Iran's Interior Minister Defends Appointment Of Generals As Governors

The crisis emerged following comments by Lebanon's information minister, who is close to Iran-backed Hezbollah, criticizing the war in Yemen that a Saudi-led coalition is waging against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Arab League official Hossam Zaki said his visit was "an initiative to put the crisis on the right track."

Zaki, the league's deputy chief, told reporters after meeting Lebanese President Michel Aoun that he was ready to visit Saudi Arabia but that some tangible moves to ease the crisis have to be felt first.

Lebanon has said that Information Minister George Kordahi's remarks about Yemen, aired in late October, do not represent official government views.

Zaki later Monday also met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and parliament speaker Nabih Berri.

The spat has threatened to destabilize Mikati's government, formed in September after a 13-month deadlock between rival Lebanese groups.

Mikati has urged Kordahi to "do what needs to be done" — an apparent appeal for him to step down but the minister has so far refused to apologize or resign.

Saudi Arabia has withdrawn its ambassador from Beirut and asked the Lebanese envoy to leave the kingdom.

Report by AP

The Iraqi security sources and sources close to the militias, who spoke to Reuters on Monday on condition of anonymity, said the drones and explosives used in the assault were Iranian-made.

A spokesperson for one Iran-aligned paramilitary group declined to comment immediately on the attack or on who carried it out. Other Iranian-backed groups could not be reached immediately for comment.

The Iranian government in Tehran did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On Sunday, Tehran condemned the attack and the official media tried to distance Iran from the incident, claiming that it was a plot against “resistance forces” in Iraq.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi escaped unhurt from the attack on his residence in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, which was carried out using explosives-laden drones.

Two Iraqi security officials and three sources close to the militia groups that Iran has supported in Iraq said the attack was committed by at least one of those groups but gave slightly different assessments of exactly which factions.

The two security officials said that the powerful Kataib Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq groups carried it out in tandem.

One militia source said that Kataib Hezbollah was involved and that he could not confirm the role of Asaib.

Neither of those groups immediately commented for the record.

The incident could be seen as another sign of Iran’s interventionist regional policies that for years have alarmed some Arab states and the West.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which raised tension in Iraq a few weeks after a general election disputed by Iran-backed militias including Kataib Hezbollah and Asaib.

The political parties that represent Iran-aligned paramilitary groups in parliament suffered crushing defeats at the polls on October 10, losing dozens of the seats they have controlled for several years.

On Friday their supporters targeted security forces guarding Baghdad’s green zone by throwing stones and injuring some servicemen. Security forces opened fire at the protesters and at least one was killed.

The Iran-backed armed militias do not like the prime minister who tries to maintain a balance between the Washington and Tehran and has good relations with the West.

The election defeat comes as the Islamic Republic boasts to its domestic audience about the influence of its Shiite ideology in neighboring Iraq. Iranian critics of the clerical regime say that after spending billions of dollars to gain influence in a Shiite-majority country, the people reject its local allies and its presence.

Israel's Channel 12 reported Sunday night that five people with African passports had been arrested by “local intelligence in these countries,” after Mossad, the external Israeli intelligence agency, had thwarted multiple Iranian “plots” against Israeli tourists and businessmen in Tanzania, Senegal, and Ghana.

The channel claimed the five had been trained in Lebanon and returned to Africa posing as religious students to identify Israeli targets, including tourists on safari in Tanzania, to attack.

In February, American and Israeli officials said Iran was behind a thwarted operation against the United Arab Emirates embassy in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, and that a cell of 15 had been arrested in Ethiopia and Sweden. Iran, which had condemned the ‘normalization’ of relations between the UAE and Israel, denied the accusations. In September Cyprus said it had arrested an Azerbaijani national over an Iranian plot to attack Israeli businessmen there.

Iran has always denied such allegations, either denying the Islamic Republic’s and IRGC's affiliation with the accused or claiming that these incidents were only plots to paint Iran in a bad light in the international community.

Iran has blamed Israel – and Israeli officials have appeared to confirm – acts of violence in Iran including explosion at Natanz enrichment facility in July 2020 and the killing of nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November 2020.

Iranian officials recently also accused Israel and the United States of being behind a cyberattack that disrupted sales of subsidized gasoline to motorists. Gholamreza Jalali, head of Passive Defense Organization (PDO), which is in charge of cyber security, told Iranian state TV that Iran was sure that the US and Israel had planned attacks on Iran’s railways in July and the Shahid Rajaee port in May 2020. Five days after the fuel distribution attack, a group called ‘Black Shadow’ targeted an Israeli data and internet company.

Both Iran and Israel have stepped up their rhetoric since Fakhrizadeh's assassination. Last month a top Israeli official told Iran International that an attack against Iran's nuclear targets was a priority and Israeli media reported the military was beginning training. Channel 12 reported last month that Israel had allocated $1.5 billion for attacks on Iran.

Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman of the ministry in his weekly briefing told reporters that Saudi Arabia should refrain from media comments on the talks. Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud told CNBC on October 30 that talks with Iran have not stopped but have made no “solid progress”.

Iran and Saudi Arabia began talks in April, reportedly with Iraqi mediation to reduce tensions and possibly restore diplomatic relations severed since January 2016.

Iran initially made optimistic assessments of the talks but later Saudi Arabia presented a more cautious picture, which appears to have annoyed Tehran.

The hardline government of President Ebrahim Raisi has pledged to improve relations with regional countries, as the United States and its European allies have raised the issue of Tehran’s aggressive behavior in the region and have said they expect Tehran to hold talks about its regional policies.

Saudi Arabia has indicated that Iran might be interested in holding talks to ward off Western pressure.

Speaking to Iran International TV, rights activist Pouran Nazemi said intelligence ministry agents have threatened families that "they will be held responsible" if anything happens in anniversary ceremonies that they hold. According to Nazemi, security forces have also threatened activists, who have previously been sentenced for their political activities, that their suspended sentences will be enforced if they participate in any gatherings or ceremonies to honor the victims of the protests.

While the government has never issued an official tally of those killed and detained, non-government estimates range from 300 to 3,000 killed by security forces. The protests erupted in mid-November 2019, spreading overnight to almost every major city, when the government announced an increase in the price of gasoline amid a serious fiscal crisis and rising prices for food and other necessities.

A report by Human Rights in Iran in February claimed that at least 3,000 protesters were killed by the Islamic Republic security forces from November 15 to 17, and nearly 20,000 were arrested during and after the events often referred to as "bloody November" of 2019.

Rights activists have in recent days reported an increase in arrests of activists and government violence victims' family members in several provinces including Tehran.

Last week Gohar Eshghi, the elderly mother of the 35-year-old blogger Sattar Beheshti who was killed under torture in prison in November 2012, and two other members of the family were arrested to prevent them from holding a remembrance ceremony. Ms. Eshghi who was freed Saturday and mothers of other victims of government violence including those killed in November 2019 often hold gatherings and campaign on social media in remembrance of their children and other victims.

According to a Reuters special report published in December 2019, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in a meeting with government officials on November 17, 2019, two days after protests started, ordered an end to the unrest, saying the Islamic Republic was in danger. "Do whatever is necessary to end these protests. This is my order,” Khamenei allegedly said while telling officials that he would hold them responsible if the protests did not stop immediately.

The November 2019 protests have been the most widespread against the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979. Authorities shut down the internet for over a week to help news of the unrest and killings from spreading to media outside Iran.

In a statement ahead of the 15 November anniversary of the protests, political activist Abolfazl Ghadiani (Qadiani), a former supporter of the Islamic Republic, said the bloody response to the November 2019 protests added a new page to the “dark and long record of killings” by Iran’s rulers. The former revolutionary who now calls Khamenei "a despot" added that most Iranians want "an end to the Supreme Leader’s monarchy”.