Ukraine 'Shoots Down' Iranian Drone Used By Russia In Battlefield

Ghobad Nasseri, head of the Maroon Oil and Gas Production Company which exploits Shadegan, told state broadcaster that the fire broke out early on Tuesday after “unknown elements tampered with” one of some 20 active wells.

"The situation is completely under control and there is no cause for concern... The damage is being evaluated but the field will return to production shortly," he added.

The Shadegan field has an estimated total production capacity of about 70,000 barrels per day, according to one source or 110,000 according to another.

Earlier in the month, an explosion rocked Iran’s and Middle East’s oldest oil refinery in southwestern city of Abadan in the oil-rich province, which has been the scene of anti-government unrest in recent months.

This was the second incident at the Abadan refinery, which supplies around 25 percent of the country’s fuel needs, this year. In April, a section of the refinery caught fire but the blaze was contained with no fatalities or injuries.

Several explosions and fires in Iranian military and industrial sites − including pipelines and refineries − since mid-2020 have not been fully explained by authorities. However, they have blamed Israel for a series of spectacular sabotage attacks on nuclear facilities, including two explosions at Natanz uranium enrichment center. Israel has not taken responsibility for any incident.

The group also urged an international investigation into the extrajudicial execution and enforced disappearance of thousands of dissidents, which according to the group amount to ongoing crimes against humanity.

In recent months, Iranian authorities have erected new high concrete walls around the Khavaran cemetery outside the capital Tehran, where the remains of several hundred political dissidents executed in secret in 1988 are buried.

The construction has sparked serious concerns that the authorities would destroy or tamper with the mass grave site away from public view as the site is no longer visible from the outside and its entrance is guarded.

“The Iranian authorities cannot simply build a wall around a crime scene and think that all their crimes will be erased and forgotten. For 34 years, the authorities have systematically and deliberately concealed and destroyed key evidence that could be used to establish the truth about the scale of the extrajudicial executions carried out in 1988,” said Diana Eltahawy, a deputy director at Amnesty International. “This abomination must end once and for all, and the UN Human Rights Council must urgently establish an independent investigative mechanism to uncover the truth.”

Around 4,000 prisoners are believed to have been killed. Most victims were members or supporters of the exiled Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) as well as Marxists and other members of other leftists groups.

Judiciary spokesperson Masoud Setayeshi said on Tuesday that the case for the killing of Colonel Hassan Sayyad-Khodaei --, responsible for operations outside Iran’s borders – is still in its initial investigations phase, expressing hope that the main culprits will be identified and arrested in the near future.

Such terrorist acts are the work of complex networks and need thorough technical investigations, he said, but noted that several people have been detained and charged in this regard.

Sayyad-Khodaei was the acting commander of a covert group within the Quds Force known as Unit 840, tasked with abductions and assassinations around the world, including Israeli civilians and officials.

Khodaei was killed outside his home on a residential street in Tehran on May 22, when two gunmen on a motorcycle approached his car and fired five bullets at him and fled the scene. Iran blamed Israel and vowed revenge for the killing.

According to an article by The New York Times, Khodaei was in charge of the unit’s operations in the Middle East and countries neighboring Iran. Over the past two years, he had also been involved in attempted terrorist attacks against Israelis, Europeans and American civilians and government officials in Columbia, Kenya, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, and Cyprus. The article quoted an Israeli intelligence official as saying that Tel Aviv has informed American officials it was responsible for the killing.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regional Security Mira Resnick said at The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference in New York on Monday that “We will make sure Israel can continue to defend itself and respond to the many threats that surround it,” she added, highlighting Iran’s “very destabilizing role in the region” as a reason for Washington’s support for the defense efforts.

When it comes to Israel’s defense, she said, “the US is absolutely supportive of Israel,” citing the $3.8 billion in defense aid Israel provides annually, in addition to the $1 billion to revamp the Iron Dome missile defense system last year.

She added that such partnerships need to expand into other areas in order to be sustainable, mentioning ties in trade, sports and other areas as some examples. “This is something the US wants to foster. There’s no silver bullet to this challenge and we’ll need to work together,” she said.

In June, the US Senate and House Abraham Accords Caucus unveiled a bipartisan, bicameral effort to create a united front against the Iranian aggression in the Middle East, something that has been worrying the Islamic Republic ever since. 

The legislation proposes that the Pentagon work with Israel to integrate air defenses of six GCC countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates with Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq with the aim of thwarting threats from Iran and Iranian backed-militias across the region.

Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani was quoted by the official government news website IRNA as saying that Tehran was following “this issue carefully” and offered Iran’s help to resolve differences.

Armenia said on Tuesday that at least 49 of its soldiers had been killed in clashes along the border with Azerbaijan after a sharp escalation in hostilities which prompted Russia and the United States to call for restraint.

The escalation of decades-old hostilities between the south Caucasus countries has fuelled fears that a second fully-fledged war could break out in the post-Soviet world in addition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Iran has to an extent supported Armenia in the conflict with Azerbaijan and has warned that it would not allow any seizure of territory from Armenia proper by Baku. Tehran in the past has also expressed alarm at alleged Israeli military presence in Azerbaijan. Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also warned in October 2021 that Iran will not tolerate "geopolitical change" in the region and at the borders.

Armenia said Tuesday that several towns near the border with Azerbaijan, including Jermuk, Goris and Kapan, were being shelled in the early hours of Tuesday, and that it had responded to what it called a "large-scale provocation" by Azerbaijan.

Baku said it was attacked by Armenia.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan of attacking Armenian towns because it did not want to negotiate over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave which is inside Azerbaijan but mainly populated by ethnic Armenians.

"The intensity of hostilities has decreased but attacks on one or two fronts from Azerbaijan continue," Pashinyan said in a speech to parliament, according to Russian media.

Azerbaijan, which accused Armenia of carrying out intelligence activity along the border and moving weapons, said its military positions came under attack by Armenia. Azeri media reported that a ceasefire agreement had been broken almost immediately after being enforced early on Tuesday.

‘No military solution’

Both Russia and the United States called on Baku and Yerevan to observe restraint.

"As we have long made clear, there can be no military solution to the conflict," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. "We urge an end to any military hostilities immediately."

The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan "should be resolved exclusively through political and diplomatic means".

Russia, which operates a military base in Armenia, sent thousands of peacekeepers to the region in 2020 as part of a deal to end six weeks of hostilities during which Azerbaijan make significant territorial gains in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.

Moscow is a key power broker in the region and an ally of Yerevan through the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which convened on Tuesday to discuss the situation. Turkey backs Azerbaijan.

The defense ministers of Armenia and Russia spoke on Tuesday morning and agreed to take steps to stabilise the situation on the border. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu talked to his Azeri counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov and called for Armenia to "cease its provocations".

Charles Michel, president of the European Council, also urged Pashinyan to prevent further escalation. Michel met with Pashinyan and Azerbaijaini President Ilham Aliyev last month in Brussels.

With reporting by Reuters