Iran To Revise 200 Schoolbooks In Line With Khamenei’s Views

In a new report, titled 'They don’t treat us like humans,' Amnesty released documents of numerous instances -- mostly at Iran border -- where security forces have shot directly at the refugees as they climbed over walls or crawled under fences to prevent their entry or forcibly return them to face life-threatening risks under the Taliban regime, in violation of international law.

Highlighting their plight, the report said the migrants are poor and lack passports or other valid travel documents, therefore they are especially vulnerable to border police who use threats or outright violence to keep them out. 

It added that Afghans who do manage to enter Iran or Turkey are routinely arbitrarily detained and subjected to torture, with a total of 11 killings by Iranian security forces. Although the true death toll is likely to be significantly higher, the Amnesty said.

“One year after the end of airlift evacuations from Afghanistan, many of those left behind are risking their lives to leave the country – Afghans who have travelled to the Iranian and Turkish borders over the past year, in search of safety, have instead been forcibly returned under fire. We documented how Iranian security forces have unlawfully killed and injured dozens of Afghans since last August, including by firing repeatedly into packed cars,” said Marie Forestier, researcher on refugee and migrants rights.

Hundreds of thousands fled Afghanistan in August 2021 after the US left the country in a chaotic military pullout, allowing the hardline Taliban Islamists to retake control.

Yuliya Leonidivna Klymenko, a member of the liberal party, told Iran International that she was “deeply shocked and saddened" by the fact that Iran sent drones to Russia to be used in its invasion of Ukraine. 

US Defense Department spokesperson Todd Breasseale said on Tuesday that Russia has faced "numerous failures" with Iranian-made drones acquired from Tehran this month, adding that the United States assesses Russia has received the delivery of Mohajer-6 and Shahed-series unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over several days this month. "We assess that Russia intends to use these Iranian UAVs, which can conduct air-to-surface attacks, electronic warfare, and targeting, on the battlefield in Ukraine," the official said.

Iran is a close ally of Russia and its ruler Ali Khamenei openly praised Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine.

In July, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters the US has information that shows Iran is preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred drones.

The Biden administration last month released satellite imagery indicating that Russian officials visited Kashan Airfield on June 8 and July 5 to view the Iranian drones.

Iran's foreign minister, Hossein-Amir Abdollahian, never denying these reports, said last month that Tehran had "various types of collaboration with Russia, including in the defense sector."

In response to a question about earlier remarks by the country’s foreign ministry spokesman, who had expressed Iran’s readiness for prisoner swaps as part of the agreement to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, he did not rule out such a possibility. 

“We have a duty to follow up on the problems of our citizens anywhere in the world and support them, but relations between countries can be very effective in this field. The level of relationships and the quality of relationships are effective in this field,” he said.

He noted that such exchanges work much more easily with Islamic countries and neighboring countries, especially with countries with whom Tehran has agreements in this regard, but “these relations and contracts do not exist with a country like the United States, and things must be done diplomatically.”

Earlier in the month, foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Iran is ready for swift agreements for prisoner swaps with the US, regardless of the result of talks to restore the JCPOA.

A few days earlier, the spokesman for the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Relations Committee Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini said, "I don't know specifically whether there is going to be an exchange of prisoners between Iran and the United States, but in international relations this is customary and it is not unusual for some prisoners to be exchanged between the two countries.”

Fars news website affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard claimed that “some European leaders” asked Tehran to mediate with Moscow to contain the Ukraine conflict and explore ways for peace talks and an end to hostilities.

Later, ISNA news in Tehran claimed that the European leader was French President Emmanuel Macron, who asked President Ebrahim Raisi of mediating with Russia.

So far, there has been no indication from European leaders or European Union officials about asking Iran to play a mediating role in the Ukraine war.

The United States has repeatedly accused Iran of supplying military drones to Russia for deployment in Ukraine. A US official said August 29 that drones already delivered to Russia have been faulty.

Mohammad Jamshidi, a political aide to President Ebrahim Raisi has tweeted, A senior Western European leader had asked Ayatollah Raisi to help Europe by mediating in the war. After a series of consultations, a peace initiative, together with an important message, was sent to Moscow through Mr. Amir-Abdollahian.”

In addition to Iranian drones reportedly sent to Russia, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei praised Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “initiative” in attacking Ukraine, during the Russian ruler’s visit to Tehran on July 19.

Although the Iranian foreign ministry has professed the country’s neutrality in the war, Iranian officials and government media have been voicing support for Russia and implicit satisfaction that Europe is facing an energy crisis.

While Iran might be presenting its foreign minister’s visit to Moscow that began Tuesday evening as focusing on the Ukraine war, Iran and the West are in the midst of a critical stage in their nuclear negotiations to revive the 2015 agreement known as the JCPOA. It is likely that Amir-Abdollahian’s visit is mainly about the nuclear issue, but Tehran wants to claim an important role in world diplomacy.

Before the visit, Russia’s foreign ministry said that cooperation between the two countries will continue despite West’s adversarial actions.

There has been concern in the West about expanding ties between the two sanctioned powers and Iran’s possible military assistance to Russia. Tehran has never directly denied accusations of supplying drones to Russia, responding to question by saying that the two countries have had a long history of military cooperation.

Iran and Russia have been close allies in the Syrian war for years, where Tehran supplied the ground troops and Moscow the air power to largely defeat opponents of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.

The two sides are also discussing more economic cooperation as critics of the nuclear talks in the West say that a new deal and lifting of sanction imposed on Iran, will offer an opportunity to Russia to use that country as a channel to circumvent its own sanctions.

On the sidelines of a ceremony for a national project to export liquefied gas via sea on Tuesday, the head of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), Jalil Salari, said that the quota of 250 liters was "a very high number" considering that fact that most Iranians do not consume that much petrol per month. 

All Iranians who own a car have a 60-liter quota of gasoline at the heavily subsidized rate of about five US cents a liter, but were also allowed to buy 250 liters more at about 10 cents, which is again heavily subsidized, at about 37 cents a US gallon. 

According to Jalili the new quota system will be implemented throughout the country soon. 

Some people in social media have described the move as a prelude by the administration of Ebrahim Raisi to increase the price of gasoline, despite repeated announcements by the government that the price of gasoline would not increase in the current Iranian year, which started on March 21. Such a plan had been earlier piloted in Sistan and Baluchistan province, leading to a whopping rise of gasoline prices to about 150,000 rials – or about 50 cent a liter – in the black market.