US Codifies Sanctions Exemption to Help Iranians Access Internet

According to Mahmoud Vaezi, Rouhani insisted on immediately issuing a statement to admit the truth when he found out. “I want to say Rouhani persevered when he found out,” Vaezi said in an interview an excerpt of which was published by the reformist Etemad newspaper this week.

The IRGC shot down the Ukrainian airliner shortly after it took off from Imam Khomeini International Airport near the capital Tehran on January 8, 2020. All 176 people onboard the plane were killed in the incident.

Vaezi claims Rouhani became aware of the possibility of the IRGC's responsibility after some US media outlets, officials, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose country lost 63 citizens in the crash, asserted that the plane had been downed.

The full-length interview, which must have been conducted at least two months ago, was published in Etemad Yearbook in March, which was not accessible abroad. The excerpt which sheds light on some of the events never spoken of in such detail before is solely related to the downing of the Ukrainian flight.

Vaezi claims these events took place before the IRGC admitted it had shot down the plane and that the authorities who were hiding the facts from Rouhani and his government insisted that Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif should do an interview, presumably to reiterate what he had been told, but he refused unless he was made aware of the facts.

The downing of the plane by two surface-to-air defense missiles, came a few hours after Iran fired more than a dozen missiles at two Iraqi bases hosting US and coalition troops. The attack was in retaliation for a US drone strike that had killed the commander of the IRGC’s extraterritorial Qods force, Qasem Soleimani, and nine others in Baghdad just five days earlier.

Iran’s Armed Forces admitted they had shot down the Ukrainian airliner on January 11 but claimed the air defense had mistaken the plane for a hostile target heading toward a sensitive IRGC base. Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, the chief of IRGC air operations responsible for airspace security, attributed the downing of the airliner to “human error” of the air defense. The IRGC also alleged that the “risky behavior” of the United States had caused the incident.

Despite expecting retaliation from the US, the IRGC which is responsible for air defense of the capital did not close the civilian airspace in the early morning hours of January 8.

Many Iranians including some victims’ families have always maintained that the IRGC used the airliner as a “human shield” to prevent possible US retaliation for its missile attacks.

Apparently referring to remarks made by IRGC officials, Dr Mohsen Asadi-Lari, a former high-ranking health ministry official who lost both his children in the tragic downing of the plane, said in an interview in 2022 that officials had admitted the downing of the plane was meant to evade war with the US.

"They say a difficult war would happen the next day if the plane was not downed. The US would have attacked, and ten million lives would be in danger," he said.

The Iranian government to this day has not allowed an independent investigation and insists that the incident resulted from human error by a missile operator.

Abbas Amirifar, who is better known as Ahmadinejad's exorcist, says incumbent Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf's main political ambition is defeating President Ebrahim Raisi in the 2025 Presidential election.

Ghalibaf withdrew from the presidential race twice, in 2017 and 2021, in favor of Raisi. In 2017, he stepped aside to give Raisi the upper hand among conservatives, although Raisi ultimately lost to Hassan Rouhani. In 2021, Ghalibaf did not enter the race, knowing, like everyone else in Iran, that Raisi, as Khamenei's chosen candidate, was going to win.

Meanwhile, as reported by the Rouydad24 website in Tehran, several conservative "gangs" have been making incriminating disclosures against each other over the past week. The group named Masaf (Battle), led by regime propagandist Ali Akbar Raefipour, has been more prominent in the corridors of power in Iran than any other group.

According to Rouydad24, until mid-2021, Masaf was known primarily as a cultural group that focused on discussions about the re-emergence of the Shiites' hidden Imam from occultation, as well as debates about Bahaism and Judaism. These discussions were not significant enough to be considered political. However, after the presidential election, Masaf has become known as a political propaganda group due to its serious confrontations with Majles Speaker Ghalibaf.

Subsequently several social media influencers and conservative media outlets started a fierce campaign against Masaf, which is now fighting other conservative factions rather than fighting Israel and the West as it has been always claiming, the website wrote.

In the March 1parliamentary election, a coalition known as the Coalition Council of Revolutionary Forces (Persian acronym SHANA) led by Ghalibaf and his predecessor Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, and another group called the Popular Coalition of Revolutionary Forces (Persian acronym AMNA) led by Roads and Urban Planning Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash and ultraconservative figure Hamid Rasai were the main players. The latter coalition that previously supported Ahmadinejad, chose to Support the Raisi Administration in this election.

Masaf formed a third group named Iran Morning Front with a list that shared more than 70 percent of its candidates with AMNA. Masaf shared only one candidate with SHANA, so it was clearly an ally of the pro-Raisi coalition. While Masaf claims 50 of the candidates it introduced have won the election, other groups say that many of those 50 candidates were also on the other two groups' lists.

After the election, several disclosures were made about Masaf's financial record. Their rivals said that tens of billions of rials were deposited from unidentified sources into the accounts of Raefipour's inner circles including some of his family members. One of these happened to be Raefipour's three-years-old son!

Counteraccusations were made against Ghalibaf and his family. In the meantime, while Ghalibaf's supporters claim that Khamenei backs him as the next Speaker of the Majles, Rasai wrote in his newspaper that Iranians want a new Speaker. Apart from that, the Raisi administration has introduced a new vice president for parliamentary affairs, showing its interest in playing an active role in the election to determine the new Speaker.

In another development, shedding light on the fierce competition among various conservative groups who claim to have won the election, the incumbent MP from Marvadasht Jalil Rashidi Koochi says the disclosures and mudslinging that is going on among various conservative groups is a war of words for power.

However, he criticized all conservative groups for their ruthless attacks on each other. Koochi likened the latest election in Iran to a competition within a single group, as all candidates came from the same camp while their political rivals were barred from running. He also accused the conservatives of using illegitimate access to intelligence to attack their opponents.

The report stated that 146 men and 115 women were arrested, and authorities seized alcohol, banned under the Islamic Republic’s laws, along with psychedelic drugs.

Those detained had “signs and symbols of satanism on their clothes, head, face, and hair,” according to Tasnim which is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

The media outlet also published photographs showing masks, model skulls, and T-shirts depicting skulls.
The report did not specify the nationality of the Europeans, and there is no independent confirmation of the nature of the gathering raided by the police.

The raid comes amid a nationwide crackdown by Iranian authorities on women accused of violating the strict Islamic dress code.

Across Iran, there have been increasing reports of young people being detained for participating in "mixed parties" and refusing to wear hijabs.

As the regime’s “morality police” intensify their operations, many detainees are being whipped with lashes as punishment.

Nethanel Ghahremani, in his early 20s, received a Qisas ruling, or “retributive justice,” after allegedly defending himself against a knife attack two years ago.

In Iran's Islamic courts, "Qisas" is the principle of retributive justice under Sharia law, where the punishment matches the severity of the crime, particularly in cases of homicide or bodily harm.

In this case, the victim's family is entitled to seek retribution.

Ben Sabti, an expert on Iranian Jews at the Israeli National Security and Strategy Institute, told Iran International that the Jewish community has repeatedly requested forgiveness from the family but has not been successful.

This news comes against the backdrop of Iran having the highest execution rate worldwide, second only to China.

An Amnesty International report last month revealed that Iran executed an unprecedented 853 people in 2023, including a significant number of minorities.

The IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency has published a series of interview articles about the life of Quds Force deputy commander Mohammad-Hadi Haji-Rahimi, who was killed in an apparent Israeli attack on Iran's consulate in Damascus on April 1. The destruction of the building triggered unprecedented aerial attacks on Israel by Tehran.

Tasnim has dubbed Haji-Rahimi the "Commander Without Borders," providing details about his life and crediting him with pioneering certain military tactics.

Haji-Rahimi is introduced as the commander of the Imam Ali Unit, about which little public information is available. Tasnim, however, claims it is the largest unit within the Quds Force.

It is mentioned that Haji-Rahimi played an active role in training militias for Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon.

“He also went to Afghanistan to set up a training center, which was very successful. When he returned, he looked very muddled due to poor living conditions. However, it did not bother him, as he took all the hardships to fulfill his mission,” an ex-commander reportedly told Tasnim.

“The core of Lebanese Hezbollah forces were trained in Imam Hossein Garrison in Iran,” an ex-Imam Ali Unit commander told Tasnim.

Lebanese Hezbollah, sanctioned by Western governments including the US and regional states like Saudi Arabia, is part of the "Axis of Resistance." This group consists of Tehran-sponsored militias in the region, including Hamas, which attacked Israel on October 7, the Houthis in Yemen, and various Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq.

According to another interview, “Even during the first round of training Iraqi militias in Iran, thousands attended.”

“Martyr Haji-Rahimi had forces everywhere in Syria. The unit under his command was present from Damascus to the front line of the battle in Hama and Aleppo and carried out missions. They were present with the army commanders and gave them military advice,” another commander told Tasnim.

Quds Force Modeled After US Army’s Green Berets

Farzin Nadimi from the Washington Institute notes that the IRGC Quds Force was largely modeled after the US Army’s Green Berets.

“The Green Berets' motto is the Latin 'De Oppresso Liber,' which means to free the oppressed around the world. They were also called soldier-diplomats,” the security and defense analyst told Iran International.

Providing a more complete picture, Nadimi elaborated that, like today's Quds Force, the Cold War-era Green Berets aimed to train, organize, and advise guerrilla wars against communist enemies worldwide, including foreign internal defense, security force assistance, and unconventional warfare.

“Haji-Rahimi was an influential figure in Quds Force; some would argue that he was Qasem Soleimani’s right-hand man. He had a significant role in training and organizing proxy forces,” the analyst specializing in Iran's security and defense affairs explained.

Former IRGC Quds Force commander Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike near Baghdad International Airport in January 2020, under the order of then-President Donald Trump. Washington stated at the time that Soleimani was planning attacks on US diplomats and service members in the region.

Nadimi explained that the Quds Force functions more like an umbrella organization rather than a typical military structure.

"It possesses the skeleton of an organization with units and commanders, but you can't confidently say that it has X number of forces. It could sometimes recruit forces from Basij and the army for specific missions," he said.

Qasem Soleimani described the force in 2018 saying that while “it has a structure, statutes, rules, and regulations” it is “an intellectual system” in reality.

Tasnim’s Portrayal of Haji-Rahimi as a ‘Pioneer’

According to Tasnim's chronicles about Haji-Rahimi, he was a pioneer in airdropping in Iran and Syria.

But, Nadimi debunks that fact.

“Airdropping in Iran started during the Mohammad Reza Shah era when Lockheed C-130 Hercules was introduced to Iranian service in 1962. In the region, including in Syria, the US was the first to initiate dropping aid,” Nadimi said.

As part of the 1991 mission to aid Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq, the US and the international community conducted humanitarian airdrops. In 2014, the US and UK airdropped aid to Yazidis fleeing IS forces on Sinjar Mountain in Iraq. A few months later, supplies were airdropped to Iraqi military forces near the town of Bayji in northern Iraq. Additionally, between 2014 and 2015, the US airdropped tons of weapons and ammunition to Kurdish and other anti-regime troops in northern Syria, according to the Washington Institute.

In response to Tasnim's portrayal of Haji-Rahimi as a pioneer in using drones for artillery spotting, Nadimi expressed skepticism.

“Using drones for artillery spotting is nothing new, but specifically in the Syria region, was it common? It’s hard to say,” Nadimi said.

Even so, this does not qualify as pioneering the tactic, as British forces used drones for reconnaissance and artillery spotting during the Gulf War in 1991.

Timing of Haji-Rahimi’s Profile in Iranian State Media

According to Tasnim, “Haji-Rahimi's name and face were never revealed before,” but they are being publicized now to “analyze the various aspects of the personality and management of this ‘great’ commander.”

Experts say the decision to reveal details about a previously clandestine wing of the IRGC aligns with a recent shift in the commanders' approach, marked by more public warnings and boastful statements.

Initially, the strategy to keep details about IRGC officials secret was designed to protect officers and help them evade responsibility. However, this recent shift appears to be part of a broader communication tactic.

In a sign of this change, IRGC commanders have recently intensified their direct threats to Western nations and leveraged the US position to their advantage.

Esmail Qaani, the commander of Iran's Quds Force, issued a threat on Wednesday against France, Germany, and the UK for supporting Israel to intercept Iranian missiles and drones.

“The American president, who is devoted to defending the Zionist regime, officially announced to the Israelis, ‘I will not enter the conflict,’” Qaani said. He urged regional leaders "who rely on America" to be "more sensible." "Will America defend them more than the Zionist regime?"