US sanctions block Iran's energy revenues in Pakistan, Iran officials say

According to draft regulations released by the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, pilgrims are forbidden from bringing any prohibited items, such as pictures, books, flags, slogans, political publications, or other banned materials, into Saudi Arabia, according to the Saudi Gazette.

Pilgrims are strictly barred from engaging in activities or gatherings that could disrupt public order, security, tranquility, or health, as part of Saudi Arabia's efforts to ensure a peaceful pilgrimage.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, which places significant emphasis on the intertwining of religion and politics, has long marked the "Disavowal of Polytheists" ceremony as a politically charged ritual. Since the 1979 revolution, Iranian pilgrims in Mecca have observed this ceremony, traditionally accompanied by the chant of "Death to America." However, in 1987, this ritual led to a tragic confrontation between Shia demonstrators and Saudi Arabian security forces, resulting in the deaths of over 400 individuals.

In the aftermath of the 1987 incident, the Islamic Republic refrained from holding the ceremony for several years. It wasn't until 2001 that it was reintroduced, albeit in a symbolic and significantly scaled-down form. Since then, it has been conducted within the confines of a closed tent operated by the office of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic.

However, almost during every annual hajj pilgrimage there have been incidents involving some Iranians and Saudi authorities related to political manifestations. The Iranian regime, sending its supporters to the hajj, seems eager to use the opportunity to steer up sentiments during the most important Islamic gathering.

Iranian authorities and state media also describe another religious act, the Arbaeen Walk to sites in Iraq, which attracted over 3.6 million Iranian participants this year, as an expression of “Shia soft power.” This characterization highlights a divergence in how mass religious gatherings are perceived and managed, with Iran framing such events as a display of cultural and sectarian influence, while the Saudi regulations for Hajj stress the importance of maintaining political neutrality and public order during religious pilgrimages.

The Arbaeen ceremony, marking the conclusion of the 40-day mourning period following Ashura—which commemorates the martyrdom of Hussain ibn Ali, the third Shia Imam and grandson of the Prophet Muhammad in 680 AD—is recognized as the world's largest annual gathering.

Traditionally, Shia Muslims convene in Karbala, Iraq, at the burial site of Imam Hussain to observe Arbaeen. Pilgrims often undertake extensive journeys on foot, spanning hundreds of kilometers, to reach the shrine of Imam Hussain and other significant Shia sites. This mass pilgrimage not only serves as a religious expression but also provides a fertile ground for the dissemination of Iranian propaganda and influence among other pilgrims during the ceremonies.

On August 26, a day after this announcement, Yuriy Bilousov, Head of the War Crimes Department at Ukraine’s Prosecutor General's Office, stated in a television program that the opening of this criminal case signifies that Ukraine now recognizes Iran as a party involved in the war on its territory: "In fact, Ukraine has informed the entire world and presented evidence showing that Iranian military representatives are participating in Russia's attack on Ukraine."

According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, the investigation revealed that between July and August 2022, Russian military representatives reached an agreement with the Islamic Republic on the purchase of Shahed-136 and Mohajer-6 attack drones, along with related equipment, from Iran.

Kostin further wrote that after the contract was signed, Iranian experts trained Russian soldiers to use these drones in combat operations against Ukraine.

In fact, in July 2022, the United States warned that Russia and Iran were engaged in a process to deploy Iranian suicide drones in the war.

Kostin added that between September and October 2022, a group of military instructors from the Islamic Republic launched at least 20 attack drones in Ukraine's Dnipro and Mykolaiv regions, leading to the destruction and damage of civilian infrastructure protected under international humanitarian law.

The Security Service of Ukraine had previously identified this IRGC brigadier general, stating that Brigadier General Sharifi Mollasaraei directly assisted in commanding Russian Federation occupation forces in attacks on Ukraine and organized the training of Russian troops.

Russia has used hundreds of Iranian kamikaze drones since October 2022 to attack civilian and infrastructure targets. Russia also uses the drones in large-scale missile attacks to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses. The latest massive attack earlier this week saw around 100 Shahed drones used.

According to the Security Service of Ukraine, in 2022, Mollasaraei led a team of Iranian drone instructors who traveled to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General emphasized that this IRGC brigadier general is charged under Ukraine's criminal laws with "aiding in an aggressive war as part of a premeditated plan against Ukraine, violating the laws and customs of war, and committing war crimes."

The report also indicates that, in addition to Mollasaraei, seven other military personnel from the Islamic Republic who were sent as instructors to train Russian occupation forces in Ukraine and the occupied territories are facing similar charges.

In October 2022, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry accused the Islamic Republic of Iran of providing military assistance to the aggressor country, Russia, in its war against Ukraine.

According to published reports, since the fall of 2022, the Russian Federation has used Iranian-made Shahed-136 and 131 kamikaze drones and Mohajer-6 multi-purpose drones in its war against Ukraine.

The Iranian government initially denied supplying its drones to the Russian military but later admitted to it, though it claimed that the drones were delivered before Russia's war against Ukraine began.

In November 2023, the White House warned that the Iranian government was preparing to provide ballistic missiles to Russia. Reuters later reported that Iran had already sent hundreds of ballistic missiles to Russia.

Schindler says the information was withheld by the Obama administration to protect the 2015 nuclear deal negotiations.

Schindler disclosed that over a decade ago, an official from a pro-US intelligence service, whom he refers to only as “M,” successfully recruited a defector from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. This defector had access to crucial secrets about Iran's nuclear program.

He detailed how 12 years ago at a security conference in Europe, M handed him “original IRGC documents that were classified Top Secret” containing "technical information" on Iran’s centrifuge program. The documents showed that "Iran is further along with their nuclear weapons program than the US Intelligence Community officially assesses, and the Obama administration publicly claims."

When Schindler informed M that he would pass the dossier to his US intelligence contacts, M explained that his service had already formally notified the Americans about the IRGC dossier, but the CIA seemed uninterested.

According to Schindler, M had arranged a direct meeting with the "CIA’s Chief of Station in his country's capital," a contact he was personally acquainted with.

However, the CIA chief “appeared wholly nonchalant and bluntly explained that he couldn’t take the dossier.”

Schindler explained that given that the CIA chief and M were personally acquainted, “the CIA official explained in hush-hush fashion that he had orders ‘from higher up’ not to take possession of the IRGC’s nuclear secrets.”

Schindler took the initiative and personally passed on the dossier, which eventually made its way into US intelligence channels. He was assured that the US intelligence community had “top people” reviewing its contents.

However, Schindler said he believes “the dossier was placed in a back room of a classified warehouse somewhere in Northern Virginia, if it wasn’t immediately burn-bagged.”

“That detailed IRGC dossier was the Wrong Narrative as far as the Obama administration was concerned, it might jeopardize their precious Iran Deal, thus it had to not exist. Therefore, it never existed. Until I went whistleblower right here,” Schindler said.

The Obama administration with its allies, Britain, France and Germany agreed in 2015 to lift international sanctions on Iran in exchange for a limit to Tehran's uranium enrichment and other restrictions, without a firm limit to its ballistic missile program and its aggressive actions in the Middle East. President Donald Trump arguing that the JCPAO was a "bad deal" withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions.

Iran refused offers to revive the deal after long negotiations with the Biden administration, continuing enrichment. Currently it is believed that Tehran could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear warhead within weeks.

Despite the resolution passed at the last quarterly meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation Board of Governors in June, nuclear diplomacy has largely been on hold with the election last month of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and the US presidential election due in November.

"The (IAEA) Director General (Rafael Grossi) expresses the hope that his initial exchange with President Pezeshkian will be followed by an early visit to Iran and the establishment of a fluid, constructive dialogue that swiftly leads to concrete results," said one of the two confidential, quarterly IAEA reports sent to member states on Thursday, according to Reuters.

There has been no progress in the past quarter on several long-standing issues that have soured relations between the IAEA and Tehran, including Iran's barring of IAEA inspectors specialized in enrichment and Iran's failure to explain uranium traces at undeclared sites, the reports showed.

Iran decided in December 2020 to expand its uranium enrichment and reduce cooperation with the IAEA, demanding the lifting of US sanctions. This step followed the election of President Joe Biden, who had publicly pledged to return to the 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement. Year-long multilateral talks that followed in Vienna failed to bring about an agreement on the revival of the deal.

At the same time, the Islamic Republic has added cascades, or clusters, of centrifuges, machines that refine uranium, at its main enrichment sites in Natanz and Fordow, according to the latest IAEA reports seen by news agencies on Thursday.

It has installed eight more cascades of advanced IR-6 centrifuges at Fordow, a site dug into a mountain, bringing the total there to 10, although the new ones had not yet been brought online, meaning they are not yet enriching uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas, one report showed.

Iran's stock of uranium in UF6 form enriched to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% of weapons grade, grew by an estimated 22.6 kg to 164.7 kg, one of the reports said.

According to an IAEA yardstick, that is 2 kg short of being enough, in theory, if enriched further, for four nuclear bombs.

By the same measure Iran now has enough uranium enriched to up to 20% purity, if enriched further, for six bombs.

In July, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken remarked that Iran's nuclear breakout time—the period required to produce sufficient amount of 90% enriched uranium for a bomb—has likely been reduced to "one or two weeks."

Iran is reportedly intensifying efforts on its secretive nuclear weapons program, bringing the country closer than ever to developing a nuclear bomb—a threat that has loomed for over two decades.

Earlier in the month, Abbas Araghchi, the newly appointed Iranian Foreign Minister, declared that the revival of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with the six major world powers is "untenable in its current form."

(Reporting by Reuters)

In remarks that some netizens labeled as racist and misogynistic, Pezeshkian recounted: "We arrived, and a woman approached us. Our appearances contrasted with those around us, as we had traveled to the East, to Thailand, for management training."

He continued, "To be honest, we felt quite offended. There we were, nine university presidents in Thailand, being instructed on leadership. We led a revolution with aspirations to change the world, and yet they sent us here. To make matters worse, a woman—of short stature, no less—was expected to tell us what to do."

During the farewell and introduction ceremony for the outgoing and incoming ministers of Science, Research, and Technology—an event aired live on state television (IRIB)—Pezeshkian, in a disparaging tone, recounted that the woman assigned to train them had reacted to the large number of universities in Iran with a curious remark:

In what appeared to be a reference to the abundance of universities in Iran, the instructor asked Pezeshkian, "Are you planning to eat your own students?" She explained that economics addresses four key questions: What to produce, at what quality, in what quantity, and where to distribute it. She added, "We have failed to answer these four questions properly."

His speech caused a backlash on social media. One user, sarcastically referring to violence by security forces against students told Pezeshkian: "You should have told her, 'No, we want to imprison and torture them [the students], and then claim they committed suicide by hitting themselves with a hard object."

Another user wrote on X: "this speech hints at a comparison between Pezeshkian and Raisi; an educated fool is more foolish than an uneducated one."

"Because the instructor was a woman and short, he was offended. Of course, it’s not surprising that someone whose mindset is shaped by Nahj al-Balagha [Shiite religious book] would have such a view of a 'short woman.' His leader has said that women are deficient in intellect. Naturally, the shorter ones must be even more deficient in intelligence!" wrote a critic on social media.

Since the presidential campaign, Pezeshkian's frequent references in Arabic to Nahj al-Balagha—a centuries-old compilation of sermons often perceived as misogynistic—have drawn considerable scrutiny.

Pezeshkian has consistently expressed a disregard for formal protocols, openly admitting his reluctance to adhere to prepared scripts. He has come across as an unusual Islamic Republic politician who makes off-the-cuff candid remarks.

While his supporters interpret these actions as evidence of "simplicity, authenticity, and being of the people," they are likely to provoke more controversy.

However, in the role of President, Pezeshkian's remarks concerning citizens of foreign countries could carry significant diplomatic consequences.

With the United Nations General Assembly's annual meeting less than a month away, he is poised to deliver a speech and likely engage in additional interviews on the sidelines.