Iraq, Pakistan Recall Iran Envoys As Arabs Set To Meet Over IRGC Strikes

The IRGC Ground Force’s Quds Base issued a statement identifying Javdanfar, saying he had been on a mission related to cultural activities and projects in Saravan County. Jaish al-Adl Sunni militant group has claimed responsibility for his killing, adding that two of his "bodyguards" were also killed by their forces.

The incident occurred a day after the IRGC conducted a missile and drone strike in Pakistan against the Sunni militant group.

In response, Pakistan denounced the attack as "illegal" and "completely unacceptable," claiming casualties, including the death of two children, and warning of "serious consequences."

Jaish al-Adl confirmed the strikes, stating that two of its members' homes were hit, killing two children and injuring two women and a teenage girl.

Founded in 2012, the group operates primarily in Pakistan, and Iran has previously faced border clashes with them. Despite occasional difficulties, Iran and Pakistan maintain functional relations, but the missile-and-drone attack on Pakistan is unprecedented.

Although all three branches of government are directly involved in the process of censorship, by appointing half of the members of the committee that decides which sites should be filtered, the President should be held accountable for the problems Iranians face in free access to the Internet, the association’s report published Monday said.

Raisi has repeatedly said his government will provide fast internet services to Iranians at low costs, but the government recently allowed providers to increase their tariffs by about 34 percent and the speed has deteriorated so much that even some government officials including the President himself have admitted it.

“Iran's internet situation is very similar to poor and underdeveloped countries, internet access quality indices show, but the main difference [with those countries] is that in Iran's case these conditions are self-inflicted,” the report said.

Self-inflicted, the report says, means that a significant part of the country's internet access problems, from filtering to speed that affects loading times as well as widespread disruptions, arise from policies, management and laws rather than problems in infrastructure development such as fiber optic expansion which the government insists is the solution to the problem.

Tehran E-Commerce Association was founded in 2019 by several major ecommerce and online services companies including Digikala e-commerce platform, Snapp vehicle for hire, Cafe Bazar app store for the Android operating systems, and Divar classified ads and e-commerce platform and has so far published two detailed reports.

According to the recent report, there has been relative improvement in latency and bandwidth and access to restricted sites since July when the first report was released, but the improvement has made very little difference in ease of access to the internet because Iranians are still forced to use anti-filtering software (VPNs) which costs families lot of money amid an annual inflation rate of 50 percent and affects the quality of their access.

The report shows that filtering at IP level causes collateral damage and restricts access to many websites without reason and forces users to use anti-filtering software at all times.

Iran not only filters a vast array of websites including all major social media platforms and international platforms such as Google Play but has also employs a reverse filtering procedure called Iran Access to block the access of users outside the country to many Iranian websites including the websites of government organizations as well as banks and other financial entities. This is apparently to reduce the risk of foreign hacking, which has been occurring frequently, targeting government organizations.

The use of anti-filtering software makes users’ equipment more vulnerable to cyber threats and exposes online businesses to greater risks of user data leaks, the report added.

Hackers have targeted online businesses many times in recent years to steal personal information and sensitive data. Only last week Snapp Food, the largest online food delivery platform in Iran, was hacked by an Iranian hacking group that claimed it had accessed the personal details of over 20 million users.

Amir-Hossein Bankipour said, “a fine of 30 million rials for the first-time violation” will be in place, however, the gravity of the penalty is amplified for the second offense, as people “must now face court proceedings, with a penalty of 240 million rials.”

Bankipour's statements have drawn attention to the significant sum, equivalent to over two months' wages, nearly 500 US dollars, in Iran. The controversial proposal has ignited discussions about the severity of the penalties and their potential economic implications on women.

The legislator revealed that there were differing opinions during the bill's formulation, with some suggesting the immediate referral of individuals without a hijab to court, a proposal rejected by the Judiciary Commission. Bankipour emphasized that, “for minor offenses such as a woman not observing the hijab in public, the approved provision stipulates a fine instead of a direct court appearance.”

The bill, officially titled "Protection of Family Through Promotion of Hijab and Chastity Culture," initially secured parliamentary approval in September. However, it encountered an unexpected setback when the Guardian Council, holding ultimate legislative authority, rejected it. The rejection cited formal deficiencies and called for revisions to clarify ambiguous terms.

The development occurs against the backdrop of protests triggered by the tragic death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. Mass hijab rebellion has swept the country with increasing surveillance and crackdowns failing to stem the tide.

In an interview with the Spanish section of BBC, Santiago Sánchez Cogedor revealed that he endured several weeks in solitary confinement within the notorious prison during 15 months of incarceration.

"I went through things I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy," expressed Sánchez, describing Section 209 in Evin as exceptionally horrifying. He detailed the inhumane conditions, including being kept in a cell without a bathroom, only taken out once a week blindfolded for a brief outdoor break.

"That section of Evin generates suffering from another planet. I even talked to the ants there," he added.

The former paratrooper suddenly disappeared in Tehran in October 2022 during a trip in which he was walking to the World Cup in Qatar in an epic journey he chronicled on social media. Beginning in January 2022, he traversed Europe, Turkey, and Iraq.

The arrest reportedly followed his visit to the grave of Mahsa Amini, the symbol of the 2022 uprising who died in morality police custody, a visit he now says he was tricked into.

“Now I know that all he wanted was for me to take a photo and post it on Instagram."

Tehran is known to be holding more than 10 Western nationals, with accusations from governments and NGOs suggesting that Iran is using them as leverage in negotiations involving its own citizens.

Albright, the founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, DC, wrote “The unfortunate reality is that Iran already knows how to build nuclear weapons, although there are some unfinished tasks related to the actual construction of them.”

He asked “If the regime’s leadership decided to build them, how would it proceed? How long would it take?”

According to Albright, “The long pole in the tent of building nuclear weapons is essentially complete. Iran can quickly make enough weapon-grade uranium for many nuclear weapons, something it could not do in 2003. Today, it would need only about a week to produce enough for its first nuclear weapon. It could have enough weapon-grade uranium for six weapons in one month, and after five months of producing weapon-grade uranium, it could have enough for twelve.”

Albright, who worked as a weapons inspector for the United Nations in Iraq, titled his article: How quickly could Iran make nuclear weapons today?

An Iranian American expert on the Islamic Republic, Lisa Daftari, told Iran International, “It’s no surprise that Iran’s regime is closer than ever to a nuclear weapon, given that we have known their desire to work constantly in its pursuit, particularly over the last three years. As the Biden administration has made major concessions in tone and policy, Tehran understood there would be minimal to no consequences to its actions. To that end, the mullahs continued spinning the centrifuges and working on possessing vital components of their weapons program. “

Daftari, who is the editor-in-chief of the Foreign Desk, added “They also continued with other bad behaviors including the funding of regional terror proxies and carrying out wholesale-style executions at home. At this point, it is impossible for the West to reign in or deliver any message of deterrence, whether by targeted responses to the Houthi provocations or in pursuing a meaningless nuclear deal meant to curb further progress on their weapons program. “

The clerical regime’s fast moving nuclear weapons program coincides with its increased adventurism in the region, including arming the Houthis to attack vessels in the key Red Sea commercial passageway. Iran’s regime launched missile and drone strikes into Pakistan, Iraq and Syria on January 15 and 16.

Rich Goldberg, who served on President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, told Iran International “This administration has allowed Iran to run the ball all the way down the nuclear field to a point where our options have narrowed. We need to restore a strategy of pressure and deterrence to counter Iran’s wide-ranging threats while preparing military contingencies to deal specifically with the nuclear threat.”

In December, at the UN Security Council, the UK, France and Germany said they “remain determined that Iran must never develop a nuclear weapon and must reverse its nuclear escalation.”

The UN’s atomic weapons watchdog agency IAEA raised alarm bells about Iran’s illicit enrichment of uranium in December. The IAEA said Tehran Iran rolled back a months-long slowdown in the rate at which it is enriching uranium to up to 60-percent purity, close to the roughly 90-percent weapons grade uranium.

In late December, France’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nicolas de Rivière, told Iran International “The level of threat has increased a lot so it's time for Iran to get back to compliance and the IAEA reported on that on December 26, again, and documented the violations. So of course, we are extremely concerned.”

Alireza Nader, an expert on Iran, urged the Biden administration to help breathe life and fire into the protest movement against the existence of the clerical regime. He told Iran International, “The best thing the US can do is to support the struggle for democracy in Iran through maximum pressure on the regime and maximum support for the Iranian people.”