Iran Persecutes 64 Members of Baha'i Minority In Less Than Two Months

State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said on Wednesday that “it was... striking to hear the supreme leader, in really no uncertain terms, essentially endorsing President Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.”

He said, “It was especially striking because Iran all this time had attempted to maintain a veil of neutrality," pretending to be opposed to the war. “It’s now clear that was entirely hollow.”

Price also said that Russia having to seek out UAV technology from Iran means that it does not have the indigenous ability to produce it because of the export controls and other measures that the US imposed, which indicates its isolation. “The fact that President Putin would need to run into the arms of one of the most heavily sanctioned, one of the most isolated countries in the world, I think, speaks to the dire straits Moscow currently finds itself in.”

Iran has a choice. It can continue to opt for a position of relative dependency on a country like Russia, or it can choose the path of diplomacy, and specifically it can choose to take up the deal that’s been on the table for some time now, to have an economic relationship with other countries around the world, Price said. 

Earlier on Wednesday, US defense officials as well as the head of US Central Intelligence Agency warned Iran against providing military drones to Russia.

Following several postponements of the vote and a heated debate Wednesday, out of the 131 lawmakers present, 79 voted in favor while 41 rejected the treaty, and 11 abstained just after midnight. 

Critics fear that the treaty, which would permit Iranians convicted in Belgium to serve their sentences in Iran and vice versa, will pave the way for the release of Assadollah Assadi, a terrorist convicted for his role in a plot to bomb a gathering of Albania-based opposition group, Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) organization in Paris four years ago.

Several Belgian lawmakers shared concerns about why the treaty was rushed through parliament before the summer break, and said they were not able to consult enough external experts ahead of the vote.

Samuel Cogolati, a Green MP, said, “We had to be able to publicly express our reservations and deep concerns, and at the same time do our job as parliamentarians. We tried as much as possible to consolidate, to give guarantees for the rule of law, while ensuring the release of our Belgian compatriot in Iran.”

Meanwhile, Tehran has been holding Belgian humanitarian worker, Olivier Vandecasteele, in jail since February as leverage.

Belgium’s Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne said on July the 6 that the assessment of the Belgian security service was that the failure to pass the bill would increase security threats.

Major Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, a Revolutionary Guard officer, was speaking in Mashhad in northwestern Iran, two days after the visit of Russia’s Vladimir Putin to Tehran, during which Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei endorsed his invasion of Ukraine, calling it a “praiseworthy initiative.”

The United States has warned that Russia is trying to procure military drones from Iran to use in Ukraine, although Tehran has offered a half-hearted denial.

Bagheri said that the United States’ expenditure of “ten trillion dollars in West Asia” was fruitless and US power is on decline, as the world has entered “a new transition period.”

The top military commander’s remarks were yet another sign of a clear tilt in Tehran toward a policy of relying on Russia and China to defy the West. After almost 16 months of talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, negotiations remain stalled.

Tehran, which is able to export more than 700,000 barrels of crude per day, despite US sanctions, is apparently counting on high oil prices and a rapidly expanding nuclear program to create a new reality.

President Joe Biden in his recent trip to the region pledged with Israel and Saudi Arabia never to allow Iran to produce nuclear weapons, but he still insists on following the diplomatic path to reach an agreement to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA and to put Iran’s nuclear program “in a box.”

However, his administration relaxed enforcement of US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump as it embarked on the diplomatic path in early 2021. China taking advantage of the reprieve found illicit ways to increase oil imports from Iran.

Bagheri claimed that Iran used “the superiority of opportunities to threats” to gradually destroy the “foundations of [US] maximum pressure.”

He also highlighted that Iran defeated “enemy plots” near its borders to create threats against the Islamic Republic. Tehran uses the term ‘enemy’ primarily to point at the United States, and often also at its allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

However, numerous attacks on Iranian nuclear and military installations and assassinations of key nuclear and military figures since mid-2020 point to a high degree of infiltration by what many believe is the Israeli Mossad. Tehran made significant personnel changes in its intelligence and counter-intelligence networks in June, after a high-profile assassination and other unexplained deaths among IRGC figures in May and June.

Nevertheless, Bagheri emphasized that the top priority of the armed forces to is establish deterrence. He told commanders of IRGC ground forces gathered in Mashhad that their job was important “as the fate of battles is decided on the ground, especially for a country that has no aggressive intentions and simply wants to defend security on its territory, although even in a foreign conflict, it is still ground forces that decide the final outcome.” He told the officers that “Your job is to prepare for an unequal battle with a superior foreign enemy, to fight terrorists and anti-revolutionaries…”

IRGC forces have been extensively used to suppress popular protests since 2017, with the most brutal crackdown in November 2019 when at least 1,500 protesters were killed.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Mike Milley speaking extensively on the war in Ukraine responded to questions about US accusations that Russia is planning to obtain Iranian drones to strengthen its weakening position in battles.

Austin responding to a question said, “on the issue of Iranian support to Russia, we would -- we would advise Iran to not -- to not do that. We think it's a really, really bad idea. And I'll leave that at that.” Gen Milley refused to expand on Austin's remarks "at the microphone."

Last week, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan twice warned that Moscow appears to be looking at buying Iranian drones and Russian officers even visited a drone base in Iran’s Kashan to review their options. His statements hinted at possible training of Russian crews to operate the drones and said the this would cause more civilian deaths in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the head of US Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns said Wednesday, “It’s true that the Russians are reaching out to the Iranians to try to acquire armed drones,” Bloomberg reported.

“They need each other, they don’t really trust each other, in the sense that they’re energy rivals and historical competitors,” Burns said. “It’s important to remind ourselves that it’s a reflection, in some ways, of the deficiencies of Russia’s defense industry today, and the difficulties they’re having after significant losses so far in the war against Ukraine,” Burns added.

Iranian officials have responded by reiterating Tehran’s position of neutrality in the war and that Iran would not supply military hardware to any of the sides, but there was never a clear denial of the American accusation. On the contrary, Iranians insisted that Tehran and Moscow have long-running military cooperation.

Iran’s ambiguous position became clearer this week, as Russia’s Vladimir Putin visited Tehran on Tuesday and met Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who described Russia’s attack on Ukraine as Mr. Putin’s praiseworthy “initiative” to counter what he described as “an inevitable” NATO military intervention.

On Wednesday, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani responding to a question on the drone issue, said “Iranian and Russian technological cooperation predates developments in Ukraine. Any linkage between our cooperation with Russia with developments in Ukraine is intentionally biased.”

Instead of denying the US accusation, Kanaani indirectly hinted at military cooperation with Russia even in drone technology.

It is entirely possible that Iran would help Russia to produce some of its drones with slightly different material and then claim the UAVs are not Iranian. To a large extent, Tehran has done just that with Houthis in Yemen, but it will not be difficult to determine that the weapons are copies of Iranian UAVs. However, given the fact that Russia is pressed for time by the highly accurate Western weapons provided to Ukraine, it will outright acquire and use Iranian drones.

Tehran that has delayed an agreement with the United States to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement ditched by President Donald Trump, seems increasingly confident that with high oil prices it can continue to expand its nuclear program and develop a new anti-West front with Moscow.

The Islamic regime's enmity with MeK is so fierce that even those remotely connected to the group have been handed jail sentences by revolutionary courts, but Mirsalim’s son was pardoned and walked away.

Critics launched an attack on Mostafa Mirsalim for concealing his son’s arrest for three years from those who voted for him. They also criticized the Guardian Council for endorsing his credentials as candidate for the presidency in 2021 and parliamentary elections in 2020.

Mirsalim explained on Twitter earlier this week that "The MeK took advantage of" his son, a simpleton unable of making ends meet in his personal life." However, he said that "the group's only success was recruiting my son," meaning that the group did not get access to any key intelligence through his son. Mirsalim appears to have deleted the tweets later, but it was too late as the press had already cited them.

Critics on social media strongly challenged him. One critic wrote on Twitter that with Mirsalim's position at the Majles and the Expediency Council, “he has released tons of intelligence at home even through sneezing!”

Mirsalim further explained that his son was arrested in June 2019 and was sentenced to five years in jail in February 2020 on charges of acting against national security but was out on bail. He was finally jailed in February 2021. During this period, Mirsalim did not tell anyone about this. However, the lawmaker's son was soon pardoned and released as Mirsalim told the press.

Conservative activist Mansoor Haghighatpoor told Etemad News: "Mirsalim's son could have given a world of intelligence to the MeK as he had access to tons of information. The critic also revealed that the children of some of the Guardian Council members were killed because of their links to the outlawed group. "Although the council disqualified former Majles Speaker Ali Larijani only for her daughter being a resident of a foreign country, it endorsed Mirsalim's qualification for both the presidential and parliamentary elections," Haghighatpoor said.

Aftab News website, quoted reformist activist Abbas Abdi as saying that the arrest and release of Mirsalim's son in 2019 was one of the most destructive forms of discrimination in Iran's political structure. He criticized Iran's conservatives for their silence about the development as well as their attempt to conceal it while even much more benign reasons could have led to severe punishment if the accused was linked to reformists.

Mirsalim, a seasoned member of the hardline conservative Islamic Coalition Party, was previously interior and culture minister in the early years of the Islamic Republic. He who represents Tehran, is known for making potentially libellous comments about the alleged corruption of Majles Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. The bitter relations and financial rivalries and conflict of interests over Mirsalim's role in preventing the import of new cars to Iran could have played a part in the revelations about his son's case.

Mirsalim's behavior was most certainly being scrutinized by his political rivals. Last week, he had to explain why he was wearing US-made shoes, revealed in a photograph from the parliament floor, that found its way to news websites and social media.