Four IRGC Forces Killed In Clashes With Kurdish Group In Northwestern Iran

In a statement on Thursday, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences confirmed the presence of hijab police and teams from what the Islamic Republic calls the ‘Enjoining right and forbidding vice headquarters’ in hospitals to inspect the dress codes of the personnel and interns in medical centers.

Social media users earlier reported the presence of such teams in various wards of hospitals and medical centers, with some reports of pressures on hospitals to separate male and female patients admitted to the ICU.

Esmail Rahmani, deputy public prosecutor of the religious city of Mashhad has recently ordered the municipality to prevent ‘bad-hijab’ women from using public transportation including the metro and threatened to take legal action against such officials for failing to do so. He has also ordered the governor to ban services in banks and government offices to ‘bad-hijab’ women.

Iran’s hardliner president has recently ordered all government entities to strictly implement a “chastity and hijab” law after weeks of stricter measures on the streets.

Harsher than usual enforcement of hijab this summer has raised protests from many in Iran including some moderate religious and political figures.

No one knows if the enforcement of strict religious rules is related to the authorities attempt to show force, but some citizens see the effort as a scheme to pit people against one another.

In a briefing to military reporters on Thursday, Gantz said “that Hezbollah carries out missions for Iran, and its weapons are weapons made in Iran whether it is manufactured there or the knowledge acquired by them.”

“The State of Israel knows how to protect its assets well, and Hezbollah must understand that the mission it is carrying out on behalf of Iran could become a deadly mission that will first and foremost harm the interests of Lebanese citizens,” he added

On Saturday Israel intercepted three Hezbollah drones launched toward one its Mediterranean gas rig Karish. After Saturday’s incident, parts of the drones were retrieved and taken for examination.

Hezbollah confirmed it launched the drones after its chief Hassan Nasrallah threatened Israel after a new drilling platform arrived at the gas field a month ago. 

The gas field near Lebanon's coast -- which sits in a maritime area claimed by both Lebanon and Israel -- will produce gas not only for Israel, but eventually also for the European Union, tapping into EU countries' quest to replace Russia as an energy supplier since it invaded Ukraine.

He also vowed to increase funding and accelerate development of a laser air defense system, set to be showcased for US President Joe Biden during his trip next week. Israel reportedly intends to ask Biden to approve the delivery of the system to Arab countries aligned against Iran, including Saudi Arabia.

Impatient with the quiet lobbying of the administration that produced limited results, the families have started to collectively urge Biden to make the issue a higher priority and take more concrete steps such as arranging further prisoner swaps with foreign governments, Reuters reported on Thursday. 

In a guest essay for the New York Times written "while caged in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison,” Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi, who is the longest-held Iranian American prisoner, asked Biden to “End This Nightmare.”

Russia's April release of former US Marine Trevor Reed – who was exchanged with a Russia pilot after three years of detention -- intensified calls by relatives of others held overseas for Biden to act.

Neda Shargi, the sister of jailed Iranian-American businessman Emad Sharghi (Shargi), said, "The momentum and collective voice that you see among the families was... really sparked by the Reed release." "We are stronger together than in our individual advocacy." 

Some families have launched the Bring Our Families Home Campaign and even demonstrated outside the White House to make their efforts more visible.

The US government has not disclosed an official number of Americans detained abroad. The James W. Foley Legacy Foundation lists more than 60 US citizens wrongfully in countries including Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Egypt, Mali, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Yemen, and Iran. 

Days before President Joe Biden’s trip to the region and his meeting with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and visit to Israel, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, John Kirby speaking of the Middle East on Thursday said, “What happens over there definitely affects us here at home.”

The plan to set up coordination between air defenses of Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and other allies goes back months, as The Wall Street Journal reported in June that a secret meeting took place between top military officers of the countries involved in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt in March.

Representatives came from Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan.

In June, Israeli leaders were more forth coming is mentioning air defense cooperation with Arab countries under US aegis, but Kirby on Thursday spoke more clearly than before.

“There’s a greater collaboration across the region on issues like air defense, and we’re continuing to work on integrated air defense capabilities and frameworks across the region… because the whole region is concerned about Iran and their burgeoning and growing ballistic missile capabilities… and continued support for terrorism across the region,” he said.

Iranian officials appear to be concerned with the growing close ties between Israel and rich Arab oil producers, something that would be taboo in the Arab world prior to 2020 when with Abraham Accords several Arab countries normalized ties with Israel. Saudi Arabia, although with reported secret cooperation with Israel, has so far preferred not to openly establish diplomatic ties.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, hardliner President Ebrahim Raisi and others have warned Persian Gulf Arab countries not to rely on Israel or allow it to establish a military-intelligence foothold in the region.

In April, Raisi compared friendship with Israel to keeping “a snake” in proximity. Those Muslim countries that "normalize relations with the blood-shedding Zionist regime resemble those who would keep a snake in their sleeves," he said.

But with no agreement on its nuclear program after 15 months of diplomacy with the West and its growing atomic potential and missile program, Tehran has little concrete arguments against a brewing region-wide alliance against its ambitions.

Kirby also told reporters, “There is a growing convergence among nations in the region of concern about [Iran’s] advancing ballistic missile program and their support to terror networks.”

Among the Persian Gulf countries involved in military discussions, only Qatar maintains friendly ties with Iran, trying to be a broker in jump starting nuclear talks stalled since March, but Tehran apparently is hoping its potential to supply oil to world markets after Russian sanctions can fetch more concessions from the United States.

Royal Navy ship HMS Montrose seized dozens of packages containing advanced weaponry from speedboats being operated by smugglers in early 2022, during routine maritime security operations in the Gulf of Oman, the British government statement said.

The seized packages were sent to the UK for technical analysis which later revealed that the shipment contained multiple rocket engines for the Iranian produced 351 land attack cruise missile and a batch of 358 surface-to-air missiles. 

The 351, a cruise missile with a range of 1,000km, is regularly used by the Houthis to strike targets in Saudi Arabia and was also used in the January attack on Abu Dhabi, which killed three civilians.

The United Kingdom’s Embassy in the United Arab Emirates described the seizure as “the first time a British naval warship has interdicted a vessel carrying such sophisticated weapons from Iran”, yet another proof of Tehran’s support for Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the war-torn country. 

Earlier in the month, the United Nations once again confirmed that missiles launched by Yeme’s Houthi militia at Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the past two years were Iranian.

Noting that the UK will continue to work in support of an enduring peace in Yemen, Minister for the Armed Forces James Heappey said, “The UK is committed to upholding international law, from standing up to aggression in Europe to interdicting illegal shipments of weaponry that perpetuates instability in the Middle East.”