Iran's Guardian Council Bars Candidates To Secure Succession Plans

Gholamreza Gholami, Mohammad Ali Zahmatkesh, Iraj Rahnama, Afshin Razmjou, and Asghar Amirzadegan, along with other educators, were detained between March and May 2023. Rahnama and Gholami initiated a hunger strike on January 13, 2024, in protest to their sentences in Shiraz.

Initially, the Shiraz Revolutionary Court handed down a collective 34-year prison term to the five teachers, along with three others, in June. Gholami received an 11-year sentence, while Amirzadegan, Razmjou, Rahnama, and Zhametkesh were each sentenced to five years.

In addition to prison time, they were all subjected to two years of travel bans with passport confiscations and two years of online activity prohibitions as supplementary penalties. Gholami also faced an additional two-year exile in Birjand, located in the northeast of Iran.

However, following their appeals, the court has now reduced their prison sentences to two years each.

Meanwhile, retired teacher Omid Nasirifar was summoned by security authorities in Tehran, highlighting the ongoing pressure faced by educators.

Iranian educators have long been campaigning for higher salaries and pensions, as they are among the lowest-paid government employees. Furthermore, they have expressed their opposition to gas poisonings of schoolgirls, a crisis that surfaced in Iran last year, affecting numerous schools and impacting thousands of students.

Major General Patrick Ryder, Press Secretary of the Department of Defense, said, “We will take necessary action to protect our forces, no matter where they're serving around the world. I'm not going to telegraph or forecast any potential response from the United States.”

“We will do whatever we need to do to protect our forces going forward. But certainly, at the end of the day, we are not looking to engage in a wider conflict merely to ensure regional security and stability,” he added.

The Sunday attack claimed the lives of three American soldiers, marking the first such deaths since the escalation of tensions triggered by the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza last October.

President Joe Biden faces mounting pressure to address the drone strike, refraining from directly implicating Tehran but attributing the assault to "radical Iran-backed militant groups" operating in Syria and Iraq. He pledged accountability for those responsible.

Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry has denied involvement in the attack, dismissing allegations as "repetition of baseless accusations."

"The groups in the region do not take orders from Iran," Kanaani said. "War is not a solution. An immediate ceasefire in Gaza can lead to the return of peace."

Although Tehran has avoided direct military involvement in the Gaza war, its proxy forces in the region have attacked US troops 160 times since October.

The national security council spokesperson reiterated the stance, stating, "We are not pursuing war with Iran nor escalating tensions in the region. Despite ongoing attacks, we are exploring available options." Kirby underscored the desire for a stable, secure, and prosperous Middle East while urging an end to the attacks.

President Joe Biden and US officials confirmed that three US service members were killed, and at least 34 were wounded in a drone attack by Iran-backed militants in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border.

Biden condemned the attack, attributing it to radical Iran-backed groups operating in Syria and Iraq has vowed retaliation. The continuous missile and drone strikes targeting US troops since October, initiated after Israel's response to Hamas' actions, have now claimed American lives for the first time, crossing a perceived red line in Washington.

“We had a tough day last night in the Middle East. We lost three brave souls in an attack on one of our bases,” he said. Biden added, “and we shall respond.”

Despite previous warnings from critics of Biden's Iran policy, the loss of life has left the administration with few alternatives but to consider escalation.

The US dollar rose to more than 584,000 rials, the highest since February 2022, when it briefly traded at that level. The euro topped 630,000 and the British pound reached 740,000 rials.

President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that Iranian-backed militia were responsible for striking a US base near the Jordanian and Syrian border killing 3 and injuring more than 30 service members. Later in the day, he vowed retaliation against those responsible.

This brings the rial’s fall to more than 15 percent since the beginning of January, when tensions began to rise with attacks on international shipping by Iran-backed Houthis and US retaliatory strikes.

The Iranian currency, which has steadily lost value since the 1979 revolution, began depreciating in 2018, when then-president Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA nuclear deal and imposed sanctions on Iran. Since then, the dollar rose from 42,000 rials to more than 580,000. Before the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, the dollar traded at 70 rials.

With annual inflation hovering above 40 percent for three years, the Iranian government faces a precarious situation. The fall of the rial is bound to fuel more inflation and the impoverishment of the population, which is already facing rising prices.

Speaking to ILNA news agency, Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi claimed, "Our issue is not financial; it's the availability of the medicines in the market. This year, we didn't have financial problems, meaning it wasn't about money; the problem was the absence of medications. The drugs should be available in the market so that the foundation can provide them to veterans."

Highlighting the necessity for medicines addressing "neurological and psychological" issues stemming from the eight-year war (1980-1988), Ghazizadeh Hashemi stated, "I am aware of the predicament. Sometimes we import them inappropriately in suitcases, which is not the correct method."

Reports in recent months have surfaced regarding the scarcity and soaring prices of various medications in Iran, coupled with the bankruptcy and closure of pharmaceutical companies. Additionally, there are indications of several Iranian pharmaceutical firms relocating to neighboring countries to sustain operations.

Importing medicine is controlled by the government, which should appropriate foreign currency to both public and private sector importers. Annual imports of medications and pharmaceutical raw materials costs more than $2 billion.

Iranian authorities attributing the medicine shortage in the country to sanctions, but the United States insists that medicine is not among the sanctioned items, maintaining that Iran can import it.