Iran International
The sounds of grief and images of white caskets as parents buried their children, killed by an Iran-made rocket launched from Lebanon into a remote Druze village, underscore the region's uncertainty and fears of a wider war.
A deadly rocket strike on Saturday in Majdal Shams village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killed 12 children playing soccer, becoming the latest victims in a suspected Hezbollah attack on Saturday.
The Druze are an Arabic-speaking ethno- religious group who adhere to the Druze faith, residing in Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
The scale of the massacre is the largest civilian loss in Israel since October 7. Druze and Israelis are still mourning and coming to terms with the immense loss, said Anan Wahabi, a lecturer at the University of Haifa, specializing in national security.
Wahabi is also a Druze-Israeli.
“It was unprecedented attack that killed the innocent and beautiful children. Their only guilt was just to come and to try and play football,” he said.
The complex situation of the Golan Heights Druze has been highlighted in the most tragic way possible. Wahabi said those in the area had longstanding Syrian identity in the past, but now have a growing affiliation with Israel, especially the younger generation, some of whom serve in the Israeli military. They are not forced to serve and volunteer should they enlist.
The people of Golan Heights are residents of Israel and an increasing number are choosing to become Israeli citizens. Since the Syrian civil war, and October 7, Israeli citizenship by Druze in that area, jumped significantly. In contrast, other Druze in Israel, serve in the military and police, including the war against Hamas with many reaching high ranks in the IDF and government.
After the 1967 Mideast war, Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria - and effectively annexed it in 1981.
For the Druze, their identity and history is complex and multifaceted.
“I must tell that the first identity is the Druze identity for them, and we have our own flag. Secondly there is the national identity. We've gotten a lot of messages from all parts of the Israeli society giving condolences and standing with us in this very hard time,” said Wahabi.
The Druze in Syria are angry said Wahabi, calling Hezbollah, which translates to the party of God in Arabic to the party of the devil, instead. He said the Druze in Lebanon are not speaking up and are trying to avoid confrontation, with the Iran-backed Shiite military organization that dominates the country.
"We could hear voices, from the Syrian Druze calling Hezbollah, Hezbsheytan; the party of the devil."
No escaping Geopolitics:
But there is no escaping the geopolitics of the region no matter the ethnic or religious identity.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a press conference from the scene the rocket that struck Majdal Shams was an Iranian-made Falaq-1. The rocket identified as having had 53 kg load of explosives.
US intelligence officials said there is no doubt that Hezbollah carried out the attack, however, what is not clear is if the children were the target or if they misfired.
Israeli officials were quick to offer support to the community and pointed the blame at Tehran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a “harsh response” during a visit to Majdal Shams Monday.
Hezbollah denied responsibility but said it had launched strikes on what it said were military targets in nearby areas.
"A Jewish child murdered on the Gaza border on Oct. 7 and a Druze child murdered on the Golan Heights are the same. These are our children," Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday while with the Prime Minister in Majdal Shams.
A turning point?
Some experts believe the deadly incident involving youth could be a turning point in the conflict.
The FDD’s Behnam Ben Taleblu said Israel’s response will likely be severe, referring to it as “deterrence by punishment.”
“The question is really where and when,” said Taleblu.
Taleblu said a number of factors, like America’s upcoming presidential elections, will determine just how far Israel can go in their response.
“If Israel does look to restore deterrence, it may be a short lived deterrence. Iran, Hezbollah and many of these other actors think there's a longer leash here because the US may want to avoid a military conflict or may want to avoid even the potential for escalation as it gets closer to the election,” said Taleblu.
On Monday, the US declared support for Israel but also cautioned its Middle East ally about escalation with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
French President Emmanuel Macron urged Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday to “avoid regional military escalation,” according to Élysée Palace.
The Alma Research and Education center based in Northern Israel published an assessment, saying that Hezbollah finds itself in a“Win-Win” situation, where it benefits regardless of the outcome.
The report, by Alma founder Sarit Zehavi, states Hezbollah has a desire to draw Israel into a full-scale conflict with the aim of consolidating power in Lebanon.
"An occurrence of such a large-scale tragedy resulting in several casualties has the potential to provoke a substantial and notable reaction from Israel. Within the upcoming hours and days, we shall ascertain whether this event truly marks a pivotal moment," as written in the Alma report.
More than three weeks after the election of President Masoud Pezeshkian, the specifics of his economic plan remain unclear. His top officials are expected to be announced by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. However, it is already known that experienced economic manager Ali Tayyebnia has declined the position of presidential deputy.
Meanwhile, the battered Iranian currency, the rial, remains weak and faces the danger of another sudden fall against major currencies, which would exacerbate the annual inflation rate hovering above 40%.
Kamran Nadri, an Islamist economist, has warned the government to be careful about injecting dollars into the market to support the rial. He has expressed his agreement with remarks by former central bank chief Abdolnaser Hemmati who warned in recent days that dollar injections have failed to strengthen the rial, currently trading at 590,000 per one US dollar.
After Pezeshkian’s election, the rial showed some signs of improvement, but now it appears that the temporary reprieve was due to government intervention in the currency markets.
Nadri maintained that the government’s oil revenues have improved since 2021, either because of lax sanctions enforcement by the Biden administration or Tehran’s efforts to boost shipments to China. As a result, the government’s currency reserves are stronger, but that is not a reason for hasty interventions to support the rial.
Iran’s daily oil exports were around 250,000 barrels per day after the Trump administration imposed full oil sanction in 2019, but as soon as the President Joe Biden assumed office, the volume increased. In recent months, Iran has been exporting around 1.5 million barrels daily, mostly to China, using illicit methods to hide the shipments.
Nadri, who is an expert in ‘Islamic banking’ warned, "Given the increasing likelihood of Trump's presidency in the United States, we must proceed more cautiously. This means we should anticipate potential issues with oil sales and avoid using all of our current foreign exchange reserves."
Pezeshkian has released a brief outline of his economic objectives, where he acknowledges the serious impact of sanctions, stating that with current budgetary restrictions it would not be possible to alleviate the hardship people endure. Even if an agreement with the United States is reached soon, it will take about two years for its positive economic impact to become noticeable, Pezeshkian’s plan stated. Therefore, Pezeshkian believes that the government should rely on controlling expenditures in the first two years of his presidency.
One of the main areas of budgetary outlays is expenditures on the nuclear program, the military and Iran’s proxy forces throughout the Middle East. However, these are Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s red lines. Pezeshkian has already shown his readiness to continue support for the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah, while the Houthis in Yemen are engaged in daily conflict with Western navies in the Red Sea. As a result, Iran must equip and pay tens of thousands of militias in at least five countries, including Syria and Iraq. Essential domestic expenditures have already been cut to the bone, with around 30 million people having descended below the poverty line.
The only remaining savings can come from reducing energy subsidies, which means increasing prices for gas, electricity and gasoline. This is what most experts expect Pezeshkian’s administration to do, risking protests and upheavals, like what took place in November 2019, when gasoline prices were raised and nationwide protests broke out, killing 1,500 civilians.
The president’s plan also mentions cutting the volume of dollars provided at lower rates to importers, a scheme that is a cesspool of corruption. But imports with more expensive dollars means higher consumer prices, something the Islamic government has tried to avoid not to risk a backlash by the population.
Pezeshkian also acknowledged in his brief draft economic plan that the country’s government-controlled banks are in deep trouble with tens of billions of dollars’ worth of uncollectible loans, mostly to inefficient government enterprises and individuals with strong political connections. However, this would necessitate major reforms in both the political and economic systems, a tall order for a president who has vowed not to introduce big initiatives.
This report highlights several cases, shedding light on the brutal reality faced by those caught in the grip of Iran's repressive tactics. The accounts reveal a systematic practice aimed at extracting forced confessions and instilling terror among detainees.
Victims, including political prisoners and protesters, recount harrowing experiences of being taken to the gallows, subjected to simulated shootings, or blindfolded with the belief they would be hanged, enduring profound psychological and physical torment.
In 2018, Abolfazl Chezani Sharahi, a juvenile offender charged with murder at the age of 14, was subjected to solitary confinement and endured the psychological torment of mock executions on four separate occasions. Ultimately, at the age of 19, he faced execution.
Iran remains one of the few countries that administer the death penalty for crimes committed during adolescence.
This is while updates to the country's Islamic Penal Code in 2013 allow judges to consider the mental capacity and maturity of young offenders when they are tried for crimes that warrant capital punishment for adults. Furthermore, in 2014, Iran’s Supreme Court ruled that all juvenile offenders on death row could apply for a retrial.
Additionally, Iran ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child decades ago, which explicitly bans the execution of juvenile offenders.
Yalda Dehghani, a 25-year-old activist, was arrested in 2023 and subjected to mock executions with a handgun twice within an hour at the Rasht Intelligence Office in northern Iran.
This former political prisoner recounted to Iran International, "At the Intelligence Office, a sergeant grabbed me by my hair and dragged me across the floor to a small courtyard. He held me against the wall, turned on his phone's flashlight, pointed it at me, and said, 'I want to film you and hand over your body to your family. Say anything you think will ease their pain.' When I heard the gunshot, my face was against the wall, and I felt the blood spreading from the point of the bullet's impact on my body. I thought, my body is warm now, and it might take a few minutes for the pain to register."
She said it took her more than a minute to realize that the handgun was not loaded.
According to this former political prisoner, two hours later, they took her back to the small courtyard and threatened to kill her if she did not confess against herself and her friends.
Dehghani noted that it was close to dawn, and the officers were waiting for the call to prayer to finish so they could carry out her execution. She said, "This time, they placed the gun above my head, pressed it, and threatened me. With each press, I fell to the ground. I thought to myself, this time, they are waiting for the call to prayer; they will surely kill me. Suddenly, I heard the sound of the magazine. This time, I fell unconscious to the ground. I thought I was dead, but a few minutes later, I regained consciousness in the detention center."
Dehghani told Iran International that she was sexually assaulted several times by a sergeant in the Rasht police detention center.
Ashkan Soleimani, a former political prisoner who was arrested during the 2022 protests, was subjected to mock executions by the authorities twice. Once with a handgun in the courtyard of the Rasht Intelligence Office and another time with a noose in Lakan Prison in the same city.
In an interview with Iran International, Soleimani recounted the night he was subjected to a mock execution with a handgun: "The commander of the forces that arrested me placed the muzzle of the handgun on my body and said, 'We will execute you here, and no one will know.'"
Soleimani mentioned that upon entering the political prisoners' ward in Lakan Prison, he heard numerous accounts from inmates about mock executions with a handgun. He told Iran International, "Prisoners were coerced into making forced confessions against themselves and their associates on the very first night of their arrest using this method."
One week before his mock execution with a noose, this political prisoner was transferred to solitary confinement in Lakan Prison.
He said, "On Saturday, they took me to solitary confinement and told me I would be executed on Thursday. I did everything I could to end my life. I even tried to cut my throat with the pen they had given me to write my will."
Soleimani recounted that on the night before his mock execution, a cleric was sent to his cell to read the Quran and talk about the afterlife.
He said, "They removed the blindfold, and someone started reciting the Quran. Suddenly, they placed the noose around my neck. Two people, one on my left and one on my right, shook the stool for 15 to 20 seconds. After a sudden jolt, they lifted my feet off the ground and said, 'The execution has been postponed.'"
Khaled Pirzadeh, a former bodybuilding champion and political prisoner arrested for his activism, told London’s Kayhan in January 2024 while he was on medical leave that he had been taken to the gallows twice, experiencing what he described as "terror sentences."“They put the noose around my neck twice. The terror of the death sentence. They did not show me any mercy out of their spite and tortured me to the brink of death. They would place my hands between the interrogation room's metal door and slam it shut,” Pirzadeh described his tortures.
Saman Seydi, a 26-year-old Iranian rap artist known as Saman Yasin, who was arrested during the anti-establishment protests in October 2022 and sentenced to death, endured the psychological torment of mock executions on two separate occasions.
Ahmad Haeri, a political prisoner and Yasin’s cellmate, recounted Yasin’s harrowing experiences in a letter from prison obtained by Iran International. Haeri quoted Yasin’s chilling words about the mock executions:
"I felt the burning of the rope around my neck. The blood that seemed frozen in my body suddenly boiled, and I shouted and cursed at them, 'End it quickly...'"
"I was waiting every moment for the ground to give way beneath me and, thanks to the tied rope, for my neck to break and it all to end."
After learning that his execution was postponed, Yasin said, "It felt as if my legs had been cut off and I had been thrown to the ground."
Another account pertains to Iranian Kurdish political prisoner Pakhshan Azizi, whose recently announced death sentence has garnered significant attention.
The Hengaw Human Rights Organization, a Kurdish advocacy group, reported that Azizi published a letter detailing her repeated torture and mock hangings during detention.
"The interrogators have repeatedly hung me." She emphasized in the letter, "We may be insignificant to the central authority, but we receive the heaviest and most severe sentences."
The father of jailed Iranian protester Sahand Noor Mohammadzadeh, who was arrested outside his home in Tehran during the protests in October 2022 and subsequently sentenced to death two months later for allegedly attempting to break a highway guardrail and setting fire to a dustbin, disclosed that his son endured three mock executions.
A source close to Mohsen Ghiasi, who was arrested during the 2019 protests in Iran, told Iran Interntioainl about his mock executions.“Mohsen endured severe beatings and was instructed to write his will.” The source continued, “In the prison yard, a noose was placed around his neck. In his final moments, with his entire body trembling, he declared, ‘End it quickly.’ As Mohsen closed his eyes and awaited his death, he was informed that his execution had been postponed”.
Amnesty International reported in April that 853 people were executed in Iran in 2023, marking a record number in the past eight years. The organization highlighted that the government employs executions as a tool of political repression and warned that thousands more may face the same fate if the international community fails to intervene. According to the rights group Hengaw, at least 266 prisoners were executed across Iran in the first half of 2024, as the country's execution spree persists.