Iran ‘more active than ever’ in attempts to sway US voters

The Biden administration has informed its allies that Iran delivered short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, providing Moscow with a significant new military tool amid its ongoing war against Ukraine, the WSJ report said.

This move comes despite Western warnings urging Iran not to supply arms to Russia, and marks a major escalation in Iran’s military support for Russia.

"The missiles have finally been delivered," a US official said. The shipment reportedly includes several hundred short-range ballistic missiles, capable of reaching up to 500 miles. These missiles could help bolster Russia’s intensified missile attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, which have recently led to the deaths of dozens of civilians.

"We have been warning of the deepening security partnership between Russia and Iran since the outset of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and are alarmed by these reports," said White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett. "Any transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia would represent a dramatic escalation in Iran's support for Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine."

Iran had already been providing drones to Russia, which have been used extensively in Ukraine. Additionally, Russia has sourced ammunition and missiles from North Korea for its military campaign.

Such a deepening partnership could further isolate Iran from the West and worsen an economy already in crisis mode, as ballistic missile transfers to Russia would likely be met with additional sanctions on Iran by Western powers, as promised by Ukraine's western allies.

In response to the missile deliveries, European and US officials are preparing to implement new sanctions against Iran, according to the WSJ report.

European leaders had previously warned that they would impose coordinated sanctions if Iran proceeded with the missile transfers.

According to Western officials, sanctions could include banning Iran's flag carrier, Iran Air, from European airports, and targeting companies and individuals involved in the missile shipments, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Russia's access to Iranian ballistic missiles could devastate civilian populations, marking a turning point in the conflict, Farzin Nadimi, a Senior Fellow with the Washington Institute, told Iran International.

He said some of these missiles will have enough range to hit Western Ukraine and strike important targets like railway stations. "It's going to have a really bad effect on civilians."

Iran has long accused the semi-autonomous Kurdish government in northern Iraq of harboring groups, all under the Komala name, which Tehran labels as terrorist organizations. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has frequently launched attacks on their bases, claiming these groups pose a threat to the security of the Islamic Republic.

In March 2023, the governments of Iran and Iraq signed a ‘border security’ agreement that was, in essence, a plan to curb the activities of Iran’s Kurdish opposition groups in Iraq. The agreement led to partial evacuation of Komala bases in September 2023. The move now seems to have been completed, with the three Kurdish parties, with military wings, leaving their camps in the Zirgwez region near Sulaymaniyah and settling in camps in Suwardash near Dukan.

The new location is in fact closer to the border with Iran but less accessible, according to Komala sources who talked to Iran International on condition of anonymity. “The ability to transport and maintain weapons, especially the semi-heavy and heavy weapons of the Peshmerga forces, has effectively been taken from them,” one member said.

He added that by forcing a move of the Komala inside another country’s territory, Iran's government has sent a “clear message” that it can do “whatever it wants” and neither the Iraqi central government nor the Kurdish Regional Government of Iraq can stop it.

The groups say they oppose the clerical regime in Iran, but many Iranians also view them as separatists, who harbor designs on Iran's Kurdish populated areas in the west.

Iran’s government, through its IRGC Quds Force, enjoys considerable sway over authorities in Iraq, both in Baghdad and Erbil, the Kurdish regional capital. On occasions, however, the relationship has bittered over IRGC attacks on Kurdish groups.

Tehran Erbil security cooperation

Nechirvan Barzani, the President of Iraq's Kurdistan Region, made an unexpected visit to Iran in May, where he met with top leaders, sparking strong criticism from opponents of the Iranian regime.

During his visit, Barzani engaged with key figures of the government, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, heads of executive and legislative bodies, the commander-in-chief of the IRGC, the foreign minister, and the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.

The timing and nature of Barzani's visit, coming months after the IRGC's missile attack on the Kurdistan Region, raised questions about its motives. The high-profile meetings suggest that the discussions likely focused on mutual security concerns.

In January, the Iraqi government recalled its ambassador from Tehran after an IRGC missile attack on Erbil killed four civilians and injured six others. The attack caused a popular outrage in Iraqi Kurdistan and thousands took to the streets denouncing the IRGC's ‘free hand’ in their region.

The IRGC claimed the target had been an Israeli “spy headquarter” in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, but the Kurdish prime minister Masrour Barzani categorically denied the claims and called the attack a “crime against the Kurdish people.”

This year’s crackdown began in Iran’s Kurdistan province, where at least 17 citizens were arrested in the first week of September, just days ahead of the second anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody on September 16, 2022, which sparked the nationwide Woman Life Freedom protests.

In an interview with Iran International regarding the recent wave of arrests around the anniversary, Azadeh Davachi, a researcher, writer, and women's rights activist, remarked:

"One of the defining characteristics of dictatorial regimes is their reliance on escalating violence when they feel threatened, particularly in the face of political movements. What we are witnessing now is the government's fear of the potential resurgence of such movements."

Notably, among those arrested this week were relatives of protesters killed during the 2022 uprising, during which Iranian security forces killed at least 550 protesters, including children, and imprisoned over 20,000 people.

On Tuesday, security forces raided the homes of two families who lost relatives to state violence during the protests.

One of those arrested was 16-year-old Ramyar Abubakri, brother of 21-year-old Zanyar Abubakri, who was fatally shot by state security forces on October 27, 2022, in Mahabad, Kurdistan. According to rights group Hengaw, security forces raided the Abubakri family home around 3 am on Tuesday, arresting Ramyar and assaulting several family members, including his parents.

At the same time, security forces also raided the home of Siavash Soltani, son of 52-year-old Kobra Sheikhe-Saqqa, another victim killed by state forces on the same day in Mahabad. Both Sheikhe-Saqqa and Zanyar Abubakri were shot during protests on October 27, 2022, which followed the funeral of another slain protester, Simko Mowloudi.

Rights group Kurdistan Human Rights reported that Soltani was beaten and arrested without a warrant, and both his and Ramyar Abubakri’s whereabouts remain unknown since their arrest on Tuesday.

Hengaw also reported two further arrests in Mahabad, bringing the total of those detained in this city to 4, and 10 individuals were arrested in the city of Bolbanabad in Kurdistan province’s Dehgolan County, where multiple protestors were killed during the 2022 uprising, and 3 arrested in Oshnavieh in West Azerbaijan province.

Similar waves of arrests were reported last year across the country around the same time as the uprising’s anniversary with tens of arrests reported in Iran’s Azerbaijan region and at least 20 arrests in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, Southwestern Iran.

Last year, Human Rights Watch said that Iranian authorities have ramped up their repression of civil society for the first anniversary of Amini’s death, calling on all delegations of UN member states to raise the plight of activists and put it at the center of their engagement.

Saberin News, a Telegram channel linked to the Revolutionary Guards, reported Monday that the Prosecutor’s office has indicted Zeidabadi for “false allegations and spreading lies” during the debate.

“I know that a request to hold an open trial or having a jury won’t be accepted so I urge the presence of representatives of the Leader’s Office and President’s Office to report the proceedings of the possible trial to high officials,” Zeidabadi wrote Monday on Telegram in reaction to the news of his indictment.

Zeidabadi’s indictment may be more connected to his implied criticism of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s decision to suppress the Green Movement in 2009, rather than his allegations about the brutal torture of prisoners, including himself, at the hands of the Intelligence Ministry and the IRGC in detention facilities. His critique of Khamenei’s role in the crackdown on protests may have crossed a political red line, overshadowing even his harsh comments on the torture practices he endured.

Some hardliners, including Abdolreza Davari, have criticized Zeidabadi for “disrespecting the Leader” during the debate and accusing security forces of torture. Davari argues that Zeidabadi's "radicalism" and his decision to revive a bloody past, which authorities prefer to remain unspoken, could undermine the recent perceived “opening” in the country’s political atmosphere.

Davari served as an aide and adviser to former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but later denounced him and in the recent presidential elections supported Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf.

In the debate, Zeidabadi argued that the crackdown on protesters and the house arrest of reformist leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi Karrubi—decisions solely attributable to Khamenei—were wrong and have had serious consequences for the nation. He criticized the ongoing house arrests, highlighting their lasting negative impact on Iran’s political landscape.

Harf-e No, an online media platform, broadcast the August 31 debate between Zeidabadi, a former political prisoner, and Mehdi Taeb, the brother of the former chief of the Intelligence Organization of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Hossein Taeb.

Excerpts from the debate have been widely shared on various social media platforms including X and the full version is available on YouTube.

Zeidabadi alleged that some political prisoners were forced to make false confessions not only about their political activities but also about forbidden sexual relations. He recounted enduring unbearable physical and psychological torture in solitary confinement, claiming interrogators would not stop until prisoners made such false statements about themselves and others.

“Do you know how many times there were confessions about sexual issues that were lies? What does this have to do with protests or [the claimed] plots by the US… These are the behaviors that you must change, criticize, and investigate. Probe them at least to see if we are lying or telling the truth,” he told Taeb.

Zeidabadi, who claims he was beaten and lashed on two occasions, also spoke about "rehearsals" in courtrooms, where prisoners were forced to practice the confessions they had been tortured into making. Judges were present during these sessions, preparing prisoners to deliver these false confessions during trials that were often broadcast on state-run television.

His torturers told him to “confess and repent” or prepare to be hanged as “ordered by His Excellency”, that is, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he told Taeb.

“It’s not right to sit here with an easy conscience and say all those [torture allegations] were lies … They were true, they were serious,” Zeidabadi told Taeb.

He argued that the Iranian people lost trust in conservatives once they learned of the atrocities committed during the 2009 crackdown, including the brutal treatment of young protesters at the Kahrizak detention camp. According to him, these events revealed the conservatives’ lust for power, eroding their credibility in the eyes of the public.

In a heavily censored online interview in 2018, Zeidabadi had described how the desperation in solitary confinement drove him to seriously contemplate suicide only to realize he could find no means to end his life.

Earlier in the week, Politico reported that an Iranian entity paid hackers $3 million in ransom to dissuade them from releasing the data of over 20 hacked banks, confirming Iran International’s earlier report about the “biggest-ever” cyberattack on Iran’s banking system.

Iran International reported on August 14 that the major cyberattack targeted several Iranian banks, leading to the theft of a huge amount of data. Initial assessments indicated at the time this could be one of the largest cyberattacks ever against Iranian state infrastructure, even though Iranian officials kept mum about the revelation.

In its report on Wednesday, Politico wrote that the cyberattack targeted 20 of the 29 active credit institutions in Iran, threatening the stability of the Islamic Republic's banking system. The report said it appears to be the “worst cyberattack” against the country.

Citing unnamed sources, Politico noted that the group “IRLeaks” which has a history of hacking Iranian companies, is likely behind the cyberattack.

“IRleaks entered the banks’ servers via a company called Tosan, which provides data and other digital services to Iran’s financial sector,” the officials told Politico. “Using Tosan as a Trojan horse, the hackers appear to have siphoned data from both private banks and Iran’s central bank... The regime ultimately forced Tosan to pay the IRLeaks ransom.”

The report said the affected banks included “the Bank of Industry and Mines, Mehr Interest-Free Bank, Post Bank of Iran, Iran Zamin Bank, Sarmayeh Bank, Iran-Venezuela Bi-National Bank, Bank Day, Bank-e Shahr, Eghtesad Novin Bank, and Saman, which also has branches in Italy and Germany.”

The same hacker group, IRLeaks, had earlier in December 2023 claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on Snapp Food, the country's largest food delivery app, boasting access to the personal details of over 20 million users, and exposing a vast trove of sensitive information.

The compromised data, reportedly up for sale at $30,000, included usernames, passwords, email addresses, full names, and mobile numbers. The hackers claimed to possess detailed information on over 51 million user addresses, complete with GPS coordinates and phone numbers.

In that case, too, ransom money was paid to dissuade the hackers from releasing the personal data of Iranian users.

Also in September 2023, the hacking group reported a breach on the ride-hailing service Tapsi, affecting more than 33 million users. The hackers claimed to have engaged in negotiations with Tapsi's management for two weeks before making the breach public. However, the company refused to meet the hackers' demand of $35,000.

The recurrent nature of such incidents in Iran highlights the absence of stringent laws and penalties for negligence in safeguarding private information.

The lack of user rights, including the inability to request the deletion of personal data, underscores the urgency for regulatory reforms to address the growing threat of information leaks in the country.