Officials Attempt To Soften Hijab Crackdown Backlash

On Saturday, The New York Times reported that a flap-lid radar was “damaged or destroyed” following the attack on Esfahan's 8th Shekari Air Base. The radar was a major part of the air defense system in the base which is located near the town of Natanz, home to Iran’s most famous nuclear facilities.

Prior to the incident, four trucks with missiles were positioned around the radar but the satellite images show they were not damaged in the strike. “The fact that they appear undamaged indicated that the attack had a very precise target,” New York Times wrote based on the analysis of satellite imagery.

The offensive “was calculated to deliver a message to Iran that Israel could bypass Iran’s defense systems undetected and paralyze them, using a fraction of the fire power Iran deployed last week when it launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel,” added the newspaper citing two Western officials.

Early Friday, explosions were heard near Esfahan as Israel reportedly launched a widely anticipated retaliatory strike. Since then, Iranian officials have unanimously tried to downplay the incident, with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian even refusing to acknowledge Israel’s part in the attack.

“It has not been proven to us that there was a connection between this and Israel,” he said in an interview with NBC News, further adding that the projectiles used in the incident were “more like toys that our children play with.”

Talking to New York Times, two unnamed Iranian officials confirmed that the projectiles struck an S-300 anti aircraft system in the airbase which is tasked with detecting and warding off aerial threats near the sensitive city of Natanz. Two years ago, Hamid Vahedi, the commander of Iran’s army air force, hailed the “strategic” role of the Shekari fighter base, saying it is “the heart of [Iran’s] air force.”

Meanwhile, military journalist Amir Bohbot said the offensive on the Shekari fighter base in Esfahan, a key site for Iran's nuclear and military operations, inflicted more damage than Iran's bombardment last week, while using one tenth of the weaponry.

“Now Iran realizes that if Israel did carry out the attack, it could next time target nuclear facilities relatively easily,” Bohbot said.

Last weekend, Iran launched its first ever direct offensive against Israeli territory with more than 350 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles. The Israeli army announced that 99 percent of the projectiles were intercepted and downed by Israel and a US-led coalition.

The editor of Kayhan and a close confidant of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Hossein Shariatmadari, claimed only four quadcopters were involved in the Esfahan strike. “Three of them were destroyed by the Iranian defense and the fourth exploded in the sky.”

Shariatmadari claimed “Israel’s response was not on par with Iran’s attack, but Israel has other priorities, including Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, that could cripple Israel,” referring to Israel's current wars with Iran's proxies on its southern and northern borders.

In a post on X, Iran International producer Farzad Fattahi construed Israel’s attack on Esfahan’s airbase as a warning that cannot be slighted by the Iranian officials’ mockery and condescending attitude towards the incident.

“The collapse of the radar of a nuclear facility is like the activation of a ticking bomb,” he pointed out, further adding that Iranian officials had previously employed the same snobbish attitude and mocking tone when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018 disclosed the location of a secret nuclear facility in Turquzabad near Tehran.

Moreover, Ynet news website discussed Israel’s targeting Iran’s Russian-made S-300 defense system, saying it could also be interpreted as a warning to Moscow against cooperating with Tehran’s nuclear program.

NourNews, a media outlet close to Iran's Supreme Council of National Security, dismissed reports of damages to the defense system in Shekari airbase.

At least one person is still missing according to Baluch activists. The region has seen not only river overflows but also landslides that have blocked critical roads and communication routes. Government sources have indicated damage to water facilities in 289 villages and six cities.

Social media users report an absence of government rescue operations in several affected areas, with aid reaching some locations slowly, if at all. One journalist highlighted the severe shortage of water and food in the area, noting that this is the second major flood to displace residents in recent months.

Public outcry has increased as Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Foreign Minister, has offered aid to the oil-rich United Arab Emirates amidst similar floods in the Arab country while support for his own nation has not been forthcoming.

The situation is exacerbated by the escape of short-snouted crocodiles from ponds, posing additional risks to the local populace.

The repeated neglect of infrastructure, such as failing to dredge rivers or maintain adequate urban water systems, has left the province vulnerable to seasonal rains and floods, causing significant annual human and financial losses.

The weather crisis extends beyond Iran's borders, with neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan also reporting severe casualties from related flooding, totaling at least 168 deaths.

According to Arman Melli daily in Tehran, there are at least eight aspirants for the post in the next parliament, including the incumbent Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, former foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki, hardliner cleric Morteza Agha Tehrani, Qom lawmaker Mojtaba Zolnour, outspoken hardliner lawmaker Hamid Rasaei and others.

This is a post that the daily says anyone who held it for a while, ended up in isolation or worse. Nonetheless, seven politicians have been fiercely fighting each other and particularly against the sitting speaker Ghalibaf even before they won their seat in the new parliament. Among them, Arman Melli argued that Ghalibaf and Mottaki have a better chance to sit on the Speaker’s green seat.

Anyone who wins the post will be in a key position to distribute political power, favors and financial resources among his political allies or others close to him in one way or another. The role is also important for the government as the speaker plays a key part in preventing or allowing impeachment motions. That gives him the leverage to have a say in choosing, hiring and firing cabinet ministers and even other government officials.

The first Majles Speaker in Iran was Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who served at the post from July 28, 1980, to 3 August 1989. He was also the chairman of the Expediency Council (for 28 years until 2017), a body tasked with solving problems that the Majles cannot tackle. He was also the chairman of the Assembly of Experts from 2007 to 2011. In 1989 as the deputy chairman of the Assembly, Rafsanjani played a key part in bringing Ali Khamenei to power as the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader when Ayatollah Khomeini died.

After falling out with Khamenei over the disputed 2009 presidential election that reinstated populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he was disqualified from running in the June 2013 presidential election, and finally died in a swimming pool in January 2017. His role at the parliament is best known for mediating between the country's leading political factions in a way that served his own interests!

The next speaker of the parliament was Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, a conservative politician and Khatami's political rival in the 1997 presidential election. Nateq Nouri served for two terms as the speaker of the Majles from 1992 to 2000. He acted as a moderate politician who later became the Chief inspector at Khamenei's office, but left the politically significant position when he fell out with Khamenei over the latter's all out support for Ahmadinejad.=

Mehdi Karroubi served in the post from 2000 to 2004. Karroubi's presence as Speaker was marked by turbulent sessions during which he defended reformist lawmakers against the hardliner-dominated Judiciary body. When a lawmaker was imprisoned despite his political immunity, Karroubi threatened to leave the Majles and resign his post. Subsequently the lawmaker, Hossein Loghmanian was released immediately.

He was also a staunch defender of freedom of the press when journalists came under pressure by hardliners during the presidency of Reformist Mohammad Khatami.

Gholam Ali Haddad Adel was the first Majles Speaker in post-revolution Iran who was not a cleric. The Majles under Haddad Adel was a predominantly conservative body, after the Guardian Council had disqualified nearly all the reformist candidates. The press remembers him as a speaker who did almost nothing during his tenure from 2004 to 2008. Nonetheless, he was the luckiest and the only one who remained in Khamenei's inner circle thanks to his daughter marrying Khamenei's son Mojtaba.

The next Majles Speaker was Ali Larijani who served in the post for 12 years from 2008 to 2020. He started his speakership as a conservative lawmaker, but he gradually shifted to the center in 2010s. He strongly stood against Ahmadinejad and played a key role in having the nuclear deal with the West approved by the conservative Majles. Later, like everyone else, he was alienated by Khamenei and his credentials for the 2021 presidential election were rejected by Khamenei's Guardian Council.

In 2020, Ghalibaf won the speaker's seat only after he made a lot of compromises with hardliners including Paydari Party and others such as Alireza Zakani whom he helped to appoint as Mayor of Tehran. Although Ghalibaf submitted to every demand by the Raisi administration, the government is still not happy with the way he managed the parliament during the past four years. Most predictions indicate that he cannot keep his post in the new parliament unless his relative, Ali Khamenei intervenes on his behalf.

Leading the Friday prayers in Zahedan, the regional capital of Iran’s southeastern provinces of Sistan-Baluchistan, Abdulhamid also addressed tensions between Israel and Iran, advocating for restraint to prevent further conflict in the Middle East.

Additionally, he discussed Iran's economic challenges, emphasizing the need for expert management. Abdol Hamid has been a fierce critic of the government since security forces killed more than 90 protesters in Zahedan on September 30, 2022.

During his address, he questioned the compliance of the authority's crackdowns on women with Sharia law and urged authorities to consult religious scholars.

“They arrest women and men, they throw them in [police] cars, they interrogate them...they should tell us what happens to the women at the detention centers, and if such treatments comply with Sharia, they should convince us too,” he stated.

He further highlighted discrimination against women in Iran and the obstacles they face pointing out that “during all of these years, there has not been a single female president” in Iran.

Commenting on Friday’s Israeli attack on Iran, although he stated that he did not have enough information on the matter, Abdulhamid emphasized that Israel must not attack Iran to avoid further tensions and war in the Middle East.

"Both Israel and the major countries of the world should know that the Middle East is a special region in which the whole world has interests, and if there is a fire here, all the countries of the world will be harmed”, Abdulhamid added.

The sermons occurred amidst a heavy military presence in Zahedan, reflecting ongoing tensions and past protests in the region.

This follows a report that 15 individuals who were allegedly jailed during the monarchy, prior to the 1979 revolution, filed a lawsuit accusing the US of supporting the Pahlavi dynasty in establishing its security and intelligence service, SAVAK.

The plaintiffs claim that years of torture by the Shah's secret police SAVAK left them with “physical, mental, and social harms.”

However, no details were provided about who those plaintiffs are, and what evidence exists to support for their claims.

Late last year, Iranian exiled prince Reza Pahlavi said that most of those held by SAVAK were agents of the Soviet Union. He also added that Iran's present Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was one of those trained by the KGB in Palestinian camps in Lebanon.

SAVAK was the main secret police from 1957 to 1979 when the Iranian Revolution took place, after which Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar ordered its dissolution.

The Islamic Republic is recognized by UN bodies and rights groups as one of the world's most notorious violators of human rights. Reports of torture have been wide-ranging in connection with methods employed by Iranian intelligence and security forces, especially during recent protests and the resulting crackdown. Amnesty International has reported on cases of sexual violence, physical torture, and other cruel treatments made against detainees, including children. Such actions involve raping, beating, and subjecting to electric shocks.

Other reports have cited the use of pharmacological torture, whereby political prisoners are subjected to psychoactive drugs that produce grave psychic and physical distress. Some reports have indicated that the use of psychiatric torture have increased since the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom protests.