Assad Forces, Iranian Militiamen Conduct Wargames Near US Base

The last-minute amendment was rejected with 25 against, six in favor and 15 abstentions.

China's envoy Jiang Yingfeng told the council that the motion led by Germany was "overwhelmingly critical" of Iran. "It obviously will not help resolve the problem," he added, calling for a key paragraph to be deleted.

The paragraph in question would establish an "international fact-finding mission" that would be operational until early 2024. Iran's representatives also repeatedly criticized the motion which it called "completely biased".

Representatives from the dozens of countries backing the motion, including the United States and Britain, criticized the last-minute change and called for the 47-member Geneva council to vote it down.

"(The amendment) denies the survivors, the families, the victims, the right for their suffering to be recorded," said British Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Simon Manley. The US ambassador for human rights Michele Taylor said she was "appalled" by China's last-minute revision.

Earlier in the day UN officials and dozens of countries and human rights organization backed a probe into Iran's use of force against protesters and the violation of their rights, as well as treatment of women.

The Islamic Republic’s mission to the UN in letters to members of the Security Council claimed that its attacks on Kurdish groups in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region “aim to defend the country’s national security.”

The clerical regime has renewed its attacks on Kurdish targets in the Iraqi Kurdistan region since protests in Iran broke out in September, launching sustained missile and drone attacks in the past five days, on the pretext that separatist Kurdish groups are fanning the flames of conflict in Iranian Kurdish cities by supporting the protesters.

In its letters to UNSC member, Tehran alleged it “has recently launched necessary and proportionate military operations against terrorist groups’ bases in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, which was meticulously planned and precisely targeted on terrorist locations.”

It also noted that the Islamic Republic has shared “irrefutable evidence and credible information” with the central government in Iraq about the use of their territory by “terrorist and separatist groups to plan, support, organize and carry out terrorist and subversive acts” against Iran.

This letter was sent in a situation when the United Nations Human Rights Council is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting about the ongoing protests in Iran on Thursday.

Hossein Salami said both the enemies and the Iranian nation must know that no killing will go unanswered.

However, he added that “the resistance front, which is a united front, takes revenge of the martyrs from the Zionists on a daily basis.”

The ‘resistance front’ is a term coined by the Islamic Republic to refer to its proxies and allies in the region.

“Of course, every martyr has a separate revenge, and these revenges will be taken at the right time and place. The levels of these measures will be different, but they will be done in time,” threatened Salami.

Government media in Iran carried a statement by the Revolutionary Guard November 22 saying that one of its senior officers has been killed in Syria.

The IRGC statement said Colonel Davoud Jafari, a senior aerospace commander lost his life in a roadside bomb blast on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

The IRGC said the incident took place on Monday, accusing Israel of executing the attack and pledging to respond to it. But it is not clear if Jafari died in a road side bomb or in one of frequent Israeli air strikes.

Iran has been deeply involved in the Syrian civil war for more than a decade, deploying tens of thousands of its own forces as well as hired Afghan, Iraqi and Pakistani Shiite fighters, who helped save Bashar al-Assad’s regime, with help from Russia.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the person had not been detained for taking part in demonstrations but confirmed that Australian officials have not been allowed to get in touch with the inmate to assess his welfare.

“The Australian government holds concerns for the welfare of one Australian-Iranian citizen believed to be detained in Iran,” said a department spokesperson, adding that “We continue to seek confirmation of their welfare, and consular access.”

The spokesperson reiterated that the Islamic Republic was refusing to accept Australia’s right to access as it does not recognize dual nationality.

Iran’s Judiciary Spokesman Masoud Setayeshi told a press conference November 22 that forty foreign nationals implicated in recent “riots” have been arrested, but he did not elaborate on the nationalities of those detained.

Iranian officials have repeatedly accused Western governments of stoking the protests over Mahsa Amini's death in police custody.

While the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Iran in the last two months due to regime’s violence against protesters, Australia has not acted.

However, recently Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced in a tweet that the country is determined to “continue to work with international partners and within government to increase pressure on Iran over its egregious human rights abuses.”

Israel’s Channel 11 reported Monday, November 21, that Mossad informed Britain’s spy agency about the threats facing two journalists working for the London-based channel.

According to further information obtained by Iran International, threats against its journalists, revealed by the Metropolitan Police earlier this month, came from the same team that sought to target Israel’s former consul general in Istanbul, Yosef Levi Sfari, who was rescued by authorities and sent back to Israel.

In June, Israeli and Turkish media reported that a terror cell sent to Turkey by the Islamic Republic was busted, and its eight members who had entered the country with fake Tajik and Italian passports were arrested.

The agents were staying at the same hotel in which Levi Sfari and his partner Roni Goldberg were staying for their vacation, with reports alleging that their other targets were Israeli tourists. "The Iranian squad was caught red-handed at the last minute," the reports added. According to Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT), the eight were arrested in raids on three houses in Istanbul’s Beyoglu district. 

The mastermind of the plot was Rouhollah Bazghandi, the deputy head of IRGC’s counterintelligence (Unit 1500). A former senior IRGC official had earlier told Iran International that by using amateur agents to carry out the attacks against Israeli targets in Istanbul, Bazghandi dealt a heavy blow to IRGC Intelligence Organization. He was also in charge of thwarting plots against Iran's security officials inside Iran; however, his involvement in the Turkey plot, and apparently his absence, among other reasons, turned Iran into a safe haven for Israeli Mossad agents who launched several sabotage operations and assassinations.

An intelligence source told Iran International that Bazghandi is the man who was in charge of the failed attack against its journalists.

London’s Metropolitan Police formally notified two of our journalists early in November of “imminent, credible and significant risk” to their lives and those of their families. Other staff members were informed directly by the police of separate threats.

The Scotland Yard has also placed armed police forces outside Iran International’s headquarters since mid-November, following further public threats by the Islamic Republic’s authorities – such as the intelligence minister and top Revolutionary Guard’s commanders against the channel.

Britain’s MI5 said on November 16 that UK authorities have discovered at least 10 “potential threats” since January to “kidnap or even kill British or UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the regime.”

Faced with nationwide antigovernment protests since mid-September, the Islamic Republic has blamed foreign-based Persian broadcasters such as BBC Persian and Iran International of “fomenting unrest”, while all media in the country are under tight government control and present protesters as “rioters” and “terrorists”.

Iran’s Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib on November 9 said the Islamic Republic regards Iran International as “a terrorist organization,” adding that its workers and anyone affiliated with the channel will be pursued by the Ministry of Intelligence. 

Iran has a long record of targeting dissidents and independent journalists who found refuge in other countries. In the latest example of terror operations abroad, Iranian intelligence abducted dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam who was visiting Iraq in 2019 and took him back to Iran where he was executed in 2020.