IRGC Plotting To Assassinate Ex-Security Adviser Bolton - Report

Falahatpisheh, the former chairman of parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, told Rouydad24 website on Monday that there could be legal action against Putin by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

He said Putin fears that if he can’t win the war, there will be a day when he and his commanders are put on trial by the Russians themselves, like what the Yugoslav people did to their political leaders.

Falahatpisheh said the prospect of this invasion is dark, because there is the ambition of a great dictator named Putin, adding that he has already played all the possible cards to keep himself in power, such as changing the constitution for lifelong rule.

He claimed that the mission of Moscow’s top negotiator in Iran nuclear talks in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, was that no agreement would be signed before the invasion of Ukraine. Even after that Russians have demanded a US guarantee that Ukraine sanctions would not hurt trade with Tehran, something France calls blackmail.

Iran's top officials’ including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi have expressed support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine blaming the United States for the crisis while hundreds of Iranians on social media have been expressing anger at the invasion and criticizing the government’s position.

During a Monday session to discuss next year’s budget bill, the lawmakers approved some notes and clauses that will require banks and credit institutions to give two percent of their total proceeds from the electronic banking system transactions to strengthen the cyber police, also known by its Persian acronym FATA.

The unit was established in 2008 to help fight cyber crime but it plays a major role in censoring the internet by blocking thousands of websites and social media apps in a bid to control the flow of information. The unit is usually controlled by an IRGC official.

In cooperation with the Central Bank of Iran, the treasury will collect the money and give it to the Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic, which will spend it on different sections of the cyber police across the country.

Transaction fees in Iran are small but an estimate shows FATA can receive at least $10 million from the scheme approved by parliament.

The allocation of the additional budget to FATA police, which is the most important force in monitoring cyberspace has increased speculations about the possibility of approving a controversial bill to further restrict access to the Internet.

Iranians were outraged last week when a group of 18 hardliners in a parliament committee claimed that they had ratified a bill to further restrict internet and social media access.

There are a myriad of groups fighting in Syria, including local persons fighting for Russia’s ally Iran and the Bashar al-Assad’s forces, the Lebanese Hezbollah, Afghan and Iraqi fighters recruited and paid by Iran, and Jihadist groups opposed to Iran and Russia.

The report, quoting US officials, did not provide details as to whether Syrian citizens are being recruited or foreign fighters. But if Russia has indeed decided it needs foreign fighters in Ukraine it might not hesitate to send non-Syrians recruited by Iran to Europe.

Iran entered the Syrian conflict from its early days in 2011 and in more than a decade has sent tens of thousands of Afghans, Iraqis and even Pakistanis to fight in Syria. In addition, the Iran-backed Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon has been fighting in Syria alongside Iran and Russia for almost a decade.

Fighters in Syria not only have long experience in battle but many have fought in urban battles such as the capture of Aleppo from Assad’s opponents in 2016.

Other reports say that Moscow is also sending mercenaries from Russia to fight in Ukraine.

Many foreigners have also volunteered to fight on the Ukrainian side.

During his visit to Baghdad last week, the head of Iran’s Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, signed a memorandum of understanding to provide a wide range of services to Iraqi veterans of the Iraq-Iran war and the families of Iraqis killed during the eight-year conflict.

The Iranian side will build homes in Iraq and set up a branch of Iran’s Shahed University to admit students from the families of Iraqi servicemen killed and veterans. The MoU is also set to pave the ground for the admission of Iraqis to universities in Iran.

Iran has been spending a lot of resources in Iraq to build influence.

Many Iranians have criticized the move, saying the Islamic Republic can barely provide the needed services for Iranian veterans and their families.

The Society of Devotees of the Islamic Revolution has issued a statement to condemn the agreement, questioning the justification for such a measure, and urging the resignation of Ghazizadeh Hashemi.

The society described the Iraqi veterans as “the murderers of the Iranian sons”, asking, “Have we really reached a point where the place of the murderer and the martyr has changed? When you are incapable of taking care of Iranian veterans, how have you announced readiness to provide such services to the Iraqis?”

The public relations manager of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Mehdi Salem, made the announcement in twitter on Saturday.

He said that according to the country’s network operations center, this “400 gigs” were provided by Russia’s largest digital services company Rostelecom through Ukraine and has been cut off since Saturday evening.

Salem added that since the network routes from Ukraine remain disrupted and takes a long time to reconnect, the ministry is seeking to establish alternative links through other international routes.

As Ukraine's internet service has been disrupted by Russia's invasion, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX has activated global satellite internet constellation Starlink for the Ukrainians.

Internet services on mobile phones and landlines were also disrupted Friday morning in the Iranian capital Tehran and the nearby city of Karaj.

The Iranian government has been blocking thousands of websites and top social media apps for years in a bid to control the flow of information.

Iranians were outraged last week when a group of 18 hardliners in a parliament committee claimed that they had ratified a bill to further restrict internet and social media access.

Some people reacted to the Friday disruption by blaming the authorities, saying the outage was a trial run for the plan to further restrict internet and social media.