Iran’s Nurses’ Society Irked By President’s Ungrateful Remarks

The vessels, the USS Sirocco, a patrol ship, and the USS Choctaw County, a fast transport vessel were in routine operations in international waters when three Iranian fast-attack boats came as close as 50 yards at “dangerously high speed.” The encounter lasted for an hour; sources told the Post.

The two US naval vessels issued warnings to the Iranian boats and the Sirocco eventually deployed a warning flare.

Iranian speedboats have harassed US Navy vessels on many occasions in the past but have not been met with direct fire.

Tensions have risen in the region after year-long talks to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement came to a standstill in March and Tehran received a warning for the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors earlier in June for not cooperating with the UN watchdog.

Israel announced on Monday that an air defense coalition is being formed in the region with US leadership and it has already thwarted Iranian attacks.

The Revolutionary Guard navy’s move comes as Iran’s main demand at the nuclear talks is for the US to lift terrorism sanctions imposed on the entity, which is accused of supporting militant groups in the region.

The decision was made following a request by Lebanese Tourism Minister Walid Nassar, who plans to replace the ideologically-driven propaganda on the road to the Rafic Hariri International Airport with welcome signs and images of Lebanon to boost tourism.

Pictures of Hezbollah leaders as well as General Qasem Soleimani, who was the head of Iran’s elite Qods (Quds) Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, have long occupied the airport road space on both sides and in the median strip. The sizes of the pictures almost exceeded that of the houses and small shops located on both sides of the road.

The airport road – which is named Imam Khomeini in tribute to the founder of the Islamic Republic – is the route taken by diplomats and political figures coming to Lebanon and borders the neighborhoods hosting the offices of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, the two main Shiite parties of the country. 

Politicians opposed to Hezbollah often called for the removal of the images, which they described as “provocative to the Lebanese.”

Earlier in the year, a large group of Lebanese politicians established a new opposition group to end what they called Iranian occupation of Lebanon represented through Hezbollah.

Following a report by Radio Farda that cited the self-proclaimed Russian-backed president of Ukraine Denis Pushilin as announcing the agreement, the Iranian government's news website IRNA quoted “an informed source” in the Iranian Foreign Ministry denying the report while another Iranian state-run media says the deal was signed during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which was held in the city from June 15 to 18. 

According to the Young Journalists Club (YJC), a hardliner news outlet with links to the IRGC and an affiliate of the state broadcaster IRIB, Pushilin has said "The Donetsk People's Republic has a new partner now, and despite obstacles, our international economic relations are expanding.”

The agreement will see Iran supplying Donetsk with construction materials and horticultural products, including fruits and vegetables, while Donetsk, in turn, intends to export metals, cast iron, fertilizers, steel products, coal mining tools, as well as other types of mining equipment to Iran.

Radio Farda said that Pushilin mentioned Farnoush trade company – headquartered in Maku Free Zone in Iran’s West Azarbaijan province on the border with Turkey – as the company representing Iran in the agreement. 

Russia recognized the independence of two breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in February, which practically paved the way for the Russian invasion of Ukraine and deployment of Russian troops there.

Hossein Salami made the remarks on Monday in a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the order to establish Sarallah HQ, which is officially under the direct command of the IRGC's commander in chief, but he delegates his authority to a deputy commander.

The enemies have realized that the decline in their power originates from this place, and therefore Tehran is where all the enmities and conspiracies against the country converge and thwarted, he said.

Tehran is a city with global influences, whose insightful residents have overcome hardships with the power of faith and tolerance, Salami added.

Considered the most important IRGC ground force, Sarallah is tasked with keeping the capital secure and protecting key institutions and the offices of the government. Its undeclared mission is suppressing dissent and protests as they did heavy-handedly during the popular protests in the past few years. 

Salami’s remarks come while the former de facto commander of the Sarallah HQ, Mohammad Esmail Kosari, who now represents Tehran at the parliament, is pushing to ease the use of firearms by different security forces against civilians amid recurring protests.

"In every country and human society, the security of the security forces and the police is a priority, followed by the security of the society. They have a duty to establish security in society, therefore they need to use firearms to maintain that security," Kosari said on Monday.

The head of the Justice Department of Mazandaran Province, Mohammad-Sadegh Akbari, said Sunday participants in the tour had “committed criminal activities".

These, Akbari said, included unrelated men and women mingling and dancing together, drinking, and women flouting their hijab. He said the case has been referred to relevant judicial authorities for prosecution.

Young men and women, and even groups of families, often book nature tours together to remote areas such as forests, mountains, and deserts to socialize and party in a more relaxed setting than urban public and private venues. Mixed parties with music, dance, and alcohol are banned and often raided by the morality police. Participants in such parties can be arrested even within the confines of their private homes.

Such events very rarely involve any crimes other than merrymaking, but nevertheless, authorities in charge of watching people's abidance by the state-sanctioned Islamic norms and regulations consider them as defiance and often crack down when tipped off. Being caught at mixed parties, particularly where alcohol is served, may entail legal punishments including prison, lashes, and cash fines.

Many branches of Islamic mysticism are considered as heretical sects in the Islamic Republic and their followers sometimes resort to booking nature tours in remote areas as a means of congregation. Last September police arrested 27 women and 52 men for holding a congregation, as a “false mystic sect” in a remote forested area of Gilan.

Group arrests of participants in nature tours is not unprecedented. In the past few years several groups of nature tourists have been arrested in the deserts and mountains for flouting Islamic morality rules.

The head of Mazandaran Justice Department also accused the participants in the recent forest tour of putting up "devil-worship banners" in their forest gathering. Devil-worship, in Iranian authorities' jargon, often refers to heavy metal or hard rock music and fashion associated with them, including body art, rather than the cult of the devil.

In December 2019, morality police arrested 135 young men and women at a party in an industrial shed near Tehran and branded them as "devil-worshippers".

Iranian authorities often invite foreign tourists to the country promising them safety and security if “they abide by the country’s rules”, including wearing the hijab for women and abstaining from alcohol.

The restrictions imposed on foreign tourists have deprived the country of huge revenues. The Russian ambassador to Tehran, Levan Dzhagaryan (Jagaryan), recently said in an interview that Iran could not be a popular destination for Russian tourists due to its dress code and ban on alcohol. Dzhagaryan’s remarks hugely displeased hardliners who accused him of being insensitive and disrespectful.

In recent weeks promotion of Iran’s tourist attractions by young social media influencer Hoda Rostami, particularly on her Instagram page which has over 450k followers, has stirred a huge controversy in Persian social media. Rostami took a ‘fam trip’ to Iran and published her own or other female tourists' images next to mosques, ancient relics and even the notorious Evin prison on social media.

Many netzines accuse Rostami of trying to whitewash the realities of living in Iran including many social and political restrictions imposed on Iranians, including the hijab, to encourage foreigners to visit the country. Rostami admitted, after being criticized that she had meetings with state officials at ministerial level to facilitate the fam trips.