Army Commander Says Iran Will Not Tolerate Changes At Its Northern Borders

In tweets Thursday, the Tel-Aviv-based company claimed an explosion had occurred at the facility of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group. Two satellite images dated 22 and 27 September showed extensive damage to a building in the complex.

The Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG) is the part of Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO) responsible for Iran's liquid-fueled ballistic missile program, including the medium-range Shahab-3.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) media relations announced Sunday that firefighters had put out a blaze at a research center in western Tehran, but that two employees had lost their lives and two others had been injured. Two news agencies, Fars and Tasnim, both IRGC-affiliated, initially reported that a fire had broken out at a “self-reliance research center” but later amended to say the fire had occurred in a depot.

The Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization, to which the news agencies appeared to refer, is responsible for ballistic missile research and development.

A senior US official recently suggested Iran’s missile defense should be included in the Vienna talks aimed at reviving Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). Tehran has insisted that the talks retain the original JCPOA focus, and has ruled out unilateral concessions over missiles outside wider regional security talks.

Since July 2020, Iran’s nuclear, military and industrial sites have all faced attacks and sabotage widely attributed to Israel, which has vowed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and threaten its territory with missiles. Israel is also skeptical about Western attempts to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement, JCPOA, with Iran, which it believes was inadequate to stop Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons once its restrictions expired.

The Natanz uranium enrichment facility was attacked twice, in July 2020 and April 2021. Last November, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was the latest Iranian scientist to be killed, by what was possibly a remote-controlled, heavy machine gun.

On November 12, 2011 an explosion at an IRGC missile base in Bidganeh (also Bid Kaneh) 50km west of Tehran killed at least 27 people including Brigadier-General Hassan Tehrani Moghadam. The explosion, felt and heard in some areas of Tehran, was attributed to ammunition transfer.

Questioned in 2011 over Israeli involvement in the blast, Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed a wish that “there be more like it.” Satellite images showed extensive damage to most buildings on the site.

Bahrain and Gulf neighbor United Arab Emirates normalized ties with Israel last year in a US-brokered deal known as the Abraham Accords that built on common commercial interests and worries about Iran.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, in a historic visit to strengthen normalization, met Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa on Thursday. To signal cause against Iran, Lapid toured Bahrain's headquarters of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, which has faced off with Iranian vessels in recent years.

“We condemn any scheme that bolsters Israel’s destructive presence in the region,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.

“It is unfortunate that Bahrain’s rulers ignore the Zionist regime’s daily crimes against the oppressed but resilient people of Palestine,” Khatibzadeh said, referring to Israel.

“This stain will not be erased from the reputation of Bahrain’s rulers. The people of the region will continue to oppose the process of normalization of ties with the Zionist regime.”

Bahrain, a Sunni Muslim-ruled kingdom, accuses Iran of stoking unrest in Bahrain, a charge that Shi'ite Muslim Tehran denies. The island state, which quashed an uprising led mostly by Shi'ite members of its population in 2011, saw some sporadic acts of protest after the Abraham Accords were signed.

Reporting by Reuters

Speaking to reporters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Blinken repeated that time is running out for resuming productive negotiations, as Iran builds up its stockpile of enriched uranium.

“Because of the work that Iran is doing on its nuclear program in violation of the JCPOA – spinning more sophisticated centrifuges, building up stockpiles of uranium enriched to 20 percent or even 60 percent – simply getting back to the terms of the JCPOA at some point will not be sufficient to recapture the benefits of the agreement because of the progress Iran has made,” Blinken said.

Iran began violating enrichment levels in 2019, set by the JCPOA, as retaliation against sanctions imposed by the former US administration that withdrew from the agreement in 2018.

President Joe Biden announced his intention to return to the nuclear agreement during last year’s presidential campaign, which would entail lifting tough sanction the Trump administration had imposed.

In April, talks began in Vienna between Iran and world powers who have remained in the agreement. The US participated in the talks indirectly, as Tehran refused to negotiate directly with Washington. But the talks were suspended in June after a new president was chosen in Iran. So far, more than a month after the formation of a government, Iran has still not returned to the talks, saying that it is studying the issue.

In response to a question about reports that Washington has appealed to Beijing to reduce its oil purchases from Iran to pressure it to return to the talks, Blinken spoke generally of the role other world powers need to play in to “prevail upon Iran to quickly return and see if we can still get back to the JCPOA.”

“So, there is a limited runway on that and the runway is getting shorter,” Blinken said.

Human Rights News Agency (HRANA) reported Wednesday that Tehran resident Negar Sobhani-Azabadi was the 13th Baha’i to be denied third-level entrance this year due to her faith. According to HRANA, Sobhani-Azabadi discovered her rejection on grounds of “general ineligibility” on her school’s website when viewing her exam results.

Since the 1979 Revolution, Baha'is who openly state their faith cannot enter higher education, leading many to profess being Muslims. Any who later identify as Baha'is are expelled, even when on the verge of graduation.

Iranian Baha'is have since 1987 run an underground university, the Baháʼí Institute for Higher Education (BIHE), which despite prosecution of several teachers and students, has gained recognition from over 100 universities across the world who accept its graduates directly into their postgraduate schools.

The 1979 constitution of the Islamic Republic recognizes only Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism. Baha'ism − established as a new religion in Iran in 1863 by Baha'ullah, who claimed to be a prophet following Jesus and Mohammad − has always been deemed heretical by the Shia establishment and subject to intermittent bouts of political persecution.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has on several occasions called the Baha'i faith a cult and in a religious fatwa in 2018 forbade contact, including business dealings, with Baha'is.

HRANA reported in its 2020 annual report, released December 29, that in 2020 at least 45 Bahai’s were arrested, mostly on charges of "harming national security."

Baha'is, who number around 300,000 in Iran, say their rights are systematically violated, that they are often harassed, forced to leave their homes and businesses, and are deprived of government jobs.

Baha'is are also not allowed to bury their dead in public cemeteries. The cemeteries that they finance privately, usually in remote areas, are often desecrated. "Baha'is have no right to bury their dead, their dead should be collected [like rubbish] by the municipality," one cleric said in a program on state television (IRIB) in 2017.

There are Baha’i communities in many countries worldwide but there is no reliable figure about the total number of followers.

During the Trump administration, the US government sanctioned Astan Quds Razavi, which manages the Imam Reza Holy Shrine and is a powerful religious foundation. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi is a former head of Astan Quds Razavi himself, and it controls vast holdings across Iran’s economy. Astan Quds Razavi was sanctioned under Executive Order 13876 for being owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by Iran’s Supreme Leader. In the same designation, Raisi’s successor as custodian, Ahmad Marvi, was also sanctioned.

Thursday’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) guidance cited US State Department’s travel advisory to Iran, warning against any visits by US persons given the risk of kidnapping, arbitrary arrest, and detention. But the FAQ clarified that for those who travel, transactions exempt from US sanctions include religious pilgrimages and the purchasing of goods and services for personal use.

The FAQ goes on to note that “donations of articles, such as food, clothing, and medicine, by US persons to the Imam Reza Holy Shrine intended to be used to alleviate human suffering also fall within an exemption and therefore generally are not prohibited under the Iran Transactions and Sanctions Regulations.” However, the FAQ warns certain transactions outside the scope of these regulations concerning Astan Quds Razavi may be prohibited by the sanctions.

The FAQ’s reference to the sanctions levied against Astan Quds Razavi and Executive Order 13876 is noteworthy as the US Treasury Department is essentially highlighting the fact that these sanctions remain on the books, despite demands by Iran’s government during the Vienna nuclear negotiations for Washington to lift all the sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump, including Executive Order 13876 targeting the Office of Iran’s Supreme Leader. At the same time, the Biden administration is seeking to underscore that there are humanitarian exemptions embedded in the US sanctions architecture.