Promises Of Water To Esfahan Fueling Protests Elsewhere In Iran

A statement on Thursday approved by all 15 members of the UN's most powerful body called for "an immediate withdrawal of all Houthi elements from the premises" and "the immediate and safe release of those still under detention."

The US embassy in Sanaa has been closed since 2015.

The Security Council stressed that the Vienna convention prohibits any intrusion into diplomatic property as well as the "inviolability" and "immunity" of the premises from searches and requisition — and that property and archives of a diplomatic mission that has been temporarily closed "must be respected and protected."

The council's statement followed a demand on Nov. 17 by the United Nations for the release of two U.N. staffers detained earlier this month by the Yemen rebels.

Yemen has been convulsed by civil war since 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa, and much of the northern part of the country, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee to the south, then to Saudi Arabia.

Report by AP

Jomhouri Eslami (Islamic Republic), a newspaper that was established by current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as its proprietor shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution is now being run and edited by a non-partisan cleric Massih Mohajeri. His political loyalty rests with Khamenei although he has been at times accused by hardliners of supporting reformists and moderate elements.

In his editorial on Sunday, November 21, Jomhouri Eslami has argued that "seminaries have always been independent of governments in Iran and were funded by the people. It was this independence from the government that lent an extraordinary spiritual influence to Shiite clerics."

Writing in a manner critical of Khamenei without annoying him, the daily said that "in recent years" the seminaries have become dependent on the government, and this has harmed the clerics' credibility and undermined the seminaries' independence.

100%

The editorial is in fact referring to the fact that shortly after Khamenei became Supreme Leader in 1989, he began to feed the seminaries with millions of dollars to purchase their loyalty. And he has been successful in doing so.

Now Jomhouri Eslami suggests that the government should cut-off its hefty budget for the seminaries to put an end to the divide between the seminaries and the people. Mohajeri, who is himself a cleric, insisted in the editorial that he is not against the clergy or seminaries. However, he pointed out that the money put at their disposal has waste on opulent buildings and other activities. "They spend a lot of money for non-religious matters that not only have no benefit for Islam, but are sometimes even against the interests of the Islamic regime," he said.

"Be brave and cut off their budget," the editorial told the government, adding that this is a financially difficult time, and the economy needs such a surgical approach to save the country.

During the past years, regime's critics and some media outlets in Iran as well as some prominent clerics have been criticizing the government for allocating large budgets to the seminaries. Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli in January 2019 lashed out at the seminaries for being non-productive.

In the same year, reformist Eslahat News website wrote that the administration of former President Hassan Rouhani "allocated $27 million to seminaries only during the three months between late March and late June 2018."

Later it was revealed by investigative journalists with access to government information that the annual budget allocated to religious institutions including the seminaries was around $500 million per year at least in 2018 and 2019.

Regardless of the hefty budget allocated to powerful seminaries, Javadi-Amoli said that small seminaries offered more knowledge and insight to the people during the years before the government started to allocate million-dollar budgets. He added that luxurious seminaries which look like castles have nothing to offer to the public.

Some critics have charged that Khamenei who lacked the right religious qualifications when he became Supreme Leader and was looked down by senior clerics, has a grudge against the seminaries and has effectively ruined their reputation and those of top clerics by putting them on government payroll.

In a phone interview with Didban-e Iran news website Saturday, Mohammad-Taghi Naghdali defended proposed legislation by claiming a dog had killed children in a Tehran park. But in fact a more real reason for Iran’s conservatives is that keeping dogs is a symbol of Westernization, which they try to prevent.

A bill entitled "Protection of the Public's Rights Against Animals" was put on parliament’s agenda this week with the backing of 75 lawmakers. It would make illegal the buying, selling and keeping “pets” – from dogs and cats to snakes, hamsters, and rabbits.

Naghdali, a mid-ranking cleric and representative of Khomeini Shahr, argued that dogs can cause "serious nuisance and bodily harm to people" when left unattended in shared areas of apartment blocks.

Although the bill names all kinds of pets, even including crocodiles and monkeys, the main concern of parliamentarians is dogs. In July, the Kayhan newspaper called dog walking in cities a "major problem" and urged the judiciary to keep dogs away from public spaces including streets and parks. Tehran City council subsequently banned animals from public places.

Keeping dogs, always common in Iran’s rural areas and on farms, has only in recent years become popular in urban areas as Iranians have kept them as pets, despite occasional police crackdowns, particularly when dogs are spotted in cars. Within Islam, dogs are considered impure and some countries have tight restrictions: Saudi Arabia justifies its strict rules against keeping dogs in terms of the dangers of dogs attacking people, especially children.

Cats have never been a problem and have always been a part of urban and rural life, but the Islamic Republic wants to ban keeping dogs at urban homes.

Iran’s proposed legislation envisages a cash fine of $900-$2,700, with the animal being impounded. It would also oblige estate agents to ban dogs in rental agreements within three months of the law’s passing, with similar fines for non-compliance. Anyone walking a pet in the street could face a three-month jail term, or the confiscation of their car for three months if taking their dog for a drive.

The proposed law is yet another encroachment on citizens’ private life and adds another restriction to a multitude of other bans, such as drinking alcohol, dating, appearing in public without “proper Islamic dress” for women, mixed-gender parties, and singing for women.

Even the conservative Asre-Iran website attacked the proposal November 17 as a waste of parliament’s time. "Who is going to protect people's livelihood?” it asked in a commentary. “Why don't you propose plans for protecting people's assets in the stock market? Or why are you not doing something to increase the value of the national currency?”

A top Mahan Airlines manager confirmed the cyberattack but said this is not the first time hackers have disrupted its computer systems. The company also said all flight operations continue, but the state aviation organization

Meanwhile, a group called Hooshyarane Vatan (Observants of the Fatherland) send text messages to Mahan’s customers accusing the airline of being part of the Islamic Republic’s repressive machine that has killed thousands of protesters and innocent people.

The group also accused Mahan of being part of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps Quds Force (QF) and claimed to have accessed documents proving that the company was part of IRGC’s “criminal activities”, including money laundering.

The United States sanctions Mahan in 2011 alleging that it served the Quds Force and transported weapons to Syria where Iran has supplied arms and fighters to President Bashar-Assad’s forces in the decade-long civil war.

The group also published texts in English on its Telegram channel, saying, “We’ve found Mahan does keep records of its suspicious business with QF under the name ‘Hamrah’, and that this business is managed by sardar (general) Golparast.” The group added that Golparast is also listed as the owner of Qeshm Fars Air which “is a known QF cover company, frequently used to transport munitions throughout the Middle East.”

Israel and the Islamic Republic conduct hacking operations against one another, but in the past two years, sabotage activities against Iran have expanded, with mysterious explosions and fires at sensitive nuclear, military and industrial sites.

Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility experienced two large explosions, one in 2020 and another earlier this year. Some believe that digital intrusion could be a factor in these successful operations widely attributed to Israel.

The Hooshyane Vatan, that seems to have revealed itself just days ago, in their statements frequently refer to Ahvaz, the capital of the oil-rich Khuzestan province and a favorite label by Iran’s Arab separatists and activists.

Mohammad Mokhber claimed that before the 1979 revolution, Iran was not a player in the regional balance of forces, while now “the Islamic Republic has the first and the last word.”

Before 1979, Iran had the most modern army after Israel in the Middle East and was considered the gendarme of the region. After the fall of monarchy, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979 and Iraq attacked Iran in September 1980, in what was seen as the result of a serious power vacuum in the region.

Mokhber once again claimed that the IRGC navy seized a Vietnamese-flagged tanker taken by the US Navy in October. The United States had dismissed Iran’s claim and said its navy only observed Iranian forces seizing the tanker in the Sea of Oman.

In other remarks, Mokhber appeared to concede that the centralized economic model of the Islamic Republic has been a failure. “We did not give control of the economy to the people, and we got into trouble,” but he insisted that the Revolutionary Guard’s paramilitary force Basij is the best vehicle to transfer control to the people.