Former President Raises Alarm Over Emigration Of Iranian Elites

Daniel Abed Khalife was in Wandsworth Prison when he escaped by clinging onto the bottom of a food delivery van. The 21-year-old is accused of trying to leak information to Iran and leaving fake bombs at a military base before his arrest in January.

Charged under the Official Secrets Act, he is accused of collecting personal information about soldiers from the Ministry of Defence joint personnel administration system while serving as a soldier.

Justice minister Alex Chalk told MPs that “strapping” had been found underneath the delivery vehicle and said an internal inquiry must report to him by the end of the week with a list of prison staff who were on duty at the time, notably those at the kitchens and security gates.

“No stone must be left unturned in getting to the bottom of what happened,” he told MPs.

Questions now remain as to how Khalife - labeled a flight risk and in turn, denied bail while awaiting trial - was allowed to work in the kitchen, giving him access to the delivery vehicle, a “privileged job” given usually only to the most trusted inmates, according to former Prison Governor, John Podmore.

Podmore told Times Radio: “Someone like him would not be allowed access to work the kitchen”, suspecting it was a premeditated escape with little chance of his being found. Further questions are being asked as to why, given the nature of the charges against Khalife, he was not in a maximum security category A or B prison such as Belmarsh.

Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020, under the order of then-President Donald Trump, who claimed Soleimani was actively planning attacks on American diplomats and service members in the region.

Kazem Gharibabadi stated, "The investigation into the crimes of suspects, including Donald Trump, Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Former US CENTCOM commander General Kenneth McKenzie, is on the agenda, and the court will start the trial and administer justice based on compelling and convincing evidence."

He further explained that the indictment related to the “assassination” of Qasem Soleimani was issued several months ago and has been submitted to the court.

“Currently, preparations for the trial are underway, with expectations that trial sessions will commence within the next two to three months.”

Since Soleimani’s killing, a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was charged with planning to assassinate John Bolton, the former US National Security Advisor, in retaliation for the military commander’s death. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was also identified as a potential target in the same plot.

Qasem Soleimani was a key figure in Iran's external military and intelligence operations, responsible for supporting and organizing militant proxy forces, including Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi Shiite militia groups that have engaged in hostilities against US forces in the region.

The Iranian government labeled this attack as an act of terrorism while the gunmen responsible remain at large. 

The Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Ministry of Intelligence issued a joint statement claiming the act was carried out by a network involved in "disruptive activities."

The statement, while lacking specific names or evidence, asserted that they had identified and targeted several members of the network, which it claimed had "financial support purportedly from the US Department of State.”

It also claimed members of the network had been providing free online training to activists in the women's and civil society sectors, both within and outside Iran, though there was no clear evidence given.

Furthermore, the intelligence organizations alleged that the group had recently conducted a training workshop for women's sector activists in May at a university in England with more planned this month, targeting civil activists and women in the online sphere with the intention to create more domestic uprising.

There have been reports of numerous attacks on military and government forces in the province in the past and since nationwide protests broke out in September 2022. The provincial capital Zahedan was the scene of a government massacre when around 90 citizens were gunned down during a protests September 30.

Documents unsealed by a US court made the case of tanker a seized by the US public part of the public record. US prosecutors acknowledged for the first time the government seized around one million barrels of Iranian crude from the tanker Suez Rajan.

The saga began in February when the advocacy group United Against a Nuclear Iran reported the tanker’s involvement in illicit transfer of Iranian oil in the South China Sea. For months, the vessel was stranded off the coast of Singapore and then it sailed for the Gulf of Mexico, in what appeared to be seizure of the oil by the United States.

For a while, the oil was not offloaded, as it was reported that US companies were reluctant to get involved presumably because of threats by Iran. In the meantime, the Biden administration was involved in behind-the-scenes negotiations with Tehran over the release of five American hostages and potentially an unofficial nuclear deal.

After Congressional inquiries about why the oil was not being unloaded, the process began August 20 off the Texas coast.

Since the Trump administration pulled out of the JCPOA nuclear deal in 2018 and imposed sanctions on the sale of Iranian oil, Tehran found ways to boost its illicit shipments using a fleet of tankers, often moving without identification signals, and transferring cargoes to other ships in Asian waters before delivery to China.

These shipments have increased during the Biden administration. According to the latest figures, Iran shipped close to 2 million barrels a day in August, close to pre-sanction days.

The upcoming election, following a year of dissent and unrest, has left most voters indifferent, disheartened by disillusionment. There's a lack of clarity even among conservatives and hardliners about the number of seats they aim to secure. For instance, the Islamic Coalition Party intends to nominate 400 candidates for the 290 Majles seats, reflecting the overall apathy towards the election.

Hardline Conservatives have repeatedly said that they are keen to win the entire parliament, and reformists and moderates have often complained that the system does not allow them to run for the Majles or Presidency.

Although ultraconservative Paydari Party is doing everything to win the majority, Hamid Reza Taraqqi, a leading member of the Islamic Coalition Party said in an interview with Khabar Online that five different conservative coalitions have been formed ahead of the elections.

To make the situation look even more complicated for observers and the conservatives aiming for a full power grab, Taraqqi added that these five coalitions represent 10 different narratives. The main narrative, however, is to turn the Iranian political landscape into an all-conservative playground. All other sub-narratives try to prove that there are individual parties such as Paydari, which favor a non-elected Islamic government rather than the current Islamic Republic, or coalitions such as Sharian (Persian acronym for the Strategic Network of Friends of the Islamic Revolution) that wish to monopolize political power and financial privilege in Iran. 

Sharian, led by Roads and Transportation Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash and former lawmaker Hamid Rasaei, seems to serve as an alternative route to the Majles for Paydari should their pro-Russia stance or lack of results in the current parliament render them unelectable. 

Another group led by ex-Paydari politicians, including former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and his aides Esfandiar Rahim Mashai and Hamid Baqaei is aiming to contest the Majles. Ahmadinejad himself is apparently preparing to run for the 2025 Presidential election. He has recently been criticizing the government's policy on hijab and purging dissident university professors. 

Besides these three ultraconservative groups, there is Majles Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf's neo-con group, moderate conservative Ali Larijani, former Speaker, with his own list of candidates, and the traditional conservative Islamic Coalition Party. Disputes arise due to the refusal of these groups, except for the moderate-conservatives possibly joining reformists, to entertain power-sharing or compromise, adhering to the all-or-none approach within Iran's conservative camp.

This inflexible view leads to conflicts among the six groups. Differences between figures like veteran politician Haddad Adel and Bazrpash are evident. Additionally, 

a report by the centrist Ham Mihan newspaper, which was also carried by many Iranian websites, indicates fierce competition between Ghalibaf and Bazrpash over who is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's favorite. According to Ham Mihan, three months ago Ghalibaf warned other conservatives not to mudsling against him as he was Khamenei's favorite. 

And all this is happening while critics and even some insiders say that the Majles has lost its authority as most major decisions on domestic and foreign policies are made or endorsed by the heads of the three powers or the Expediency Council. Only 290 seats of debatable importance for so many parties and groups remind one of the Persian proverbs, "One raisin to feed 40 vagabond dervishes."