UK Charges Terror Suspect Stalking Iran International's London Office

The report saysIran delivered at least 18 of the drones to the Russian navy after officers and technicians made a special visit to Tehran in November.

“On that occasion, the 10-man Russian delegation selected six Mohajer-6 drones, which have a range of around 200km and carry two missiles under each wing, along with 12 Shahed 191 and 129 drones, which also have an air-to-ground strike capability,” added the Guardian.

Unlike Shahed 131 and 136 drones, which have been broadly used by Moscow in kamikaze attacks against Ukrainian infrastructure, the higher-flying drones are able to deliver bombs and return to base.

The disclosures show that the two countries sharing hostility towards Washington are getting closer.

Iran’s Islamic government has supplied hundreds of drones to Russia since mid-2022 that have been used during missile attacks to swarm Ukrainian air defenses.

Increasingly short of missiles to sustain its brutal bombing campaign of Ukraine’s towns and cities, Russia has turned to Iran and also North Korea to replenish its stocks.

The United States and Europe have imposed new sanctions on Tehran for its expanded military ties with Moscow and its deadly crackdown on protests since last September.

The rial, which was trading at about 300,000 to the US dollar in late August fell to 460,000 on Sunday; a more than 50-perccent decline.

Us sanctions economic sanctions imposed since 2018 have gradually eroded Iran’s hard currency revenues, depleted its foreign currency reserves and have led to economic uncertainty.

Lack of a new nuclear deal with the United States has also led to more pessimism since September, when the latest attempt by the European Union to broker a deal fell apart.

In addition to these negative factors, popular protests in the past five months have led to political uncertainty and more capital flight from the country.

The rial’s fall leads to more inflation for essential commodities such as foodstuff and animal feed, impoverishing a population hit hard by 40-50 percent annual inflation in the past three years.

Food prices have been rising much faster, with official figures indicating between 70-100 percent annual inflation for basic food items such as meet and dairy. Consumption of some items have decreased by more than 50 percent in the past two years.

At the same time rents and home prices have climbed as much as the value of the US dollar has risen, reaching a level that an ordinary worker must hold two or even three jobs just to afford basic housing. Workers make between $100-150 a month, calculated by the current rate of the dollar.

Some observers say that rising prices can lead to more widespread and sustained protests against the regime. The current government, mostly staffed by hardliners, is seen as inefficient and unable to govern in an environment of multiple challenges. Even many conservatives and loyalists have begun to criticize President Ebrahim Raisi and his ministers.

Meanwhile, new figures published Sunday by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) showed that borrowing by government-owned companies increased by 77.5 percent in the first eight months of the Iranian calendar year, from March 21- November 20.

These largely unprofitable and money-losing enterprises borrow from government banks, which in turn borrow from the central bank. These banks in turn had to borrow 59 percent more from the CBI during November 2021-November 2022,

The central bank in turn resorts to printing money, without sufficient economic growth or foreign currency revenues. This means that the money supply increases fast, leading to more currency devaluation and inflation.

One major reason why government companies have increased borrowing is that the government takes money from these essentially bankrupt enterprises to finance its own 50-percent budget deficit.

The Raisi government has been claiming that it has stopped borrowing from the CBI, but in fact it has shifted to cashing money from its economic enterprises, which have assumed the role of borrowers. In short, the cycle of government borrowing, and money printing has become more complicated by the intermediary role public companies play as some sort of facilitators.

The money supply reached 58,000 trillion rials by November, or $200 billion based on the average rate of exchange during the first eight months of the Iranian calendar year.

The situation is heading toward a serious crisis. A centrist politician said this week that “Iran is on fire.”

Judiciary Spokesman Masoud Setayeshi claimed Sunday that so far, 26 people have been arrested in the case who are accused of acquiring stolen property and money laundering.

In June 2022, thieves broke into at least 200 safety deposit boxes in a central Tehran branch of Iran’s largest bank. Apparently, the robbers gained access from an adjacent building during the holiday.

The case made national headlines, but the indicted individuals have been freed on bail while four protesters were tried and hanged in December after sham trials in a matter of a few weeks after their arrest. Thousands of other protesters have been beaten and tortured in prisons and more than a dozen have received the death penalty.

State media revealed that the bank’s alarm was not connected to the police and had only sent a text message to the branch manager, who ignored it as the system had been prone to false alerts.

Four days later police displayed recovered money and gold after they announced the arrest of 13 people allegedly involved in the large bank heist in Tehran.

The surprisingly quick reaction and arrests by the police raised eyebrows with many seeing it as an ‘inside job’.

Referring to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s amnesty for some prisoners arrested during antigovernment protests in recent months, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri claimed it was a “clemency” by the Supreme Leader.

When the crime of every person is proven, he will be indicted and must be punished, he said during a three-day visit to Esfahan province.

“The right of amnesty has been given to the Leader in the Constitution, which is carried out at the request of Chief Justice. If the leader thinks it is necessary, he might pardon the condemned people,” added Montazeri.

Government media reported February 5 that Khamenei “agreed” with a proposal by the country’s Judiciary to take what appears to be a political move to show clemency after hundreds were killed and around 19,000 arrested.

It is not clear from the announcement how many or which prisoners will be pardoned and whose sentences will be reduced. While thousands of young and teenage protesters were arrested in street demonstrations, hundreds of political activists, journalists and writers and artists have also been detained.

Khamenei's move came at the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Republic, as a move to rescue the image of the regime amid a grim economic crisis and mass public rejection of the political system he presides over.

During a large gathering in Los Angeles, Iran’s exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi hailed Iranian women as “the first victims of the Islamic revolution in the last forty years."

He added that "Today, we are not just witnessing a 44-year-old resistance. Today in Iran, we are witnessing the first women's revolution in the world. Iranian women are not alone in their revolution and all men support them,” noting that Iranian women have always been in the vanguard of the fight against the regime. 

On the sidelines of an anti-regime rally, Pahlavi told Iran International that “we all know we agree on basic principles, otherwise there will be no understanding in practice.” Emphasizing the need to support civil activists and political prisoners in Iran, he said "Iran's Charter of Solidarity and Freedom", which is being finalized, includes the minimum principles of agreement for the majority of secular democratic forces.

Eight prominent opposition figures held a joint forum in Washington DC on February 10, signaling the emergence of a leadership council in the diaspora to campaign for international support in favor of Iran’s protest movement.

Calling for equal rights for all political and sexual orientations, he said the Iranian society is beautifully diverse with various ethnicities, languages and dialects, religions, sects, and opinions. “We should have such an intellectual plurality and challenge each other. Even if we compete with each other, competition does not mean enmity."

He also praised Sunni religious leader Mowlavi Abdolhamid for his remarks about Iran’s territorial integrity and the equality of all Iranians.

"We tell political prisoners and imprisoned protesters that they are not alone. We are your voice in the world. The world should support the people of Iran. The world should not insist on negotiating with a regime, which is rotten to the core in order to keep it alive, especially when the nation is chanting death to the dictator,” Pahlavi said, calling on international community to support the rights of the Iranian nations to choose their destiny.

In a massive demonstration in Washington DC, other dissident figures, such as rights activists Masih Alinejad, Nazanin Boniadi and Hamed Esmaeilion and popular Iranian stars, including Faramarz Aslani, Googoosh, and Shahin Najafi, also delivered speeches about the Islamic Republic’s atrocities and expressed hope for an end to the regime. 

Alinejad spoke about the regime’s discrimination and persecution of the LGBTQ community, heralding a new Iran where all have equal rights. She said that the day of celebration for the Iranian nation is when they are at the ballot box to decide the fate of their country. 

Esmaeilion, a Canadian Iranian protest leader talked of the crimes committed by the Islamic Republic, saying women of the country paid a heavy price for their basic freedoms. 

He added that the people of Iran should be ready for the next waves of protests, which will be stronger and bigger. 

Boniadi also called on other countries to sever their ties with the regime in Iran, saying, "We don't want any Western country to talk with the Iranian regime."

Iranians staged mass rallies in dozens of cities across the world calling for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic on Saturday, concurrent with the regime-sponsored events inside Iran on the occasion of the 44th anniversary of the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.

Iranians from various European cities traveled to the French capital Paris to express their anger at the brutalities of Iran’s rulers against unarmed civilian protesters. Iranians living in London also held a gathering and chanted slogans in support of the move to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization. Similar protests were held in Oslo, Bologna, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Nicosia, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Vienna, Sofia, Madrid, Istanbul, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Auckland, Stockholm, and Gutenberg.

This representative of young Iranians who have become full-fledged European citizens and politicians added, "We will be in Brussels on February 20." Alireza Akhundi, a member of the Swedish parliament, also spoke at the Paris rally, saying, "44 years ago a bitter incident happened in this city, and today we are all together and united for the revolution of the brave people of Iran."

In their historic joint event in Washington, the eight leading Iranian opposition figures called for support from democratic countries to change the regime in Iran and establish democracy.

Speaking at Georgetown University's Institute for Women, Peace and Security, Pahlavi, Esmaeilion, Alinejad, and Boniadi as well as Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, actress Golshifteh Farahani, former captain of Iran’s national soccer team Ali Karimi and Secretary General of Komala Iranian Kurdish party Abdullah Mohtadi made a speech.