TOP STORIES
Iran Expands Public Crackdown On Women And Girls, Sparking Public Anger | Washington Post
With global attention focused on Iran’s escalating conflict with Israel, Tehran has intensified its domestic crackdown on women, giving police expanded powers to enforce conservative dress codes. The new wave of repression appears to be one of the most significant efforts to roll back perceived social gains in the aftermath of the 2022 protest movement — a months-long uprising that challenged gender segregation and clerical rule. Some Iranians suspect the government is using fears of regional war as cover to tighten its grip at home; others say it’s just the latest salvo in a long-running campaign aimed at extinguishing all forms of dissent. But the public backlash has been swift. In many instances, videos of women being violently detained showed crowds of bystanders gathering to support them. Now, authorities appear to be responding to pressure to curb their harsh tactics. On Monday, Iran’s national police made a rare statement to local media about Operation Noor, its new campaign of hijab enforcement. A police spokesperson said that officers would not refer cases to the judiciary, potentially removing the threat of criminal charges for women who have been detained.
IRGC-Affiliated Suspect Sentenced In Peru Over Israeli Assassination Plot | Iran International
A suspected member of the IRGC has been handed 18-months preventive detention over his attempt to assassinate two Israelis in Peru. Investigations are still underway regarding the motive of the suspect, identified as Majid Aziz, who acquired Peruvian nationality through marriage. His two accomplices Ángelo Trucios and Walter Loja, both Peruvian nationals, have received the same sentence. “It has been established with a high degree of plausibility” that the three suspects had conspired to kill Israelis, ruled the Peruvian judge in charge of the case. According to the prosecutors, Azizi contacted the Peruvians to plan to kill two Israeli citizens living in the city of Cusco, once the capital of the Inca Empire. One of the Israeli targets works as a tour guide and the other owns a café. Azizi was apprehended in March after he withdrew money from the Interbank bank, located in the Plaza de Armas in the center of the capital Lima. According to reports at the time, he was arrested over plotting to carry out a terrorist attack at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC).
Iran, Pakistan Urge U.N Security Council To Take Action Against Israel | Reuters
Iran and Pakistan called on the United Nations Security Council in a joint statement issued on Wednesday to take action against Israel, saying it had "illegally" targeted neighbouring countries and foreign diplomatic facilities. The joint statement, released by Pakistan's foreign ministry, followed a three-day visit to the country by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East. Explosions were heard last Friday over the Iranian city of Isfahan in what sources said was an Israeli attack. However, Tehran played down the incident and said it had no plans for retaliation. "Recognizing that the irresponsible act of the Israeli regime forces was a major escalation in an already volatile region, both sides called on the UN Security Council to prevent the Israeli regime from its adventurism in the region and its illegal acts attacking its neighbours...," Iran and Pakistan said in their joint statement.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Biden Admin Funded Research With Prof At Sanctioned Iranian University | Iran International
The Biden administration funded a research project involving an Iranian scientist from a university associated with Iran's illicit nuclear program, according to findings by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI). Mohammed Hasan Ravanji, a professor at Tehran-based Sharif University of Technology (SUT), collaborated on this research project, which received funding from the US Department of Energy's Solar Energy Technologies Office. Late March, UANI, a US non-profit opposing Iran's nuclear program, raised concerns over this collaboration with the Iranian university, which faces sanctions over its links to Iran's nuclear and military activities. In a letter addressed to several US government officials, including Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of Energy, UANI highlighted a co-authored paper resulting from the collaboration between a researcher from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Sharif University's Ravanji.
Rep. Banks’ MAHSA Act Signed Into Law | WBIW.Com
Today, Congressman Jim Banks released the following statement in response to the enactment of his MAHSA Act, legislation to sanction the Iranian regime for its human rights abuses…United Against Nuclear Iran stated: “UANI applauds the passage of the MAHSA Act, which will pave the way for long overdue sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s supreme leader, president, and the entities they control under counterterrorism and human rights abuse authorities.”
Threat Status | Washington Times
…An analysis by the independent group United Against Nuclear Iran warned in 2022 that “the Iranian-North Korean threat is compounded by the two nations’ cooperation, especially in the realm of nuclear and ballistic missile development.” This week’s North Korea-Iran visit comes just more than a week after China dispatched a high-level delegation to Pyongyang.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
The Nuclear Threats That Loom Over Iran And Israel | Washington Post
A volley of back-and-forth strikes between Israel and Iran, culminating with explosions in the Islamic Republic on Friday, added a nuclear edge to the regional fallout from the war in Gaza. Here, the world watched two powers with nuclear technology — one with not-so-secret weapons, the other with ambiguous arms ambitions — as they threatened to strike each other’s nuclear sites. “The situation is extremely troubling, and it reveals some hard truths about why nuclear weapons can be more of a liability than some kind of national security asset,” Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, told me that Thursday evening. He was referring to the tit-for-tat strikes this month, which had seen an Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate in Syria as well as hundreds of drones and missiles launched from Iranian soil in retaliation — and the threat of further Israeli retaliation.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline Remains Stalled Under Cloud Of Sanctions | Reuters
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's visit to Pakistan this week put the spotlight on a major gas pipeline deal between the two neighbours which has faced delays due to geopolitical issues and international sanctions. The two nations reiterated the importance of cooperation in the energy domain, including trade in electricity, power transmission lines and the IP Gas Pipeline Project, a joint statement released following the culmination of the visit said. Here are some facts about the project, which is also known as the Peace Pipeline: - The pipeline deal, signed in 2010, envisaged the supply of 750 million to a billion cubic feet per day of natural gas for 25 years from Iran's South Pars gas field to Pakistan to meet Pakistan's rising energy needs.- The pipeline was to stretch over 1,900 kilometres (1,180 miles) - 1,150 km within Iran and 781 km within Pakistan.
The Biden administration may leverage new Iran sanctions measures included in the recently passed US security package to pressure Chinese buyers to reduce exposure to Iranian oil, but the legislation is unlikely to have a big impact on oil trade in the near term, experts say. "Since the Biden administration has not enforced existing US sanctions on Iran, expanding sanctions isn't likely to matter," Brenda Shaffer, an energy expert at the US Naval Postgraduate School, told S&P Global Commodity Insights April 24. The US Senate on April 23 passed the security package, which the US House already approved. The package included a measure that imposes sanctions on foreign ports, vessels and refineries involved in the trade of sanctioned Iranian petroleum products. The so-called Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum Act also includes sanctions on entities involved in ship-to-ship transfers of Iranian oil.
TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
Iran Says Argentina Bid To Arrest Minister In 1994 Attack 'Illegal | Voice Of America
Iran on Wednesday condemned as illegal Argentina's request for Interpol to arrest Iran's interior minister in the 1994 bombing attack on a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani "strongly condemned the repetition of illegal requests based on lies ... by some Argentine judges about Iranian nationals in the AMIA case," a statement from the ministry said. On April 12, a court in Argentina placed blame on Iran for the 1994 attack against the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires and for a bombing two years earlier against the Israeli embassy, which killed 29 people. The Argentinean foreign ministry on Tuesday said the Iranian minister, Ahmad Vahidi, was part of a delegation from Tehran visiting Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and Interpol has issued a red notice seeking his arrest at the request of Argentina. Argentina has also asked those two governments to arrest Vahidi, it added in a statement.
Lack Of Action On Iran Could Lead To More Threats And Attacks In UK, Says Journalist | The Guardian
A former BBC journalist has said the UK government will “pay a heavy price” for its lack of action against the Iranian regime, which could lead to more “threats” and “operations” in Britain, after the stabbing of an Iranian journalist in London. Sima Sabet, a former journalist at the BBC World Service and the dissident channel Iran International, said there would be more transnational repression unless the government issued a “deterrent signal” to the Iranian regime. Sabet’s former colleague at Iran International, Pouria Zeraati, was stabbed in the capital in late March, reviving conversations about the safety of Iranian journalists and dissidents in the UK. Although investigations by counter-terrorism officers are continuing, the three suspects are thought to have fled the country after the attack. Sabet was told by police to leave her home after the incident. Speaking to the Guardian from an undisclosed location, Sabet said she has been left without a “public life” due to the threats she faces and that she hardly leaves her home and feels “less safe than ever”. She said: “I am a UK citizen. Why should I be fighting for my safety?”
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Iran Sentences Rapper To Death For Backing Protests, State Media Reports | Voice Of America
An Iranian court has sentenced to death a popular rapper jailed for more than a year and a half for supporting nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death, local media reported Wednesday. Toomaj Salehi, 33, was arrested in October 2022 after publicly backing the wave of demonstrations that erupted a month earlier, triggered by the death in custody of 22-year-old Amini. The Iranian Kurdish woman had been detained by the morality police in Tehran over an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's strict dress rules for women. Salehi was sentenced in 2023 to six years and three months in prison. But he was freed on bail on November 18, the singer's lawyer Amir Raisian said at the time, because the Supreme Court had found "flaws in the initial sentence" of six years in prison. The rapper was rearrested less than two weeks later. The Revolutionary Court added accusations against Salehi of "assistance in sedition, assembly and collusion, propaganda against the system and calling for riots," Raisian said.
Iran's Judiciary Confirms Rapper Toomaj Salehi Death Sentence | Reuters
Iran's judiciary confirmed the death sentence of well-known Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi but added that he is entitled to a sentence reduction, state media reported on Thursday. Salehi's lawyer Amir Raisian told Sharq newspaper on Wednesday that an Iranian Revolutionary Court had sentenced his client to death for charges linked to Iran's 2022-2023 unrest. Salehi was arrested in October 2022 after making public statements in support of the nationwide protests, sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman arrested over wearing an "improper" hijab.
Iranian Women Violently Dragged From Streets By Police Amid Hijab Crackdown | The Guardian
Harrowing first-hand accounts of women being dragged from the streets of Iran and detained by security services have emerged as human rights groups say country’s hijab rules have been brutally enforced since the country’s drone strikes on Israel on 13 April. A new campaign, called Noor (“light” in Persian), was announced the same day the Iranian regime launched drone attacks against Israel, to crack down on “violations” of the country’s draconian hijab rules, which dictate that all women must cover their heads in public. Hours later, videos verified by human rights groups showing women and girls being forcefully arrested by agents of the notorious Gasht-e-Irshad (“morality police”) flooded social media along with stories of beatings and assault. One mother and daughter walking through a busy Tehran square were surrounded by five chador-clad female agents and two male agents, who hurled insults and accusations before they grabbed the women. When they resisted arrest, they were violently dragged into the van, a source close to the family said.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
How Iran Covered Up The Damage From Israel’s Strikes | The Economist
When Iran and Israel exchanged drone and missile strikes earlier this month, the world was braced for a full-fledged war in the Middle East. In the end both sides, having violently made their point, let matters rest. New satellite images now show how Iran saved face and backed down: it simply swapped one destroyed air-defence radar for a fresh one. On April 19th, in response to an Iranian barrage a few days earlier, Israeli jets are thought to have fired several air-launched ballistic missiles towards an air base not far from the Natanz nuclear complex south of Tehran. The site has been central to Iran’s nuclear programme since it was publicly exposed 22 years ago and is heavily defended with Iran’s Russian-made s-300 air-defence system. Israeli missiles appear to have scored a direct hit. They struck a 30n6e2 “Tombstone” radar, which is designed to track incoming air and missile threats, allowing interceptor missiles to take them out, according to analysis by Chris Biggers, an imagery analyst who used to work for America’s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The rest of the battery had been moved away, presumably in case Israel were to strike again. New images acquired by Mr Biggers and shared exclusively with The Economist now show that Iran, by the next day, had pulled a switcheroo.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Iran Faces Worsening Land Subsidence Crisis Impacting Half Its Population | Iran International
Nearly half of Iran's population currently resides on or near areas prone to land subsidence, according to reports from the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development. Ali Beitollahi, the head of the vulnerability research section at the Road and Urban Development Research Center, pointed out that subsidence areas are expanding, predicting that adjacent zones will soon be engulfed by the main subsidence plains. He warned that “Tehran, Mashhad, Shiraz, Kerman, and most importantly Isfahan, are precisely in the subsidence area.” In Isfahan, concerns are intensifying as the situation poses a direct threat to its historical edifices, including the iconic Naqsh-e Jahan Square and numerous ancient bridges. The subsidence phenomenon could lead to irreversible environmental damage, including water resource depletion, reduction in agricultural outputs, transformation of fertile lands into deserts, and the formation of deep fissures in the earth.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Iran Said To Cut Syria Presence After Strikes Blamed On Israel | Times Of Israel
Iran has reduced its military footprint in Syria after a succession of strikes blamed on Israel, a source close to Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah and a war monitor said Wednesday. Iran has provided military support to Syrian government forces through more than a decade of civil war, but a series of strikes targeting its commanders in recent months has prompted a reshaping of its presence, the sources said. “Iran withdrew its forces from southern Syria,” including both Quneitra and Daraa provinces, which abut the Israeli-held Golan Heights, the source close to Hezbollah said. But it still maintains a presence in other parts of the country, the source added. Recent months have seen a series of strikes on Iranian targets in Syria, widely blamed on Israel, culminating in an April 1 strike that leveled what Iran said was a consulate in Damascus and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Israel must be brought to justice for “usurpation and oppression” of the Palestinian territories, if not there won’t be a guarantee that others would not do the same in other lands. Raisi was delivering a statement during his one-day visit to Sri Lanka on Wednesday. “When it come to the oppressor, when it come to the usurper, the Zionist Israeli regime has been committing oppression against the people of Palestine for 75 years, they have been usurping their territory,” Raisi said. “First of all we have to expel the usurpers secondly we should make them pay the cost for all the damages they have created and thirdly we have to bring to justice the oppressor and usurper,” he said. Earlier on Wednesday Raisi inaugurated a hydropower and irrigation project in Sri Lanka and said his country has proven the West doesn’t have a monopoly on technology.
Iran Will Check Erdogan's Ambitious Goals In Iraq, Experts Say | Voice Of America
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed with Iraqi officials to expand bilateral relations, an attempt that experts say will be challenged by neighbor Iran, which has established significant political clout in Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said at a joint news conference with Erdogan on Monday that the 26 memorandums of understanding he signed that day provided a “road map for sustainable cooperation” between Iraq and Turkey. Erdogan, on his first visit to Iraq in 13 years, hailed the memorandums. "I believe that my visit and the agreements we signed will be a turning point in the relations between Iraq and Turkey,” he said. The documents address key issues between the two countries, including security, water management and trade. The two leaders also witnessed the signing of preliminary agreements among Iraq, Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on a 1,200-kilometer highway and railway project known as the Development Road Project, which would connect the Persian Gulf countries to Turkey and Europe through Iraq.