Terror Attack Fallout: Iran Claims Success Amid Credibility Crisis

We will continue “to fulfil our duties with regard to Palestine” despite the efforts by Washington and London to protect Israeli and Israel-related ships in the region, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi stressed, adding that Houthis will do “what is necessary” in the case of a “direct confrontation” with the US.

He added that the attacks launched by Yemen’s Houthis in the Red Sea have caused “enormous damage” to the economy of Israel and its allies.

Iran has supported the Houthis for a decade, supplying weapons and military know-how to Muslim sect, which is different from the majority Sunnis in Yemen, and religiously closer to the Shia sect. Iran is ruled by Shia clerics.

Though the Islamic Republic has avoided any direct military involvement in the Israel-Hamas conflict, the regime has used its proxy groups to attack Israeli and American targets in the region. Iranian-backed Houthi militants have stepped up attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea in protest against Israel’s war in Gaza. The attacks began after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called for blockading Israel.

On Tuesday, Yemeni Houthis launched 24 missile and drones targeting international shipping in the Red Sea. The US and UK forces in the region shot down 21 of these projectiles. In December, Washington launched a multinational naval collation in the Red Sea to protect commercial vessels. Britain, Norway, Canada, France, Australia and several other countries have so far joined the coalition.

The UN Security Council passed a resolution on Wednesday, calling on Houthis to stop attacks on shipping in the Red Sea immediately. After much deliberation, the 15-member council arrived at a draft with no direct reference to Iran and mild enough for Russia and China to not use their veto. Both countries abstained.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the formation of a Palestinian state and integration of Israel in the region will be the best ways to stabilize the Middle East and isolate the Islamic Republic and its proxies. 

In case these aims are not achieved, the region will “continue to see the terrorism, the nihilism, the destruction by Hamas, by the Houthis, by Hezbollah, all backed by Iran,” Blinken told reporters after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

Blinken’s travel to Egypt ended his fourth regional tour of the Middle East since the onset of Israel-Hamas conflict on October 7. Over the past days, he also visited Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Israel and the West Bank.

The Biden administration has defended vessels in the Red Sea to a large extent but has refrained from attacking Houthis in Yemen responsible for endangering international maritime safety and commercial traffic. Critics have argued that without retaliation, Houthis and their sponsors in Tehran will not be deterred.

Iran seized an oil tanker on Thursday in Sea of Oman, claiming it was in retaliation for the US seizure of its oil from the same vessel last year.

In a Thursday statement, Habibollah Ghafouri, the Supreme Leader's representative in Kermanshah, west of Iran, framed participation in the elections as "a jihad against the enemy."

Ghafouri emphasized that each vote is akin to “launching a missile towards the enemy's camp.”

During an address to followers on Tuesday, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei stressed the collective responsibility to mobilize the people, underscoring the pivotal importance of mass participation. Despite turnouts ranging from 20 to 40 percent in the 2020 and 2021 elections, current estimates project a significant dip to 5 to 8 percent in March.

Iranians express deep frustration with the perceived indifference of the regime and officials towards their calls for increased freedom and improved economic conditions.

Officially, the inflation rate hovers just below 50 percent, with essential commodities, notably food, experiencing even higher rates. Dissent within the country has escalated due to the regime's severe crackdown on the 2022 nationwide protests, resulting in hundreds of deaths and hundreds more blinded. Thousands have been arrested by security forces, including families of those killed during protests.

The enforcement of medieval laws on hijab, lashings for women, and restrictions on internet access by hardliners have further fueled discontent among the populace who are now more tightly surveilled than ever.

Khamenei, whose Guardian Council has disqualified almost all moderate and reformist candidates from participating in the March election, narrowing political engagement predominantly to ultraconservatives, acknowledges that he cannot directly request or command the people to partake in the elections. Consequently, he relies on instructing officials and institutions to employ various methods to encourage people to vote.

Mohammad-Hassan Asafari told ILNA news agency, “These contractors exploit child laborers for their own financial gain as they pay children less and do not insure them,” adding that the Iranian lawmakers have repeatedly warned municipality officials in this regard, but of no avail.

From a legal perspective, the municipality is required to sue those private contractors who violate the law by employing children for such difficult jobs as waste collection and cleaning streets, the lawmaker pointed out.

Iran’s Parliament Research Center released a report in August highlighting an alarming rise in the number of working children.

The report indicated that 15% of the child population is engaged in labor activities. At least 10% of working children do not have the opportunity to attend school, depriving them of essential educational opportunities.

In September, Bahram Zonoubi Tabar, the head of the Labor Coordination Council in Fars Province, warned that Iranian children are being forced out of school and into the workplace as families struggle to make ends meet in the country's worst economic crisis in decades.

Tabar said, “With the commencement of the school year, numerous workers are grappling with difficulties enrolling their children,” adding that the country’s 100% increase in commodity prices within a year, compared to the annual wage increments of around 20% for workers, has made conditions unbearable for large numbers of Iranian families.

While the exact number of working children in Iran remains undisclosed, the Ministry of Labor indicated that in 2017, out of nine million Iranian children, 499,000 were considered “active,” signifying that nearly half a million children in the country were either engaged in labor or searching for work.

According to their claims, the oiler had previously been seized alongside a large cargo of Iranian crude oil by the US government in 2023 and Friday’s seizure by Iran was a retaliatory act.

According to the official statement of the Iranian Navy, the seizure was carried out following a court order and the approval of the Ports and Shipping Organization in retaliation for “oil theft” by the United States. State media reports also said the oil tanker was being transferred to Iranian ports to be handed over to the judicial authorities.

In the early morning of January 11, the crew of an oil tanker named M/T ST Nikolas, flying the Marshall Islands flag and managed by Greek personnel, issued a distress signal in an area 50 nautical miles east of Sohar, Oman. They reported that four to five unauthorized individuals, armed and wearing black uniforms and masks, had boarded their vessel at around 03:30 UTC.

The Greek company, Empire Navigation, which owns the vessel, subsequently confirmed that it was carrying a cargo of 145,000 metric tons of oil and had a crew of 19 individuals (comprising 18 Filipino nationals and one Greek). The vessel was en route from Basra, Iraq, to Aliaga, Turkey.

Saint Nikolas, the oil tanker that was seized by the Iranian Navy today, has a checkered history that played a pivotal role in its capture. This vessel was previously seized by the US in April 2023 when it was transporting 977,000 barrels of Iranian crude oil that was subject to sanctions. At that time, the ship was known as Suez Rajan and was under the ownership of the same company that currently owns it. To secure its release, the owner paid a fine of $2.46 million USD after several months of legal proceedings.

Subsequently, following a US federal court order, the sanctioned Iranian crude oil that had been offloaded from the vessel was sold for a total of $83.4 million USD, following extensive efforts by the US Government to locate a buyer. These efforts incurred additional costs of over $8.85 million USD, resulting in approximately $74.7 million in net proceeds from the oil sale.

Upon its release and return to Greece, the vessel was renamed Saint Nikolas and resumed its operations, primarily carrying petrochemical products worldwide. However, it chose to avoid engaging in any services related to Iran.

To avoid sale of the oil shipment of the Suez Rajan by the US Government, the Iranian regime did its best by means of using the IRGC Navy to seize various commercial ships in Omas Sea, however the pressures didn't work, and Iran's crude oil was finally sold by the US in 2023.

Friday's seizure of the Suez Rajan seems to be the latest attempt of the Iranian regime to compensate for the loss of over $90 million USD of crude oil of the same ship that was sold by the US in 2023. Iran’s state media claim that the oiler was carrying crude purchased by the US; however, vessel tracking websites show its destination was a port in Turkey. It is not known whether that port call for Turkey was a diversion to hide the real destination of the oil tanker.

The event, titled Diver Martyrs, was branded by the association as an "unfortunate and disheartening practice." The council denounced the use of children for political purposes, deeming it a "blatant violation of children's rights."

On Wednesday, social media platforms witnessed the rapid circulation of images depicting schoolgirls employed by the Basij organization to carry symbolic coffins adorned with the flag of the Islamic Republic. The ceremony was organized to commemorate the 175 Iranian divers who were allegedly buried alive with their hands tied during the Iran-Iraq War. The remains of the divers were repatriated from Iraq in May 2015.

Over the past 44 years, the Islamic Republic has methodically developed and maintained propaganda structures across society.

In Iran, propaganda plays a pivotal role in maintaining authoritarian rule. The government's centralized control of cultural narratives stands as a fundamental function in authoritarian regimes. The Iranian state consistently relies on propaganda to assert its dominance, strategically manipulating people's emotions for political objectives.