Iran Declines To Send Envoy To Sweden Over Burning Of Quran

A few days ago, the Albanian State Police, on the orders of the Special Court, conducted checks in the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) camp, resulting in clashes between its residents and security forces.

The opposition group said on June 20 that hundreds of Albanian police officers raided the group's exile center, Camp Ashraf, in an unexpected move.

The group alleged one of their members, identified as Ali Mostashari, died and more than a hundred others were injured, with some hospitalized in critical condition after police raided the camp using tear gas and pepper spray and seizing computers. The group claimed the attack was instigated by the Iranian regime.

Albanian authorities denied any loss of life or injuries, saying that the incident happened due to the group’s refusal to cooperate with the police.

Police said it had suspicions that there may be people on the premises involved in cyberattacks against Tirana as well as criminal “acts of larger dimensions.”

Rama told Spiegel although the MEK are welcome, they should not use Albania as a political platform.

“Albania has no intention of being at war with the Iranian regime. Albania does not accept anyone who has abused our hospitality,” he added.

He also noted that Tirana accepted thousands of the MEK members under a life-saving operation at the request of the Obama administration in 2016.

“Our country is used as a trench in a war that is not ours, it does not work! Of course, they have every right to fight for their freedom, but to do so they must leave Albania,” the prime minister noted.

Despite an objection and complaint filed by the center, the Administrative Court of Hamburg upheld the classification of the center's activities as "extremism" by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution of Germany.

The Court began hearing the complaint of the Islamic Center of Hamburg two months ago. However, the decision did not confirm findings by security organs that the center acted as an extension of the Iranian regime in Germany.

Previously, intelligence officials in Hamburg published documents that showed the connection of this center with extremist and Islamist groups, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

However, the center claims to be a purely religious foundation that deals with the religious affairs of the Shias.

Earlier, the Secular Islamic Association had asked Germany's Minister of the Interior in a letter to terminate all cooperation with the Central Council of Muslims immediately.

Additionally, the letter said that the Islamic Center of Hamburg promoted Iran's ideology and monitored Iranian citizens in exile as well as disseminating anti-Semitism.

Hamburg's local authorities expelled Seyed Soleiman Mosavi-Far, the deputy for the Islamic Center in November, accusing him of close ties to terrorist groups.

Aside from his involvement in and support for extremist and terrorist Shia organizations, Mosavi-Far had connections with two organizations providing financial assistance with connections to Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to German authorities.

Israeli authorities did not comment on the airstrike on Homs but said one of the Syrian air defense missiles exploded over northern Israel without causing any damage.

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee later said that Israel's military retaliated for the firing of the air defence missile that exploded over the country's north, by attacking Syrian air defense batteries from where the missile was fired.

It is not clear if the Syrian missile was launched during the air attack near Homs and strayed into Israeli airspace, or deliberately targeted Israel.

Syria uses Russian air defense systems and in recent months Russian forces have been altering these missiles to hit ground targets in Ukraine.

A large segment of the Syrian missile fell in Israel

But in 2022 also a Syrian air defense missile exploded over northern Israel and this could have been a similar incident, although the Israeli air force retaliated against the Syrian missile battery.

Residents of central and southern Israel reported hearing a large blast, according to Times of Israel, and shrapnel was recovered from what appeared to be parts of a surface-to-air missile from a Russian-made S-200 system.

Israel has in recent months intensified strikes on Syrian airports and air bases to disrupt Iran's increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to allies in Syria and the Lebanese Hezbollah. However, there were fewer reports of attacks in June.

Syrian state media said air defense's intercepted Israeli missiles across central parts of the country, downing most of them. A Syrian army statement said missiles that flew over parts of Lebanon's capital Beirut hit locations in the vicinity of the city of Homs, resulting only in material damage.

Claims by Syrian authorities cannot be independently verified.

After a mid-air explosion heard across Israel, remnants of the Syrian missile landed in Rahat, a town some 180 km (110 miles) south of the armistice line between the countries, Israeli police said. There was no word of any casualties.

Local media showed what appeared to be the blackened front end of a large missile, standing upright in an open area among residential buildings, and tail-fins in a field.

The Israeli military said its warplanes were unscathed.

The Israeli strikes are part of an escalation of what has been a low-intensity conflict continuing for years with a goal of slowing Iran's growing entrenchment in Syria, Israeli military experts say.

Tehran's military presence has grown in Syria since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war that started in 2011.

Thousands of Afghan, Iraqi and other militias trained, supplied and paid by Iran, in addition to the Lebanese Hezbollah, now hold sway in areas in eastern, southern and northwestern Syria and in several suburbs around the capital.

Documents hacked from the foreign ministry by an Iranian opposition group in May revealed that Bashar al-Assad’s government owes Iran $50 billion dollars, excluding Tehran’s direct military expenditures in the civil war.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

Mohammad-Ali Mohseni-Bandpey, a member of the parliament's health committee warned in an interview with ILNA news website on Saturday that if a solution is not found, the issue may turn into a social, political, economic, and health crisis.

He said the government's huge debts to the social security organization and the organization's debts to hospitals, as well as the lack of sufficient drug production in the country are the most important factors contributing to the crisis.

During the past years, the authorities attributed medicine shortages in the country to the US sanctions, claiming that the sanctions targeted ordinary people. However, import of humanitarian items, including medicine, is exempt from US embargoes. In fact, Iran has been purchasing around two billion dollars' worth of medicines and raw materials annually for producing drugs from Europe and India.

The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies had previously written in a report that corruption, not sanctions, is causing medicine shortages in Iran.

While European countries had launched the INSTEX mechanism with the permission of the US to export humanitarian items to Iran, they discontinued it in March of last year because of Iran's unwillingness to use this mechanism.

In a joint statement in March, Germany and France said the Iranian leadership has chosen to act against the interests of its people by refusing to cooperate in the export of medicine and other life-saving goods.

Bandpey further noted that in a meeting held last week, the ministers of labor, health, intelligence and the representatives of the Central Bank, as well as the Revolutionary Guard acknowledged that if a solution is not found, this issue may turn into a big problem.

He also referred to the 180-million-dollar debt of the social security organization to hospitals and the government's “ten times larger” debt to this organization, saying that there is a shortage of medicine even in the emergency rooms of hospitals and people have to look for medicines outside the hospital, meaning in the black market.

He underlined that the country cannot produce enough drugs, because the cost of the medicines is more than government mandated prices. Iran's economy is mostly controlled by the government, especially imports of goods, which needs foreign currencies.

Earlier this year, Bandpey said the pharmaceutical companies are moving to other countries as there are "serious hurdles” to their activities.

In January an official of Iran’s drug importers union, Mojtaba Bourbour, challenged government officials’ claims about self-sufficiency in production of medicines and said not only up to 90 percent of raw material is imported from countries such as China and India, but also some medicines are imported from China but sold under Iranian labels.

Ultraconservatives, who dominate the current parliament and the government, are ready to go out of their way to ensure their continued supremacy in the political landscape.

The Reformist Front, an umbrella organization of several parties and groups elected Azar Mansouri as the Front's leader last week to replace aging political heavyweight Behzad Nabavi who led the front during the past two years. Mansouri was the front's spokesperson during this period.

However, based on the experience of the last two elections in 2020 and 2021, an electoral watchdog controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will determine who can become a candidate. In the 2020 parliamentary vote hundreds of reformist candidates were disqualified, allowing hardliners to dominate the parliament.

Ms. Mansouri took part in a meeting with former President Mohammad Khatami, who is considered the undeclared leader of Iran's reform movement although his recent stances indicate that he is not too eager to risk big changes in the current governing system.

According to Etemad Online, at the meeting Khatami endorsed Mansouri's qualifications as the leader of Iran's Reform Front and insisted on its independence. He said the power and capabilities of the Reform Front depends on its members' strengths and capabilities.

Khatami called on the front's leaders to do their best to ensure its cohesion, while also benefitting from the views of experts outside the front. He added that the front's views should reflect the collective opinion of its members.

At the meeting, Mansouri said that Khatami is the Reform Front's focal point and that all of the reformists agree on his key role.

Meanwhile, according to conservative website Nameh News, Mohammad Ali Namazi, a member of the Centrist Executives of Construction Party (EoC), which is a part of the Reform Front, has said that the Reform Front would have been more successful if its members elected EoC leader Hossein Marashi as its chairman.

However, he added that Mansouri's election as the Reform Front's leader does not mean that the views of her party, the Unity of Nation Party will determine the underlying policies of the front. Ms. Mansouri will have only one vote in determining those policies.

He said a majority of the front's member wanted Nabavi to be elected as the leader, but the aging politician was not interested in the position.

Meanwhile, Namazi made it clear that he is aware that the conservative-led Guardian Council that vets election candidates has already made its decisions about who are those who are allowed to run for the upcoming election.

At the same time changes in the leadership of the conservative camp indicated their strong interest in the upcoming election. In one of the latest developments, political heavyweight Mohammad Reza Bahonar joined SHANA [Persian acronym for the conservative alliance council of revolutionary forces]. Despite what the word "revolutionary" might indicate, the alliance consists of elderly politicians such as Bahonar and former Majles Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel who have been active in Iran's domestic politics for more than four decades.

However, Expediency Council member Bahonar's move to the forefront of electioneering could mean that traditional conservatives are serious in trying to keep their position in the Iranian political landscape despite the power of ultraconservatives, most notably the Paydari Party, to win the lion's share of the seats in the next parliament.

Nonetheless, as Namazi noted, getting through the Guardian Council's net is not guaranteed for anyone unless Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei pulls the right strings for them.