targeting young people “with absolute impunity.” The 19-page report released by Amnesty International said at least 23 children – some as young as 11 – were killed by security forces in the last 10 days of September alone. Nationwide protests against the Islamic regime that has ruled Iran for decades have gripped the country following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last month after she was taken into custody by the country’s morality police for apparently not wearing her hijab properly. Her death has sparked violent clashes between demonstrators and authorities, reportedly leaving scores dead. (CNN)

Shervin Hajipour, whose song Baraye has become an anthem for the ongoing protests in Iran over the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody, has been accused of "propaganda against the system" and "inciting people to violent acts." Majid Kaveh, Hajipour's lawyer, said on Twitter on October 9 that that his client was temporarily detained before being released on bail and prohibited from leaving the country. The song Baraye, which roughly translates as "because of," is based on the outpouring of public anger following the death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody on September 16. She was detained by Iran's morality police for allegedly wearing a head scarf improperly. (Radio Free Europe)

Iranian security forces have massacred over 80 people in the southeastern city of Zahedan in Sistan-Baluchestan province, in a crackdown on protests that erupted as Iran is convulsed by nationwide demonstrations, rights activists charge. President Ebrahim Raisi has ordered an investigation into the unrest that started on September 30 after Friday prayers, which officials have characterized as attacks by "extremists" on police stations. Activists however say the horrifying images of bloodied corpses with bullet wounds are emblematic of Tehran's repressive policies towards a poor ethnic minority region. (AFP)

The chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Mohammed Bagheri, vowed to respond to any “hostile actions” targeting Iranian drones, Iranian news outlets reported. The threats followed Wednesday’s shooting down of an Iranian drone that was reportedly heading toward the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Erbil. Earlier this week, Iran unleashed a wave of missile and drone attacks against Iranian Kurdish opposition forces based inside the Kurdish region, killing at least 14 people, including a pregnant woman and a US citizen. It was among the deadliest spate of such attacks in recent years. (Al Monitor)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that the death of a young woman in custody had "saddened" everyone in the Islamic Republic, but warned that "chaos" would not be accepted amid spreading violent protests over Mahsa Amini's death. "We all are saddened by this tragic incident ... [However] Chaos is unacceptable," Raisi said in an interview with state TV, while protests continued around the country. (Reuters)

Iran, Russia and China will hold joint naval exercises in the northern Indian Ocean “this autumn,” Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported. Other countries including Oman and Pakistan may also join the drills, Mehr cited Iranian Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri as saying, without giving further details. The northern Indian Ocean extends to the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the export of oil to world markets. The three nations started joint exercises in December 2019, according to Iranian state media, to deal with unspecified “threats in the region.” (Bloomberg)

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi used an address to the U.N. General Assembly to launch a tirade against U.S. foreign policy and promote the emergence of a new world order. Raisi claimed that Daesh was a U.S. construct, slamming what he contended was the hypocrisy of a country claiming a base in justice and humanity. Raisi claimed that U.S. hegemony is coming to an end, saying: “This order has lost its power, and a new order is shaping up to tackle it as this old system’s policies are defeated. (Arab News)

The Iranian president’s comment that “there are some signs” that the Holocaust happened but that the issue required more research sparked an outcry from Israeli officials, who denounced the remarks as antisemitic Holocaust denial. Hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi made the comment during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” on the eve of his visit to New York for the U.N. General Assembly. When asked whether he believed the Holocaust happened, Raisi said there “are some signs that it happened.” (Associated Press)

Mahsa Amini, 22, died in northern Tehran. She had been arrested and reportedly was taken to a hospital shortly afterward. Amini suffered multiple blows to the head before she died, according to London-based broadcaster Iran International. Amini was arrested in her brother's car during a visit to see family members in the capital, the outlet reported. She was originally from Saqqez in Kurdistan province. Amini's family say officers beat her in the police van after her arrest, citing eyewitnesses who support that claim. Police reject the allegations, saying Amini died after being taken to a hospital because she had a heart attack. (NPR)

Iran has developed an advanced long-range suicide drone "designed to hit Israel's Tel Aviv, Haifa,” the semi-official Mehr News quoted Iran’s ground forces chief as saying. Brigadier General Kiomars Heidari said the drone, named Arash-2, is a newer version of Arash-1. (Reuters)

Yemen’s information minister has called for stronger international action to rein in Iran’s destructive activities, warning that Iran is arming the Houthis to weaken the country and gain control over international trade and energy through the Red Sea. Muammar Al-Eryani wrote for the Atlantic Council that Iran is establishing a Yemeni Hezbollah model by arming and financing the Houthi militia with the goal of seizing control of Yemen and using it as a launching pad for attacks against neighboring countries and international maritime activities via Bab Al-Mandab and the Red Sea. (Arab News)

Iran’s Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the IRGC’s Aerospace Force, has claimed that Iran has new capabilities in its technological innovation. Iran has already increased abilities in space, as well as missiles and drones; and cyber. Hajizadeh spotlighted the importance of Iranian universities in creating a pipeline of expertise for the IRGC and Iranian military forces. (The Jerusalem Post)

The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency released a report outlining the progress Iran's nuclear program has made, warning that the agency cannot determine that the country's nuclear aims are "exclusively peaceful." "The Agency is not in a position to provide assurance that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively peaceful," said the report, according to Reuters. The report comes as the Biden administration reportedly closed in on a renewed nuclear deal with Iran in recent weeks, though talks have stalled in the last 24 hours and the European Union's chief negotiator has attempted to downplay speculation that a deal could be close. (Fox News)

A court in Iran has sentenced to death two gay rights activists on charges of promoting homosexuality, campaigners said, urging pressure from the international community to stop the implementation of the verdicts. The two women, Zahra Sedighi Hamedani, 31, and Elham Chubdar, 24, were sentenced to death by the court in the northwestern town of Urmia, the Hengaw Kurdish rights organization said. They were convicted of "spreading corruption on earth" — a charge frequently imposed on defendants deemed to have broken the country's sharia laws, it added. They were informed of the sentence while in detention in the women's wing of the Urmia jail. (CBS)

Iranian authorities have introduced defense systems in 51 cities to counter “biological, radiological, and chemical threats,” deputy defense minister Mehdi Farahi has announced. The defense ministry has “provided 51 cities in the country with the necessary installations and equipment for passive defense,” Farahi was cited as saying by Iribnews, the state broadcaster’s website. He added that the ministry is “now able to identify the threats thanks to the infrastructure put in place to confront all sorts of biological, radiological, and chemical threats.” (The Defense Post)

Iran has begun enriching uranium with the second of three cascades, or clusters, of advanced IR-6 centrifuges recently installed at an underground plant at Natanz, a report by the UN nuclear watchdog seen by Reuters said. Like the first of those three cascades of up to 174 machines each, the second is enriching uranium to up to 5% fissile purity and the third has not been fed with nuclear material, the confidential report to member states said. A separate report said the first cascade had been brought onstream. (Reuters)

Russian cargo planes have quietly picked up the first of scores of Iranian-made combat drones for use against Ukraine, U.S. officials said, in a move that underscores deepening ties between Moscow and Tehran while also highlighting Russia’s struggles to supply its overstretched military. Transport planes departed Iran on Aug. 19 hauling at least two types of unmanned aerial vehicles, both capable of carrying munitions for attacks on radars, artillery and other military targets, according to intelligence gathered by U.S. and other spy agencies. (Washington Post)

An Iranian official announced that his country will not allow any nuclear inspections beyond what was agreed upon in its 2015 arrangement with the United States. "We are committed to inspections in the framework of the nuclear deal that are linked to nuclear restrictions which we have accepted in the past... Not one word more, not one word less," said Mohammad Eslami, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, according to a video carried by state media. Eslami’s statement appears to contradict reporting earlier this week that Iran has dropped some of its main demands. (Fox News)

Iran's armed forces will launch large scale drone drills across the country involving 150 unmanned aerial vehicles to show off its "power," state media reported. "The accuracy and power of weapons... the capabilities of guidance and control systems and the combat capabilities of drones are among the things that will be tested and evaluated in this exercise," deputy coordinator of the armed forces Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told the state broadcaster. "This is the first time that a joint drone exercise is conducted at the level of the four forces of the Islamic republic of Iran's army and the country's joint air defence base," Sayyari added. (AFP)

Human right activists say Khadijeh Mehdipour, a political prisoner being held in Ilam prison in western Iran, has been beaten again by inmates who are serving time for violent crimes. The Hengaw Human Rights Organization says Mehdipour, who is in prison without being segregated from dangerous prisoners, was beaten by violent criminals at the instigation of the prison authorities and even forced to sleep in the prison library. Some human rights sources, including the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), say Mehdipour has been handed new charges while in prison for "insulting Islamic sanctities." (Radio Free Europe)

The propaganda newspaper Kayhan, the mouthpiece for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, announced in a blaring editorial on its front page that the assassination of President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the cards. In an editorial on Saturday, the newspaper wrote, "The attack on [Rushdie] shows it is not a difficult job to take similar revenge on Trump and Pompeo and from now on they will feel more in danger for their lives." (Fox News)

An attacker rushed the stage of Chautauqua Institution in Western New York, where Mr. Rushdie was scheduled to give a talk about the United States as a safe haven for exiled writers, and stabbed Mr. Rushdie, 75, in the abdomen and the neck, the police and witnesses said, straining to continue the attack even as several people held him back. Mr. Rushdie had effectively been living under a death sentence since 1989, about six months after the publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses,” which fictionalized parts of the life of the Prophet Muhammad with depictions that many Muslims found offensive and some considered blasphemous. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, issued a religious edict known as a fatwa on Feb. 14, 1989, ordering Muslims to kill Mr. Rushdie. A price was put on his head of several million dollars. (New York Times)

A new satellite that Russia is preparing to launch on Iran’s behalf next week will greatly enhance Tehran’s ability to spy on military targets across the Middle East — but first, Moscow intends to use the spacecraft to assist its own war effort in Ukraine, according to Western security officials familiar with the matter. Russia’s Roscosmos space agency announced an Aug. 9 launch date for the satellite, dubbed “Khayyam” after a 12th-century Persian mathematician, in fulfillment of a deal negotiated with Iran over nearly four years. Russia agreed to build and launch the Kanopus-V system, which will include a high-resolution camera that would give Tehran unprecedented capabilities, including near-continuous monitoring of sensitive facilities in Israel and the Persian Gulf. (Washington Post)

Iran’s ambassador to Azerbaijan, who is former spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), threatened Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan on Twitter, saying, “Our beloved Tabriz is known as the land of firsts in Iran’s proud history. Apparently, the first evil Zionist is going to be buried by the zealous people of Tabriz, too. Never cross our red line, ever!” He was responding to the Israel ambassador’s tweet which said, “I am learning so much about Azerbaijani history and culture in Tabriz in this great book I was recently presented.” (Twitter)

Iran warned that proposed U.S. legislation targeting the Islamic Republic could further imperil stalled Biden administration efforts to resurrect the moribund nuclear deal. The bipartisan U.S. Senate bill, called the Iran Nuclear Weapons Capability Act of 2022, seeks to compel the government to assess the dangers posed by Iran and come up with a strategy to deal with them. The law would require the Biden administration establish a task force that would be required to integrate intelligence from Israel -- Tehran’s leading regional foe -- and report updated assessments of Iran’s nuclear capabilities every 120 days. If passed and signed into law, the legislation would also force the White House to outline US diplomatic and military plans to counter Iranian threats. (Bloomberg)

Iran’s judiciary on Tuesday ordered one of the country’s leading filmmakers to serve out a six-year prison sentence from a decade ago that had never been enforced. The order came as the government seeks to silence criticism amid growing economic turmoil and political pressure. Masoud Setayeshi, spokesman for Iran’s judiciary, announced that award-winning director, Jafar Panahi, perhaps Iran’s best-known film director, would fulfill his six-year prison term handed down in 2011 on charges of producing antigovernment propaganda, a final verdict that he said should have been implemented at the time. Although Panahi was banned from traveling over the past years, the sentence was never enforced and he continued to make underground films, which were released abroad to great acclaim. (The Washington Post)

The Intelligence Organization of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has arrested Zahra Hamadani, a defender of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights, on a charge of "trafficking" Iranian women to Iraq. An IRGC statement accused Hamadani of "promoting homosexuality, gambling, fraud, and promoting illicit sexual relations and publishing them on the Internet." It did not give any evidence backing up the claim. Neither Hamadani nor her supporters have commented on the allegations, but she has previously been targeted by authorities for her activities related to LGBT rights. She was arbitrarily detained in October 2021 for her social media posts defending LGBT rights. (Radio Free Europe)

Relatives of Manuchehr Bakhtiari have warned that the Iranian political prisoner's health is deteriorating due to him being on a hunger strike and in solitary confinement. In an interview with Radio Farda on July 18, a relative who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals from authorities, said that Bakhtiari, whose 27-year-old son Pouya Bakhtiari was killed in a crackdown on protests in Iran in November 2019, is on hunger strike and his family is not allowed to contact him. In November 2019 thousands of citizens protested in more than 100 Iranian cities and towns against the government's sudden decision to raise gas prices. The protests quickly turned political, with many chanting against the Iranian clerical establishment and its leaders. Security agents on July 11 raided and arrested a number of family members of victims of the November 2019 protests, the day before a planned protest against the mandatory wearing by women of the hijab, or head scarves. (Radio Free Europe)

Iran is technically capable of making a nuclear bomb but has not decided whether to build one, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Qatar's al Jazeera TV. Kamal Kharrazi spoke a day after U.S. President Joe Biden ended his four-day trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, vowing to stop Iran from "acquiring a nuclear weapon." Kharrazi's comments were a rare suggestion that Iran might have an interest in nuclear weapons, which it has long denied seeking. "In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60% and we can easily produce 90% enriched uranium ... Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but there has been no decision by Iran to build one," Kharrazi said. (Reuters)

Iran's Supreme Leader has reappointed hardliner politician Ahmad Jannati, 95, to another six-year term as the head of the Guardian Council. He will finish his term when he turns 101. According to a decree issued by Ali Khamenei on Saturday, Mohammad-Reza Modarresi Yazdi and Mehdi Shabzendedar Jahromi were also reinstated as the Islamic sharia law experts in the body, in charge of checking legislation approved by the parliament with the Constitution and sharia, and approving the candidates in various elections. But in fact, critics of the council say that it is simply a tool under Khamenei’s control who engineers elections by having the institution reject candidates. (Iran International)

Iran might resort to new methods to “punish” Israel, a website close to its security establishment said, as President Joe Biden visits the region. Nour News, close to Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the supreme national security council said that “Any steps to disrupt the current security order in West Asia can impact other spheres, such as transportation and transit of energy and add to the existing global food and energy crisis.” The reference to transportation of energy could be a threat to shipping in the Persian Gulf. Iran in recent and distant past has repeatedly made such threats and in the summer of 2019, attacks took place against many tankers, which were generally blamed on Iran. The article on Nour News also went on to say that Washington should know that “Israel’s mischiefs can, under some circumstances, cause loss of control over the situation and lead to the use of different options for punishing the usurping Zionist regime,” (Iran International)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran will have a “harsh and regrettable response” to any “mistake” committed by Washington or its allies. The Iranian president spoke as US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed a joint pledge on Thursday to deny Iran nuclear arms, a show of unity by allies long divided over diplomacy with Tehran. Raisi blamed the US and “its regional allies” for stoking instability in the region, state-run IRNA news agency reported. (Aljazeera)

In a new crackdown on dissidents and artists, Iran has arrested three renowned filmmakers within the past week, as well as a prominent reformist politician and the family members of protesters killed in anti-government uprisings in 2019. The directors, Jaffar Panahi, Mohammad Rasolouf and Mostafa Aleahmad, have all been vocal critics of the government. Mr. Rasolouf recently organized a social media campaign that called for the country’s security forces facing protesters to put down their weapons and join the people. The latest arrests come as a new chief takes over the powerful intelligence wing of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, following the ouster in late June of its former head, Hossein Taeb. (New York Times)

Iran announced that it has begun enriching uranium up to 20% using sophisticated centrifuges at its underground Fordo nuclear plant, state TV reported, an escalation that comes amid a standoff with the West over its tattered atomic deal. That Tehran is enriching uranium up to 20% purity — a technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90% — with a new set of its most advanced centrifuges at a facility deep inside a mountain deals yet another blow to the already slim chances of reviving the accord. In a report to member states, Director General Rafael Grossi described a system of “modified sub-headers,” which he said allowed Iran to inject gas enriched up to 5% purity into a cascade of 166 IR-6 centrifuges for the purpose of producing uranium enriched up to 20% purity. (NBC News)

The Israel Defenses Forces said it successfully intercepted three drones flown by the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group that were heading for the Karish gas field off Israel’s Mediterranean coast. Tensions have risen over the site in recent weeks, after a gas production vessel arrived in Israel to launch extraction operations in the offshore field, drawing condemnation from Lebanon, which had laid claim to parts of it. Israel says Karish is in part of its UN-recognized exclusive economic zone. One of the Hezbollah aircraft was downed by an F16 fighter jet, and the other two by Barak 8 missiles launched from the Saar 5 Class Corvette INS Eilat, the military said in a statement. Hezbollah added that the mission was accomplished successfully and “a message was conveyed.” (Times of Israel)

Iran is renewing threats to assassinate former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, prompting a fresh warning from the State Department that any attempt to take the life of a current or former U.S. official will prompt "severe consequences." An Arabic-language Twitter account affiliated with the hardline Iranian regime stated during the weekend that Pompeo, who served under former president Donald Trump, should fear for his life. "Live in fear, liar," the account tweeted, alongside an image of Pompeo with crosshairs on his forehead. The post indicates that Iran wants Pompeo dead as payback for the 2020 drone strike that killed Iranian terror leader Qassem Soleimani. (The Washington Free Beacon)

Iran is escalating its uranium enrichment further by preparing to use advanced IR-6 centrifuges at its underground Fordow site that can more easily switch between enrichment levels, a United Nations nuclear watchdog report seen by Reuters on Monday showed. The move is the latest of several steps Iran had long threatened to take but held off carrying out until 30 of the 35 countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors backed a resolution this month criticizing it for failing to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites. IAEA inspectors verified on Saturday that Iran was ready to feed uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas, the material centrifuges enrich, into the second of two cascades, or clusters, of IR-6 centrifuges installed at Fordow, a site dug into mountain, the confidential IAEA report to member states said. (Reuters)

Despite repeated statements from Israeli officials warning of impending Iranian attacks on its citizens visiting Turkey, Tehran has generally remained silent. Defense Minister Benny Gantz issued his latest statement on Saturday reiterating that there is a serious risk of attacks on Israelis in Turkey by Iranian networks. Several individuals affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard have been killed or died mysteriously in recent weeks in Iran. These incidents are attributed to a covert war waged by Israel inside Iran. So far there have been no incidents, but Israeli officials have been insisting that they are in close cooperation with Turkish security agencies to thwart any Iranian threat. (Iran International)

Attacks by Iranian proxies against bases housing U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Syria are increasing, U.S. officials say, and Washington has not responded with force since 2021. There were seven attacks in May, as many attacks that month as February, March and April combined, and there have been a total of 29 since October without a kinetic U.S. response. The attacks have been carried out by Iranian-backed militias, the U.S. officials say. (NBC News)

Iran has begun installing advanced IR-6 centrifuges in a cluster at its underground enrichment plant in Natanz in line with a longstanding plan and now intends to add two more such clusters, or cascades, the U.N. nuclear watchdog told its member states on Wednesday. The moves are described in a confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report sent to member states shortly before the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution criticizing Iran for failing to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites. Iran had warned of retaliation. Iran's commercial-scale Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz is its biggest and was built underground, apparently to protect it from potential aerial bombardment. (Reuters)

Iran is only a few weeks away from having a "significant quantity of enriched uranium," the International Atomic Energy Agency's Director General Rafael Grossi said on Monday. "Having a significant quantity does not mean having a bomb," Grossi told a press conference following the start of the quarterly Board of Governors meeting in the Austrian capital of Vienna on Monday. The IAEA defines "significant quantity" of enriched uranium as "the approximate amount of nuclear material for which the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear explosive device cannot be excluded." (CNN)

The FBI thwarted a planned cyberattack on a children’s hospital in Boston that was to have been carried out by hackers sponsored by the Iranian government, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday. Wray told a Boston College cybersecurity conference that his agents learned of the planned digital attack from an unspecified intelligence partner and got Boston Children’s Hospital the information it needed last summer to block what would have been “one of the most despicable cyberattacks I’ve seen.” He did not ascribe a particular motive to the planned attack on the hospital, but he noted that Iran and other countries have been hiring cyber mercenaries to conduct attacks on their behalf. (The Times of Israel).

Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian armed force, has unveiled Iran’s first cruise missile than can be fired from a drone, named Heidar-1. Visiting the underground ‘strategic drone base 313,’ Bagheri also revealed a drone that can be mounted on a helicopter. The Heidar-1’s UAV was reported to have a 200km range and be capable of hitting a target at a maximum speed of 1,000km per hour. Over 100 drones are kept in the base in the Zagros mountains, including Kaman-22, Kaman-12 and Qods Mohajer, the last an intelligence, surveillance, target-acquisition, and reconnaissance drone capable of carrying four precision-guided munitions. The base is also home to the Ababil-5, which is fitted with Qaem-9 missiles, an Iranian-made version of the air-to-surface United States Hellfire missile. (Iran International)

Iran secured access to secret United Nations atomic agency reports almost two decades ago and circulated the documents among top officials who prepared cover stories and falsified a record to conceal suspected past work on nuclear weapons, according to Middle East intelligence officials and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The IAEA records accessed by Iran were among more than 100,000 documents and files seized by Israeli intelligence in January 2018 from a Tehran archive. The file included reports on nuclear material that Iran had received from China, internal IAEA reports of the agency’s inspections of Iranian facilities and data from samples the agency had taken at Iran’s conversion facilities. (The Wall Street Journal)

France’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that two French nationals have been arrested in Iran and French authorities have “fully mobilized” to secure their swift release. Prominent trade union Workers’ Force identified the two Thursday as a teachers’ union official named Cecile Kohler, and her partner. It said they were on a tourist trip to Iran as part of an Easter vacation break. The union said it was made aware of the arrests Wednesday. France’s Foreign Ministry said its ambassador in Tehran has already attempted to obtain consular access to the couple and the charge d’affaires at Iran’s Paris embassy has been summoned for explanations. The ministry didn’t say what charges the two French faced. The French government said it “condemns this groundless arrest” and “calls for (the French nationals’) immediate release.” (The Associated Press)

While Holocaust Remembrance Day falls on April 27-28, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the only state in the world to deny the Holocaust as a matter of policy, celebrates its annual anti-Israel Quds Day on April 29. This year, in a bid to welcome the latter event a day early, the ultraconservative Kayhan newspaper ran a range of related content in its April 28 issue. The centerpiece? Open praise for Adolf Hitler, leader of Nazi Germany and instigator of the genocide of six million Jews. Kayhan is unsurprisingly a favorite of the Iranian regime establishment and is edited by Hossein Shariatmadari: an appointee of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a career Holocaust denier. The newspaper, too, has a long history of praising Holocaust deniers, including those with Nazi sympathies. But it has gone a step further by allowing a writer to openly praise Hitler. (Iranwire)

Militants in Gaza fired rockets into Israel on April 18th, April 20th, and April 22nd. No group claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks. On the day of the first attacks, Ali Akbar Velayati, the foreign policy advisor of Iran’s supreme leader, reportedly spoke via phone with Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh and Secretary General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement Ziyad al-Nakhalah. Separately, Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, engaged in phone calls with the leadership of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Israeli army said in its early Thursday statement that it holds Hamas responsible for what takes place in the Gaza Strip. In response to the rocket fire, the Israeli military targeted posts belonging to Hamas. (Times of Israel)

Yemen's Houthis said they launched attacks on Saudi energy facilities, and the Saudi-led coalition said oil giant Aramco's petroleum products distribution station in Jeddah was hit, causing a fire in two storage tanks but no casualties. The Iran-aligned Houthis have escalated attacks on the kingdom's oil facilities in recent weeks and ahead of a temporary truce for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The coalition has repeatedly said it is exercising self-restraint in the face of the attacks, but launched a military operation in Yemen early on Saturday saying it aimed to protect global energy sources and ensure supply chains…The ministry blamed Iran for continuing to arm the Houthis with ballistic missiles and advanced drones. (Reuters)

A nascent plan for Iraq's Kurdistan region to supply gas to Turkey and Europe - with Israeli help - is part of what angered Iran into striking the Kurdish capital Erbil with ballistic missiles this month, Iraqi and Turkish officials say. The March 13 attack on Erbil came as a shock to officials throughout the region for its ferocity and was a rare publicly declared assault by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The IRGC said the strike hit Israeli "strategic centres" in Erbil and was retaliation for an Israeli air raid that killed two of its members in Syria. The choice of target, however, baffled many officials and analysts. Most of the 12 missiles hit the villa of a Kurdish businessman involved in the autonomous Kurdistan region's energy sector. Iraqi and Turkish officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity this week said they believe the attack was meant as a multi-pronged message to U.S. allies in the region - but that a key trigger was a plan to pump Kurdish gas into Turkey and Europe, with Israel's involvement. (Reuters)

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has successfully put a second military satellite, the Noor 2, into orbit, the state-media said on Tuesday. Noor 2 is orbiting at an altitude of 500 kilometres (311 miles). The first military satellite, launched by the Islamic Republic in April 2020, placed the Noor, or "light" in Persian, at an orbit of 425km (265 miles) above the earth’s surface. Putting a second satellite in space would be a major advance for Iran’s military, raising concerns about the country's nuclear and missile programs. (Reuters)

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday the war in Ukraine should be stopped and accused the "mafia-like regime" of the United States of creating the conflict. "The U.S. regime creates crises, lives off of crises and feeds on various crises in the world. Ukraine is another victim of this policy," Khamenei said in a televised speech. "In my view, Ukraine is a victim of the crises concocted by the United States," he said. "There are two lessons to be learnt here. States which depend on the support of the U.S. and Western powers need to know they cannot trust such countries." While Tehran and Washington have been foes for decades, Iran and Russia have deepened trade ties and have been allies in the Syrian conflict. (Reuters)

The leader of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group, Hassan Nasrallah, said for the first time on Wednesday that it has the ability within Lebanon to convert thousands of rockets into precision missiles and to produce drones. "We have been producing drones in Lebanon for a long time, and whoever wants to buy them, submit an order," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech to followers. He said Hezbollah was able to transform standard rockets into precision missiles with the cooperation of "experts from the Islamic Republic of Iran." (Reuters)

Biden Administration officials concluded late last year that Iran’s nuclear program had advanced too far to re-create the roughly 12-month so-called breakout period of the 2015 pact, the U.S. officials said. Despite the change, the U.S. is pushing ahead with talks. A revised deal needs to be reached soon, the officials said, to leave the U.S. and its allies with enough time to respond to an Iranian nuclear buildup. How limited that breakout period will be depends on the precise steps Iran agrees to take to dismantle, ship abroad, destroy or place under seal its stockpile of enriched uranium, machines for producing nuclear fuel and centrifuge manufacturing capacity. (The Wall Street Journal)

Iran has executed two gay men who were convicted on charges of sodomy and spent six years on death row, a rights group reported. Homosexuality is illegal in Iran, considered one of the most repressive places in the world for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. They were sentenced to death for “forced sexual intercourse between two men” and hanged in a prison in the northwestern city of Maragheh, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) from the capital, Tehran. Under Iranian law, sodomy, rape, adultery, armed robbery and murder are among crimes that can lead to the death penalty. (Associated Press)

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement used cruise missiles and ballistic missiles alongside drones in a deadly strike on the United Arab Emirates, which intercepted part of the attack, the Gulf state's ambassador to the United States said. On the day of the first attack, top Houthi negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran, according to the Al-Mayadeen news outlet. At the meeting, he referred to the attack as a response to the UAE’s military involvement in Yemen. It is the first time the UAE, which rarely discusses its security in public, has said missiles were used in the assault that killed three civilians in Abu Dhabi, and the first time it has claimed to have intercepted some of the weapons. The UAE said the attack hit a fuel depot of state oil firm ADNOC in Musaffah and a construction site near Abu Dhabi airport. Abu Dhabi police said they found parts of small planes that could possibly be drones. (Reuters)

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard last week launched a solid-fuel satellite carrier rocket into space, the country’s official IRNA news agency reported Thursday. The report quoted Gen. Amirali Hajizadeh, chief of the Guard’s aerospace unit, as saying the test was successful. He said it marked the first time Iran used a solid-fuel rocket rather than a liquid-fuel one. He said Iran will produce lighter rocket engines in further space projects. Satellite carriers usually use liquid fuel but solid-fuel rockets can be adapted for mobile launchers that can be driven anywhere on a major road or rail system. Pure solid-fuel rockets are mostly associated with ballistic missile systems. (Times of Israel)

A number of rocket attacks associated with Iran-backed militias were reported against locations housing US advisers in Iraq and Syria amid an uptick in attacks on the US-led coalition in the region after the second anniversary of the US assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani. An unidentified UAV was intercepted by air defenses near the Ain al-Assad base where members of the US-led coalition are housed. Earlier on in the same evening, five rockets were launched towards Ain al-Assad. The rockets fell short of the base, according to the coalition. (The Jerusalem Post)

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi vowed revenge for the US assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani two years ago unless former US President Donald Trump was put on trial. “If Trump and [former secretary of state Mike] Pompeo are not tried in a fair court of law for the criminal act of assassinating General Soleimani, Muslims will take their martyr’s revenge,” Raisi said, according to state news agency IRNA. Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations also called on the UN Security Council to hold the US and Israel responsible for assassinating Soleimani. (Alarabiya News)

Hezbollah is reportedly deploying air defense systems in Syria, where it would be able to defend against Israeli airstrikes there as well as in Lebanon. According to the Alma Research Center, the group is deploying the systems to the Qalmoun Mountains region northwest of Damascus, which borders Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, home to Hezbollah’s logistical and operational rear base. The group is believed to have the SA8 low-altitude, short-range tactical surface-to-air missile system, SA17, and SA22 man-portable air defense missile systems in its arsenal in order to defend against Israeli airstrikes. (The Jerusalem Post)

Colombian intelligence foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate Israeli businessmen and U.S. diplomats in Colombia. An Iranian national—allegedly a member of Iran’s Quds Force—recruited two prison inmates with whom he was sharing a cell in Dubai sometime between 2017 and 2021. After being released, they traveled to Colombia, surveilled their targets, and contacted local hitmen to carry out the assassination. A Colombian newspaper noted that Colombian authorities had arrested and expelled two Hezbollah operatives – possibly the same individuals recruited in Dubai. (Real Clear Defense)

An Iranian man, Mohammed Saeid Golabi, was arrested in Kenya on suspicion of planning terror attacks against local and Israeli interests, according to an exclusive report in the daily Kenyan newspaper The Star. Kenyan police had monitored the activities of Golabi and his local associates, and were convinced of his links to terror activities, multiple Kenyan police sources told The Star. “We have profiled him and his contacts over time,” said a senior officer at Kenya’s anti-terrorism police unit. “We have enough reason to believe that he has been working with those terror groups.” (The Jerusalem Post)

The Pentagon reported Monday that an Iranian navy helicopter flew dangerously close to a San Diego-based warship in the Gulf of Oman, circling it three times. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the helicopter came with 75 feet of the amphibious assault ship USS Essex, but the incident ended without accident or any impact on U.S. naval operations. “It’s dangerous because it could lead to miscalculations,” Kirby said of the incident. (Times of San Diego)

Five people have been arrested in African countries over suspicions that they were planning on carrying out attacks against Israeli tourists or businesspeople on behalf of Iran, an Israeli television network reports. The five, who had been in Senegal, Tanzania, and Ghana, were recruited by Iran’s Quds Force expeditionary arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, according to the report from Channel 12 news, which did not attribute the information to a source. The five were arrested in the African countries by local intelligence, who were working off information obtained from “Western” spies, the channel said. (Times of Israel)

Iran’s atomic agency said Friday that its stockpile of 20% enriched uranium has reached over 210 kilograms (463 pounds), the latest defiant move ahead of upcoming nuclear talks with the West. The figure, attributed to agency spokesman Behrouz Kamalvan, was carried in a report by the semi-official Tasnim and Fars news agencies. Under the historic 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the World Powers, Iran was not meant to enrich uranium above 3.67 percent. Enriched uranium above 90 percent can be used for nuclear weapons. (Associated Press)

Iran will not back down "in any way" in defending its interests, President Ebrahim Raisi said on Thursday, a day after all sides announced the resumption of nuclear talks between Tehran and major powers on Nov 29. Washington said it hoped the talks would see Iran willing to negotiate in good faith on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal, while Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said the talks would cover the removal of "unlawful and inhumane sanctions". The negotiations that started in April have been on hold since the election of hardline cleric Raisi in June. (Reuters)

After an "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) attack October 26 on al-Rashad neighborhood in al-Muqdadiya district of Diyala province left 15 dead, armed men allegedly linked to Iran-backed militias, including Asaib Ahl al-Haq, went on a revenge killing spree in neighboring Sunni-majority towns. At least three children were among the dead, and several homes were set on fire in the villages of Nahr al-Imam and al-Ameriya, security sources said. In an October 31 statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council and Security Council, the Al-Rafidain International Centre for Justice and Human Rights called for a quick and impartial investigation into the killings. It namely blamed Asaib Ahl al-Haq leader Qais al-Khazaali and Badr Organization head Hadi al-Ameri for the "sectarian crimes" in Diyala, and urged to hold all those responsible accountable. (Diyaruna)

The head of the U.N. atomic watchdog has compared his agency’s efforts to monitor Iran’s nuclear program to flying through dense clouds, warning that the situation can’t continue for much longer. The International Atomic Energy Agency has been unable to access surveillance footage of Iranian nuclear sites, or online enrichment monitors and electronic seals since February. Physical inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities have also been problematic even as Tehran has continued to develop new centrifuges and enrich uranium up to purity levels closer to what’s required for an atomic weapon. Western nations fear Iran could be developing the skills and know-how to build an atomic bomb, though Tehran denies any such ambitions. (Associated Press)

A Houthi ballistic missile attack on a mosque and a religious school killed and injured 29 civilians, including women and children, in the Yemeni province of Marib, the country's information minister said in a statement on Twitter on Monday. Two ballistic missiles were used in the attack late on Sunday, Marib governor's office said in a statement. There was no immediate claim of responsibility by the Iranian-backed Houthis. (Reuters)

Iran has begun deploying advanced anti-aircraft missile batteries to the region, including in Syria where Israeli jets routinely carry out airstrikes, in an attempt to challenge Israel Air Force jets. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria in an attempt to thwart Iranian entrenchment and the smuggling of advanced weapons to Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon, according to foreign reports, and in countries like Iraq and even further as part of its war-between-wars campaign against Iran. Over the past year, while Israeli strikes have intensified in Syria, the response time by Syrian air-defense batteries has become quicker. This has lead to the IAF changing how it acts during such operations, including by having larger formation during operations so that more targets can be struck at once instead of having jets return to the same target. (Jerusalem Post)

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Peyman Jebelli late last month as the new CEO of the country’s largest media organization, known as the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). Jebelli, a 55-year-old communications graduate, hails from the Islamic Stability Front, the most unyielding faction of Iran's influential hardline camp. Now with Jebelli appointed to the position, the IRGC and Khamenei's office appear to have dodged the headache. A man from their very own tribe could be implementing the agenda flawlessly to allow for a tighter IRGC grip on power. Even within the already conservative organization, under his directives, purges are being carried out against staff members who are seen as strangers to the new hardline and “revolutionary” agenda. (Al Monitor)

Iran executed over 250 people, including at least four child offenders, in 2020 and so far this year has carried out 230 executions that included nine women and one child who was executed in secret, the U.N. independent investigator on human rights in Iran said Monday. Javaid Rehman told the U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee that Iran continues to implement the death penalty “at an alarming rate” and said “the absence of official statistics and lack of transparency around executions means that this practice escapes scrutiny resulting in serious abuses preventing accountability.” According to Amnesty International, Iran was the top executioner in the Middle East last year, accounting for more than half the region’s 493 executions, followed by Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Amnesty’s annual figures exclude China, where executions believed to number in the thousands are classified as a state secret, and omit executions from some countries marred by conflict like Syria. (Associated Press)

Despite widespread opposition in Iran, lawmakers are working to approve a plan that would severely tighten the government’s control over the Internet. The plan, titled “Protection of users’ rights in cyberspace and organizing social media,” has been discussed for almost a year in the parliament, supported by hardline lawmakers but widely criticized in Iranian society. On July 28, lawmakers entrusted the next decision on the bill to the parliament’s special cultural commission. Parliament tasked a special committee to review it on September 6. If that commission approves it, the parliament can set a time for its temporary implementation, and there will no need to approve it again in a public session. (Al-Monitor)

Iran is preparing to execute a man convicted of a crime that took place when he was still a child under international law. He was sentenced to death followed an unfair trial marred by confessions obtained through torture, according to a human rights group. Arman Abdolali has been moved to solitary confinement in Raja’i Shahr prison in Karaj, on the outskirts of Tehran, in preparation for his execution on Wednesday, Amnesty International said. (The National)

Iran has produced more than 120 kilogrammes (265 pounds) of 20 percent enriched uranium, according to its nuclear chief, a considerable increase compared with the global nuclear watchdog’s latest report. In an interview broadcast on state television late on Saturday, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) head Mohammad Eslami said it has more than complied with a December parliament law that demanded production of 120 kilogrammes of 20 percent enriched uranium in one year. “We have surpassed the 120-kilogramme figure and in this regard, we’re ahead of schedule,” he said. (Al-Jazeera)

Iran’s state TV reported on Thursday that speedboats belonging to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard have intercepted a United States vessel in the Persian Gulf. A US Navy spokesman said that he was not aware of any such encounter at sea over the past few days. The region remains on edge over Iran’s escalating nuclear program. Talks in Vienna to revive Tehran’s now-tattered 2015 accord with world powers have stalled since June, with no date set for their resumption. Thursday’s Iranian report aired footage that the TV station said was filmed from one of the Guard speedboats. It shows a vessel with the US flag and several personnel on board as the speedboat appears to be chasing it. (Associated Press)

Israel accused Iran on Monday of orchestrating an attempted attack against Israelis in Cyprus after police on the Mediterranean island said an armed individual had been arrested. Iran swiftly denied the accusation. "This was a terrorist incident directed by Iran against Israeli businesspeople living in Cyprus," Matan Sidi, spokesman for Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, said in a statement. Asked to comment, the embassy of Iran in the Cypriot capital Nicosia said in an emailed statement: "This regime is always making such a baseless allegation against the Islamic Republic of Iran," referring to Israel. (Reuters)

Iran on Tuesday rejected a U.S. call to grant U.N. inspectors access to a nuclear site, saying Washington was not qualified to demand inspections without condemning a sabotage attack on the facility, Iranian state media reported. "Countries that did not condemn terrorist acts against Iran's nuclear site are not qualified to comment on inspections there," Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said during a visit to Moscow, according to Iranian state news agency IRNA. The United States said on Monday that Iran must stop denying the U.N. nuclear watchdog access to a workshop making centrifuge parts as agreed two weeks ago or face diplomatic retaliation at the agency's Board of Governors meeting. (Reuters)

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Sunday Iran had failed to fully honour the terms of a deal struck two weeks ago to allow the watchdog's inspectors to service monitoring equipment in the country. "The (IAEA) Director General (Rafael Grossi) stresses that Iran's decision not to allow agency access to the TESA Karaj centrifuge component manufacturing workshop is contrary to the agreed terms of the joint statement issued on 12 September," the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement. The Sept. 12 agreement, reached on the eve of a meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors, meant Western powers chose not to seek a resolution criticising Iran at that meeting since the equipment's memory cards would be replaced just as they were due to fill up. (Reuters)

Iran’s judiciary confirmed the death of Shahin Naseri in its custody. Naseri was known for his horrifying account of torture against executed wrestler and political prisoner Navid Afkari. On Thursday, two days after Naseri’s death was reported by activists, the head of Iran’s Prisons Organization issued a “special directive” for a probe into the case. In a separate statement circulated on Iranian media, authorities at Tehran’s Greater Prison announced that Naseri had died “45 minutes” after being transferred to the jail’s medical center. With no further details on the exact circumstances surrounding the victim’s death, the statement said a full explanation was pending the completion of forensic examinations. However, according to accounts by other inmates at the same jail, the day before his death Naseri had been summoned by intelligence interrogators and taken to solitary confinement. “He was neither suicidal nor suffering from any medical condition,” the prisoners were quoted as saying by the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization. (Al-Monitor)

A supposed ransomware attack against the Israeli call center service company Voicenter earlier this week point to motives beyond money, experts said, including possible Iranian involvement.  In a widely distributed text message, the company said that on Saturday "a cyberattack on our systems was discovered which was executed by a group of foreign hackers, but to the best of our knowledge no data was leaked from the organization during the incident."  Though the company’s announcement stated that none of the company’s information was breached, that turned out to be inaccurate. The hacker posted online that he is offering to sell some 15 terabytes of information from the company’s servers. The cloud-based call center service provider counts companies like MobileEye, eToro, Check Point and Similar Web among its clients. (Ha’aretz)

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Monday attacked Iranian Kurdish insurgents in northern Iraq with artillery, destroying four headquarters belonging to the militants, one of the Iranian paramilitary group's commanders said. The attack on Iraqi territory was an act of retaliation, the spokesman said. “We gave the Iraqi government the necessary warnings and told them that if we see any hostile activity from these dissident groups we will respond harshly. Since the hostile activity did not stop, we destroyed four of the headquarters,” said Gen Majid Arjomandfar, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps commander, according to Iranian news agency Tasnim. (The National)

The new head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran has said he wants to speed up the conversion of the country’s Arak heavy water reactor into a research facility. Iran removed the core of the Arak facility and filled part of it with cement as part of a 2015 deal that gave the country relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program. As part of the agreement, the Islamic Republic agreed to modify the Arak reactor so that it could not produce military-grade plutonium, with Tehran saying it has been working on redesigning it for medical and agricultural use. “This project must be reconfigured and returned to operation as soon as possible,” Iranian media on Saturday quoted Mohammad Eslami as saying during a visit to the site this week. (Times of Israel)

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Iranian fuel shipments imported by the Hezbollah movement constitute a breach of Lebanon's sovereignty, according to comments published by his office. "The violation of Lebanon's sovereignty makes me sad," Mikati told CNN in an interview, his office said in a posting on Twitter. He added: "But I'm not concerned that sanctions can be imposed" on Lebanon "because the operation was carried out without the involvement of the Lebanese government." (Reuters)

Human rights groups and the family of Kurdish political activist Yasser Mangouri said he has died after being summoned by members of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. Mangouri’s arrest occurred on July 17, but his death was officially conveyed to his family over 50 days later. According to the Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the body has yet to be handed over to the family, which continues to be kept in the dark about the exact circumstances surrounding his death. Since Mangouri was summoned and held incommunicado by Iran’s intelligence forces, his family had repeatedly approached the authorities for news on his whereabouts, but to no avail. Hengaw, another advocacy website that monitors developments in Iranian Kurdistan, quoted sources as saying that Mangouri had been “killed under torture.” According to a tally recorded by the same outlet, at least 23 Kurdish prisoners, including 15 political detainees, have been tortured to death in Iranian jails since 2017. (Al-Monitor)

German police arrested a German-Iranian man suspected of exporting equipment to be used in Iran's nuclear and missile programmes in breach of European Union sanctions, Germany's federal prosecutor said on Tuesday. Police searched 11 locations, including apartments and offices in the states of Hamburg, Schleswig Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia linked to the suspect, the prosecutor said. The suspect, identified only as Alexander J. under privacy rules, had shipped equipment worth 1.1 million euros to an Iranian whose company in Iran was blacklisted by the EU as a front to procure equipment for nuclear and rocket programmes. (Reuters)

Iran has come within roughly a month of having enough material to fuel a single nuclear weapon, crossing a threshold that may raise pressure on the United States and its allies to improve the terms of a potential deal to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement. Experts studying new data contained in reports last week by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ atomic inspection group, say that by enriching nuclear fuel in recent months to near bomb-grade levels, Tehran has gained the capability to produce the fuel needed for a single nuclear warhead within a month or so, under the most extreme timeline. Federal officials who have seen classified estimates are prevented from discussing official assessments but conceded in background conversations that they believed it would take Iran only a few months. Manufacturing an actual warhead — one that could fit atop an Iranian missile and survive the fiery re-entry into the atmosphere, a technology the Iranians were actively studying 20 years ago — would take considerably longer. Iran continues to insist it has no desire for a nuclear arsenal. (New York Times)

U.S. forces shot down a pair of Iranian drones that attacked the Irbil airport in Kurdish-held northern Iraq late on 20th anniversary of Sept. 11. There were no injuries or damage, according to a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. The U.S. counter-rocket, artillery and mortar system (C-RAM) engaged the two bomb-laden drones which were made in Iran, a separate U.S. official told Fox News. (Fox News)

Iran is refusing to allow inspectors access to nuclear-related sites and hindering a probe by the United Nations atomic agency while continuing to expand its nuclear activities, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in two confidential reports Tuesday, casting doubt on efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. The reports leave the Biden administration and its European allies facing a choice between pushing for a formal rebuke of Iran—which Tehran’s new hard-line government has warned could scuttle the resumption of nuclear talks—or refraining from action, potentially undercutting the authority of the IAEA and its leadership. The future of the nuclear deal is already in the balance. New Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, pressed by European and U.S. officials to quickly resume the talks on restoring the deal, has said his government is prepared to return to the Vienna negotiations but refused to fix a date. The last talks took place in June. (Wall Street Journal)

At least eight people were wounded on Monday in Houthi drone strikes on Saudi Arabia's Abha airport that also damaged a civilian airplane, Saudi officials said. Earlier, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi group in Yemen said it intercepted a Houthi drone that was targeting Abha International Airport. Shrapnel was scattered in the vicinity of the airport, the coalition said. (Reuters)

Citing images shared on the internet, several media outlets have reported that the Ethiopian National Defence Force is using Iranian-made Mohajer-6 combat unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as it fights a civil war. Who took the photos remains unknown. However, they show the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visiting an airport with what appears to be the drone in the background. The fact-checking website Bellingcat and some open-source researchers independently geo-located the images, indicating that they were taken at the government-controlled Semara Airport. Semara is the capital city of the country’s Afar province, which abuts the Tigray region where government forces are battling the anti-government Tigray Defense Forces (TDF). (The Defense Post)

The head of Iran's prisons apologised on Tuesday for "bitter events" in Tehran's Evin prison after videos leaked by hackers showed beatings of prisoners, a rare admission of abuse by authorities. A hacking group calling itself Edalat-e Ali (Ali's Justice) issued on social media videos that appear to be from the prison's surveillance cameras and show guards beating prisoners and dragging an unconscious detainee on the floor. Guards and prisoners are seen fighting among themselves in other videos. "Regarding the pictures from Evin prison, I accept responsibility for such unacceptable behaviour and pledge to try to prevent any repeat of these bitter events and to deal seriously with the wrongdoers," Mohammad Mehdi Hajmohammadi, head of Iran's prisons, wrote in a tweet reported by state media. (Reuters)

The Iranian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that it was expanding its defense efforts beyond the borders of the country, in an apparent message of deterrence to Israel and the West, as hopes for a return to the 2015 nuclear deal continue to fade. “Our country has an important role to play in strengthening the resistance front and expanding the radius of defense of national security beyond the borders of the country,” the ministry said in a message for Defense Industries Day, the Moj News Agency reported. The ministry stated that Iran’s military plan includes “strengthening the defensive force and constantly updating the ability to deal with the threats of our enemies.” (Times of Israel)

An Iranian Kurdish party is blaming Tehran for the killing this month of a senior party member in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. Mousa Babakhani was found dead in a hotel room in Erbil on August 5, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDP-I) said. "With great sorrow we confirm that on the evening of Thursday, August 5, Mr Mousa Babakhani, member of Kurdistan Democratic Party’s Central Committee, was assassinated by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s terrorists in Erbil,” the party said on its website. (The National)

Iran has nearly doubled its enrichment capacity dedicated to purifying uranium close to the levels required for nuclear weapons, signaling it won’t de-escalate its atomic activities before meeting again with world powers.  Inspectors verified on Aug. 15 that Iran introduced a second cascade of nuclear centrifuges to produced uranium enriched to 60% purity at a fuel plant in Natanz, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in reply to questions. The machines spin at supersonic speeds to separate the uranium isotopes needed to induce fission. Iran had originally taken that added enrichment capacity off line in April, at the start of now-stalled negotiations to bring Washington back into the deal. Its 2015 agreement with world powers had capped the activity in exchange for sanctions relief, but former U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the accord triggered Iranian breaches. (Bloomberg)

Iranian air defenses fired a warning shot at a General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper belonging to the US military near the Strait of Hormuz near the Iranian border on Thursday, according to the Iranian semi-official Nour News. The news outlet published what it said was footage of the control room as the warning shot was fired. Independent news source Aurora Intel discovered that the clip shared by Nour News had aired on Iranian television on Wednesday, raising questions when the incident actually took place. (Jerusalem Post)

Iran’s new president presented a cabinet dominated by hardliners on Wednesday, state TV reported, among them a foreign minister known for close ties to Hezbollah and an interior minister wanted by Interpol over his alleged role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires. The conservative cleric and former judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi nominated hardline career diplomat Hossein Amirabdollahian to the crucial post of foreign minister as Iran and the US seek to resuscitate Tehran’s landmark nuclear deal with world powers. Amirabdollahian, 56, has served in a range of administrations over the decades. He was deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs under former populist hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, known in the West for his Holocaust denial and disputed reelection in 2009. (Times of Israel)

Iran’s new president picked a hawkish Foreign Ministry veteran with close ties to the military elite to replace Mohammad Javad Zarif as the nation’s top diplomat, underscoring the shift in power that’s clouding the resumption of nuclear talks with world powers. Hossein Amirabdollahian, a fluent Arabic speaker and previously deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs, was proposed for the role in a list of cabinet ministers presented to lawmakers on Wednesday by President Ebrahim Raisi. Parliament will debate the choices for a week before voting to approve or reject the nominees. Other candidates include Javad Owji as oil minister. (Bloomberg)

The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah fired rockets towards Israeli forces on Friday, drawing retaliatory fire from Israel into south Lebanon, in a third day of cross-border salvoes amid wider regional tensions with Iran. Suggesting its attack was calibrated to avoid further escalation, Hezbollah said it had targeted open ground near Israeli forces in retaliation for Israeli air strikes that had also struck open areas. Israel said it did not wish to escalate to a full war, though it was ready for one. (Wall Street Journal)

The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah fired barrages of rockets towards Israeli forces on Friday, drawing retaliatory fire from Israel into south Lebanon, in a third day of cross-border salvoes amid wider regional tensions with Iran. Suggesting its attack was calibrated to avoid further escalation, Hezbollah said it had targeted open ground near Israeli forces in retaliation for Israeli air strikes that had also struck open areas. Israel said it did not wish to escalate to a full war, though it was ready for one. "Our understanding is that Hezbollah deliberately aimed at open areas in order not to escalate the situation," Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Amnon Shefler told reporters. (Reuters)

A tanker ship in the Gulf of Oman was seized Tuesday by suspected Iranian gunmen, Western officials said, amid rising regional tensions following a fatal drone attack on another vessel that the U.S. and its allies have blamed on the Islamic Republic. The tanker was boarded near the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, according to the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations, which is affiliated with the British Defense Ministry. In a statement early Wednesday, the UKMTO said the “boarders” had left the vessel and the ship was now safe. In recent years, Iran’s Navy has often seized oil tankers it accuses of smuggling oil in its waters. But the latest incident comes on the heels of last week’s attack on an Israeli-linked tanker in the nearby Arabian Sea, which the U.S., the U.K. and Israel blamed on Iran. (Wall Street Journal)

The United States, Britain and Israel on Sunday all accused Iran of carrying out a drone attack last week on an oil tanker in the Arabian Sea that killed two people on board, raising fears of an escalating maritime war in the Middle East, as Tehran denied responsibility for the strike. ­American and Israeli officials had previously said that Thursday’s attack on the Liberian-flagged Mercer Street bore the hallmarks of an operation by Iran, which has been accused of deploying attack drones in the past. The Mercer Street is managed by Zodiac Maritime, a London-based company owned by an Israeli billionaire. Those killed included a British national and a Romanian citizen, the company said. (Washington Post)

Cybersecurity researchers said that hackers with ties to the Iranian government targeted U.S. defense contractors in attempts to install malware, including by posing as a United Kingdom-based aerobics instructor.  Security software firm Proofpoint said in a Wednesday report that researchers had identified “a years-long social engineering and targeted malware campaign by the Iranian-state aligned threat actor TA456,” also known as “Tortoiseshell.”  The California-based cybersecurity firm said that “TA456 built a relationship across corporate and personal communication platforms with an employee of a small subsidiary of an aerospace defense contractor,” by using the social media persona "Marcella 'Marcy' Flores." (The Hill)

At least three people have been killed during violent protests over water shortages in Iran, according to state media. The protests started in southwest Khuzestan province and spread to the nearby city of Aligoodarz in western Lorestan province. Authorities are blaming the deaths in Aligoordarz on "suspicious bullets shot by some unknown people who penetrated among peaceful protesters," state media said. (CNN)

Facebook said on Thursday it had taken down about 200 accounts run by a group of hackers in Iran as part of a cyber-spying operation that targeted mostly U.S. military personnel and people working at defense and aerospace companies. The social media giant said the group, dubbed 'Tortoiseshell' by security experts, used fake online personas to connect with targets, build trust sometimes over the course of several months and drive them onto other sites where they were tricked into clicking malicious links that would infect their devices with spying malware. "This activity had the hallmarks of a well-resourced and persistent operation, while relying on relatively strong operational security measures to hide who's behind it," Facebook's investigations team said in a blog post. (Reuters)

An Iranian American journalist living in Brooklyn who has been a sharp critic of the Iranian government was the target of an international kidnapping plot orchestrated by an intelligence network in Iran, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. In an indictment unsealed in federal court in Manhattan, four Iranians were charged with conspiring to kidnap the journalist and author, Masih Alinejad. Ms. Alinejad was not identified by prosecutors, but confirmed in an interview that she was the intended target of the plot. Last year, Ms. Alinejad wrote in a newspaper article that Iranian government officials had unleashed a social media campaign calling for her abduction. (New York Times)

Iraqi officials have accused Iran in recent days of reducing water flow from rivers shared by the two countries, violating international law and endangering Iraq’s agricultural sector and in some cases the populations drinking water supply. Minister of Water Resources, Mahdi Rashid Hamedani on Sunday that water flow from Iran to Iraq has completely stopped and Baghdad considers to lodge a complaint with United Nations entities for breach of international laws and inflicting damage by cutting off rivers flowing across the border. Iran was accused last year of cutting off two main tributaries flowing into Tigris River also in the peak of summer, denying much needed water for two dams in Iraq. (Iran International)

Iran imprisoned a journalist for reporting on the true extent of the country's COVID-19 outbreak, according to free-press watchdogs. Shahram Safari, a Kurdish freelance reporter, was sentenced to three months in prison on June 16 by a municipal court in Kermanshah, western Iran, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Safari ran the local news Telegram channel, "Rawezh Press," in which he documented the number of COVID-19 cases in Iran, HRANA said. (Yahoo News)

Iran plans to prevent inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog reviewing video footage of some nuclear sites until there is an agreement to salvage the Iran nuclear deal, a senior Iranian official told CNN. The decision puts pressure on talks taking place in Vienna which are seeking to bring the US and Iran back into compliance with the 2015 deal. "If the talks succeed Iran will surely show the tapes to the IAEA," the official said. "Sharing the tapes depends on the way that the negotiations will proceed. The key to the question is the agreement. If they agree on something that will open the door for cooperation and better understanding including in the area of transparency." (CNN)

Iran has been restricting U.N. nuclear inspectors' access to its main uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, citing security concerns after what it says was an attack on the site by Israel in April, diplomats say. The standoff, which one official said has been going on for weeks, is in the course of being resolved, diplomats said, but it has also raised tensions with the West just as indirect talks between Iran and the United States on reviving the Iran nuclear deal have adjourned without a date set for their resumption. It follows various moves by Iran that breach the 2015 nuclear deal or have angered Washington and its allies, ranging from enriching uranium to close to weapons-grade to failing to explain the origin of uranium particles that the U.N. nuclear watchdog found at several undeclared sites. (Reuters)

The BBC has complained to the UN about Iran's harassment of staff at the BBC Persian service. It says Iranian intelligence agents have threatened to kidnap London staff and take them to Iran. This is not the first time the BBC has taken the rare step of appealing to the UN for their safety. Iran has previously denied the allegations, and accused BBC Persian of spreading false information to encourage its government's overthrow. (BBC)

Iranian President-elect Ebrahim Raisi on Monday said the Islamic Republic wouldn’t stop supporting Shiite militia groups fighting across the Middle East or rein in its missile program, rebuffing a key goal of the Biden administration as it negotiates a revival of the 2015 nuclear deal. President Biden has said he wants any fresh agreement on Iran’s nuclear activities to lead to broader discussions on how to reduce its military footprint in the Middle East. But in his first press conference in Tehran after winning Friday’s election, Mr. Raisi ruled out such an approach. “Regional and missile issues are not negotiable,” said the 60-year-old senior cleric. (Wall Street Journal)

The Iranian navy ships believed to be originally headed toward Venezuela changed course early this week and are now steaming north up the west coast of Africa, U.S. officials said. The ships, which U.S. officials believe may have been preparing to conduct an arms transfer, have appeared to change course several times during their journey from Iran — and could do so again. But after the course change early this week, they are likely now headed either into the Mediterranean — potentially planning to sail off of Syria — or north toward Russia, according to a defense official briefed on the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject. U.S. officials believe the course change indicates that a diplomatic campaign to urge governments in the Western Hemisphere to turn away the ships was successful, the official said. The Iranian frigate Sahand and afloat staging base Makran charted a new course after Biden administration officials publicly and privately urged the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and other countries in the region not to allow them to dock, POLITICO reported. (Politico)

Germany’s federal intelligence agency on Tuesday released a report detailing security threats faced by the federal republic in 2020, ranging from Iran’s drive to obtain illicit technology for its nuclear weapons program to its increased attempts to secure material for its missile program. The report revealed a significant increase in membership and support for Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah, who are active in Germany. The Jerusalem Post examined the 420-page German-language report for The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution—the formal name for the national intelligence agency. According to the report, “the indications of proliferation-relevant procurement attempts by the Islamic Republic for its nuclear program increased in 2020.” (Jerusalem Post)

An Iranian destroyer and support vessel are now sailing in the Atlantic Ocean in a rare mission far from the Islamic Republic, Iran's state TV reported on Thursday, without offering the vessels’ final destination. The trip by the new domestically built destroyer Sahand and the intelligence-gathering vessel Makran comes amid U.S. media reports, citing anonymous American officials, saying the ships were bound for Venezuela. The Associated Press could not immediately confirm the ships' destination. The vessels departed last month from Iran’s southern port of Bandar Abbas, said Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, Iran's deputy army chief. He described their mission as the Iranian navy's longest and most challenging voyage yet, without elaborating. (ABC News)

Iraq's government suffered an embarrassment Wednesday after a rare move to limit impunity among Iran-linked militias instead resulted in a commander accused of several killings walking free from custody and into a hero's welcome. Although Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s government issued no statement about the May 26 arrest of Qasim Musleh, a militia commander from the southern city of Karbala, the fallout from it has dominated news broadcasts and underscored the administration’s weakness as militias kill and intimidate members of a protest movement that brought Kadhimi to power. The arrest had sparked immediate controversy. Iran-linked militiamen arrived at the gates of Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone within hours. The army was deployed. That standoff ended only when one of Kadhimi’s predecessors and political foes, Nouri al-Maliki, stepped in to defuse tensions, officials say. (Washington Post)

Iran has failed to answer questions about the discovery of uranium particles at former undeclared sites in the country, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Monday, calling on Tehran to provide information “without further delay.” Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has been pushing Iran for answers on three sites dating back many years where inspections had revealed traces of uranium of man-made origin, suggesting they were once connected to Iran’s nuclear program. The issue is separate from the ongoing negotiations aimed at bringing the United States back into Iran's 2015 nuclear accord with world powers. (AP)

The United Nations' atomic watchdog hasn't been able to access data important to monitoring Iran's nuclear program since late February when the Islamic Republic started restricting international inspections of its facilities, the agency said Monday. In its May 31 report, obtained by CBS News, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that it has "not had access" to several key pieces of information since February 23. These include data on Iran's stockpiles and production of heavy water, "the data and recordings collected" by equipment designed to monitor centrifuges and "the data from [the Agency's] online enrichment monitors and electronic seals" as well as "the measurement recordings registered by its installed measurement devices."  Since February, although the IAEA had access to relevant buildings at Iran's Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites, "it has not been able to perform daily access upon request," the report said. The most troubling point in the report is that the international watchdog agency has been unable to verify what Iran is doing at some of the sites. (AP)

U.S. military officials in Iraq have grown increasingly alarmed over attacks by Iran-backed militias using drones to evade detection systems around military bases and diplomatic facilities. In place of rockets, militiamen have turned at times to small, fixed-wing drones that fly too low to be picked up by defensive systems, military officials and diplomats say. An official with the U.S.-led coalition described the evolving drone threat as the military mission’s biggest concern in Iraq. In April, a drone strike targeted a CIA hangar inside the airport complex in the northern city of Irbil, according to officials familiar with the matter. The drone’s flight was tracked to within 10 miles of the site, but its path was then lost as it moved into a civilian flight path, the coalition official said. (Washington Post)

Iraq’s leader has been under intense pressure to rein in the dozens of paramilitary groups that are nominally under the command of the Iraqi government but have proved seemingly impossible for him to control. That was made abundantly clear this week, when Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi ordered a move against one militia leader and quickly paid a price. After government forces arrested a paramilitary commander on Wednesday, Iraqi militias backed by Iran mounted a show of force in and around the heavily guarded Green Zone in Baghdad, in a confrontation that goes to the heart of who controls security in Iraq. (New York Times)

Iranian authorities waged a campaign of harassment and abuse against the families of people who died in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp’s (IRGC) downing of a Ukrainian airliner in January last year, Human Rights Watch claimed on Thursday. The organization spoke to 31 family members of victims and those with direct knowledge of the authorities’ treatment of the families between October, and January this year. It said: “Iran’s security agencies had arbitrarily detained, summoned, abusively interrogated, tortured, and otherwise mistreated victims’ family members.” (Arab News)

Iran’s electoral body disqualified dozens of candidates for the country’s June presidential election, including nearly all moderates and reformists, a step that narrows the spectrum for political participation at a time when the Islamic Republic faces growing domestic discontent. The culling of candidates near the center of Iranian politics helps smooth a path to victory for Ebrahim Raisi, a leading hard-line cleric who was defeated in the 2017 election. Analysts warn the move risks reducing voter turnout and further diminishing the popularity of a clerical-led system that has suppressed repeated bouts of political and economic unrest. “It seems the hard-liners’ plan to fully monopolize power in their hands very much overshadows any desire to present elections in the Islamic Republic as proof of the system’s legitimacy,” said Ali Fathollah-Nejad, a scholar affiliated with Freie Universität Berlin. (Wall Street Journal)

The leadership of Iran, engaged in a long shadow war with Israel on land, air and sea, did not try to conceal the pleasure it took in the most recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Over the 11 days of fighting this month, Tehran praised the damage being done to its enemy, and the state news media and conservative commentators highlighted Iran’s role in providing weaponry and military training to Palestinian militants in Gaza to hammer Israeli communities. Iran has for decades supported Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza and whose own interests in battling Israel align with Iran’s. Experts say that over the years, Iran has provided Hamas with financial and political support, weapons and technology and training to build its own arsenal of advanced rockets that can reach deep into Israeli territory. (New York Times)

Iran has hand-picked hundreds of trusted fighters from among the cadres of its most powerful militia allies in Iraq, forming smaller, elite and fiercely loyal factions in a shift away from relying on large groups with which it once exerted influence. The new covert groups were trained last year in drone warfare, surveillance and online propaganda and answer directly to officers in Iran's Quds Force, the arm of its Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) that controls its allied militia abroad. They have been responsible for a series of increasingly sophisticated attacks against the United States and its allies, according to accounts by Iraqi security officials, militia commanders and Western diplomatic and military sources. (Reuters)

Ontario's Superior Court of Justice has ruled that the shooting down of Flight PS752 by Iran was an intentional act of terrorism. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shot down the Ukraine International Airlines flight with two surface-to-air missiles shortly after takeoff in Tehran on Jan. 8, 2020, killing all 176 passengers onboard. There were 138 passengers onboard with ties to Canada, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents. "The plaintiffs have established that the shooting down of Flight 752 by the defendants was an act of terrorism and constitutes 'terrorist activity'..."Justice Edward Belobaba wrote in his decision issued Thursday. (CBC)

A British-Iranian labour activist arrested in Iran faces a minimum 10-year jail term after being accused of being the leader of a communist cell, his supporters have learned. Mehran Raoof, 64, has been held in solitary confinement at Tehran’s Evin jail since he was detained in October last year, along with other labour and human rights activists who gathered in a Tehran café. He has only been seen once by his lawyer at a hearing last month when he was accused of unspecified security offences, but a 200-page file seen by his legal team now accuses him of being the leader of a banned communist group. (The National)

Berlin security services say Iranian hackers were behind a cyber attack that targeted German companies by duping their employees into installing malware. The attack was part of a wider effort by Iranian operatives to gain access to sensitive information in Germany, an intelligence report said. In the latest breach, workers at German companies received phishing emails that purported to be messages offering them a job.  When they clicked on the corresponding links, they unwittingly installed malware on their computer. (The National)

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Palestinians on Tuesday to build up their fighting power to stop Israel's "brutality", saying Israelis "only understand the language of force", Iran's state TV reported. "Zionists understand nothing but the language of force, so the Palestinians must increase their power and resistance to force the criminals to surrender and stop their brutal acts," Ayatollah Khamenei said. Israel intensified its air strikes on Gaza on Tuesday as rocket barrages hit Israeli towns for a second day in a deepening conflict in which at least 28 people in the Palestinian enclave and two in Israel have been killed. (Reuters)

The U.S. Navy announced Sunday it seized an arms shipment of thousands of assault weapons, machines guns and sniper rifles hidden aboard a ship in the Arabian Sea, apparently bound for Yemen to support the country's Houthi rebels. An American defense official told The Associated Press that the Navy's initial investigation found the vessel came from Iran, again tying the Islamic Republic to arming the Houthis despite a United Nations arms embargo. Iran's mission to the U.N. did not immediately respond to a request for comment, though Tehran has denied in the past giving the rebels weapons. The seizure, one of several amid the yearslong war in Yemen, comes as the U.S. and others try to end a conflict that spawned one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters. The arms shipment, described as sizeable, shows that the war may still have far to run. (AP)

A new intelligence report from Germany’s northernmost state Schleswig-Holstein disclosed detailed information on Tuesday about the secretive methods which the Islamic Republic of Iran uses to cover up its attempts to secure illicit technology for the world’s most deadly weapons. “Proliferation-relevant countries such as Iran, North Korea and Syria, but also Pakistan, try to circumvent safety precautions and legal export regulations and to disguise illegal procurement activities. To do this, they turn to mostly conspiratorial means and methods,” wrote the intelligence agency. … The Iranian regime’s methods to obtain illicit weapons of mass destruction technology, according to the intelligence report, include “The creation of a neutral firm to deceive the buyer about the true nature of the sale through a state-controlled company; the establishment of illegal procurement networks which belong to the front companies and middlemen.” (Jerusalem Post)

"Israel could be blown up in a single operation," said the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami. Known for his harsh anti-Israeli rhetoric, Salami downplayed the Jewish state's defenses as a security "bulb" that has been "burst" following a series of recent incidents. The Iranian commander enumerated Israel's "vulnerabilities" in "domino-style" attacks, for which he suggested the Islamic Republic's responsibility. Salami referred to a powerful explosion at an Israeli plant for advanced weapons April 21. Israeli media, however, have reported that the blast took place during a routine test and left no casualties. The general included in his list the explosion at a big refinery in the city of Haifa, which Israeli officials described as a "fire" that they quickly contained. (Al-Monitor)

A damning new report authored by the Netherlands' General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) asserts that the Islamic Republic of Iran attempted to obtain technology in 2020 for weapons of mass destruction. The Dutch intelligence document, which was published in April, says the security service "investigated networks that tried to obtain the knowledge and materials to develop weapons of mass destruction. Multiple acquisition attempts have been frustrated by the intervention of the services.” According to the Dutch report, "The joint Counter-Proliferation Unit [UCP] of the AIVD and the MIVD [the country’s Military Intelligence and Security Service] is investigating how countries try to obtain the knowledge and goods they need to make weapons of mass destruction. Countries such as Syria, Pakistan, Iran and North Korea also tried to acquire such goods and technology in Europe and the Netherlands last year." (Jerusalem Post)

Analysis of satellite imagery obtained by the International Institute for Strategic Studies revealed the construction of a new set of seven silos storing advanced new missiles in southern Iran. Defence analysts at the IISS told The National the storage facility is placed on a steep mountainside and is designed to hold dozens of the weapons at a particular slant, for precision targeting of the missiles. A missile being fired by Iran during testing of a new generation of cruise missiles in June 2020, capable of hitting targets at a distance of 280 kilometres. The imagery given to The National shows the bank of launch sites set into mountainous terrain close to the southern Iranian town of Haji Abad. The steep mountainside and particular slant of the seven silos strongly point to a limited direction that would cause concern for military airbases in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. (The National)

Amid continued talks about a revived nuclear agreement between Washington and Tehran, Iran released a video clip on Sunday depicting fake attack of its military blowing up the U.S. Capitol. The video came out on state-controlled Iranian television before the nation's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, gave a speech on Sunday, according to The Washington Free Beacon. In his talk, Khamenei praised the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), who have carried out operations against the U.S. and whose leader, Qassem Soleimani, was killed by a drone strike by the Trump administration. The footage of the fake attack also came out the same day Iran's President Hassan Rouhani declared the U.S. had lost its "economic war" against his country, saying that sanctions against Tehran are at the "brink of extermination," his rhetoric painting a grim picture for the prospect of the two nations reaching a mutual agreement on a revived Iran nuclear deal. (Newsweek)

Iranian authorities are banning members of the persecuted Baha’i minority from burying their loved ones in empty plots at a cemetery near Tehran that they have used for decades, instead insisting they bury them between existing graves within the cemetery or at the nearby Khavaran mass grave site for victims of the 1988 prison massacres, said Amnesty International today. The Khavaran mass grave site, which is believed to contain the remains of up to several hundred victims of the mass enforced disappearances and secret extrajudicial executions of 1988, has been bulldozed multiple times in recent decades and has gained national significance in the struggle for truth and justice. By pressuring Baha’i families to bury their loved ones there, Iranian authorities are putting the mass grave site at further risk of destruction, tampering with vital forensic evidence, and continuing to commit the crimes against humanity of enforced disappearance, torture and other inhumane acts against the families of those forcibly disappeared and secretly killed. (Amnesty International)

A U.S. Navy patrol boat fired warning shots during a confrontation with three Iranian vessels on Monday in the Persian Gulf, officials said, in a second high-risk encounter between U.S. and Iranian naval forces in the past month. The incident on Monday and another in the region on April 2 marked the first in a year involving American warships. They occurred as the Biden administration presses for talks on renewing the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement with Iran. Talks began in Vienna earlier this month. In Monday’s standoff, Navy officials said that three small vessels commonly used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, swarmed two American ships operating in international waters in the northern area of the Persian Gulf. (Wall Street Journal)

Yemen's Houthi movement said on Friday it had launched attacks with drones on a military air base and oil facility in Saudi Arabia, the latest indication that diplomacy to end the six year conflict has so far failed to take hold. The Houthi military spokesman said on Twitter the group had targeted the King Khalid air base with two drones and had struck a facility of Saudi Arabia's oil company Aramco with a drone in the southwestern Saudi city of Jizan. He later said the Houthis had launched a third strike on the air base. Earlier on Friday, Saudi state television quoted the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen as saying it had intercepted two explosives-laden drones fired by the Houthis at the city of Khamis Mushait, where the air base is located. There was no immediate confirmation of the Jizan attack or the third attack on the air base. (Reuters)

Iran has installed extra advanced centrifuges at its underground uranium enrichment plant at Natanz that was hit by a blast last week, a report by the U.N. atomic watchdog on Wednesday showed, deepening Iran's breaches of its nuclear deal with major powers. The explosion and a power outage damaged an unknown number of centrifuges and Iranian state TV has shown footage of machines that it says were replaced there. Iran has blamed Israel for the explosion. Israel has not commented formally on it. The International Atomic Energy Agency report was not clear on how many centrifuges are in use but it gave "up to" numbers of advanced machines installed at the plant that were higher than previously indicated. The report made no mention of the explosion or its effect on the plant's activity. (Reuters)

Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said on Friday that Tehran had started 60% uranium enrichment at its Natanz site, days after an explosion at the site that Tehran blamed on Israel. The Israeli security government cabinet will meet at 4:00 on Sunday to address the new announcement, Israeli media reported. Earlier the speaker of Iran’s parliament said Iranian scientists had successfully started enriching 60% uranium at 12.40 a.m. local time. "I am proud to announce that at 00:40 … Iranian scientists were able to produce 60% enriched uranium," he wrote. (Jerusalem Post)

Iran has made 55 kg of uranium enriched to up to 20% - the point at which it is highly enriched - indicating quicker production than the 10 kg a month rate required by an Iranian law that created the process in January, Iranian authorities said on Wednesday. The disclosure comes a day after Tehran and Washington held what they described as “constructive” indirect talks in Vienna on Tuesday aimed at finding ways to revive a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. Iran’s hardline parliament passed a law last year that obliges the government to harden its nuclear stance, partly in reaction to former President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal in 2018. (Reuters)

Millions of crude oil barrels are on their way to Syria from Iran, violating U.S. sanctions. According to a civilian naval intelligence firm, there are four vessels with more than 3 million barrels combined on their way to the Baniyas oil refinery, near the Mediterranean coast. A satellite photo captured two days ago over the southern section of the Red Sea shows four vessels: Arman 114, Sam 121, Daran and Romina. The Arman 114 is formerly known as the Adrian Darya 1, a vessel in the center of the U.S.-Iran standoff in the summer of 2019. It was sanctioned by the Trump administration in August 2019, following its attempts to transfer the oil to Syria. (Fox News)

Iran has begun enriching uranium with a fourth cascade, or cluster, of advanced IR-2m machines at its underground Natanz plant, a report by the U.N. atomic watchdog showed, in a further breach of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. It was the latest of many steps by Iran raising pressure on U.S. President Joe Biden with the two sides in a standoff over who should move first to salvage a deal that was meant to curb Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear bomb, if it so intended. The deal imposed limits on Iran’s nuclear activities that it started breaching in 2019 in response to a U.S. withdrawal from the accord under Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, as well as the reimposition of U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic that had been lifted under the agreement. (Reuters)

Along Iraq’s borders, a corrupt customs-evasion cartel is diverting billions of dollars away from state coffers to line the pockets of armed groups, political parties and crooked officials. The prime beneficiaries are Iran-linked Shiite paramilitaries that intimidate federal officials who dare obstruct them, sometimes through chillingly specific death threats, a six-month AFP investigation has found. The network is so well-oiled and entrenched that revenues are parceled out among rival groups with remarkably little friction, part of a parallel system that Iraq’s finance minister has described as “state plunder.” (AFP)

An Iranian missile struck an Israeli ship sailing from Tanzania to India, Israel’s Channel 12 said, without saying where it got the information or how Iran was implicated. It’s the fourth time in about a month that the bitter enemies have traded allegations of attacks at sea, and comes amid heightened tensions as Israel opposes U.S. President Joe Biden’s efforts to rejoin the 2015 deal that limited Iran’s nuclear activities. Israel’s army spokesman didn’t comment, and there was no response from XT Management, the company Channel 12 cited as owning the Israeli ship. Officials in Iran, where a public holiday is being celebrated, couldn’t be reached for comment. (Bloomberg)

Syrian opposition media outlets are reporting that the Iranian proxy militia, Kataib al-Imam Ali, has opened a new recruitment center at the heart of the regime-run northern city of Aleppo. Establishing the drafting center took place with consent from the Syrian regime, said local sources. Javad al-Ghaffari, a prominent Iranian leader who is based in Aleppo, had met with officials at the Defense Ministry headquarters in Damascus to discuss and approve the operation. All those willing to join the militia, including army defectors and dodgers of compulsory military service, will be accepted, sources predicted. Regime forces will drop their pursuit of anyone drafted into the Iranian militia, even if they are ex-soldiers wanted for decamping or citizens accused of draft evasion. (Asharq Al-Awsat)