Tehran Will Continue Pressure on Iran International, Says Official

The Guardian Council's approved presidential candidates, to be announced next week, will each have an allocated time to air their promotional campaigns on state TV starting June 12 until June 26.

The presidential debates will also be broadcast live.

The IRIB’s election headquarters’ warning, issued alongside guidelines for candidate ads on Thursday, prohibited content that could “sow doubt,” “undermine the Islamic Republic's achievements,” or “erode public trust in the electoral process.”

The US and EU sanctioned IRIB in 2013, and 2022 for being a "critical tool of the Iranian government's mass suppression and censorship campaign against its people.”

An opinion survey by the Netherlands-based Gamaan Institute last year collected information from 38,445 people inside Iran about their views on media, revealing that only about 21 percent of the respondents followed the developments about Iran from IRIB.

Criticism of the current administration, particularly under Ebrahim Raisi, whose death last month triggered the snap election, will be closely scrutinized, with any perceived negative portrayal risking exclusion from national media coverage.

The directive came amid broader restrictions on media content ahead of elections, warning the candidates to refrain from defamation and actions detrimental to national unity and participation.

Iran's Press Supervisory Board also warned that violators would be punished with 74 lashes if found guilty.

According to instructions published on Wednesday, disseminating material that promotes "the boycott of elections and lower participation" and "organizing unauthorized protests, strikes, or sit-ins" constitutes a crime.

Iran's Minister of Intelligence also stated that his agency is closely monitoring the behavior of presidential candidates and their supporters, warning that those promoting "subversive" narratives will be prosecuted.

The warnings follow the Supreme Leader's address on Monday, in which he urged competitors to avoid slander and refrain from smearing each other.

These cautions are issued amid a backdrop where several candidates, among them Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, are linked to cases of corruption and human rights violations, where the electoral debates may provide an opportunity for candidates to expose each other.

Ghalibaf, the conservative parliament speaker and former mayor of Tehran, was embroiled in multiple financial scandals involving his immediate aides. Several of his associates, who were also former IRGC officers, were tried and convicted in cases involving approximately $5 billion.

The Iranian politician Pour Mohammadi, who served as interior minister and justice minister in two different administrations, was on the "Death Commission" responsible for the execution of thousands of Iranian political prisoners during the 1980s.

Despite many warnings, the usual protocol—where candidates launch their campaigns and engage in verbal sparring after receiving approval from the Guardian Council, a 12-member non-elected oversight body—has been disrupted, with confrontations starting prematurely this time.

A high-profile clash erupted between Ghalibaf and Vahid Haghanian, a prominent figure in the Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran and a presidential candidate, drawing significant attention. Media affiliated with the IRGC criticized Haghanian and supported Ghalibaf.

In a series of raids on Thursday, armed Houthi intelligence officers detained nine UN employees, three employees of the US-funded pro-democracy group National Democratic Institute (NDI) and three employees of a local human rights group, the officials said.

Intelligence officers of the Houthi group, which controls the capital Sanaa and large parts of the north of the country, raided the homes and offices of these people, confiscating phones and computers.

The detained UN employees work for the human rights office and the office for humanitarian affairs, said the officials, from the internationally recognized government that controls mostly southern parts of Yemen.

The Houthis are closely aligned with the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has a long history of detaining foreign nationals, often charging them with espionage, and using them as bargaining chips against Western governments.

Neither the UN office nor NDI immediately responded to a Reuters request for confirmation or comment. A Houthi spokesperson did not immediately comment.

The Houthis, who are aligned to Iran and have attacked shipping in the Red Sea drawing air strikes from the United States and Britain, have held around 20 Yemeni employees of the US embassy in Sanaa for the past three years. The embassy suspended operations in 2014.

Reporting by Reuters

The ongoing exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah, which intensified since the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas, has notably escalated in the past two weeks.

According to the report, this has led some people within the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Cabinet to advocate for a significant expansion of military action against Hezbollah.

US officials cautioned Israel that a "limited war" or "small regional war" in Lebanon isn't feasible as it could rapidly escalate beyond control. They further warned against a ground invasion, even in border areas, as it might provoke Iranian intervention, with a potential influx of militants from pro-Iranian militias from Syria, Iraq, and Yemen joining the conflict.

Iran-backed Hezbollah presents the greatest threat to Israel from a military perspective, according to Israeli security experts.

On Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller reiterated the US's profound concern regarding the risk of escalation along the Israel-Lebanon border.

“We do remain incredibly concerned about the risk of isolation along the Israel-Lebanon border. It’s something we’ve been concerned about since the immediate aftermath of October 7th, and we have been engaged in intense diplomatic conversations and intense diplomatic negotiations to try to avoid that conflict from escalating beyond control,” Miller said at the State Department press briefing.

A bloody, high-intensity war between Israel and Hezbollah last occurred in 2006 following the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah. The UN Security Council imposed Resolution 1701 on Lebanon to end the conflict, mandating that Hezbollah disarm. The UNSC or Lebanon did not enforce this resolution.

‘‘The idea of Australia even discussing an extradition treaty with a regime which kills, rapes and arbitrarily detains political dissidents, artists and women and girls who don’t cover their hair is abhorrent and completely unacceptable,’’ Chandler told The Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday.

Chandler has been a leading advocate for Australia to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.

Iran has proposed an extradition agreement with Australia that would facilitate the return of rejected Iranian asylum seekers currently held in offshore detention.

Ahmad Sadeghi, Iran's ambassador to Australia, has repeatedly reiterated the proposal, asserting that there are “ways to address Australian concerns about Iranians being punished with the death penalty upon their return.”

Sadeghi himself has faced calls for expulsion from Australia by the head of the Australian Jewish Association (AJA) due to antisemitic remarks he made.

“[Prime Minister] Albanese’s government should expel the ambassador. There shouldn't be an embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Australia at the moment,” AJA CEO Robert Gregory said in an interview with Iran International’s Alireza Mohebbi in May.

The call came after a series of tweets published by the Iranian official on X. Sadeghi stated in one of his tweets that humanity had no choice but to put "an end" to Israel, calling it "the most notorious killing machine in current world history."

The posts followed Hamas' surprise attack on Israel on October 7, in which thousands of gunmen killed around 1,200 Israelis and foreigners. It was the worst loss of life in a single day since the founding of Israel in 1948. A total of 240 people were taken hostage.

The prince, a prominent opposition leader, wrote on X: “This Biblical relationship is not merely a relic of the past. It can inspire a new era of lasting peace for our region, including Iranians, Israelis, and Arabs.”

In April of last year, Pahlavi, known for his vocal advocacy for improving Israeli-Iranian relations, undertook a journey to Israel to " deliver a message of friendship from the Iranian people.”

This gesture stood in stark contrast to the actions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, whose leadership has consistently exhibited a pattern of Holocaust denial, further exacerbated by the organization of conferences and the sponsorship of cartoon competitions trivializing one of the greatest mass killings of the 20th century.

Minister Chikli, reflecting on his meeting with Pahlavi, expressed his optimism that the prince's leadership will pave the way for “peace and prosperity in Iran and the Middle East and restore the historical alliance between Iran and Israel.”

The Israeli official also threaded a picture of their meeting to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's post on X using only a dot as the caption. This was a tribute to the recently arrested Iranian blogger who is allegedly accused by the clerical government's security of being an Israeli spy.

Iranian blogger Hossein Shanbehzadeh was arrested earlier this week, accused of being a "fugitive Mossad agent" who has insulted religious figures in the past. His family rejects the allegations.

Shanbehzadeh last month posted a sarcastic comment—a single dot—in response to a tweet by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. His remark received more likes than Khamenei's original post. In the wake of his arrest, many users expressed their outrage, linking the detention to his comment on Khamenei's post, which had gained substantial attention

In the context of the ongoing conflict in Gaza, while Iran’s authoritarian government repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iranian activists and social media users assert that Hamas bears direct responsibility for the war and the resulting deaths of Palestinian civilians and children, whom it employs as 'human shields.'

These critics are part of a significant segment of the Iranian population that contends their nation has suffered under the oppressive regime of the Islamic Republic. This regime not only represses its citizens but also channels its resources to support and arm Hamas, further entangling Iranian funds in the conflict.