Russians Being Trained On Iranian Drones, US Reiterates

In an interview with Iran International on Thursday, Reza Younesi said that his brother Ali Younesi and another student Amir Hossein Moradi were repeatedly threatened to be killed or raped by agents while they were incarcerated in solitary confinement.

Reza, who is based in Sweden, referred to a report by the Amnesty International released on August 4 that disclosed new details about the two, saying even their families were not aware of their situation and the ill-treatment because they were held in solitary confinement for nearly 60 days without any contacts with their families and lawyers.

According to an informed source cited by the Amnesty International, they “confessed” under the threat of death and sexual violence after being transferred out of Section 209 of Tehran’s Evin Prison to a location outside prison, where Ministry of Intelligence agents warned them prison regulations did not apply.

Amnesty International also said that after Branch 36 of the Appeals Court upheld their convictions and sentences on June 6, 2022, Ministry of Intelligence agents visited Amirhossein Moradi’s father and made vague promises about the possibility of his son’s release in exchange for agreeing to a “friendly” interview with state TV and publicly criticizing dissidents, which Amirhossein Moradi refused.

The two Sharif University award-winning science students were arrested in April 2020, with a judiciary spokesman announcing that explosive devices had been found in their homes and that they had links to “counter-revolutionary groups.”

After a grossly unfair trial, a Revolutionary Court in Iran sentenced the duo to 16 years in prison on April 25, 2022, over spurious national security charges such as “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security”, “spreading propaganda against the system [regime]” and “destruction of public property” for their participation in peaceful protests in January 2020 and their families’ real or perceived ties to exiled Albania-based opposition group Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK). Their convictions were based on “confessions” which both men retracted in court and said were obtained under torture and other ill-treatment.

“The authorities violated their [Moradi and Younesi] right to be presumed innocent by publicly accusing them of ties to ‘counterrevolutionary’ groups apparently based on their families’ real or perceived association” with the opposition group MEK, Amnesty wrote in November 2021.

In a letter in January, several Nobel Laureates and leading academics asked United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet to petition Iran over Moradi and Younesi. In May 2021, more than 170 professors and students at Sharif University wrote a letter to the Iranian authorities demanding their release. Younesi won the gold medal in the International Astronomy Olympiad in 2018 in China, and Moradi was an award-winning physics student.

Security Minister Fernandez Anibal said on Wednesday that the four were arrested Monday night at the Ezeiza international airport as they tried to board a plane with false documents. The individuals intended to travel to the Netherlands on a KLM airline flight. 

Some reports said the two couples were of Iranian origin but it was not confirmed by any Argentinian official. The suspects were later identified as Iraqi Kurds, and members of the Yazidi religion who fled Iraq with the aim of establishing themselves in Germany via Amsterdam. 

He added their case is being investigated by the same federal judge in charge of the Iranian plane grounded in Argentina, Federico Villena. 

Villena is the same magistrate who is investigating the 14 Venezuelans and five Iranians who arrived in this capital in June on a plane from the Venezuelan state company Emtrasur, a subsidiary of Conviasa, grounded over links to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. 

Earlier in August, Villena authorized the departure of 12 of the 19 people who were onboard, ordering four Iranians and three Venezuelans to be retained in Argentina.

Registered as a Venezuelan cargo plane, the aircraft was used by the Iranian company Mahan Air and transported a group of Iranian officials, including pilot Gholamrez Ghasemi, a senior executive of the airline Qeshm Fars Air, who is a member of the IRGC and a former board member of Fars Air Qeshm who stands accused of transporting weapons for Hezbollah during the civil war in Syria.

In a tweet on Thursday, he said the stabilization process of the satellite, dubbed Khayyam after a 12th-century Persian polymath, was done successfully. 

He added that Iranian knowledge-based companies will be able to use its images and data in various fields.

As Iran’s homegrown attempts at putting satellites into orbit have largely failed due to its technological limitations, Russia agreed to build and launch the Kanopus-V Earth-observation satellite that can resolve features as small as 3.9 feet (1.2 meters) on Earth's surface at a cost of about $40 million in a deal negotiated nearly four years. Iran claims it was designed by the country’s scientists but it is one of a series of satellites developed by the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Electromechanics.

Russia launched the controversial satellite into space Tuesday, August 9, from its Baikonur space station in Kazakhstan as planned. 

The satellite sparked controversy last week when The Washington Post quoted two Western security officials as saying that Moscow intends to use the space platform for several months or longer, to enhance its surveillance of military targets for its war in Ukraine, and Iran may not be able to take control of the satellite right away.

Iran's Space Agency denied the report on August 7, saying the satellite will be fully operated and controlled by the Islamic Republic from inside Iran.

In a joint press conference with his Cypriot counterpart Charalambos Petrides, Gantz said the financial support is in addition to the transfer of technical intelligence for the constitution of military bases in Gaza from which to launch attacks against civilian centers in southern Israel. 

"Israel will continue to act against Iran's emissaries together with our partners. We will continue to work together for the stability of the entire region," he added.

After the launch of Operation Breaking Dawn against targets in Gaza on August 5, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said that Islamic Jihad is an Iranian proxy that wants to destroy Israel, noting that Israel has a zero-tolerance policy for any attempted attacks from Gaza. The head of Islamic Jihad -- a militant outfit designated a terrorist organization by the US, EU, and UK -- was in Tehran when during the three-day operation. 

Ziyad al-Nakhalah held meeting with several senior Iranian officials in Tehran including Supreme Leader's adviser Ali Akbar Velayati, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and Kamal Kharrazi, the head of Iran's Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, as well as President Ebrahim Raisi and a number of high-ranking IRGC commander. 

Tehran condemned the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, vowed continued support and called for closer ties between the Islamic Republic and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

In a Wednesday interview with Israel’s Channel 13, Tom Nides reiterated Washington’s full support of Israel’s right to self-defense after the latest operation against Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a militant outfit designated a terrorist organization by the US, EU, and UK. Iran also backs the Gaza rulers, Hamas.

“Every option is on the table, as President Biden has said. We’re not going to allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Every option is on the table,” Nides said of the Iranian nuclear threat.

“We support Israel’s right to defend itself, its right to basically take the actions it needs to keep this place safe, so we’re fully supportive of Israel’s actions,” the envoy said.

Israel launched airstrikes against the group on August 5, kicking off three days of fighting, before an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire came into force Sunday night. “These are bad guys,” Nides said referring to the terror groups. “We’re aware of the situation going on in Gaza. We understood this was an important mission for the Israelis.”

Earlier in the week, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that she remains committed to standing up to Iranian hostility and their pursuit of nuclear weapons.

"The UK stands by Israel and its right to defend itself. We condemn terrorist groups firing at civilians and violence which has resulted in casualties on both sides. We call for a swift end to the violence," the candidate to becomes the next UK prime minister added.