Iran’s Zarif arrives in Iraq to pressure Baghdad to stay in Iran’s orbit
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is traveling to Iraq to pressure Baghdad into keeping its strategic alliance with Iran amid US-Iran tensions. In recent months, the US and Iraq have also engaged in strategic dialogue.
Iraq has been a battlefield between the US and Iran, with Iranian-backed militias which are part of Iraq’s government attacking US forces and America killing a top Iranian commander.
Zarif is in daily contact with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and his visit comes after at least two visits by Esmail Ghaani, the IRGC’s Quds Force commander.
Ghaani took over from Qasem Soleimani after the US killed him next to Baghdad International Airport in January. Iraj Masjidi, Iran’s ambassador in Baghdad, spoke over the weekend and said that Zarif’s visit is aimed at strengthening strategic relations.The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Saturday said Zarif will arrive Sunday, July 19. It is supposed to be a trip that comes just before Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi travels to Iran and to other countries, possibly Saudi Arabia. That means that Iran’s message will be to pressure Baghdad to stay close to Tehran. Iran has also signed a deal with Syria to provide air defense for the regime and is also trying to provide support for Lebanon’s economy, as both Iran and Hezbollah say that Beirut is trying to work more closely with Beijing.Zarif is also expected to meet with Kurdistan Regional Government officials, including president Nechirvan Barzani. He may also meet with the head of the Hashd al-Shaabi, a group of pro-Iranian militias, and Ammar al-Hakim. He will also express condolences for the death of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an Iraqi militia leader the US killed in January along with Soleimani.Iran’s Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, went to Iraq in March of this year. In March 2019, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani signed a series of important bilateral trade deals with Iraq.
Iran won’t let enemies prance around its territorial waters
A senior naval commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps says Iran will never allow the foreign forces to prance around its territorial waters.
Speaking on Saturday a day before the anniversary of detaining the British-flagged Stena Impero tanker in the southern Iranian waters, the commander of IRGC’s First Naval Region, Second Brigadier General Abbas Gholamshahi said, “We will always protect our values and national interests; we will not allow foreign forces to wander around our territorial waters.”
He warned the non-regional troops who have been trying to secure their illegal presence in the region, saying that the enemies should better know that they will not be easy for them to prance in the Persian Gulf waters.
When the UK had seized Iranian tanker in Gibraltar last year, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Seyyed Ali Khamenei warned that their vicious act will not be left unanswered.“Less than 72 hours, our brave soldiers sieged and confiscated Stina Bulk regardless of their escort to disrupt their calculations in the international waters,” the general said.He reiterated the Iranian armed forces’ readiness to counter any miscalculations by the enemies.The 30,000-tonne UK-flagged Stena Impero tanker was seized by Iranian naval forces on July 19, 2019 when it ignored distress calls as it collided with a fishing boat on its route.Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said the ship had also used a wrong path to enter the Strait of Hormuz. A day after the seizure of the Stena Impero, Iran released footage showing Iranian speedboats cruising near the tanker as a military helicopter hovered over the vessel.The 30,000-tonne UK-flagged Stena Impero tanker was seized by Iranian naval forces on July 19, 2019 when it ignored distress calls as it collided with a fishing boat on its route.Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said the ship had also used a wrong path to enter the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s message to its people: If you revolt, you die
Since late June, 11 Iranian citizens – three in Tehran and eight in Isfahan –have been sentenced to death for taking part in mass anti-government protests in November 2019.
Iranian journalist Ruhollah Zam, who was accused of fuelling anti-government protests through a popular Telegram channel in 2017, also received the death penalty during the same period.
Also in June, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shut down Iran’s biggest anti-poverty NGO, the Imam Ali Society, and arrested its founding director, Sharmin Meymandi Nejad, citing “anti-Iran activities”.
The independent charity had attracted the regime’s fury during last year’s protests by criticising government officials for “calling the poverty-stricken demonstrators rioters and agents of the enemy”.
Why did Iranian authorities rapidly intensify their efforts to silence dissenting voices in the last few weeks? The short answer is “fear”.
Today, amid a devastating pandemic and crippling economic sanctions, the Iranian government is more concerned about the possible re-emergence of mass riots than ever before.
Today, Iranian people are fed up with the government’s totalitarian desire to control all aspects of their lives and its apparent inability to address pressing environmental threats, such as air pollution and drought.
Moreover, they are extremely dissatisfied with its bungling response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But above all, many Iranians from all walks of life are experiencing unprecedented, crippling economic hardship as a result of the cumulative consequences of the US sanctions, the COVID-19 pandemic and the incompetence of the Iranian government.
US President Donald Trump’s 2018 decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal and embark on a “maximum pressure” policy devastated Iran’s economy, which was already in dire straits due to chronic mismanagement and widespread corruption.
Just over a year later, the coronavirus pandemic, and the consequent drop in global oil prices, inflicted a second deadly blow on the country’s finances. die
Due to US sanctions, Iran’s oil revenues dropped from over $60bn in 2018 to $9bn in 2019.
As the Iranian leadership tried to compensate for its oil revenue losses with gains in other sectors, the pandemic struck the service sector – which makes up more than 40 percent of Iran’s economy – and sped up the country’s looming economic collapse.
Iran police vow to deal ‘decisively’ with any further protests
Iranian police have said they will deal “decisively” with further protests over economic hardship, a day after security forces fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators in the southwestern city of Behbahan.
Iran’s rulers have tried to prevent a revival of last November’s anti-government protests in which hundreds of people were killed.
Tehran says the death toll stood at 225 people, including members of the security forces. Rights group Amnesty International said at least 304 people were killed and thousands more were wounded when authorities cracked down on the protesters.
On Tuesday, the judiciary said the death sentences of three men involved in that unrest had been upheld, sparking a surge in online protests.
In a statement on Friday, police urged people to “vigilantly refrain from any gathering that could provide a pretext for the counter-revolutionary movement”, accusing “enemies” of whipping up discontent.
“The police force has an inherent and legal duty to deal decisively with these desperate moves,” the statement added.
The police chief for the city of Behbahan in southwest Iran, Colonel Mohammad Azizi, was quoted by Iranian website jamaran.news as confirming a protest took place beginning at 9pm local time (15:30 GMT) on Thursday.
He said police “firmly dispersed” the demonstrators, who rallied over the economy, and there were no injuries.
Iranian media reported that police dispersed protesters in southwest Iran angry over Iran’s anaemic economy amid a US sanctions campaign.
Internet-access advocacy group NetBlocks.org also reported disruption affecting online access in Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province late on Thursday.
The outage coincided with videos being published online of protesters gathering in the city of Behbahan, some 570km (355 miles) southwest of the capital, Tehran.
Rouhani says 25 million Iranians infected with COVID-19
25 million Iranians are infected with Covid-19. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that 25 million Iranians have been infected with the coronavirus and that another 35 million are at risk of acquiring it.
The figures, which Rouhani said were based on a new Health Ministry report, are far higher Iran’s official toll of 269,440 infected. Rouhani in a televised speech did not address the discrepancy.
Iran, with a population of more than 80 million, has been the Middle East country hardest hit by the epidemic.
“Our estimate is that as of now 25 million Iranians have been infected with this virus and about 14,000 have lost their dear lives,” Rouhani said in the speech.
“There is the possibility that between 30 and 35 million other people will be at risk,” he said.
“In total, more than 200,000 people have been hospitalized,” he said.
The Health Ministry on Friday said 13,791 people had died from COVID-19.
25 million Iranians are infected with Covid-19. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that 25 million Iranians have been infected with the coronavirus and that another 35 million are at risk of acquiring it. The figures, which Rouhani said were based on a new Health Ministry report, are far higher Iran’s official toll of 269,440 infected. Rouhani in a televised speech did not address the discrepancy. 25 million Iranians are infected with Covid-19. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that 25 million Iranians have been infected with the coronavirus and that another 35 million are at risk of acquiring it. The figures, which Rouhani said were based on a new Health Ministry report, are far higher Iran’s official toll of 269,440 infected. Rouhani in a televised speech did not address the discrepancy. 25 million Iranians are infected with Covid-19.
IRGC Identifies, Arrests Instigators in Khorasan Razavi Province
Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) announced in a statement that a number of main elements of anti-revolutionary groups, who were provoking people to embark on protest rallies in Northeastern Khorasan Razavi province, have been identified and arrested. Arrests
According to the statement released by Imam Reza Corps of Khorasan Razavi, some of the detainees have records of measures like espionage against Iran’s national security.
The statement went on to say, “With full mastery and action of the intelligence organization of Imam Reza Corps of Khorasan Razavi province, a number of the main hostile groups, who were persuading their advocates and people to hold protest rallies on streets via publication of call, were identified and arrested.”
The report added that some of these elements have records of measures such as spying against national security, stirring chaos, and trying to disturb public order via cyberspace.
On Wednesday night, anti-revolutionary terrorists in Kurdistan province in Western Iran martyred a Basiji (volunteer) force and a local official.According to a statement by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Hamzeh Seyed al-Shohada base on Thursday, the Basiji forces were helping the regional people amid the coronavirus outbreak near the village of Balbar in Ouraman district of Sarvabad region of Kurdistan province when they came under attack by the anti-revolutionary terrorists affiliated to the world arrogant powers on Wednesday night.During the attack, one of the Basiji forces and a local official were martyred and another person was injured.The IRGC statement extended condolences to the Leader and the local people over the incident, vowing to take revenge for the attack.Terrorists supported by foreign states and stationed across Iran’s borders in the West and South-East have been launching sporadic attacks on the IRGC and police in the last few years.
Iran Is Using Charities and Humanitarian Groups to Export Its Revolution
A new report that maps out the ways in which Iran’s overseas elite unit, the Quds Force, operates in Syria under various guises, is calling on the United States to designate three organizations tied to the notorious unit as terror organizations.
The Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) promotes terrorism and violent subversive activities in order to expand Iran’s influence across the Middle East.
It was commanded by Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani until January 3, when he was assassinated in a US drone strike in Baghdad, and is now under the command of Esmail Ghaani.
The unit funds, trains, and arms a host of non-state radical actors, including Hezbollah, Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen. It also maintains an extensive weapons trafficking network.
Yossi Mansharof, an Iran and Shi’ite political Islam analyst at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) and at the Alma Center, authored the report.
He said that a gap in publicly available knowledge exists about the various ways in which the Quds Force is active in states outside of Iran.
Mansharof’s report was published at the Alma Research and Education Center, an Israeli organization that conducts in-depth geopolitical research, and which is headed by Lt. Col. (res.) Sarit Zehavi, a former military intelligence officer. Revolution
“It is important that the US administration designates the three organizations analyzed in this study as terror organizations,” stated Mansharof, naming the Iranian Red Crescent, the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation, and the Reconstruction Organization of the Holy Shrines.
In the report, Mansharof noted that “Syria is one of the main destinations Quds Forces are active in today.
This is based on the Iranian strategy, which strives to exploit the war in the country and Assad’s dependence on Iranian support (alongside Russia), in order to turn Syria into a front base against Israel, equipped with factories to manufacture advanced weapons, and to maintain and strengthen Hezbollah’s supply route into Lebanon and the access to the Mediterranean Sea.”
Iran’s Mohammad Javad Zarif supports terrorism, just like Qassem Soleimani
On July 31, 2019, the Trump Administration placed Mohammad Javad Zarif, the foreign minister of the Islamist regime in Iran, on the US sanctions list.
As expected, the leftist and liberal media in the West immediately made an outcry against the designation.
That is because they typically tend to portray Foreign Minister Zarif as the moderate, peace-seeking diplomat who is at odds with the hardline, somber Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the brutal, missile-toting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
What they always fail to mention is that Zarif is only an agreeable showcase for the same apocalyptic regime that chants “Death to America,” calls for the destruction of Israel, and is intent upon conquering the Arab world.
In fact, Zarif runs one of the most elaborate influence campaigns in the US on behalf of the Supreme Leader and the IRGC.
Zarif’s extended overseas apparatus focuses on lowering the defenses of the democratic world with sleek smiles and false narratives so that the IRGC can more destructively strike.
As such, what Zarif does is as deeply disturbing and detrimental to US security interests – as well as Middle East and world peace – as the already-terrorist-designated IRGC and its now-slain Major General Qassem Soleimani.
Zarif’s designation as a terrorist and criminal against humanity is equally important for fighting off the evil empire of the Islamist regime in Iran as is the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist entity.
The Islamic Republic is a totalitarian, isolationist, interventionist, and anti-Western regime.
To overcome the problem of a lack of domestic and international legitimacy, the regime has devised a mechanism that showcases the dictatorial and chaotic Islamist regime as “democratic,” “stable,” and “popular,” with a fair degree of internal opposition as guarantee of its dynamism and openness.
Iran’s multifarious network of influence in the West
The “fake opposition,” run by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, mostly acts as padding for the Islamist regime abroad.
The Trump administration placed Mohammad Javad Zarif, the foreign minister of the Islamist regime in Iran, on the U.S. sanctions list a year ago this month.
As expected, the leftist and liberal media in the West immediately made an outcry against the designation. That’s because they typically tend to portray Zarif as the moderate, peace-seeking diplomat who is at odds with the hardline, somber Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the brutal, missile-toting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
What they always fail to mention is that Zarif is only an agreeable showcase for the same apocalyptic regime that chants “Death to America” and calls for the destruction of Israel, and is intent upon conquering the Arab world.
In fact, Zarif runs one of the most elaborate influence campaigns in the United States on behalf of Khamenei and the IRGC.
What his extended overseas apparatus is focused on is to lower the defenses of the democratic world with sleek smiles and false narratives so that the IRGC can more destructively strike.
As such, what Zarif does is as deeply disturbing and detrimental to U.S. security interests, the Mideast and world peace as the already terrorist-designated IRGC and its liquidated Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
The Islamic Republic is a totalitarian, isolationist, interventionist and anti-Western regime.
In order to overcome the problem of lack of domestic and international legitimacy, it has devised a mechanism that showcases the dictatorial and chaotic Islamist regime as “democratic,” “stable” and “popular,” with a fair degree of internal opposition as guarantee of its dynamism and openness.
The “reformist/moderate” faction that the regime has been promoting with the help of the leftist and liberal media in the West for more than 20 years now is precisely the manifestation of that security project of creating a fake, state-run opposition that acts as a safety valve for the regime on the domestic and international stage.
IRGC arrests counter-revolutionary elements in NE Iran
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) on Friday announced that a number of counter-revolutionary and violence-seeking stooges have been arrested in northeastern Iran.
The arrested elements were connected with anti-Iran groups and sought to induce citizens via publishing calls of supporters to protest in the streets, the IRGC reported.. .arrests
The arrested elements were connected with anti-Iran groups and sought to induce citizens via publishing calls of supporters to protest in the streets, the IRGC reported.Earlier, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) had dismantled a terrorist team of the terrorist Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) in Shiraz, Fars province.As reported, the MKO terrorists who had infiltrated into Fars province were arrested before they could carry out any terrorist act or operation.The IRGC forces are closely monitoring the movements of terrorist groups and fight against them in order to prevent them from achieving their mischeovous goals.The arrested elements were connected with anti-Iran groups and sought to induce citizens via publishing calls of supporters to protest in the streets, the IRGC reported.Earlier, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) had dismantled a terrorist team of the terrorist Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) in Shiraz, Fars province.As reported, the MKO terrorists who had infiltrated into Fars province were arrested before they could carry out any terrorist act or operation.
Earlier, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) had dismantled a terrorist team of the terrorist Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) in Shiraz, Fars province.As reported, the MKO terrorists who had infiltrated into Fars province were arrested before they could carry out any terrorist act or operation.The IRGC forces are closely monitoring the movements of terrorist groups and fight against them in order to prevent them from achieving their mischeovous goals.
