Tehran University Students Oppose Admission Of Iraqi Militias
A group of students from Tehran University has expressed opposition to the admission of Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi militia forces as students.
A group of students from Tehran University has expressed opposition to the admission of Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi militia forces as students.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the student activists said they would not accept “military forces, whether in combat or school uniforms, within the university premises".
Vowing to resist their presence, which many fear is an attempt to suppress dissidents in the institution, they said that the university’s atmosphere is already poisoned due to the presence of professors affiliated with the regime and Basij militiamen masquerading as students. They accused the authorities of sidelining students by suspending, removing, and suppressing them, while replacing them with borrowed forces from Iraq.
The activists lamented the university's transformation from a symbol of academic independence to a mere instrument of military tyranny, stating, “The presence of these individuals as university administrators only perpetuates a cycle of crises and disasters. Today, we realize that within the minds of those in power, we are denied the right to study and even the right to exist."
In contrast, the student activists highlighted the plight of imprisoned, expelled, and suspended students, who find themselves unjustly excluded for voicing grievances against the regime, while Hashd al-Shaabi forces gain admission.
Al-Hashd al-Shaabi was established back in 2014, following a fatwa to fight ISIS, which controlled four governorates and reached the borders of the capital Baghdad at the time. The Iraqi state-sponsored umbrella organization is composed of approximately 67 different armed factions, with around 128,000 fighters that are mostly Shia Muslim groups, but also include Sunni Muslim, Christian, and Yazidi groups.
Tehran University's public relations office announced members of Iraq's Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi militias and other proxies of the Islamic Republic can study at Iranian universities following a meeting attended between the head of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's representatives at the universities and the education deputy of Hashd al-Shaabi.
It has caused outrage among students who also criticized the advantages enjoyed by regime-affiliated students and the rich as well as entrance exam biases, which have discouraged many talented and hardworking individuals from pursuing higher education.
Students hailing from the wealthiest families, and those affiliated with IRGC’s Basij forces as well as those whose family members are war veterans, or what regime calls "martyrs”, have a much greater chance of admission to top universities in Iran, prompting many to blame corruption by the entrance exam ‘mafia’.
The Tehran University students’ statement also emphasized the disparity between the easy entry of members from Hashd al-Shaabi and the obstacles faced by socially and politically marginalized groups within Iranian society. They argued that the university administration's prioritization of military forces over ordinary people and dissidents undermines the principles of equal educational opportunities.
The student movement has played a significant role in the formation and continuation of last year's popular protests, sparked by the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in morality police custody. In recent weeks, security forces in Iran have unleashed a fresh wave of crackdowns at universities employing both verbal and physical assault to suppress the student movement.
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen described the Iranian regime as a “global terror threat” Thursday, adding that Tehran is orchestrating a series of attempts to harm Israelis abroad. “Tehran stands behind the attempt,” Cohen said in a statement during an official visit to Serbia.
He made the remarks two days after Azerbaijan's security agencies said they thwarted a terrorist attack on the Israeli embassy in the capital Baku, arresting a 23-year-old Afghan national identified as Fawzan Mosa Khan.
“Iranian terror is a global threat, as we saw in the past few days in Azerbaijan in an attempted attack against the Israeli Embassy in Baku, as well as in recent months in Cyprus and Greece in attempted attacks against Israelis and Jews,” Cohen said, adding Iran had funded and issued instructions to the terror cell that attempted the attack.
He also reiterated calls on the international community to come together to oppose the Islamic Republic’s terror activities.
During a visit to Azerbaijan on Thursday, Gallant said Israel and its foreign partners have foiled more than 50 Iranian-orchestrated attacks on Israelis and Jews abroad in recent years.
"At its supreme leader's orders, Iran has in recent years waged a worldwide terror campaign of unprecedented scale, focused on Israelis and Jews ... We are talking about more than 50 attempted attacks," Israeli media quoted him as saying.
According to Azerbaijan’s State Security Service, Mosa Khan was planning to commit a terrorist act accompanied by an explosion, fire or other similar events in conspiracy involving other individuals. It added that he came from “a foreign country” in order to surveil “a third country embassy,” recruit a cell and obtain weapons and funding.
Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, recently revealed new details about a terrorist cell directed by Iran which intended to harm Israeli businessmen in Cyprus after Cypriot intelligence services revealed they had foiled the Iranian plot.
Israel later said its agents in Iran succeeded in capturing the suspect behind the IRGC-planned attack on its nationals.
The Mossad published a video of the captured agent, identified as Yousef Shahabazi Abbasalilo, sharing details of his entry to Cyprus through the Turkish occupied north and how he had scoped out the location of the first target for assassination, prepared the weapon and concealed it on word that he must flee just days ago. Iran rejected the veracity of the video.
In March, Greek police arrested two Pakistani nationals who were allegedly planning mass-casualty terrorist attacks against a Jewish restaurant and Chabad House in Athens.
In November of last year, Georgian security officials revealed they had foiled a recent attempt by the extraterritorial arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the Quds Force, to kill a prominent Israeli-Georgian living in the capital Tbilisi.
The latest plot comes amidst simmering tensions between Iran and its archrival Israel, and with its neighbor, Azerbaijan.
Tensions which have been rising between Iran and Azerbaijan since November 2022 when both sides accused each other of engaging in terrorism and espionage in the other’s territory. Things worsened with the opening of the Azerbaijan embassy in Tel Aviv, which angered Tehran. Iran has conducted military drills on Azerbaijan's border as a show of force.
In June, Baku closed the Islamic Republic’s cultural attaché office in the city, about a week after an opposition group released documents obtained from a hack into the Iranian presidency servers, showing that the Iranian government is eying ways to redefine its relations with Azerbaijan.
Iran has suggested Azerbaijani involvement in the October 26 attack in Shiraz claimed by the Islamic State group (Isis-Daesh) and, also accuses Baku of harboring Israeli intelligence and military elements that plan to use its territory in a possible attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The two countries in early May expelled each other’s diplomats after incidents that Baku also dubbed as "terrorist attacks". These included a gunman’s attack on Azerbaijani diplomatic mission in Tehran in January after which Baku shut down the embassy and an attack on Azerbaijani lawmaker Fazil Mustafa in March, who is an outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic.
The Iranian embassy in Brussels issued a statement on Thursday rejecting NATO “allegations” in general terms, but not directly refuting accusations that it has been supplying kamikaze drones to Russia.
The statement insists that Islamic Republic has maintained “neutrality” in the Ukraine conflict and remains committed to the United Nations charter, including respect for the independence and “territorial integrity” of all countries.
NATO’s 31 member states issued a statement during their summit in Lithuania calling "upon Iran to cease its military support to Russia, in particular its transfer of Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) which have been used to attack critical infrastructure, causing widespread civilian casualties.”
Western powers have been urging Tehran for months not to supply drones and other weapons to Russia. The United States has even made it a condition for the resumption of nuclear talks suspended last September, saying Iran should stop its burgeoning military cooperation with Russia.
So far, Iran has supplied hundreds of its Shahed drones that are sent on one-way missions carrying nearly 50 kilograms of explosives.
On the same day that Iran issued its statement, Russia launched 20 Shahed drones against Ukrainian cities including the capital Kyiv, which caused destruction and injuries.
However, nowhere in the statement Iran even mentions NATO criticism of its military cooperation with Russia or the drone issue. Iranian officials in recent months have used the same tactic, expressing neutrality regarding the war in Ukraine and avoiding direct response to accusations of supplying drones to Russia.
When evidence began to emerge last October of Iranian drones targeting Ukrainian cities, Tehran first denied the accusation but a few weeks later in early November, foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian finally admitted sending drones, but claimed they were shipped before the Russian invasion.
NATO also called on the Islamic Republic to end its covert activities on the territories of its member states. "We express our serious concern over Iran’s malicious activities within Allied territory."
The United States and Britain have accused Iran of numerous terror plots on their soil in the past two years. Last November, Iran International TV moved its broadcast operations to Washington DC after the British police found credible information that Iranian agents were plotting to harm its journalists.
In its statement, Tehran tries to turn the tables and accuses some Western countries of fomenting unrest in Iran.
“Despite Iran’s commitment to observe international law, it has been harmed by the actions of some NATO members by their active support for unrest [in Iran] by providing refuge to elements and subversive terrorist organizations,” the statement claimed.
Iran labels the popular anti-regime protests that broke out last September as “riots” and has been blaming its “enemies”, presumably the United States, European powers and Israel for planning the unrest.
The Iranian statement also claimed that the Islamic Republic has played a “leading role” against terrorism in the region. In fact, Tehran supports and arms an array of militant organizations in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestinian territories.