Iranian commander's killing, Aleppo advance shake up Syria conflict

A meeting is scheduled for Friday between the three European signatories of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear accord—the United Kingdom, France, and Germany (E3)—and the Islamic Republic, with the participation of EU representative Enrique Mora, who met with the Iranian envoys.

Both sides issued posts on X briefly describing the discussions, with widely different accounts, except calling the exchange as frank.

The EU official, Mora, enumerated the issues he brought to the attention of Majid Takht-Ravanchi and Kazem Gharibabadi, both Iran’s deputy foreign ministers.

“Frank exchange with Iran Deputy FM @TakhtRavanchi and @Gharibabadi on Iran’s military support to Russia that has to stop, the nuclear issue that needs a diplomatic solution, regional tensions (important to avoid further escalation from all sides) and human rights,” Mora tweeted.

Gharibabadi, tweeting on behalf of the Iranian side, detailed a lengthy list of alleged mistakes and missteps by the European Union and European powers.

“It was reaffirmed to him [Mora] that EU should abandon its self-centered and irresponsible behaviour towards issues and challenges of this continent and international matters,” he said.

The Iranian diplomat accused the European side of deflecting its own problems and mistakes onto others, particularly regarding the war in Ukraine. European nations have strongly condemned Iran’s role as a weapons supplier to Russia and have imposed sanctions on numerous companies and individuals linked to Tehran’s government.

Gharibabadi also strongly criticized Europe’s stance on Iran’s nuclear program, as Paris, London and Berlin have adopted a tougher position, backing a recent censure against Tehran at a meeting of UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“Similarly, with regard to the nuclear issue of Iran, Europe has failed to be a serious player due to lack of self-confidence and responsibility. Europe is in need of self-recovery,” the Iranian diplomat said.

Iran’s government-controlled media has projected a positive tone regarding the talks with the Europeans, as US sanctions pose increasingly difficult challenges for Tehran. However, Gharibabadi’s tweet does not reflect a more flexible Iranian position.

The EU resolution called on the Islamic Republic to end systematic discrimination against women and girls, including mandatory hijab laws, and to repeal the Hijab and Chastity Law and other gender-discriminatory legislation.

The resolution also highlighted rights violations, including “the murders of Mahsa Amini, Armita Geravand,” and over 811 executions in the past year, many targeting political prisoners.

It urged member states to extend sanctions under the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime to include Iranian officials responsible for these violations. It also calls for the designation of the Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, citing the group’s role in suppressing dissent and its involvement in international acts of violence.

German MEP Hannah Neumann, in a plenary debate at the European Parliament, highlighted the case of Iranian student Ahoo Daryaie, who removed her clothing in protest after security forces allegedly assaulted her at Tehran's Islamic Azad University over her hijab. Authorities later labeled Daryaie as mentally ill, sparking outrage amongst activists and human rights advocates.

"The only one who is sick here is the Islamic regime. Sick with paranoia, terrified of women who dare to show their hair or sing a song. And the only thing that Iranian women are suffering from is being sick of this regime. Ahoo Daryaie is not a patient. She's a remedy. A symbol of courage and resistance against repression, like so many others, whose names we don't even know," Neumann said.

Earlier this month, an Iranian state Islamic body announced plans to open a clinic in Tehran to treat women defying mandatory hijab laws, in what activists see as another instance of authorities labeling dissent as a mental health issue.

Neumann criticized these actions, describing them as "repression disguised as care," and drew parallels to historical misogyny.

The EU resolution comes a day after Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran’s parliament announced that the Hijab and Chastity law would be officially enacted next month.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in a phone call with his Singaporean counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan urged the southeast Asian country to reconsider the execution of Masoud Rahimi Mehrzad for "humanitarian considerations".

Rahimi, a Singaporean-Iranian citizen who is expected to be executed on Friday, was arrested 14 years ago in Singapore on charges of drug trafficking. He was 20 when arrested for possessing 31 grams of diamorphine in Singapore and sentenced to death, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) organization said.

"Executions have never prevented drug-related crimes, and we hope that Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the President of Singapore, will issue a pardon to save Masoud's life," Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the IHR director, said on Thursday in an effort to save Masoud.

Born in Singapore to a Singaporean mother and an Iranian father, he was taken to Iran as a child following his parents’ divorce. He returned to Singapore at the age of 17 to complete his mandatory military service, three years before his arrest.

Preaching what not practiced at home

The Iranian foreign minister's call for the reconsideration of Rahimi's execution came hours after Iran executed at least 12 people on illicit drug and murder charges.

Four prisoners were executed in Qazvin Central Prison, four in the prisons of Yazd, Qom and Shahre Kord, three in Shiraz, and one in Nahavand, according to reports by human rights organizations. The 12 prisoners were hanged on Thursday morning for illicit drug and murder charges.

In recent months, Iranian authorities have increasingly resorted to the death penalty despite global outcry. In its November 21 report, HRANA documented at least 133 executions since the past month, averaging more than four per day. This surge follows another statistic from the IHR, which recorded at least 166 executions in October​​.

HRANA’s reports indicate an average of 811 executions occurred between October 2023 and October 2024, encompassing both political detainees and ordinary prisoners.

Brigadier General Kioumars Pourhashemi, also known as Haji Hashem, was a senior military advisor in Syria, the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News reported, adding that he was killed by “Takfiri terrorists,” a term widely used in Shiite-majority Iran to refer to jihadists or supporters of radical Sunni Islam.

Islamist militants from US-designated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied rebel groups launched an offensive on Wednesday, seizing control of several towns and villages in northwest Aleppo province, a region under the control of Iran-backed supporters of the Bashar al-Assad government.

The attack marks the most significant operation since March 2020, when a ceasefire negotiated by Russia, a key ally of Assad, and Turkey, a supporter of the rebels, brought an end to years of fighting that had uprooted millions of Syrians opposed to Assad's rule.

The Syrian army reported heavy losses among the attackers, whom it described as "terrorists" operating across a broad front. The army also said it was working with Russia and unnamed "friendly forces" to regain territory and reestablish previous lines of control.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 130 people have been killed in the fighting, including 65 members of the HTS, 18 allied fighters, and 49 Syrian government soldiers.

Referring to the Wednesday attack, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the unrest in Syria was part of a US-Israeli design aimed at destabilizing the region’s security, during a phone call with his Lebanese counterpart Abdullah Bou Habib, Iran's Foreign Ministry quoted him as saying.

Russian warplanes, alongside Syrian fighter jets, have bombarded opposition positions near the Turkish border as part of efforts to repel the attack, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Syrian opposition forces are said to be operating near Aleppo within the boundaries of the Idlib de-escalation zone established in a 2019 agreement between Russia, Iran, and Turkey, the Reuters report added citing Turkish security sources.

The defendants' attorneys are also collectively preparing to lodge a complaint with judicial authorities about the anomalies in the trial and sentencing process, lawyer Payam Derafshan announced on X on Tuesday.

The anomalies included returning the defendants to prison while on bail only a few days before the sentencing and abruptly assigning the two investigating judges who issued the arrest warrants to the case.

The six young men were among 50 residents of the Shahrak-e Ekbatan housing complex in western Tehran, arrested in connection with the severe beating of Arman Aliverdi, a pro-establishment seminary student and a Basij militia member, at the height of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests of 2022.

Aliverdi was attacked by enraged protesters who suspected him of infiltrating their ranks. He succumbed to his injuries in the hospital two days later. Authorities have labeled Aliverdi a "martyr" and have heavily leveraged his death in state propaganda against the protesters.

The Basij maintain four bases within the five square kilometer complex which has been a hotbed of protests since 2022, heavily manned by plainclothes security agents. They often fired their guns at windows, raided apartment lobbies, and destroyed property to intimidate residents.

Dissident activist Hossein Ronaghi protesting the death sentences in Shahrak-e Ekbatan with sewn lips

In the wake of the announcement of the death sentences, security forces have increased their presence in the neighborhood. A popular dissident X account, reported on Tuesday that plainclothes agents on motorbikes were patrolling the area doing random searches of residents and their phones.

Hossein Ronaghi, a dissident activist who sewed his lips in protest last week and has been holding daily protests in various areas of Tehran since then, staged a brief one-man sit-in on Friday in the area, protesting the death sentences.

The defendants, Milad Armoon, Alireza Kafa’i, Amir Mohammad Khosh Eqbal, Navid Najaran, Hossein Nemati, and Alireza Barmarzpournak, were sentenced to death on November 13 by the magistrates of Branch 13 of the Criminal Court One.

Four of the defendants sentenced to death have also been indicted for "muhariba" (waging war against God), which also bears a death sentence. All of the accused have also been charged with “propaganda against the system” and similar charges for which they will be tried separately.

Two of the three magistrates of Branch 13 of Criminal Court One voted for a death sentence. The presiding magistrate, Babak Paknia, however, opposed it.

Paknia maintains that confessions in custody, on which the death sentences were based, are not valid unless repeated in court. During the trial, the accused denied involvement in the beatings that led to Aliverdi’s death.