Iran’s Intelligence Ministry Claims Arrests Of Spy Network

“Transferring the residents of Tabriz to another place requires 500 billion dollars while the cost of reviving the lake is about one billion dollars,” Isa Kalantari said, explaining that the salt dust would be unbearable for residents in Tabriz and its surrounding cities.

Last year, he had also warned that if the lake is not restored, it will have security consequences, causing a flood of millions of displaced citizens.

Experts say groundwater extraction and using the water of the once bountiful Zarrineh Rud − which feeds Lake Urmia − for irrigating apple trees have both contributed to the lake shrinking by nearly 95 percent in volume over the past 20 years. In 2021 alone, more than 100,000 tons of apples of the province’s production went to waste.

Urmia, which is the largest lake in Iran and the sixth largest salt lake in the world, began shrinking in the mid-1980s and was in danger of disappearing altogether until recovery plans began to be implemented in 2014.

Japan, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) allocated nearly ten billion dollars to save the lake. It is not clear whether or how the earmarked budget was spent.

The appointment, announced by semi-official news agencies, comes two months after a Chinese-brokered agreement between Tehran and Riyadh which revived relations after a seven-year hiatus.

Enayati previously served as an assistant to Iran’s foreign minister and the director general of the Foreign Ministry’s Persian Gulf affairs. He has also served as Iran’s ambassador to Kuwait.

Reports claim he played a key role in Iran-Saudi negotiations which resulted in the normalization of relations.

While in March Iran and Saudi Arabia had agreed to reopen their embassies within two months, the procedure seems to be taking longer than expected, especially because of the repairs needed in both embassies after years of neglect.

Saudi Arabia severed relations with the Islamic Republic in January 2016 after pro-government Iranian mobs attacked and ransacked its embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad following the execution of a Saudi Shiite cleric.

The most crucial bilateral tension was over Yemen, where Iran supports Houthi rebels against the remnants of the country’s legal government, backed by Saudi led forces.

On Tuesday, 210 out of 290 members of parliament voted for Ghalibaf's re-election, a 10-percent increase compared to the 2022 elections where he won only 193 votes in his worst-ever performance.

Ghalibaf has yet to enjoy the support he received during his first two rounds in 2020 and 2021, when he was supported by 230 MPs in both elections.

Former parliament speaker Ali Larijani won the highest number of votes in all annual elections with 237 votes cast for him in 2016. The lowest number was 140 votes cast in favor of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in the second year of the first round of the parliament in Iran in 1980.

Larijani also holds the record of longest-serving speaker in Iran's parliament, in power for 12 consecutive years from 2008 to 2020.

During the Tuesday elections, hardline deputy speaker Abdolreza Mesri won re-election, but the second deputy speaker, Ali Nikzad lost his seat to Mojtaba Zolnouri in a fierce competition which ended in a tie. The decision was made by drawing lots.

While Ghalibaf won enough votes this year to remain in power as the Majlis speaker, he is expected to face a tough competition in 2024 parliamentary elections, which is vital if he seeks to realize his long-time dream of presidency in the 2025 presidential elections.

There are reports that hardliner parties Paydari and Sharian aim to knock Ghalibaf out of the Majles to send him the firm message that Ebrahim Raisi will serve a second term as Iran's President and there is no chance for Ghalibaf.

Former lawmaker Mansour Haghighatpour told Etemad Onlinethat the "audacious Paydari Party" has a lot of money, controls several powerful institutions and has seized and occupied the state television silently.

Haghighatpour is close to Iran’s former conservative parliament (Majles) speaker Ali Larijani who recently had a public run-in with ultraconservatives or hardliners.

Meanwhile, referring to the great number of Paydari members at the Iranian parliament, Haghighatpoor said “had the Guardian Council not disqualified” moderate and reform-minded candidates in the previous parliamentary elections, debates at the Majles would have replaced the nationwide protests that rocked Iran last year. 

The Guardian Council, which screens candidates for elections, disqualified hundreds of non-hardliners in the 2020 Majles elections. The Council is under the control of Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei.

He added that Iran's ultraconservatives see themselves as the only revolutionary force in the country and call others spies and seditionists. He further said that the Paydari Party has access to money and media and has spent a lot of money on garnering support on social media. 

"They have been given privileged access to funds, political power and media although they are just two busloads of politicians," Haghighatpoor said. 

The moderate conservative politician added that when President Ebrahim Raisi took office in 2021, he did not have his own team to form the cabinet. Paydari promised to provide the team from its ranks. However, introduced to Raisi were a bunch of ineffective and unqualified individuals. He said the former Planning and Budget chief and the ministers who have been since removed from their posts show how inefficient Paydari's men are. 

Haghioghatpoor predicted that the inefficiency of the Raisi administration and the parliament, both of which are dominated by Paydari, are likely to lead to lacklustre parliamentary elections with a low turnout in March 2024, if the same individuals are the only ones who are allowed to run. 

At the same time, some in Iran say that hardliners campaignedincessantly in recent months to have Ali Shamkhani removedas secretary of the national security council. He was replaced by a Revolutionary Guard officer seen as ideologically in sync with Paydari.

Paydari's grip on the state television has also been strengthened during the past years after Payman Jebelli was appointed as the organization's chief. Jebelli chose Vahid Jalili of Paydari as his deputy for television and the latter appointed several party members as the heads of the broadcaster's key channels. This is going to give Paydari the upper hand in the next parliamentary elections in March as there are no private channels in Iran and the state television has exclusive broadcasting rights based on the country's Constitution. 

Referring to a letter from Majles Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf to the leaders of Paydari, in which the speaker explained how Paydari members have obstructed the parliament's operations, Haghighatpoor charged that the ultraconservative party has recently increased its activities against Ghalibaf. He said Ghalibaf is likely to have to pay a high price as a result of the tensions created by Paydari members. 

Haghighatpoor's statements against Paydari Party came on the same day that the media were speculating on the fate of the election to form the parliament's last presidium in its four-year term of office. 

Milad Bahmanzadeh, who had been convicted of murder and sentenced to death, died of a heart attack in Tabriz prison northwest of Iran because of the huge stress and anxiety of his possible execution, Hengaw Organization reported.

Bahmanzadeh lost his life on Sunday, hours after he was transferred to the special ward where prisoners on death row are held.

Over the past few weeks, the Islamic Republic has hanged dozens of prisoners, including protesters, as part of an execution spree widely condemned by the international community.

The number of executions in Iran started to rise after President Ebrahim Raisi – the former head of the country’s notorious judiciary -- took office in August 2021 but the recent exponential spike has triggered concern at home and abroad.

The United Nations said earlier this month that Iran has executed 209 people so far this year, calling the record "abominable". The number has further grown in recent days, particularly with the regime's execution of three political prisoners Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi and Saeed Yaghoubi.

Last week Amnesty International condemned the execution spree, and said it "opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime; guilt, innocence or other characteristics of the individual; or the method used by the state to carry out the execution."