Iran's Malign Behavior Tracker

Mohammad Faker Meybodi, a faculty member at the Center for Islamic Sciences, has sparked controversy with his recent remarks advocating for the possession of nuclear arms. Speaking on the historical context of military weaponry as outlined in the Quran, Meybodi emphasized the need for contemporary armaments to deter adversaries effectively. "At the time when the verse related to military weapons was revealed in the Quran, the weapon of that era was the swords and spears... Today, it may be necessary for us to possess nuclear weapons to intimidate the enemy. We must equip ourselves with modern weapons," Meybodi stated. (Iran International)

Iran has made it no secret that it plans to invest heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) to help better its military capabilities, but Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is now turning to Iran’s private sector in a move he thinks will boost his crippling economy. Raisi met with private sector companies to announce Tehran’s intent to invest in digital businesses. Raisi claimed the move would not only help develop Iran’s AI capabilities, but help achieve his goal to grow the economy by 8%, reported pro-government media outlet Tasnim News Agency. (Fox News)

Iran is seeking to expand cooperation with Russia and China on nuclear energy issues, according to a report. The Iranian spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi, in an interview with Iran’s IRGC-linked Tasnim News that was published on Friday, said Iran is seeking to “mobilize our facilities so that we can also use foreign resources and technologies. Countries like Russia and China are our main targets and we have had negotiations with them. We have the necessary legal infrastructure and we will act according to the protocols we have already agreed with them.” (Jerusalem Post)

Addressing the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran – a group of Council-appointed independent experts – said that Mahsa Amini’s death in September 2022 was “unlawful and caused by physical violence” for which the State is responsible. Chairperson Sara Hossain told the forum’s 47 Member States that after Ms. Amini’s death, young women and schoolchildren “were at the forefront” of nationwide protests. “The entire State apparatus was mobilized with security forces using firearms, including AK-47s and Uzis as we documented in some areas, resulting in injuries and deaths,” she said. There are “credible figures” that indicate there were 551 deaths, at least 49 women and 68 children, “and we found that those occurred in 26 out of the 31 provinces of Iran over multiple months”, the Mission found. Ms. Hossain explained that many protesters “removed their hijab in public places as an act of defiance against long-standing discriminatory laws and practices.” (United Nations)

Niger’s decision to end its counterterrorism alliance with Washington came after senior U.S. officials accused the country’s ruling junta of secretly exploring a deal to allow Iran access to its uranium reserves, Nigerien and U.S. officials say. The decision to end military cooperation with the U.S. was announced by a spokesman for the Nigerien junta. It deals a serious blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to contain a sprawling Islamist insurgency in the Sahel, the semiarid region south of the Sahara. It could affect a $110 million base that was built by the U.S. and is used to fly surveillance drones over West Africa. It could also possibly force the withdrawal of more than 600 American troops still stationed in Niger. (Wall Street Journal)

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the United States and its allies, which have so far been able to down any missile or bomb-carrying drone that comes near their warships in Mideast waters. (Associated Press)

Iran has increased arms exports four to five times in the past two years, Minister of Defense Mohammad Reza Ashtiani was quoted as saying by media in Tehran. “Certainly, in the future, these exports will increase even more, considering the innovations being made and the new armaments we are pursuing and unveiling,” Ashtiani was quoted as saying by ILNA news website. A U.N. Security Council embargo on Iran’s conventional arms trade expired in October 2020, when the United States failed to garner support to extend the restrictions, amid the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran. European allies were not supportive of the administration’s Iran policies, while Russia and China were firmly siding with their ally. (Iran International)

The United States imposed sanctions on four individuals in Iran for aiding the Bahrain-based, U.S.-designated terrorist group al-Ashtar Brigades, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement. The sanctions were imposed in coordination with Bahrain's government and allege that the targeted individuals "materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of" al-Ashtar Brigades. The U.S. action "underscores our collective commitment to disrupting Iran's destabilizing forces and threats, particularly those which threaten our partners in the region and around the world," Brian Nelson, U.S. undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement. (Reuters)

There are growing fears among diplomats in the U.S. and Europe that Iran’s largely unmonitored nuclear program and the destabilization caused by the Gaza conflict are strengthening the hand of Iranian factions that back the development of nuclear weapons. The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, has reiterated in recent days that his country is pursuing a civilian nuclear program for now. (The Guardian)

Britain's Ministry of Defense announced that an Iranian Mohajer-6 surveillance and attack drone has been identified at Russia’s Saky Airfield in occupied Crimea. “The continued presence of the system in western Crimea is likely evidence of Russia trying to identify threats to Russian ports and vessels following recent Ukrainian successes,” read the statement issued by the ministry on X. The ministry also shared a satellite image which proved the presence of the Iran-made drone right beside a UAV ground control station in the airfield. The image was taken by an Airbus satellite on February 23. (Iran International)

Police in Peru announced the arrest of an Iranian citizen who was purportedly a member of the IRGC-Quds Force and allegedly planning to kill an Israeli citizen in the South American country. Gen. Óscar Arriola, Peru’s police chief, said in a press conference that Majid Azizi, 56, was arrested Thursday in Lima, along with two Peruvian citizens. Arriola said authorities thwarted the attack against the Israeli. He did not identify the intended target for security reasons. Police are still looking for a third Peruvian they think was in charge of the plot to kill the Israeli man, he said. (Associated Press)

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei hailed Iran’s elections as "great and epic," despite the boycott by a large majority of voters and the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic. “The Iranian nation did a jihad and fulfilled their social and civil duties,” he said, and as usual, accused “enemies” of trying to dissuade Iranians from voting. However, he claimed that they were defeated by the people’s “epic turnout and jihad.” “Don’t the sixty percent who did not vote count as Iranians?”, former reformist lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeghi tweeted after Khamenei’s remarks. According to official figures, 61.1 million Iranians were eligible to vote, and 41 percent turned out at polling stations including at least 5 percent who cast void and blank votes. However, they were so many electoral gimmicks before and during the election day that few believe even the modest turnout numbers claimed by the government. Blank and void votes are usually cast by those who may have been rounded up and forced to vote against their wish such as government employees, soldiers, and athletes, and could be interpreted as “protest votes." (Iran International)

In an interesting speech recently, Iranian military advisor Yahya Safavi said that Iran is seeking to create “strategic depth” in the Mediterranean. This appears to admit Iran’s larger ambitions in the region. Iran has already taken over swaths of Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon using proxies and has operationalized the Houthis in Yemen to attack ships in the Red Sea. Iran also backs Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Now, it appears to have even larger ambitions. Safavi is a former Iranian military commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He also works as a military advisor now to the Iranian regime and has an academic role at several universities. As such, he is very much central to the Iranian security apparatus and its strategic thinking in the region. According to an article in Iran’s Tasnim News about his recent comments, he was speaking at a conference celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Imam Hossein University. He was discussing the university’s important role in Iran. Founded in 1986 by a commander of the IRGC, the university has thousands of students and is an important institution for the state. (Jerusalem Post)

The UK's media regulator, Ofcom, has upheld a complaint by Iran International against Al Jazeera over allegations made against Iran International by a Tehran-based “analyst,” who is considered a regime insider. In a video interview with Al Jazeera’s News Hour on January 7, 2023, government mouthpiece Mohammad Marandi defended the executions of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini, both accused of participating in anti-government protests and allegedly being involved in the killing of Basij member, Ruhollah Ajamian. A figure close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Marandi accused London-based Persian networks such as Iran International, of provoking unrest in Iran during the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, further claiming these media “have repeatedly called, … have legitimized and praised beating police officers, burning them alive and murdering them.” Following Marandi’s remarks, Iran International filed a complaint with Ofcom about Al Jazeera, arguing that “it was treated unjustly or unfairly in the program as broadcast.” (Iran International)

The U.K. believes Iran has supplied Russia with ballistic missiles, Defense Secretary Grant Shapps indicated. In an interview with the House Magazine, the senior minister confirmed that Britain has information on the reported provision of surface-to-surface missiles from Iran to Russia — but declined to get into the details. The Reuters news agency reported in February that the Iranian regime had supplied Russia with a large number of ballistic missiles — a report that sparked a swift warning from the U.S. that, if true, Iran would be greeted with a "severe" response from the international community. Iran publicly denied supplying Russia with the missiles. Speaking this week, Shapps suggested Britain has intelligence backing up the claim. "I do. I can't go into it," Shapps told the House Magazine when asked if he had any information on Iran's provision of ballistic missiles to Russia. "But whether it's ballistic missiles, or the Shahed drones that they supplied Russia with, we've seen that if there's struggle in the world, often Iran are egging it on, or helping to supply the food chain in this case," he said. (Politico EU)

In the first 11 months of 2023, Iran had executed 746 people, prompting United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to observe that Iran was carrying them out “at an alarming rate.” So far in 2024, Iran has executed at least eight Kurdish political prisoners, including four on Jan. 29, 2024, who were convicted on dubious charges such as waging war against God and corruption on Earth. As a Kurdish-born scholar and a professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Central Florida, I have previously written about the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement and the Kurdish female fighters who focus on the protection of women’s rights and protests by the Iranian people against their government. (The Conversation)

The U.S. government is intensifying a manhunt for an Iranian intelligence operative who the Federal Bureau of Investigation believes has been plotting to assassinate current and former American officials, including one-time Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The FBI’s Miami field office issued a public alert seeking information on Majid Dastjani Farahani, a suspected member of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, who the Bureau alleged has been recruiting “individuals for operations in the U.S., to include lethal targeting of current/former USG officials.” It’s unclear why the FBI issued its warning in Florida. But the U.S. government warned in a Most Wanted notice that Farahani speaks Spanish and frequently moves between Iran and Venezuela. The U.S.’s Department of Justice convicted an alleged Iranian operative in 2011 of working with Mexican drug cartels to attempt to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s former ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, while he dined at a Georgetown restaurant. In January, the DoJ indicted an Iranian gang leader for allegedly working with members of the Hells Angels to kill Iranian dissidents living in Maryland. (Semafor)

Turnout in Iran’s parliamentary election fell to historic lows, according to preliminary results from a race that underscored how hardliners have consolidated power in the Islamic Republic. Overall turnout in the election, which included Tehran and more than a dozen other constituencies, dropped to as low as 41 per cent, according to state news agency IRNA, continuing a trend of disengagement in elections. A run-off vote will be held in Tehran, where about half of the 30 parliamentary candidates did not reach the required threshold. Local media reports put turnout in Tehran at about 24 per cent. Iran’s interior ministry has yet to publish official results. The rate of participation is a setback for Iranian authorities, who have traditionally pointed to high voter turnout as proof of the Islamic republic’s legitimacy. (Financial Times)

Iran unsuccessfully pressed Sudan to let it build a permanent naval base on the African country’s Red Sea coast, something that would have allowed Tehran to monitor maritime traffic to and from the Suez Canal and Israel, according to a senior Sudanese intelligence official. Iran has supplied Sudan’s military with explosive drones to use in its fight with a rebel warlord and offered to provide a helicopter-carrying warship if Sudan had granted permission for the base, said Ahmad Hasan Mohamed, an intelligence adviser to Sudan’s military leader. “The Iranians said they wanted to use the base for intelligence gathering,” Mohamed said in an interview. “They also wanted to station warships there.” He said Khartoum turned down Iran’s proposal to avoid alienating the U.S. and Israel. A spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York declined to comment. (Wall Street Journal)

Russia launched into space an Iranian research satellite which will scan Iran's topography from an orbit of 500 km (310 miles), Iran's state media reported. The remote Pars 1 research-sensing satellite, launched by a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, weighs 134 kg (295 pounds) and is equipped with three cameras. The cosmodrome, which came into service in 2016, is in the Amur region of Russia's Far East, not far from the Russian border with China and about 1,500 km (930 miles) from the port of Vladivostok. (Reuters)

The United States deplores the decision by the Iranian regime to ban the use of virtual private network, or VPN, services. The Iranian Supreme Council of Cyberspace has criminalized the use of VPNs without a legal license, a decision that has reportedly been approved by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Last year the sale and distribution of VPNs were criminalized in Iran. Now their use in general is prohibited. In a country like Iran, where the internet is already severely filtered, VPNs, which encrypt internet connections or spoof the IP address of users and allow access to censored sites with some anonymity, have been crucial lifelines to vital information and ideas. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said the ban on the use of VPNs in Iran “is just the latest reminder of how much the Iranian regime fears its people and what they are capable of when given unfettered access to the internet and unfettered access to information.” (Voice of America)

Iran continues to allow al-Qaeda to facilitate its terrorist activities, a key communication channel to transfer funds and fighters to South Asia, Syria, and elsewhere, the U.S. State Department told Iran International. The State Department said that “Iran continues to deny al-Qaeda’s presence in the country, despite their knowledge of al-Qaeda leadership figures’ activities there," the relationship dating back to as early as 2009. The State Department also confirmed remarks by James Rubin, the U.S. special coordinator for the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, who recently talked of “a new partnership between Iran and al-Qaeda" in a briefing in London, saying that Iran is harboring al-Qaeda leaders inside its soil. (Iran International)

Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei called Western civilization “crooked” and said, “The right culture and correct logic of Islam will overcome it,” Iranian state media reported. In the same speech at a meeting in the Khuzestan province of Iran, on the southern border with Iraq and the Gulf states, he said: “This is the real face of Western culture and civilization and liberal democracy, which on the outside are ironed politicians with smiles on their faces. But on the inside, it is a rabid dog and a bloodthirsty wolf.” Regarding the war in Gaza, Khamenei condemned what he said was Western hypocrisy. (Jerusalem Post)

A Spanish former politician who survived a shooting attack said he believed Iran's government had hired hitmen to assassinate him over his links to an Iranian dissident group. Alejo Vidal-Quadras, who was shot outside his Madrid residence last Nov. 9, provided no evidence for the assertion. Iran's foreign ministry was not immediately available for comment, and police have not released details of an investigation under way into the attack. Vidal-Quadras headed the conservative People's Party in the Catalonia region in the 1990s, co-founded the far-right party Vox and was a vice-president of the European Parliament between 1999 and 2014. At his first press conference since the shooting, he said he believed "the Iranian regime" ordered the attack because of his support for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a Paris-based coalition of dissidents that calls for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. (Reuters)

A man charged with participating in a plot hatched in Iran to assassinate Masih Alinejad, an Iranian American human rights activist and a sharp critic of Iran’s repression of women, has been extradited to the United States, American authorities said. The man, Polad Omarov, 39, was turned over to representatives of the U.S. government at Vaclav Havel Airport in Prague, Reuters reported, citing a statement from the Czech Justice Ministry. He was arrested in the Czech Republic in January 2023. A federal indictment unsealed in New York last year said Mr. Omarov and three co-conspirators were part of an Eastern European criminal organization known by its members as Thieves-in-Law, which has ties to Iran and in 2022 was given the assignment to kill Ms. Alinejad, a journalist in Brooklyn. (New York Times)

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) conducted naval drills, including missile maneuvers simulating an attack on an air base in Israel. IRGC Commander Hossein Salami warned against attacking Iranian ships, threatening double attacks in response to any attack. Iranian media quoted Salami as saying that the IRGC would win any war it enters, whether military or electronic. He assured that the force stands prepared for potential conflict, underscoring the IRGC's cyberspace prowess and ability to counter enemy actions in this domain. Salami said, "In the event of a naval conflict and our ships being targeted, we will respond with equal or greater force." (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Iraq's parliament is pushing for a law to force the departure of U.S. troops from the country following a series of attacks against Iran-backed militias, accused by Washington of attacking its troops in Iraq and Syria. In recent weeks, tensions have escalated between U.S. troops and Iran-backed militias in Iraq after a series of retaliatory attacks in the country and over the border in Syria. Last month, the escalation reached new levels with a drone attack hitting a U.S. base in Jordan, killing three U.S. service members and wounding more than 30 others. (The National)

Swiss police say a 32-year-old Iranian asylum-seeker was killed by police after he used an axe and a knife to seize more than a dozen hostages for several hours on a train in western Switzerland. No passengers were injured. The man took the hostages and police, alerted by passengers, sealed off the area while the train was stopped in the town of Essert-sous-Champvert, police in the French-speaking Vaud region said. (Associated Press)

A senior member of the Swedish security police said that Iran has planned attacks on the country, days after local media reported that two Iranians were deported for a plot to kill three Swedish Jews several years ago. Earlier this week, Swedish broadcast SR reported that two Iranians had been suspected of planning to kill members of the Swedish Jewish community. They were arrested in 2021 and were expelled from Sweden in 2022 without charges, according to Swedish radio. Daniel Stenling, counterespionage head at Sweden’s domestic security agency, told SR on Thursday that Iran “has been preparing and conducted activities aimed at carrying out a so-called physical attack against someone or something in Sweden.” He added, "we have worked on a number of such cases where we have, as we gauge it, thwarted such preparations.” He declined to give specifics. (ABC News)

The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), an Iran watchdog group based in Washington D.C., says the country has enough weapons-grade uranium to build a nuclear weapon in one week. ISIS published the findings in a report, saying Tehran could produce a total of six bombs in a month. "The volatile situation in the region is providing Iran with a unique opportunity and increased internal justification for building nuclear weapons while the United States and Israel’s resources to detect and deter Iran from succeeding are stretched thin," the report states. "Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities are more dangerous than they have ever been, while its relations with the West are at a low point." (Fox News)

Over 430 civil and political activists in Iran have slammed Iran's execution spree which goes against the country's own legal system. The executions of Mohammad Ghobadlou, a protester from the 2022 demonstrations, and Farhad Salimi, a Kurdish political prisoner accused of murder, have sparked widespread condemnation from both domestic and international human rights organizations. Prominent critics of the Islamic Republic, such as Hamed Esmaeilion, Nazanin Boniadi, Prince Reza Pahlavi, and Masih Alinejad, have called on the international community to address the ongoing execution surge. (Iran International)

Iran has begun construction on four more nuclear power plants in the country’s southern coastal province of Hormozgan, with an expected total capacity of 5,000 megawatts, the state-backed IRNA news agency reported. Quoting Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), IRNA said that the construction of the new plants is expected to take around nine years. The plants will be built in the port town of Sirik, which is around 1,150 kilometers (715 miles) south of the capital, Tehran. Nasser Shariflou, who will head the project, told IRNA that construction efforts will cost $20 billion and create 4,000 jobs. Each plant is expected to use 35 tons of nuclear fuel per year. (Al-Monitor)

Four men Iran claimed were linked to Israeli spy agency Mossad were executed, Iranian state media reported, amid escalating tensions between the longtime foes and concerns of a widening conflict in the Middle East as the Israel-Hamas war rages on. The state-controlled Islamic Republic News Agency described the four people—who were presumably hanged (Iran’s default method of execution) and who have been previously identified as Mohsen Mazloum, Pejman Fatehi, Vafa Azarbar, and Hajir Faramarzi—as “terrorists.” Iranian security forces arrested the four men in mid-2022, claiming that they were suspected of a plot to bomb a factory that was affiliated with the defense ministry in the city of Najafabad. (TIME)

Iran said it successfully launched three satellites into space with a rocket that had multiple failures in the past, the latest for a program that the West says improves Tehran's ballistic missiles. The launch comes as heightened tensions grip the wider Middle East over Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, sparking fears of a regional conflict. Meanwhile, Western nations remain worried about Iran's rapidly expanding nuclear program. Footage released by Iranian state television showed a nighttime launch for the Simorgh rocket. An Associated Press analysis of the footage showed that it took place at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Iran's rural Semnan. (NPR)

Iran has announced the integration of a significant number of combat, reconnaissance, and radar drones into its army. According to the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency, the ceremony marking the integration was attended by Army Commander-in-Chief Abdol-Rahim Mousavi and Defense Minister Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani. The report detailed the integration of various multipurpose strategic drones, including Ababil-4 and Ababil-5, designed for a range of missions such as reconnaissance, surveillance, electronic warfare, and combat operations. Additionally, “the Arash and Bavar drones, known for their long-range and precision strike capabilities, along with the jet drone Karrar, capable of performing various interception missions,” were also added to the army's arsenal. (Iran International)

With its strikes on Iraqi, Syrian, and Pakistani territory, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) is showing it has become a major regional military power. The IRGC openly states that US bases in the Middle East, as well as Israeli bases in Tel Aviv and Haifa, are within range of its ballistic missiles. In the space of only 24 hours, it gave a stark demonstration of its capabilities, launching missiles and drones at targets in three different countries. The IRGC attacked two targets inside neighboring Pakistan, with media close to the force reporting that the strikes destroyed two bases of the militant group Jaish al-Adl in retaliation for the killing of Iranian border guards in recent weeks. Jaish al-Adl, a Sunni group that says it is fighting for the rights of ethnic Baloch people in south-eastern Iran, said two houses where the families of its members were living were hit. (BBC News)

Iran-backed proxies in Iraq claimed an attack in the occupied Golan Heights in a new escalation in the Israel-Gaza war. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose formation of Tehran-allied Shiite militias, said it had hit a “vital target in our occupied lands" to the south of the Elad settlement. It did not specify whether the attack was carried out using missiles or drones, but said it used "appropriate weaponry" without giving further details. The Israeli army told AFP a drone that was probably carrying explosives crashed near Elad after being shot down. (The National)

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force Unit 400 is recruiting Afghans for suicide attacks and working with al Qaeda to target Israelis. The Quds Force team responsible for recruiting Afghans includes Hossein Rahmani, Hossein Rahban, Hamed Abdollahi, and Alireza Tajik who was implicated in a plot to assassinate an Israeli businessman in Tbilisi, Georgia, Iran International can reveal. Iran's use of Afghans for targeting Israelis was first reported by The Israeli weblog Intellitimes. (Iran International)

Albania's Parliament has reported a cyberattack in which Iran-based hackers attempted access to its data server, seeking to erase critical information. A statement said the cyberattack, which temporarily halted parliament’s operations, had not “touched the data of the system.” The Associated Press cited local media as reporting that a cellphone provider and an air flight company were also targeted by cyberattacks from “Iranian-based hackers called Homeland Justice.” In the announcement published on the Telegram account of the group, 'Homeland Justice' claims to have deleted more than 2 petabytes of data from the telecommunications network and the internal network of all connected companies. (Iran International)

Iran has boosted its production of highly enriched uranium after a slowdown earlier this year, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a report, according to Reuters and the Associated Press. Iran is currently enriching uranium up to 60%, which is reaching the 90% needed for weapons, at its Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) in the Natanz complex and at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP). Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Director General of the IAEA, said in the report that Iran had "increased its production of highly enriched uranium, reversing a previous output reduction from mid-2023." (Fox News)

Iranian spies offered a people-smuggler $200,000 (around £158,290) to assassinate two news presenters codenamed “the bride and the groom” outside their London studio, to show critics of the regime they “could do harm to them at any time.” The organizers can be named, and their plans laid bare, thanks to an ITV News investigation, which obtained video recordings and text messages exchanged as part of the plot. Last autumn, the spies made plans to strike the studios of Persian language news channel Iran International, based in a business park in West London, with a car bomb. (ITV News)

An Austrian national was found guilty at a UK court of spying for a group that may have been preparing to attack an independent Iranian TV station in London. Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev, who is originally from Chechnya, was convicted by a jury at the Old Bailey court in central London following a short trial. The 31-year-old had pled not guilty to possession of records containing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. He was detained by counter-terrorism officers in west London on February 11. Prosecutors told his trial that Dovtaev boarded a plane from Vienna to London to gather "hostile reconnaissance" on a building occupied by the Persian-language channel Iran International. (AFP)

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy commander Rear Admiral Ali Reza Tangsiri announced that the IRGC’s Navy force is being expanded with the addition of an "ocean-navigating mobilization unit" of over 55,000 men, Iranian media reported. Tangsiri said the new naval "Basij" unit is backed up by a wide range of 33,000 rocket-equipped vessels that are capable of conducting ocean missions, traveling as far as East Africa, according to the hardline, IRGC-linked Tasnim news agency. He noted that volunteer forces from the rural population in Iran's impoverished south are also joining the force as a "shadow" sub-unit. "These individuals are operating the vessels and the 107-millimeter rockets mounted on them, and will fire them when need be."  Iran's Basij — or the Organization for the Mobilization of the Oppressed — is a branch of the IRGC involved in diverse missions such as cracking down on street protests and engaging in overseas combat operations. (Al-Monitor)

Cyprus has disrupted an alleged Iranian plot to target Israeli businessmen with the arrest of two Iranian asylum-seekers who were in contact with another Iranian associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a Cypriot official said. The official told The Associated Press the two Iranian men have been in police custody since November 3 and procedures were underway to deport them. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he’s not allowed to speak publicly about national security matters, said the suspects’ detention was the culmination of a joint operation between Cypriot security services and Israel’s Mossad foreign intelligence agency. Cypriot security services had been surveilling the two Iranian men for several weeks and detained them just before what authorities believe would have been the arrival of a squad to carry out killings, the official said. The targeted individuals were primarily Israeli businessmen, the official said. (Associated Press)

The Western powers in the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran accused Tehran of developing and testing ballistic missiles, transferring hundreds of drones to Russia, and enriching uranium to an unprecedented 60% level for a country without a nuclear weapons program — all in violation of a U.N. resolution endorsing the deal. Iran and its ally, Russia, dismissed the charges by Britain, France, and Germany, who remain in the nuclear deal. These European countries have the strong support of the United States, which pulled out of the agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018. The six-party agreement was aimed at ensuring that Iran could not develop atomic weapons. Under the accord, Tehran agreed to limit enrichment of uranium to 3.67 percent, ostensibly the level necessary for the peaceful use of nuclear power, in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. The sharp accusations and Iran’s and Russia’s dismissal came at the Security Council’s semi-annual meeting on the implementation of its resolution endorsing the 2015 nuclear deal. (Associated Press)

Jordan's army said it foiled a plot by dozens of infiltrators from Syria linked to pro-Iranian militias, who crossed its border with rocket launchers, anti-personnel mines, and explosives. State broadcaster al Mamlaka said the army blew up a vehicle laden with explosives in an effort to thwart the biggest armed cross-border operation to smuggle weapons and drugs in recent years. The army earlier said the infiltrators had fled back across the border after injuring several army personnel in the latest of several major incursions since the start of the month that has left one Jordanian soldier and at least a dozen smugglers dead. (Reuters)

The State of Israel's collapse is imminent, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps chief Hossein Salami said in a public address. Salami was quoted by Islamic Republic state media as claiming that Zionists "are so weak that they cannot bear the existence of Palestinian women and children," a "clear sign" of the "collapse of the fake Israeli regime," he added. The IRGC chief continued, saying that Israel's war in Gaza had triggered a global aversion to Israel. "The world’s hatred of Zionists is not confined to Muslims anymore," Salami was quoted as saying. "People have rallied against Zionists even next to the White House and in the streets of London and Europe," referencing anti-Zionist marches that have taken place across the globe following Hamas's October 7 massacre of Israelis. (Jerusalem Post)

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) held a large-scale military drill on the country's western border with Iraq, in what it described as an exercise to counter "terrorist" threats coming from Sunni extremist groups, particularly the Islamic State (ISIS). Held near the border town of Qasr-e Shirin, the drill covered "operational planning, command and control" using a wide range of "novel" military equipment, electronic warfare, radar and reconnaissance systems, drones, helicopters, artillery, and armored vehicles, according to the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency. (Al-Monitor)

A dental surgeon in Iran who refused to wear a hijab at an honorary ceremony has been expelled from her medical university. Fatemeh Rajaei-Rad revealed she had received an expulsion order from Amol University of Medical Sciences in a post on her Instagram account. She had come to public attention earlier this year when she declined to wear a hijab in attending a ceremony at which she was awarded the title of Exemplary Surgeon. The video of her attendance without a hijab circulated widely on social media, eliciting praise for her courage from many Iranians. However, it also drew condemnation from government officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's representative in Mazandaran province and the Friday Prayer Imam of Amol, who called for "severe action" against her. (Iran International)

Iran has put a European Union official from Sweden on trial for allegations that include spying for Israel and a charge that could carry the death penalty, according to Iranian state media, prompting renewed calls for his release. The official, Johan Floderus, has been detained in Iran for about 600 days at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison in what appeared to be another case of Iran taking hostages to pressure the West for concessions. Mr. Floderus turned 33 in Iran’s custody, and his family has cited brutal prison conditions in campaigning for his release. The Mizan news agency, which is overseen by Iran’s judiciary, published photos of Mr. Floderus — including some of him in handcuffs — and said that he had appeared in court to hear the charges against him. It reported that prosecutors accused Mr. Floderus of “extensive intelligence cooperation” with Israel and of “corruption on Earth” — a broad, vaguely described charge that constitutes one of Iran’s most serious crimes and can be punishable by death. (New York Times)

Approximately seven mortar rounds landed in the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad during an attack, a U.S. military official told Reuters, in what appeared to be the largest attack of its kind in recent memory. U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria were also targeted with rockets and drones at least five more times; three times at separate bases in Syria, and twice at the Ain al-Asad airbase west of Baghdad, a different U.S. defense official said. The attacks were the most recorded against U.S. forces in the region in a single day since mid-October, when Iran-aligned militias started targeting U.S. assets in Iraq and Syria over Washington's backing of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza. (Reuters)

An American warship and several commercial ships came under attack in the Red Sea, the Pentagon said, potentially marking a major escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Middle East linked to the Israel-Gaza war. “We’re aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available,” the Pentagon said. In a statement, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed there were four attacks by the Houthis against three separate commercial vessels connected to 14 separate nations. CENTCOM said in a statement, the American destroyer USS CARNEY responded to the distress calls from the ships and shot down three drones that were heading for the warship during the day. The US military said they have "every reason to believe" that these attacks were "fully enabled" by Iran and represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security. (The National)

The Belgian police are beefing up security measures to protect Darya Safai, an Iranian-born member of parliament, following death threats she received on social media. In an interview with Iran International, Safai said that the death threats against her have increased following the Israel-Hamas conflict. “I should be careful and report any suspicious events around me” to the police, the lawmaker wrote on X. The police have launched a probe into the nature and sources of the threats. Safai blamed Islamists for the threats, vowing that she will continue to stand up for freedom. “It’s incomprehensible that people should make serious threats … instead of responding with substantive arguments. But that is just how Islamists operate,” read her post on X. (Iran International)

Iran-backed militias have launched more than 70 rocket and drone attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria. The Pentagon, for its part, has responded with four rounds of airstrikes, killing as many as 15 people, U.S. officials say. (New York Times)

Iran’s Navy unveiled a domestically produced destroyer it said is capable of launching cruise missiles and detecting a variety of military objects, including vessels, drones, helicopters, submarines, and aircraft. The new Iranian warship, dubbed the Deylaman, is 95 meters (312 feet) long and 11 meters (36 feet) wide. It is reportedly capable of reaching 30 knots (56 kilometers or 35 miles per hour) while repelling air, surface, and subsurface threats. It will join Iran's Caspian Sea fleet, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. (Al-Monitor)

A container ship managed by an Israeli-controlled company was hit by a suspected Iranian drone in the Indian Ocean, causing minor damage to the vessel but no injuries, a U.S. defense official said. The Malta-flagged CMA CGM SYMI, recently renamed Mayet, was struck by an unmanned aerial vehicle, which appeared to be an Iranian Shahed-136 drone, in the northeast portion of the Indian Ocean, the official said, asking not to be named. Iran has supplied Shahed-136 "kamikaze" drones to Russia for use in Ukraine. They carry a small warhead that explodes on impact. (Reuters)

Several U.S. service members were injured in a ballistic missile attack by Iran-backed militias on Al-Asad Airbase in Iraq, Pentagon officials said. The attack on U.S. and coalition forces involved a close-range ballistic missile and resulted in eight injuries and minor infrastructural damage, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson, said in a statement. The U.S. military responded with a retaliatory strike, which was not pre-planned, killing several Iranian-backed militia personnel, CBS News learned. "Immediately following the attack, a U.S. military AC-130 aircraft in the area conducted a self-defense strike against an Iranian-backed militia vehicle and a number of Iranian-backed militia personnel involved in this attack," Ryder said in his statement. (CBS News)

Iran unveiled a newer version of what it claims is a hypersonic missile capable of maneuvering at high speeds to evade air defense systems. The Fattah II missile was put on display at Ashura Aerospace Science and Technology University, a division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Tehran. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visited the site to review an exhibition of new weapons systems, among them the Fattah II. The display came as Israel has recently intercepted a number of ballistic missiles fired at it by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Israel Defense Forces said the long-range Arrow air defense system had been used to shoot down some of the missiles. (Times of Israel)

Israel said that a cargo ship was hijacked in the Red Sea by Yemen's Houthi rebels on Iran's orders. The cargo ship, Galaxy Leader, was traveling from Turkey to India and sailing under the flag of the Bahamas when the incident occurred, the IDF wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. The ship was registered under a British company but operated by a Japanese firm, and at some point, it seems to have been partly owned by Israeli billionaire Rami Ungar, The New York Times reported. The rebels used a helicopter raid to hijack the ship at around 1 p.m. local time, three U.S. officials told NBC News. Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu's office released a statement saying that the boat was "hijacked on an Iranian whim by the Houthi militia in Yemen," The Times of Israel reported. (Business Insider)

The IAEA reported that Iranian stockpiles of highly enriched uranium of up to 60% purity had increased by 6.7 kilograms to 128.3 kilograms since the last quarterly report on September 4, Reuters reported on November 15. Iran has slowed the rate at which it is increasing supplies of highly enriched uranium from early 2023, indicating that Tehran has not accelerated its nuclear program. As a result, the West is unlikely to pursue punitive measures against Tehran to avoid escalation in the Israel-Hamas war, despite tension between Tehran and the IAEA. However, if Tehran accelerates its nuclear program by enriching uranium to weapons-grade 90% purity, the West would be more likely to take direct action to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. (Stratfor)

Iranian authorities have arrested 300 men and women for participating in a mixed-gender party in the northeastern city of Shahrud. The deputy police commander of Semnan province, Ali Mirahmadi, said that security forces raided a party venue on the outskirts of the city on November 14 and found that the participants engaged in "rule-breaking behavior." Mirahmadi also stated that the venue had been sealed due to "rules violation."  Islamic Republic laws forbid men and women who are not related from mingling together. It is also prohibited to dance with the opposite gender. (Iran Wire)

A document recovered from a computer found inside a Hamas pickup truck outside Gaza, obtained by CNN from Israeli officials, shows a Hamas military commander requesting a scholarship for Hamas operatives to study engineering, physics, and technology at universities in Iran. While it is widely known that Iran provides financial and military support to Hamas, Israeli officials and some former U.S. intelligence officials say the document is evidence that in the run up to the October 7 attack on southern Israel, Iran was seeking to provide technical training that would help Hamas produce its own weaponry. The Israeli government declined to comment on the document, though sources in the government confirmed its authenticity on background. (CNN)

Narges Mohammadi, one of the best-known human rights activists in Iran, is incarcerated in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. Earlier this year, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her ongoing fight against the oppression of women in Iran, as well as for her advocacy for human rights and freedom for all. "On November 6, she went on hunger strike, for health reasons, because the prison authorities refused to take her to hospital without a headscarf," her husband, Taghi Rahmani, told DW. "Narges refused to wear the mandatory headscarf." Seven other political prisoners in the women's section of Evin prison joined the hunger strike in solidarity. The 51-year-old human rights activist informed her family: "I was admitted to hospital after all, under strict security measures, without a headscarf. I have therefore ended my hunger strike." Following a brief examination, she was taken back to prison. (DW News)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi hailed the Palestinian group Hamas for its war against Israel and urged Islamic countries to launch sanctions against Israel. "There is no other way but to resist Israel, we kiss the hands of Hamas for its resistance against Israel," Raisi said in his address to a joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh. He also called on Islamic countries to impose oil and goods sanctions on Israel. The summit called for an immediate end to hostilities in Gaza, declaring that Israel is responsible for "crimes" against Palestinians. (Iran International)

Mohsen Rafighdoust, the first IRGC minister, has claimed that Iran possesses hostages from major world powers. In an interview in local media, he said in the event of an attack on Iran, “The Islamic Republic has the capability to eliminate the hostages within a mere half-hour.” Given that he has no current official role, Iranian officials may deny or distance themselves from his remarks. Iran has recently exchanged five U.S. hostages in exchange for the release of $6 billion of frozen Iranian funds in South Korea. However, the regime consistently claims that it does not take or hold hostages. It is unknown how many diplomatic hostages are being held in Iran but high-profile cases have revealed the systematic policy of the regime to detain dual-nationals in return for political leverage. (Iran International)

Russia, Iran, and China are likely to engage in newly sophisticated influence and interference efforts ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election and in other pivotal elections worldwide, a new analysis by Microsoft has found. All three countries are expected to seek to shape geopolitical outcomes in their favor amid major ongoing or potential regional conflicts, though Russia remains "the most committed and capable threat" to the upcoming American federal election, it said. Microsoft's analysis also suggested that the 2024 presidential election could be the first in which "multiple authoritarian actors simultaneously attempt to interfere with and influence an election outcome." (CBS News)

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei recently met with Hamas chairman Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Khamenei confirmed. Haniyeh updated Khamenei on “the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and the crimes of the Zionist regime in Gaza, as well as the developments in the West Bank,” Khamenei said on X (formerly Twitter). According to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency, “Ayatollah Khamenei praised the steadfastness and resilience of the people of Gaza and expressed strong regret over the crimes of the Zionist regime, supported directly by Washington and some Western countries.” (JNS)

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose country is a leading supporter of Hamas and other fiercely anti-Israel terror groups, rants at Israel in a Hebrew-language tweet. “The Zionist entity is lying to you,” he writes on the social media platform X. “The Zionist entity is helpless and confused right now, and without American support, will be paralyzed within days.” (Times of Israel)

Amid Iran’s unequivocal support for its proxy, Hamas, the regime has pushed Iranian Jews to cut ties with Israel-based friends and relatives. Sources told Iran International Wednesday that an unknown number of members of the community were forced to block their relatives' phone numbers in Israel, and some have left family and group chats on messaging apps, including WhatsApp. The sources did not specify how the authorities pressured them, but there are other reports about unknown people – presumably intelligence or Revolutionary Guard agents -- calling the Jewish people in Shiraz and pushing them into cutting relations with their Israeli relatives. Clearly organized by the regime, Iranian Jews have held ceremonies in synagogues across various cities over the past few days to express support for Hamas, which killed 1,400, mostly civilians, on October 7 and took over 230 hostages in Gaza. (Iran International)

The commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, visited Lebanon to coordinate with Hezbollah concerning the conflict with Israel on Wednesday, the Lebanese al-Jadeed news reported on Wednesday. In early October, just a day after Hamas’s October 7 assault on Israel, Syrian media reported that Qaani was on a visit to Lebanon as well. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told Iranian media on Wednesday that Qaani is “working for peace and security in the region and fighting terrorism” and that Iran is not giving direct orders to its proxies in the region. “They make decisions according to their interests and developments,” said Amir-Abdollahian. Qaani’s latest reported visit to Lebanon comes just two days before Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah is set to make his first public comments since the war between Israel and Hamas began. (Jerusalem Post)

Israel will face annihilation if the war against Hamas “expands,” a senior Iranian official warned as Israel Defense Forces attack the terrorist group by land and air in Gaza. "If the war expands [any further], we cannot say that Israel would lose because nothing will remain of Israel to be described as loser or winner,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani said, per Iran’s Fars News Agency. Kani, whose diplomatic portfolio includes a role as Iran’s lead nuclear negotiator, offered that prediction just days after meeting with a senior Hamas official during a trip to Russia. Iranian proxy forces around the Middle East have launched various strikes targeting Israeli positions, as Iran and Hamas demand that Israel halt its bombardment of Gaza, the headquarters of Hamas. (Washington Examiner)

Iran's Foreign Minister has met with Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political office of the Hamas Islamist militia group, in the Qatari capital Doha. The meeting followed separate talks that Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had with the Emir and the Prime Minister of Qatar on Tuesday. It was the second official meeting between Iran and Hamas since the group, designated as a terrorist group by the US and several other countries, declared war against Israel. Hamas launched the assault on October 7 with a barrage of at least 3,000 rockets launched at Israel and vehicle-transported incursions into its territory. Palestinian militants breached the Gaza–Israel barrier, targeting both military and civilian populations in neighboring Israeli communities. (Iran International)

As tensions continue to rise in the region following the recent Hamas attack on Israel, Iranian officials have intensified their rhetoric against the Jewish state. Esmail Khatib, the Minister of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic, made statements regarding Hamas' October 7 attack, describing it as a "new historical beginning for the eradication of Israel," claiming it would lead to the collapse of the entire Israeli government. Khatib's comments reiterate the Iranian regime's long-standing opposition to its archenemy Israel, which he called a "fabricated Zionist regime that had crafted a legendary narrative and a Hollywood image over the years.” His comments come as Israel's troops on the ground in Gaza rescued its first of the more than 230 hostages held by the group designated by countries including the US, UK, and EU. (Iran International)

A prominent Iranian human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, was arrested and severely beaten, her husband said — one of several activists taken into custody at the funeral in Tehran of a girl who was fatally injured in a reported confrontation with the enforcers of Iran’s strict dress code for women. The activists were arrested at the funeral of Armita Geravand, a 16-year-old who died last week after a suspected altercation with enforcement officers in Tehran’s subway over wearing her hair uncovered in defiance of the law imposed by the Shiite Islamic government. Ms. Sotoudeh, 60, is renowned for representing women who have not worn a hijab, the traditional head scarf, while in public, and for refusing to wear one herself. She has been imprisoned several times, and most recently had been convicted at a secret trial in 2019 of security-related crimes, but was released in 2021 because she suffers from heart disease and other ailments. (New York Times)

Iranian agents are creating unrest in Britain by stoking Gaza protests, senior police have said as they prepared for a fresh round of demonstrations. The Times has learned that counterterrorism officers have privately said that Tehran is trying to heighten tensions at rallies over Israel’s bombing of Gaza. They have warned of increased hostile-state activity in Britain. It is directly linked to the Iranian regime and includes a campaign of online disinformation and Iranian operatives being physically present at protests. The revelation came as the Israeli military said ground forces were “expanding operations” in the Gaza Strip before an expected full ground invasion. It was also reported that internet and mobile services in Gaza had been cut off. (The Times)

A senior Iranian envoy met with Hamas representatives in Moscow following talks with Russian diplomats that underscored Moscow’s efforts to expand its clout as a power broker in the latest Israel-Hamas war, Russian and Iranian media said Friday. During the meeting with Hamas’ representative Moussa Abu Marzouk, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, emphasized the need for a cease-fire, lifting the blockade of the Gaza Strip and providing humanitarian assistance, according to a statement Friday by the Iranian Embassy in Moscow. The statement was carried out by Russian state news agencies. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said Abu Marzouk told Bagheri Khani that he appreciated Iran’s support for the Palestinian people. (Associated Press)

The military made the statement during an official media tour in which it displayed a variety of weapons recovered from communities in southern Israel attacked by the militants. A range of landmines, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), and homemade drones were part of the haul displayed. Part of the arsenal included Iranian-made mortar rounds and North Korean RPGs. "I think about five to 10 percent of the weapons here [were] made in Iran," said an Israeli military official, who helped oversee the clearance of munitions from areas that came under attack. "And 10 percent [are] North Korean. The rest of it was made inside the Gaza Strip," the official added, speaking anonymously. Hamas is believed to rely on extensive smuggling networks to bring weapons into the besieged Gaza Strip. (AFP)

In the weeks leading up to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, hundreds of the Palestinian Islamist militant group’s fighters received specialized combat training in Iran, according to people familiar with intelligence related to the assault. Roughly 500 militants from Hamas and an allied group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, participated in the exercises in September, which were led by officers of the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the people said. Senior Palestinian officials and Iranian Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani, the head of Quds Force, also attended, they said. More than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed Oct. 7 by Hamas fighters who poured across the border from the Gaza Strip. Scores of others were kidnapped and taken back to Gaza, where they are being held hostage. (Wall Street Journal)

Two dozen American military personnel were wounded in a series of drone attacks at American bases in Iraq and Syria, U.S. Central Command told NBC News. The Pentagon confirmed the attacks last week, but the number of U.S. casualties has not been previously disclosed. Twenty American personnel sustained minor injuries on Oct. 18 when at least two one-way attack drones targeted the al-Tanf military base in southern Syria, CENTCOM said. One of the drones was shot down. All of the wounded personnel were returned to duty, CENTCOM said, and there was no damage to any military installations. On that same day, another four American personnel suffered minor injuries during two separate drone attacks against U.S. and coalition forces stationed at al-Asad base in western Iraq, CENTCOM said. (NBC News)

Iran’s military chief warned the U.S. against sending weapons to Israel, saying it would further complicate the situation in Gaza. U.S. support for Israel "is considered as participation by the American government in the Zionist regime’s crimes,” Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, said in remarks published by Iranian state media. Bagheri has been calling on his counterparts in Qatar, Russia, and Turkey not to allow the U.S. to use American bases in the Middle East for the transfer of arms to Israel. (Wall Street Journal)

Iran believes it can boost its missile program now that sanctions have expired. However, the US indicated that it would take steps to continue some restrictions on Iran’s missiles. “Russia said on Tuesday that transfers of missile technology to Iran no longer needed Security Council approval as of Wednesday, when the UN sanctions lapse, without saying whether it now planned to support Tehran's missile development,” Reuters noted.  The expiration of the sanctions was part of the 2015 nuclear. The missile issue is important. Iran supports Hamas and Hezbollah. Hamas fired thousands of missiles at Israel during the war that began on October 7 with a massacre of Israelis. Hezbollah also continues to carry out attacks. (Jerusalem Post)

Iran plans to hold talks with Russia over assistance to build a new Khayyam remote-sensing satellite. Discussions will cover developing technical specifications for new Khayyam satellites and plans for a small geostationary satellite and a telecommunications satellite, Russia's TASS news agency reported, citing the Iranian Mehr News Agency. Russia launched a Khayyam satellite for Iran on a Soyuz rocket in August last year. The spacecraft is a Russian-built Kanopus-V Earth-observation satellite with a resolution of 3.9 feet (1.2 meters). Khayyam satellites are named after the famed Persian poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam. (Space.com)

A new report by the World Bank has put Iran among the worst countries in the world in terms of Worldwide Governance Indicators. The international financial institution collected data from over 30 think tanks, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and private firms worldwide to encompass a wide range of perspectives on governance. However, in Iran's secretive regime, even its latest ranking, though low, begs questions as to the accuracy of the data provided, scoring suspiciously in areas such as the rule of law. Governance, defined as the traditions and institutions through which authority in a country is exercised, encompasses aspects such as the process of government selection, monitoring, and replacement, the government's ability to formulate and implement effective policies, and the level of respect shown by citizens and the state towards the institutions that oversee economic and social interactions among them. (Iran International)

Iran says the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors banned from its nuclear sites were political "extremists" as it tried to justify its standing in the way of vital work. Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Mohammad Eslami, justified Tehran's recent decision to ban what Director General of the IAEA, Raphael Grossi, said was around one-third of the international inspection team, claiming those expelled had a history of "extremist political behavior". Downplaying the scale, he said it was an "insignificant" number expelled, contradicting the statement by Grossi in which he made a rare public criticism of the regime for its obstructive behavior last month.  “With today’s decision, Iran has effectively removed about one third of the core group of the Agency’s most experienced inspectors designated for Iran,” Grossi said in a statement, adding that the move "affects in a direct and severe way the ability of the IAEA to effectively conduct its inspections in Iran.” (Iran International)

The repression against professors and university students deemed as critical to the Islamic Republic continues unabated in Iran. During the first week of the new academic year, at least nine male students and three female students were barred from entering Tehran’s Amirkabir University of Technology, according to Amirkabir News Telegram Channel. A number of these students had previously been arrested by security agencies during nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody in September last year. Amirkabir News Telegram Channel said that the university's security forces played a significant role in building a case against Alireza Baradaran Shoraka that led to his "unlawful" expulsion despite the student's "excellent academic record. (Iran Wire)

Iranian leaders are not pursuing a nuclear weapons program but have the capacity to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear device in a matter of weeks, according to the Department of Defense. The department's analysis is laid out in its Strategy for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, released late last week, though the estimation remains consistent with previous ones. "It is assessed that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program at this time, but has the capacity to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear device in less than two weeks. Further, the United States assesses Iran to be noncompliant with its [Chemical Weapons Convention] obligations," it states. "For example, Iran has not submitted a complete chemical weapons production facility declaration to comply with CWC processes.” (Washington Examiner)

An Iranian hacker group known as OilRig hijacked legitimate websites in order to target Israeli organizations, including a healthcare organization, in two separate cyberattack campaigns in 2021 and 2022, the Slovak ESET cybersecurity company reported. The two cyberattack campaigns were labeled "Outer Space" and "Juicy Mix" by ESET. The two campaigns collected browsing history, cookies, usernames, and passwords stored on targeted devices. The Outer Space campaign, launched in 2021, was conducted after OilRig compromised an Israeli human resources site. The hacker group used the site as a server to extract information from targeted devices. (Jerusalem Post)

Iran is planning to build a naval base at the South Pole, its naval chief said. "Our plan in the future is to raise the proud flag of Iran in Antarctica," navy chief Adm Shahram Irani said during Iran's "sacred defense" week. Tehran hopes to conduct "military and scientific" work at the South Pole, he added, addressing the 86th flotilla, which returned in June from voyages to prepare an Antarctic expedition. In May, Iran said it hoped to send warships to Antarctica in the "near future" and had sent the flotilla on a round-the-world expedition to prepare for the mission. Adm Irani said the flotilla "broke the hegemony of world powers," state-run Irna reported. (The National)

Handwritten notes from Javad Rouhi, who died in Nowshahr prison due to medical neglect, show the brutal torture he endured in the hands of state security. Atena Daemi, a human rights activist, has since his recent death, made the notes public, drawing attention to the dire plight of inmates in Iran's penitentiaries. Rouhi, who was apprehended during the nationwide protests, died under suspicious circumstances while in custody on August 31. He had been sentenced to death alongside two other teenagers, on charges of allegedly setting fire to a police station. The notes written by Rouhi reveal that during his 44 days of incarceration at the Intelligence Department of Mazandaran Province facility, he was subjected to repeated instances of interrogation torture including electric shock and beatings. (Iran International)

Iranian state television has revealed the existence of a new one-way attack drone: a jet-powered version of the Shahed series, the drones which Russia has used to pound Ukraine. The current Shahed-136 is driven by a propeller, with a puttering piston engine earning it the nickname “flying moped.” The new version will be far faster and more difficult to intercept. (Forbes)

Iran's judiciary announced that its prosecutors had issued indictments against U.S. President Joe Biden and over 50 other American officials over their supporting and hosting of a U.S.-based exiled opposition group. At a press briefing in Tehran, judiciary spokesperson Masoud Setayeshi said the list also included former presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush as well as secretaries of state Mike Pompeo, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice. Setayeshi argued that the sitting and former officials had long supported the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, also known as Tondar, "a dissident group which promotes the restoration of the monarchy to Iran to replace the theocratic Islamic Republic." (Al-Monitor) 

A member of the Iranian parliament says the Expediency Council has exempted the executive and judicial branches from the transparency law. The "Transparency of the Three Branches" draft law was presented by a group of parliament members in April 2022. After several debates between the parliament and the Guardian Council, the Expediency Council ultimately took responsibility for the final decision. The Expediency Discernment Council is an administrative assembly appointed by the supreme leader with supervisory powers over all branches of the government. The Guardian Council is a 12-member body – half of whom were directly appointed by Khamenei – that also has veto power over legislation passed by the parliament. (Iran International)

The spokesperson for Iran's Revolutionary Guards has threatened a vigorous response to counter the “hostile activities of the enemy in the media sphere.” Ramezan Sharif called for launching an offensive against anti-regime media as the revolutionary tide continues to deepen and threaten the Islamic Republic's stability. Iranian regime authorities, including commanders from the Revolutionary Guard, have frequently issued threats against media outlets operating abroad, such as Iran International. During his address, Sharif alleged that media outlets globally are under the control of individuals who shape the narrative for their respective organizations while pursuing their own vested interests. (Iran International)

A journalist was attacked in New York City by an official who was part of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s camp, a news channel has alleged. Iran International correspondent Kian Amani was filming outside the Millennium Hilton New York One UN Plaza Hotel and reporting on Raisi’s “entourage” leaving when the incident happened, the Iran International news channel said in a statement. “The entourage of Iran’s president attacked, harassed, and insulted Iran International journalists covering Ebrahim Raisi’s stay in New York,” Iran International alleged. (CNN)

Iran and its agents appear to be orchestrating a Europe-wide campaign of harassment, surveillance, kidnap plots, and death threats targeting political activists who are protesting against the regime. The Guardian has spoken to 15 Iranian campaigners who have been targeted in similar acts of repression across the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Sweden. In most of the cases, the activists have been warned by western police or security agencies that Iran is behind credible threats to their life in retribution for their activism on European soil. The attacks include hacking, cyber-attacks, and online harassment that can include thousands of death threats sent over a week, and real-world threats. (The Guardian)

Iran’s parliament passed a new “hijab and chastity” bill that lays out punishment for people, especially women, who violate the country’s mandatory dress code rules. Lawmakers approved the three-year duration of the legislation on a trial basis, with 152 voting in favor, 34 against, and seven abstaining. The Guardian Council, a powerful oversight body consisting of clerics and legal experts, would need to approve the bill before it can be implemented. The implementation of the legislation, which had been in the works for months, was not put to a parliament vote. It was approved last month by a special committee consisting of 10 lawmakers. (Al-Jazeera)

Iran has seized two foreign oil tankers, its state media reported, as tensions between the United States and the Islamic Republic in the Gulf continue. The official Islamic Republic News Agency reported that the navy of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced it had captured two foreign oil tankers in the Persian Gulf that were carrying 400,000 gallons of smuggled fuel. The tankers, the Steven and the Crown, were flying under the flags of Panama and Tanzania, IRNA reported. Both ships' crews, 37 people in total, were arrested. Al-Monitor was unable to find ships matching their description in shipping databases. (Al-Monitor)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said his government will decide how it will spend $6 billion in previously frozen funds due to be released in a prisoner exchange agreement with the U.S., telling NBC News’ Lester Holt that the money will be spent "wherever we need it." In an exclusive interview in Tehran, Raisi suggested that the Americans held in Iran would be coming home soon, saying that the U.S.-Iran prisoner exchange deal would be completed in “due time” and that the American detainees were “very healthy.” Under the arrangement, Tehran will be granted access to the roughly $6 billion in Iranian oil revenues that were blocked in South Korean banks because of U.S. sanctions. But U.S. officials say Qatar’s central bank will oversee the funds and Iran will be permitted to use the money only for humanitarian purposes in accordance with U.S. sanctions. (NBC News)

Israel accused Iran of building an airport in southern Lebanon to be used as a launchpad for attacks against Israelis across the border, signaling a possible escalation in tensions between the regional foes. Speaking at a high-profile security conference hosted by Reichman University near Tel Aviv, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant claimed Iran has been building a runway that slices through forested mountains just 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Israel’s northern border. Gallant displayed satellite photographs that he said showed the site, where the Iranian national flag and the flag of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group could be seen. Gallant alleged that Iran “is planning to act against the citizens of Israel,” using the runway as a base. (Associated Press)

Multiple articles in Iranian pro-regime media have been hyping the “Tactical Sayyad” air-defense system. Iran claims this system, which is launched from a military-style truck, can detect up to 24 targets at a time at a distance of around 180 km. It can then engage up to 12 of those targets. Iran claims this is an indigenous system, built and developed in Iran. This would be in contrast to other systems that Iran may have developed by modeling them on foreign air-defense missiles, such as S-200s. (Jerusalem Post)

Mansur Haqiqatpur, the former deputy chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security Committee, stated in an interview with Rouydad24 in Tehran, "Despite their small numbers, these ultraconservatives have seized control of all government institutions." Referring to their widespread influence and their “irresponsible behavior,” Haqiqatpur emphasized that the nation, the media, and politicians should hold the ultraconservatives accountable for their destructive performance. A few dozen hardliners in parliament and in President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration have increasingly resorted to eliminating others from the government bureaucracy and even universities, accusing some of insufficient “revolutionary” credentials. (Iran International)

Iranian authorities closed down the pro-reform news agency Entekhab after it published a video clip criticizing the foreign policy agenda of hardline President Ebrahim Raisi. The decision was announced by the state regulatory body, known as the Press Supervisory Board, after it found the news agency to be "acting against Iran's national interests and the Islamic Republic's fundamental foreign policies," according to a report by the government-funded Tasnim news agency. The ban was specifically prompted by a five-minute clip posted on Entekhab's various digital platforms. The report dug into Raisi's foreign policy, describing it as a failure. Titled "The Iranian brand put up for sale," it argued that the overall trajectory of Raisi's foreign policy is placing Iran in a "weaker" position, particularly with its "look to the East" approach, and that the reliance on Russia and China "will leave such damage upon Iran that cannot be repaired for years to come."  (Al-Monitor)

The European Union's top diplomat confirmed that Johan Floderus, a Swedish diplomat working for the EU, has been held captive in Iran for more than 500 days. Arriving at a meeting on development in the Spanish city of Cadiz, EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell told reporters that Brussels was pushing "relentlessly" for the 33-year-old's release. Sweden partially confirmed a New York Times report on the detention, announcing that a Swedish citizen in his thirties had been held in Iran since April 2022. But Borrell went further, confirming the prisoner's name and that he works for the EU diplomatic corps. (AFP)

Iran’s news agencies are reporting that a Russian-made YAK-130 combat trainer aircraft is in the country and has joined the Air Force. The report by ISNA said the advanced combat trainer aircraft is able to meet the training needs of pilots to learn to fly 4th-generation fighters. In April, Iran announced that it had finalized a deal to buy Su-35 fighter jets from Russia. Iran and Russia have a close relationship, especially in military equipment. Iranian drones have been a key element of Russia’s continued war on Ukraine. (Associated Press)

The trial has begun in Iran of the lawyer for Mahsa Amini, the young Iranian Kurdish woman whose death last September triggered a widespread protest movement, a media report said. Saleh Nikbakht is charged with "propaganda against the system," the daily Etemad reported. “He was notified of the charge of propaganda activity against the regime for having spoken to foreign and local media, concerning the Mahsa Amini affair in particular," it said. Nikbakht's trial begins nearly a year after the death in custody last September 16 of 22-year-old Amini, after she was arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic republic's strict dress rules for women. (AFP)

Iranian authorities have dismissed at least 10 university professors who supported the nationwide protests that began last September following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. Just weeks ahead of the anniversary of her demise, reports on social media showed that Hamideh Khademi and Ameneh Aali, two professors from Allameh University in Tehran, were dismissed via phone call, while the Student Guild Council of Iran reported the dismissal of seven professors from the Faculty of Literature at the University of Tehran. Universities and students have long been at the forefront of the struggle for greater social and political freedoms in Iran. In 1999, students protested the closure of a reformist daily, prompting a brutal raid on the dorms of Tehran University that left one student dead. (Radio Free Europe)

Despite pervasive poverty in society, the Iranian government boasts about its performance but based on apparently fabricated data, a former official says. To justify its inept handling of the economic situation, manifested in devaluation of the national currency and runaway inflation, the administration of President Ebrahim Raisi is falsifying statistics pertaining to the government of Hassan Rouhani to pretend there has been growth under his stewardship. The sheer volume of inaccurate information has prompted Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, a vice president under Rouhani and the former head of the Planning and Budget Organization, to write an open letter to the incumbent, providing what he described as the correct data. (Iran International)

Iran-backed Houthi rebels killed 10 Yemen army soldiers from a southern separatist faction in a "surprise attack" after more than a year of relative calm, military sources said. Twelve others were wounded in the attack by the Houthis in the border area between the southern provinces of Lahj and Al-Bayda, the sources told AFP on the condition of anonymity. Four Houthi fighters were also killed, and several were wounded, the sources said. There was no immediate comment from the rebels. The attack targeted a site manned by the separatists, who aspire to create an independent state in southern Yemen such as the one that existed until 1990, the military sources said. (AFP)

Iran's enrichment of uranium continues based on a framework established by the country's parliament, nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said when asked about reports regarding Tehran slowing down its 60% enrichment. "Our nuclear enrichment continues based on the strategic framework law," Eslami said, referring to a related legislation. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Iran had significantly slowed the pace at which it was accumulating near-weapons-grade enriched uranium and diluted some of its stockpile, moves that could help ease tensions with the U.S. and revive broader talks over Iran's nuclear work. (Reuters)

Iran launched exercises to test its “electronic warfare” capabilities against mock enemy drones, fighter jets and helicopters, state television reported. It said units from the military's navy, ground, and air forces as well as air defenses took part in the drills in the central, largely desert region of the Islamic Republic. The exercises featured domestically manufactured radars, drones, manned and unmanned fighter jets, micro aerial vehicles and other military equipment, state TV said. (Reuters)  

As Russia and Iran are both hit by economic sanctions from the West, the allied nations have entered discussions about the prospect of military cooperation. Russia’s deputy defense minister and the Iranian ground forces commander were in talks this week during an Iranian military delegation's visit to Moscow, Interfax reports. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine 18 months ago, the two nations have drawn closer in diplomatic and military exchanges, which has caused concern in the West. In August 2022, Iran’s supply of lethal drones to Russia sparked international interest and alarm. And the alleged transfer of drones from Iran to Russia for use against Ukraine triggered further concern. (Iran International)

Iran’s Defense Ministry unveiled a drone resembling America’s armed MQ-9 Reaper, claiming that the aircraft is capable of staying airborne for 24 hours and has the range to reach the country’s archenemy Israel. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency published a photograph of the drone, called the Mohajer-10, on display at a conference marking Defense Industry Day with what appeared to be smoke-machine fog underneath it. “Mohajer” means “immigrant” in Farsi and has been a drone line manufactured by the Islamic Republic since 1985. (Associated Press)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a series of recent deadly attacks against Israelis has been funded and encouraged by Iran. "We are in the midst of a terror attack. This terror attack is encouraged, guided, funded by Iran and its satellite states," Netanyahu said in broadcast remarks. He spoke in the occupied West Bank at a site where hours earlier an Israeli woman was shot dead by suspected Palestinian gunmen. (Reuters)

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps released footage showing Iranian forces confronting U.S. naval forces in the Strait of Hormuz. The incident comes as U.S. warships entered the gateway to the Persian Gulf for the first time since 2021, responding to Iranian seizures and harassment of oil tankers. IRGC speed boats were seen in the video trailing the USS Bataan, which was carrying thousands of Marines as part of larger reinforcements to the area. “Your helicopter is in the vicinity of my vessels,” Iranian forces radioed to the American warship, “sometimes going to Iranian territorial waters. Advised to take them on your boat and do not enter … Iranian territorial waters. If you do not obey my orders, we will open fire on your helicopters, over.” (i24 News)

Although Western officials have revealed the existence of the facility and Moscow’s partnership with Tehran, documents leaked from the program and obtained by The Washington Post provide new information about the effort by two self-proclaimed enemies of the United States — under some of the world’s heaviest sanctions — to expand the Kremlin’s drone program. Altogether, the documents indicate that, despite delays and a production process that is deeply reliant on foreign-produced electronic components, Moscow has made steady progress toward its goal of manufacturing a variant of the Iranian Shahed-136, an attack drone capable of traveling more than 1,000 miles. (Washington Post)

Iranian authorities arrested nine followers of the Bahai faith— over a host of corruption charges — including money laundering and tax evasion, the intelligence ministry said. The Bahais, Iran's largest non-Muslim minority, are branded by the Islamic republic as "heretics" and are often targeted over alleged ties to Israel, home to their most important shrines and world headquarters. The arrests targeted members of the group in the capital Tehran, said to own "20 pharmacies, three cosmetic companies, and multiple unauthorized warehouses," according to the ministry. (Associated Press)

In a message of defiance and apparent preparedness for escalation, Iran warned that it could capture American vessels after the Pentagon beefed up its presence in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. "The Islamic Republic is capable of reciprocating any mischief by the Americans … including through seizure of their vessels in reciprocation," said Brig. Gen. Ramezan Sharif, spokesman for Iran's hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in comments covered by Fars News Agency. The reaction came one day after the United States sent a 3,000-strong contingent of U.S. Marines and personnel to the Red Sea. Earlier last month, the U.S. military also dispatched F-35, F-16 and A-10 warplanes along with Navy destroyers to the Persian Gulf. The reinforcement, according to US officials, is meant to conduct joint patrols in the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway of utmost vitality to the global oil trade. (Al-Monitor)

Iran appointed Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, who is under U.S. and British sanctions, to head the Islamic Republic’s top court. Montazeri was named the supreme court chief after the “opinions of all the court judges” were taken into consideration, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said. The 75-year-old, who had served as prosecutor general since 2016, would be succeeded in his former post by Mohammad Kazem Movahedi Azad, the chief of the High Disciplinary Court of Judges which investigates judicial conduct, Mizan added. Montazeri was placed under U.S. sanctions in December, with Washington identifying him as having a role in “overseeing the prosecution of protesters” during mass demonstrations in Iran last year. (Times of Israel)

Iran's Revolutionary Guards' navy has unveiled new vessels equipped with 600-km range missiles at a time of rising tensions with the U.S. in the Gulf, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. The announcement was made during a military exercise off the coast of Abu Musa Island, one of three Gulf islands under Iranian control but disputed by the United Arab Emirates. The news agency gave no details about the missiles but cited a commander on the need to defend the islands. (Reuters)

U.S. intelligence officials have warned that Russia is building a drone-manufacturing facility in country with Iran’s help that could have a significant impact on the war in Ukraine once it is completed. Analysts from the Defense Intelligence Agency told a small group of reporters during a briefing that the drone-manufacturing facility now under construction is expected to provide Russia with a new drone stockpile that is “orders of magnitude larger” than what it has been able to procure from Iran to date. When the facility is completed, likely by early next year, the new drones could have a significant impact on the conflict, the analysts warned. In April, the U.S. released a satellite image of the planned location of the purported drone manufacturing plant, inside Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone about 600 miles east of Moscow. (CNN)

Iran topped the list of countries that imposed the highest number of internet restrictions in the first half of this year. Much of the disruption happens during protests, according to new data. According to figures from cyber security company Surfshark, Iran took the lead globally with 14 new restrictions, followed by India with nine and Pakistan with three. Protests were identified as the main driver of the shutdowns. Surfshark spokesperson Gabriele Racaityte-Krasauske said that it was "deeply concerning" to see Iran's surge in internet restrictions, particularly following the death of Mahsa Amini and the Zahedan massacre. (Al-Monitor)

A fourth U.S. citizen has been detained in Iran, several sources confirmed to Al-Monitor, potentially complicating the Biden administration’s pursuit of a prisoner exchange with Tehran. More than two years after the United States and Iran began indirect talks over a prisoner swap, Tehran was known to be holding three Iranian-Americans — Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz — on charges U.S. officials say are baseless. Five sources with knowledge of the situation told Al-Monitor that the United States was seeking the release of a fourth individual detained by Tehran. Multiple sources said the detainee is a male dual U.S.-Iranian national, with one source saying he was arrested in late 2022. (Al-Monitor)

Iran would retaliate against any oil company unloading Iranian oil from a seized tanker, the Revolutionary Guards' navy commander Alireza Tangsiri said, according to state media. In April, the U.S. confiscated Iranian oil on a tanker at sea in a sanctions enforcement operation, according to a maritime security firm. Tangsiri added that Tehran would hold Washington responsible for allowing the unloading of the tanker's content. Sources familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue, had said Washington took control of the oil cargo aboard the Marshall Islands tanker Suez Rajan after securing an earlier court order. (Reuters)

The Iranian president is focusing on securing drone sales in return for food during his latest trip to Africa. According to Kayhan newspaper, affiliated with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's office, President Raisi is working on “extraterritorial cultivation, export of products such as drones and cars, petrochemical products, as well as technical exports." The latest revelations will come as no shock, the barter deals of the heavily sanctioned regime the only way it can muddle through its current crisis, calling in favors from its dictatorial allies around the world from South America to Africa. Iran has been providing drones to guerrilla groups across the Middle East for decades, and most recently, has supported Russia's invasion of Ukraine with hundreds of Shahed drones used in large scale missile attacks. (Iran International)

Iran's clerical rulers are clamping down on dissent ahead of the anniversary of the death of a young woman in morality police custody, fearing a revival of nationwide protests that rocked the Islamic Republic for months. Journalists, lawyers, activists, human rights advocates and students have been arrested, summoned or faced other measures in a campaign that one activist described as "instilling fear and intimidation." (Reuters)

Iranian police are resuming controversial patrols to ensure women obey dress codes and cover their hair in public, state media reports. The "morality police" will return to the streets to enforce Iran's hijab laws, a spokesman said. It comes 10 months after a young woman, Mahsa Amini, died in custody following her arrest in Tehran for allegedly breaking the dress code. (BBC)

A group of 54 Iranian lawyers who expressed support for the family of Mahsa Amini after she died in police custody have been summoned by judicial authorities to explain social media posts, a move activists say is part of a campaign by officials to pressure them amid continued unrest over the suppression of women's rights by the Islamic regime. (Radio Free Europe)

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said Iran was responsible for a foiled plot to attack the Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan. “Tehran stands behind the attempt,” Cohen said in a statement during an official visit to Serbia. “Iranian terror is a global threat, as we saw in the past few days in Azerbaijan in an attempted attack against the Israeli Embassy in Baku, as well as in recent months in Cyprus and Greece in attempted attacks against Israelis and Jews,” Cohen said, adding Iran had funded and issued instructions to the terror cell that attempted the attack. Cohen called for the international community to come together to oppose Iran’s terror activities. (Times of Israel)

Despite evidence of the use of Iranian drones by the Russian army, Iran’s Supreme Leader holds American arms companies responsible for the continued war in Ukraine. Despite Iran’s denials, numerous reports show that the Russian army has used hundreds of Iranian-made drones to bomb Ukraine's infrastructure and civilians. However, in his meeting with seminary students and religious missionaries on Wednesday, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said: "They [the US] are ready to victimize a nation like the poor homeless nation of Ukraine, so that the pockets of the American arms companies will be filled," he said. (Iran International)

The father of one of the victims of Iran's recent protests was tried on charges of "assembly and collusion with the intention of disrupting national security." Ali Rouhi's court session was held at Branch 26 of Tehran Revolutionary Court. He is the father of Hamidreza Rouhi, a university student who was shot dead near his home in Shahr-e Ziba neighborhood in the west of the capital on November 18. Ali Rouhi was arrested on April 6 after he invited people to attend the birthday of his murdered son. He was released from Evin prison on bail on April 9. Rouhi's family has been under pressure for attempts to keep their son’s memory alive. (Iran International)

A new assessment released by U.S. intelligence revealed that Iran is boosting its nuclear capabilities but is not pursuing the development of nuclear weapons. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s assessment said Iran has “undertaken research and development activities that would bring it closer to producing the fissile material needed” to produce a nuclear weapon. However, the report noted that while Iran has accelerated its nuclear program since 2020, it is still not yet capable of producing a weapon. “Iran is not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities that would be necessary to produce a testable nuclear device,” the assessment reads. (The Hill)

At least 60 female students in Iran have reportedly been barred from university for flouting the country’s mandatory hijab law. Videos recently shared by citizen journalists show the harassment of women and girls in subways, streets, and university campuses by disciplinary committees and pro-regime civilians. In defiance, female university students across the country have been recording themselves without headscarves. Several female activists have told the Guardian that detentions and arrests of young women are on rise. They said they have been warned of serious consequences if they fail to adhere to the mandatory hijab law. (The Guardian)

With an annual production of several million tons, Iran is among the world’s top producers of bitumen, a fuel grade that is typically used in applications such as road surfacing, roofing and certain types of paint. As Iran Open Data reported on July 10, most of the national production is distributed free of charge to state-owned entities and affiliates of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to be used for construction and infrastructure projects. However, available data suggest that most of this free bitumen is smuggled or sold out of Iran to neighboring countries, enriching IRGC-linked middlemen, the collaborative initiative said. (Iran Wire)

According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which first published translations of the intelligence documents on its website, the security agencies of Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany revealed sensitive data during the first six months of 2023 on the Iranian regime's illicit nuclear weapons proliferation activities. The reports mainly cover Iran’s alleged illegal conduct in 2022. The most shocking revelation in the trove of intelligence data was from the Netherlands General and Intelligence Security Service (AVID) that determined Iran’s astonishingly fast development of weapons-grade uranium "brings the option of a possible [Iranian] first nuclear test closer." (Fox News)

The U.S. Justice Department filed a forfeiture complaint this week to take control over thousands of weapons seized by the U.S. Navy from Iran to terrorist groups in Yemen, including the Iran-backed Houthis. More than 9,000 rifles, 284 machine guns, approximately 194 rocket launchers, over 70 anti-tank guided missiles and over 700,000 rounds of ammunition were seized by the U.S. Navy during four interdictions of stateless vessels: two from 2021 and another two from 2023. (Al-Arabiya News)

The U.N. expressed “serious concern” over Iran's steadily growing stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Rosemary Di Carlo, undersecretary general for political and peacebuilding affairs, also noted that the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog remains unable to directly verify stockpiles of enriched uranium in the country. Ms. Di Carlo told the Security Council that the International Atomic Energy Agency estimates that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium has grown to more than 20 times the limit set in the 2015 nuclear deal and includes increased quantities of uranium enriched by up to 60 percent. (The National)

An Israeli researcher missing for months in Iraq is being held by a Shiite militia, according to a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Elizabeth Tsurkov, 36, a doctoral student at Princeton University, was kidnapped and held by the group Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia linked to Iran, after leaving a cafe in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, in late March, according to her family and people with knowledge of her case. She holds both Israeli and Russian passports and entered the country using her Russian passport, according to the Israeli government. Israel and Iraq do not have diplomatic relations, so she would not have been allowed to enter with an Israeli passport. (New York Times)

Iran executed at least 354 people in the first half of 2023, a human rights group said as they renewed calls for action against Tehran. The majority of people – 206 – were put to death for drug-related offences, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights said. Among those put to death were six women and five protesters. At least 122 others were executed on murder charges, the organization said. Iran is notorious for its use of the death penalty, coming second only to China for its use of capital punishment in 2020. (The National)

Israel said its Mossad intelligence service carried out an operation in Iran to capture the suspected leader of an Iranian plot to attack Israeli businesspeople in Cyprus and thwart the attack. "In a unique operation on Iranian soil, the Mossad captured the head of the cell, who, during an investigation, gave a detailed confession that led to the exposure and dismantlement of the terrorist cell behind the Cyprus attack," the Mossad said in a statement. Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment. The Israeli agency identified the suspect as Yousef Shahabazi Abbasalilu and said he "received detailed instructions and weapons from senior (officials) in Iran's Revolutionary Guards" to carry out such an attack. (Reuters)

Israel formally acknowledged that an Iranian-planned terror attack targeting Israeli and Jewish targets in Cyprus was foiled, and warned that its operatives would continue thwarting “Iranian terrorism wherever it raises its head,” including in Iran. Cypriot media reported the suspected terror plot, believed to be linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of the Iranian army that is considered a terror organization by several countries, including the United States. The Phile News website said the plot was thwarted by Cypriot intelligence services, in cooperation with other foreign agencies, said to be from Israel and the U.S. (Times of Israel)  

Iran has intensified its diplomatic activity, engaging with friends and foes alike as it seeks to reduce its isolation, improve its economy, and project strength. Iran's ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi has led the way, swinging through China, Syria and Venezuela, hosting Saudi Arabia's top diplomat, and reaching out to other long-time regional rivals such as Egypt. And his foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, has travelled to Oman, the mediator in indirect talks between Iran and its sworn enemy the United States over its suspect nuclear program and a possible prisoner swap. Sanam Vakil, director of Chatham House's Middle East and North Africa program, said Iran was seeking to show it can overcome its adversaries. (AFP)

Iran’s vice president claims the country is planning to produce 20,000 megawatts of electricity using nuclear power. Mohammad Mokhber said that the use of fossil fuel is losing its place and the importance of nuclear energy is doubling. He also ordered the Minister of Energy and the Head of the Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) to compile a plan for the construction of a 20,000-megawatt nuclear power plant and provide the necessary resources for the implementation of this plan in the next year’s budget. (Iran International)

The Iranian hacktivist group Edalat-e Ali has published documents that it says show that a top Iranian prosecutor confirmed that a “full naked body inspection” of a female political prisoner had taken place at a police detention center. The information, which Edalat-e Ali said it obtained by hacking into Iran’s judiciary, came to light amid multiple complaints from women who have been subjected to such intrusive searches in Iranian prisons. Edalat-e Ali, which claims to work inside Iran to expose the "true face of the regime," said that the confidential documents reveal that Ahmad Rahmaniyan, first deputy of the public and revolutionary prosecutor, last year wrote to the head of the judiciary's Protection and Information Office confirming that the inspection of political prisoner Mojgan Kavousi was conducted in October 2021 in several stages at the Karaj Information and Security Police Detention Center. (Radio Free Europe)

An Iranian intelligence officer has claimed that the United States and France are among some 20 countries involved in nationwide protests last year sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini. The demonstrations erupted following the September 16 death in custody of Kurdish-Iranian Amini, 22, after her arrest for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women. Hundreds of people were killed, including dozens of security personnel, and thousands were arrested in connection with what officials labeled “riots” which they said were fomented by foreign countries after Amini’s death. (AFP)

France has banned an upcoming Iranian opposition rally over the risk of an attack, according to a letter sent to the organizers and seen by Reuters, after the release of an Iranian diplomat convicted of masterminding a plot to bomb the group in 2018. The ban comes as Western powers seek to defuse tensions with Iran and a few weeks after Tehran released several Europeans from prison, including two French nationals. French President Emmanuel Macron held a 90-minute call with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on June 10. The Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), political arm of the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), has held frequent rallies in the French capital over the years, often attended by high profile former U.S., European and Arab officials critical of the Islamic Republic. (Reuters)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi concluded his first Latin American tour, strengthening ties with communist dictators in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba. The Iranian head of state, against whom the U.S. has imposed sanctions, reinforced his geopolitical partnerships against the U.S., the common enemy of these four human rights violators. Raisi, a judge and religious fanatic responsible for the execution of 580 Iranians last year, reiterated to the tyrants of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela that this is not a “normal but rather a strategic” relationship against foreign interference. (The Hill)

Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, is signaling a willingness to make a new nuclear deal with the West, but on terms that would allow the Islamic Republic to maintain its nuclear threat. The U.S. shouldn’t fall for the trap. Rather, President Joe Biden’s administration should step up implementation of existing economic sanctions, and rally European allies to impose even tighter restraints on the regime in Tehran. Over the weekend, state media reported Khamenei as saying, “There is nothing wrong with the agreement [with the West], but the infrastructure of our nuclear industry should not be touched.” (Washington Post)

The Telegram channel for “Islam World Resistance”—a group affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—announced that it seeks to murder Israeli LGBTQ community members in response to the annual LGBTQ parade in Jerusalem. The IRGC-linked group wrote on Telegram: "March of homosexuals in the occupied holy Al Quds city. After killing these impure [homosexuals], where should we bury them on the earth to not make the earth dirty?” (Jerusalem Post)

Iran claimed that it had created a hypersonic missile capable of traveling at 15 times the speed of sound, adding a new weapon to its arsenal as tensions remain high with the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program. The new missile — called Fattah, or “Conqueror” in Farsi — was unveiled even as Iran said it would reopen its diplomatic posts in Saudi Arabia after reaching a détente with Riyadh following years of conflict. The tightly choreographed segment on Iranian state television apparently sought to show that Tehran’s hardline government can still deploy arms against its enemies across much of the Middle East. (Associated Press)

A new unit of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been revealed. According to Israel's public broadcaster Kan, Unit 700 is headed by Gal Farsat, a former Al-Quds Force official with extensive connections to senior officials in Iran, Syria and Lebanon. Unit 700 was reported to be in charge of smuggling supplies and logistics for the Al-Quds Force. In particular, it will be responsible for transferring military equipment to pro-Iranian militias, notably in Syria and to Hezbollah in Lebanon. (i24 News)

A purported arms contract seen by Sky News offers the first hard evidence that Iran has sold ammunition to Russia for its war in Ukraine, an informed security source has claimed. If authentic, the 16-page document, dated 14 September 2022, appears to be for samples of varying sizes of artillery, tank shells and rockets worth just over $1m (£800,000). It was shared by the source along with five pages of an allegedly linked contract that includes barrels of a T72 tank and barrels of a Howitzer artillery piece, as well as ammunition shells. That deal was worth about $740,000 (£590,000). (Sky News)

Iran’s supreme leader defended his tough approach to the West, saying compromise would only invite further hostility from Iran’s enemies and blaming recent anti-government protests on “thugs and villains.” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s remarks come amid an intensifying standoff with Western countries over Iran’s nuclear program, which has made major advances in the five years since then-President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from an international accord that restricted it. (Associated Press)

Iranian security forces opened fire on a protest sparked by the death of a student recently released from custody, rights groups and monitors said, with several people reported wounded. The protests erupted in the town of Abdanan, in the Kurdish-populated western province of Ilam, prompted by the death late last month of Bamshad Soleimankhani, 21, just days after his release from prison. The Norway-based Hengaw group published images reported to be of protesters showing wounds from birdshot pellets, along with footage showing people in the streets with gunshots audible. (Al-Arabiya)

The U.S. imposed sanctions on an Iranian Revolutionary Guard official and others it says took part in wide-ranging plots to kill former national security adviser John Bolton and others around the world, including at least one additional U.S. government official. The alleged 2021 plot against Bolton, one of the best-documented of the alleged assassination efforts, is part of what U.S. prosecutors and former government officials describe as ongoing efforts by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to kill Trump-era officials behind a 2020 U.S. airstrike that killed the head of the Iranian guard’s elite Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani. (Associated Press)

The defense minister of Mali went to Iran for meetings that could see Iran sending arms to Mali in North Africa. Malian Defense Minister Colonel Sadio Camara had meetings with Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani. Iran’s pro-regime Tasnim media reported that “the defense minister of Iran expressed the country’s readiness to provide Mali with military equipment and experiences in the fight against terrorism.” Ashtiani said Iran is prepared to share equipment, experiences and capabilities in training with Mali. “The Islamic Republic of Iran will spare no effort to strengthen Mali’s defense power against the threats posed by terrorist groups,” the Iranian general who is also the defense minister added. (Jerusalem Post)

Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium grew by over a quarter in the three months to May, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported, adding to concerns over the speed with which Tehran is accumulating 60% highly enriched uranium that can be quickly converted into weapons-grade material for nuclear weapons. U.S. officials have said it could take Iran as little as 12 days to have enough fuel for a bomb. But the Islamic Republic has also taken its first steps in several years to improve the United Nations atomic agency’s oversight of its nuclear work, the IAEA said. (Wall Street Journal)

Iran wants to boost Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military by upgrading the country's air-defense system, the Fars news agency reported on May 29. In an interview with the news agency, Iranian General Said Hamzah Kalandari said that although Syria had its air-defense capabilities, the "Syrian brothers" will be supported with equipment and tactical upgrades. The general, who is active in the Defense Ministry, said the aim was to contain Israeli attacks. Along with Russia, Iran is Assad's most important ally. Iran has been expanding its political and military relations in the region since the 1990s. (Radio Free Europe)

An Iranian journalist went on trial behind closed doors on charges linked to her coverage of the funeral of a Kurdish-Iranian woman whose death in custody last year triggered months of unrest, her lawyer told ILNA news agency. The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in custody of the morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic dress code unleashed a wave of mass protests across Iran for months, marking the biggest challenge to Iran's clerical leaders in decades. Elaheh Mohammadi covered Amini's funeral in her Kurdish hometown Saqez, where the protests began. The Islamic Republic accused its foreign foes of igniting the protests to destabilize the country. (Reuters)

Members of the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) – a nine-strong group of central banks including those of India, Pakistan and Iran – are to launch a new cross-border financial messaging system in the coming weeks, as an alternative to the main existing international network Swift. According to officials from Iran – which currently chairs the body – the members of the bloc agreed at a meeting in the Iranian capital Tehran on May 24 that they would set up the new system within a month. (Forbes)

Former MP Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh claims the country's nuclear dossier will now move to the Foreign Ministry, meaning the end of the JCPOA. Speaking to Setareh-e Sobh newspaper, he said: “It seems likely that foreign policy cases will be transferred from the Council to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which means issues like the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will be archived,” he claimed, referring to the recent change to the leadership of the Supreme National Security Council. Iran's Security Chief Ali Shamkhani stepped down with President Ebrahim Raisi appointing a heavily sanctioned Revolutionary Guards commander as his replacement. (Iran International)

A moderate conservative politician says the ultraconservative Paydari Party has occupied most power centers including the parliament and the state television. Former lawmaker Mansour Haghighatpour told Etemad Onlinethat the "audacious Paydari Party" has a lot of money, controls several powerful institutions and has seized and occupied the state television silently. Haghighatpour is close to Iran’s former conservative parliament (Majles) speaker Ali Larijani who recently had a public run-in with ultraconservatives or hardliners. (Iran International)

Near a peak of the Zagros Mountains in central Iran, workers are building a nuclear facility so deep in the earth that it is likely beyond the range of a last-ditch U.S. weapon designed to destroy such sites, according to experts and satellite imagery analyzed by The Associated Press. The photos and videos from Planet Labs PBC show Iran has been digging tunnels in the mountain near the Natanz nuclear site, which has come under repeated sabotage attacks amid Tehran’s standoff with the West over its atomic program. (The Independent)

An Iranian military commander threatened the U.S. over the killing of Iran’s top general over three years ago, vowing to drive American forces out of the Middle East. Iran has repeatedly vowed vengeance since a U.S. airstrike killed General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in January 2020. “Although the Americans martyred Haj Qassem Soleimani, they received the first blow and now are receiving the second blow, which is nothing but their gradual withdrawal from the region,” Iranian general Hossein Salami, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said. (Times of Israel)

Iran's Cyber-Police (FATA) has threatened women fashion businesses, surgery clinics and gyms with closure over unveiled photos in their social media content. Ramin Pashaei, deputy chief of FATA, said Cyber Police aims at “clearing the [Persian language] cyberspace of immoral content” and warned that any social media content considered “outside norms and against moral standards” would bring about prosecution. Authorities accuse boutiques, beauty salons, modelling agencies, gyms and plastic surgery establishments of encouraging women not to wear the hijab by their “immoral” content. (Iran International)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran (IRGC) stands to take control of Iran’s economy by gaining full power over the "economic arteries" of the country, according to an anti-regime group. "The documents unveiled by the MEK unequivocally demonstrate that regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has granted the IRGC complete authority over Iran's economy," Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the Washington office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), told Fox News Digital. (Fox News)

Iran executed seven people on rape and drug-related charges in one day, bringing the total to at least 10 confirmed cases of prisoners hanged this week, as rights groups sound the alarm over the “chilling” execution spree in the Islamic Republic. Iran Human Rights (IHR) said in a report that four people convicted of rape were hanged at the Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj, 36 kilometers (22 miles) west of Tehran. The Oslo-based group could not identify the identity of the men. It said that in most rape cases, confessions are obtained under torture and defendants do not have access to a lawyer. Iranian authorities did not confirm the rape-related executions. (Al-Monitor)

German prosecutors charged a German-Iranian dual national for an attempted arson attack near a synagogue on the orders of the government in Tehran. Babak J. was instructed by an intermediary “acting on behalf of unknown Iranian state agencies” in November 2022 to carry out an arson attack on a synagogue in the region of North Rhine-Westphalia, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement. Subsequently, the accused is said to have sought to convince an acquaintance to set fire to a synagogue in Dortmund using a Molotov cocktail but was refused.  (Al-Arabiya)

Iran has continued supplying weapons and drugs that fuel the Yemen war despite its agreement to restore diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia, U.S. Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking said. The Chinese-brokered accord reached in March, talks between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, and a cease-fire that largely has held despite expiring in October have boosted prospects for an end to the conflict. But Lenderking told reporters in an online briefing on his latest visit to the region that Iran is still supplying arms and drugs that help fuel the war, which erupted in 2014 and has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. (Reuters)

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad will provide a launchpad for new attacks against Israel, a senior Iranian official predicted during a Russia-hosted summit. "We are sure that the Syrian Army will respond to the Israeli raids at a proper time,” Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian said. “All the signs and variables testify to the transition process in the world order, the decline of the U.S. power, and the strengthening of regionalism.” Israeli officials have conducted airstrikes in Syria for years, with the stated goal of preventing Iranian forces, which have fought in tandem with Russia to preserve the Assad regime, from establishing military outposts on Israeli borders. (Washington Examiner)

Iran and its proxies are enabling attacks on U.S. troops in Syria through clandestine weapons shipments hidden within humanitarian aid that has flowed into the region after a catastrophic earthquake killed tens of thousands earlier this year, according to classified U.S. intelligence and an Israeli military official familiar with the matter. The findings, outlined in a leak of U.S. secrets circulated on the Discord messaging platform and obtained by The Washington Post, raise dire questions about the ability of the United States and its allies to intercept Iranian-sourced arms used routinely to target American personnel, partner forces and civilians in the Middle East. (Washington Post)

Iran has embraced artificial intelligence (AI) as a way to significantly improve its state surveillance networks, allowing the repressive regime to further crack down on perceived offenses. "The Iran regime is certainly joining rogue leaders of the world in redefining and modernizing their modes of suppression," Lisa Daftari, a Middle East expert and editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk, told Fox News Digital. "Unfortunately, just as the Iranian people are finding innovative ways of using social media, streaming and VPNs to get their message out, the regime is also taking advantage of technological advances to continue their reign of brutality."  (Fox News)

Iran has humiliated Israel by organizing “Islamic resistance,” commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, Esmail Qaani said in Tehran. “At this point, Israel has reached a level of humiliation that it has surrounded itself with barbed wire and radars to prevent infiltration,” Qaani told a gathering of young clerics. (Iran International)

Iran has seized a second oil tanker in a week in Gulf waters, the U.S. Navy said, the latest escalation in a series of seizures or attacks on commercial vessels in Gulf waters since 2019. The Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet of the U.S. Navy said the Panama-flagged oil tanker Niovi was seized by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) at 6:20 a.m. (0220 GMT) while passing through the narrow Strait of Hormuz. The incident comes after Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman called the Advantage Sweet. (Reuters)

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)