Hundreds of followers of an Iraqi influential Shiite cleric stormed into Baghdad's Green Zone and parliament Wednesday, chanting anti-Iran slogans against a Tehran-backed prime ministerial nominee.
The protesters – some of whom were seen walking on tables, waving Iraqi flags and sitting in lawmakers' chairs – were followers of Muqtada al-Sadr, who seeks to curb the influence of the Islamic Republic in Iraqi politics.
On Monday, the Coordination Framework, a coalition of Shiite parties close to Iran, nominated Mohammed al-Sudani as the prime minister, a decision opposed by firebrand Shia cleric al-Sadr, whose party won last year’s general elections.
Protesters, who had forced their way into the Green Zone, which houses the parliament, after removing a number of concrete barriers, began making their way out of the parliament building when al-Sadr issued a statement on Twitter telling them their message had been received and "to return safely to your homes.
Addressing the protesters, the leader of the Sadrist movement, Saleh Muhammad al-Iraqi, said, "I stand in reverence and respect. It is a wonderful spontaneous and reformist popular message, thank you."
It was the largest protest since federal elections were held in October and the second time al-Sadr has used his ability to mobilize the masses to send a message to his political rivals this month.
The protest took place after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force Chief Esmaeil Gha’ani arrived in Baghdad, one day after Iran-backed groups nominated Sudani, and met with leaders of Shiite groups.
Ali Khamenei claimed that wearing the hijab is no impediment to Iranian women’s progress and accused the West of fueling the recent opposition to hijab to harm the regime.
In a speech to a gathering of prayer leaders from across the country on Wednesday, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in his view the Islamic Republic does not need to defend itself about issues related to women including the hijab but should rather be aggressive and attack the West for turning women into a “commodity”.
Iran’s government which is now fully controlled by hardliners has adopted a harsher than usual approach amid economic crisis and hardship for tens of millions. Government and military officials have warned the population against disobeying hijab rules and the morality police hijab enforcement patrols have detained many women, sometimes violently, on the streets.
Several activists and many ordinary citizens have been arrested for their defiance of the hijab rules in July. On several occasions the members of public have interfered when morality police and hijab enforcers tried to detain women for not wearing what the authorities consider as “proper hijab” and freed them.
The Iranian leader claimed that observing the hijab has not prevented Iranian woman from great achievements in various fields despite Western countries’ arguments that women cannot progress “unless they free themselves of ethical and religious bonds.”
He also alleged that “the enemy”, which he said is “led by Zionists and capitalists”, is constantly plotting to harm the Islamic Republic in the “battlefield of soft power” and seeks to destroy people’s faith by fostering doubt in their minds about issues such as the role of women in the Islamic society and women’s hijab.
Referring to discussions over the issue of hijab in Friday prayers, the media, and social media, Khamenei said everyone should act “very gracefully, logically and wihtout from unnecessary emotions” on the issue of hijab and use clear reasoning “to expose the western colonialist attitude” in rejection of hijab.
On Wednesday some hardline and state-affiliated media published a video of the so-called “confessions”of an anti-hijab protester who was arrested because of a confrontation with a hijab enforcer in a city bus in which the two women are shown speaking about the incident and “the lies” of the anti-hijab activists. The anti-hijab protester then begs “forgiveness” for picking a quarrel with the hijab enforcer and the two of them embrace each other and make peace.
The woman identified as 28-year-old writer Sepideh Rashno was arrested soon after the encounter on the bus. An informed source told Iran International that the woman seen in the “confession” video is not Rashno as hardline media such as Hamshahri have claimed but another woman who also was involved in the fight over hijab on the bus.
Rashno has reportedly been in detention at the IRGC ward of Tehran’s Evin Prison since her arrest last week without any contact with her family or access to a lawyer. Authorities have told the family that Rashno’s case is being investigated by the prosecutors of Evin.
Authorities have even started policing the compulsory Islamic dress code – or hijab – on the tombstones of the country’s largest cemetery, located in the southern part of the capital Tehran, and removed about 100 gravestones which had pictures of deceased women without veils.
Western intelligence sources said that Caspian Air and Qeshm Fars Air both have stopped flying to Syria and the only Iranian airline sending planes is Mahan Air, which was sanctioned by the United States in 2011 for transporting weapons to Iranian proxies at the outset of the Syrian civil war.
Caspian Air is also sanctioned by the United States for its links with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and its extraterritorial Qods (Quds) Force (IRGC-QF). In 2019, the US also sanctioned Qeshm cargo airline as part of Mahan Air and providing material support to the IRGC-QF. All three airlines are believed to have been established and owned by the Revolutionary Guard.
According to information received by Iran International, Mahan Air flights have increased by 30 percent following suspension of service by the other two companies. Aleppo is the destination of most Mahan flights. The same sources said Hamid Arabnejad the CEO of Mahan Air in a recent trip to Syria took part in the inauguration of a new flight to the Aleppo airport.
In addition to transporting weapons, the sources alleged that Mahan Air is also carrying smuggled goods to Syria without paying taxes or customs duties.
Last November, a hacking group calling itself ‘Vigilant sons of the homeland’ in Persian accused Mahan Air of closely linked with IRGC-QF and often issuing fake or falsified air tickets for people with false identities.
The group also alleged that Mahan was registering its interactions with IRGC-QF in one particular name, which appeared seven thousand times in the company’s records. “We’ve found Mahan does keep records of its suspicious business with QF under the name ‘Hamrah’, and that this business is managed by sardar (general) Golparast.”
The group added that Golparast is also listed as the owner of Qeshm Fars Air which “is a known QF cover company, frequently used to transport munitions throughout the Middle East,” the group said in November.
Israel is known to have conducted operations, including in Iran, to track and prevent IRGC-QF form transporting weapons to other countries.
Iran International reported July 21 that the Israeli Mossad had captured and interrogated an IRGC official inside Iran, about weapons transfers. The man was introducing himself as Yadollah Khedmati, deputy commander of the IRGC logistics and provided information to Mossad about weapons transfers before being freed.
IRGC’s wings for weapons transport
Mahan Air was fully under the control of IRGC-QF when Qasem Soleimani headed the extraterritorial military-intelligence unit. There were many reports about the airline’s role in weapons shipments. Soleimani was killed in a targeted US air strike in Baghdad in January 2020.
Amir Assadollahi a Mahan Air pilot revealed in June 2020 that on one occasion Soleimani in 2013 Soleimani was on a Mahan flight to Syria with 200 passengers and 7 tons of “banned cargo” that landed in Baghdad with orders of the Iraqi government. Soleimani instructed the pilot to bribe inspectors and was able to continue the flight to Syria.
Iran’s former foreign minister Javad Zarif in an audio recording leaked in 2021 had said that Soleimani preferred to use the official Iran Air flights for his purposes to reduce risk to his operations.
However, it seems that with continuing Israeli air strikes on Iranian arms depots in Syria, IRGC-QF prefers to use Mahan Air more often.
Israeli is usually silent about its attacks on Iranian targets in Syria but in recent months there have been repeated attacks on Iranian arms depots. The attack on the Damascus airport on June 10 was the 15th airstrike in Syria attributed to Israel.