Top Russian Security Official Visits Iran Amid Growing Ties

In an interview with Al-Arabiya Macron said, “We must change the way we deal with the Iranian threat in the world,” adding that sanctions against the clerical government should not harm its people.

Macron, who had traveled to Egypt to participate in the COP27 United Nations climate gathering, said “We must cooperate in an organized manner to counter Iran's threats.”

Earlier, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on the sidelines of the same gathering considered the actions of the Islamic Republic to be the cause of instability in the Middle East region.

He said in a meeting with UAE president Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan that the situation in Iran has become complicated with the repression of the protesters after death of Mahsa Amini in September.

Previously, Britain announced it had sanctioned the “morality police” because of “several decades of threats, arrests and violence” against Iranian women.

Also, on Monday, the German government announced that the European Union will decide on the inclusion of the Revolutionary Guard in the new package of sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Ties between the Islamic Republic and the West are increasingly strained with Germany being among the first that started evacuating the families of the personnel of its embassy in Tehran and the teachers of German-run schools.

In mid-October, the EU sanctioned eleven Iranian individuals and four organizations for their role in the death of Mahsa Amini and the crackdown on the ongoing protests.

The Norwegian envoy to the Islamic Republic, Sigvald Tomin Hauge, was summoned by the ministry in protest to the “unacceptable statements” of the Speaker of the Parliament of this country against Iran.

Masud Gharahkhani, an Iranian-born lawmaker, and president of Norway’s parliament expressed solidarity with anti-government protests in Iran on Friday in an interview with Iran International.

“You’ve been in power for 44 years, enough is enough,” he addressed the Islamic Republic and its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a message during his interview.

Iran called his remarks “interventionist” saying such statements are “unacceptable”.

This is the second time Iran summons Norway’s envoy over Gharahkhani’s remarks since September.

Meanwhile, an Iranian member of the Swedish parliament published a video on his Instagram page asking Iranian leaders Ali Khamenei, President Ebrahim Raisi and the IRGC commander Hossein Salami to pack their luggage and prepare to travel to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to be held accountable for their crimes.

Alireza Akhundi further called on the Iranian army to join the people and support the protesters.

According to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights Organization, at least 304 people have been killed during the recent protests that began across Iran after the killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini by police in custody.

Sunak met UAE president Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan on the sidelines of the COP27 United Nations climate gathering in Egypt. Beleaguered over bullying allegations against a leading minister back in London, Sunak told Saudi-owned al-Arabiya that the United Kingdom was “lucky in its important and historical relations with the Gulf states.”

Britain has been a major regional arms supplier, with around 60 percent of its annual £110-billion ($126 billion) weapons exports going to the Persian Gulf, with Saudi Arabia, easily the region’s highest defense spender, taking the lion’s share. But a small amount has been going to the UAE, with only £887 million ($1.17 billion) to the UAE in the decade up to 2017, and France in December 2021 securing an €21-billion sale ($21 billion) to the UAE of advanced Rafale jets.

While the UAE and Iran have restored diplomatic relations since President Ebrahim Raisi took office in August 2020, Tehran-Riyadh talks in Baghdad have not yet led to the return of ambassadors. The Wall Street Journal recently reported Saudi warnings to the US of an imminent Iranian attack, although skeptics have noted this came just after Riyadh’s relations with President Joe Biden were strained by Saudi coordination with Russia over oil production cuts in the run-up to November 8 US Congressional elections.

‘Look who’s here! NASMAMs’

After months of lobbying in Washington, Ukraine said Monday it had received the first delivery of surface-to-air missiles that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has claimed can combat drones supplied to Russia by Iran.

Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said the NASAMS air defense systems would “significantly strengthen” its armed forces. “Look who’s here! NASAMS and Aspide air defense systems arrived in Ukraine!,” Reznikov tweeted. The Aspide is an Italian-made missile with a 40-km range.

A spokesman for the Germany government said Monday it was up to Kyiv to decide whether to open peace talks with Russia. Aside from €2-billion military aid to Ukraine, the German government has allocated $200 billion to cushion domestic and business consumers against energy price rises.

Iran acknowledged Saturday that it supplied drones to Russia, claiming this was before the current phase of the conflict began in February, but Kyiv has made great play of the supply in its lobbying efforts and recently named Iranian airlines it said had delivered drones. The US, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have argued that Iran sending drones to Russia contravenes United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

‘Not evolving in right direction’

Efforts to restore the JCPOA, which the US left in 2018 imposing ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions on Iran, have paused since the summer. Josep Borrell, foreign policy chief of the European Union, which has chaired JCPOA talks, said Monday that “positions between the parties” were “not converging yet,” meaning “things are not evolving in the right direction.”

Bilateral meetings between Iran and the US in the summer, chaired by the EU, and subsequent exchanges of messages, failed to resolve differences. Iran has sought ‘guarantees’ that it would be cushioned economically against the US again leaving the agreement. The atmosphere has also soured with the US and European states imposing additional sanctions on Iran, including against its ‘morality police’ over the death of a 22-year-old woman.

The ministry said in a statement on Monday, that these people were detained in different provinces as well as “at the eastern borders while fleeing the country.”

The ministry identified the assailant in Shahcheragh shrine as a Tajik citizen named Sobhan Komrooni with the nickname “Abu Aisha” and an Afghan person named Mohammed Ramez Rashidi as the “supporting element” of the operation.

Earlier, Esmail Mohebi, a top official at Fars governorate, announced the death of “the perpetrator of the attack on the shrine” who was injured and hospitalized in southern city of Shiraz.

In the statement, a citizen of the Republic of Azerbaijan was named as the “main element of directing and coordinating” the attack, who “flew from Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku and entered the country through Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport.”

“After arriving in Tehran, this person announced his presence to the coordinating element in the Republic of Azerbaijan and immediately contacted the network of foreign nationals of the ISIS to inform them about his presence in Tehran,” reads the statement.

The allegations by Iran cannot be confirmed by any independent source and the Republic of Azerbaijan has yet to react to the claim.

ISIS took responsibility for the attack on the Shahcheragh in Shiraz on October 26, but some questioned the Islamic Republic’s account saying it was staged by the regime itself to distract attention from nationwide protests.

Statement released 07/11/2022, 11:00 GMT

“Iran International, the independent UK-based Farsi-language news channel is shocked and deeply concerned by the credible threats to life its journalists have received from the IRGC.

Two of our British-Iranian journalists have, in recent days, been notified of an increase in the threats to them. The Metropolitan Police have now formally notified both journalists that these threats represent an imminent, credible and significant risk to their lives and those of their families. Other members of our staff have also been informed directly by the Metropolitan Police of separate threats.

Our journalists are subject to abuse 24/7 on social media. But these threats to life of British-Iranian journalists working in the UK marks a significant and dangerous escalation of a state-sponsored campaign to intimidate Iranian journalists working abroad. These lethal threats to British citizens on British soil come after several weeks of warnings from the IRGC and Iranian government about the work of a free and uncensored Farsi-language media working in London.

Britain is the home of free speech. Iran International stands as part of that tradition, proud to serve the 85m people of Iran with independent, uncensored information. The Islamic Republic of Iran, and specifically the IRGC cannot be allowed to export their pernicious media crackdown to the UK. The IRGC cannot be allowed to act abroad with impunity.

We hope that the UK Government, international governments and other organisations will join us in condemning these horrific threats and continue to highlight the importance of media freedom.

We would like to thank the Metropolitan Police for their considerable efforts in keeping journalists safe.”