Protests, Arrests Reported As Teacher Goes On Trial In Iran

According to an IRNA report on Saturday, the laser cannon, named ‘Sateb’, can shoot down aerial targets by laser beams and is used by the country's defense units “to protect sensitive places.”

The report said the know-how for design and production of laser defense systems is one of the most important achievements of the country’s military industry in recent years.

In September 2019, Electronic Industries Organization of Iran announced it has succeeded to acquire the knowledge for the laser weapons technology, saying its laser weapons can destroy radar evading UAVs that are made up of composite layers.

Although Iran wants to highlight its laser weapon capabilities to target drones and cruise missiles, the directed-energy weapons including lasers are still at their experimental stage, and are not seen as practical, high-performance military weapons, because a laser generates a beam of light which needs clear air, or a vacuum, to work.

The US-Israeli project for such a weapon was canceled in 2005because of "its bulkiness, high costs and poor anticipated results on the battlefield".

The Islamic Republic is known to claim production of high-tech weapons as a show deterrence.

At the early months of the coronavirus pandemic the IRGC unveiled Mosta'an 110, a simple-looking device that it said was capable of detecting the virus from 100 meters. The episode turned into public ridicule.

The document was signed by the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, and his Uzbek counterpart Viktor Makhmudov in the capital Tashkent on Wednesday.

According to the agreement, a Joint Security Commission will be established and held annually to follow up on the bilateral cooperation.

Shamkhani said Uzbekistan has a very important geopolitical position in the heart of Central Asia, noting, "Issues such as preventing the spread of terrorism and extremism in the region are among the common security concerns of the two countries”.

He added that “the common borders of Iran and Uzbekistan with Afghanistan require increased cooperation to resolve problems and establish peace and stability in this country".

During his visit to Uzbekistan, Shamkhani also held a meeting with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, where the two stressed the necessity for communication between the security institutions of the two countries and called for increasing the level of trade and economic ties.

Shamkhani also appreciated Uzbekistan’s support for Iran's membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and expressed hope that this support would continue until the Islamic Republic’s membership is finalized.

As Russian troops continue their offensive toward the Ukrainian capital Kyiv from the northwest and east for more than two weeks, Putin on Friday gave the go-ahead to enlist battle-hardened forces from conflicts such as in Syria on Friday.

"If you see that there are these people who want of their own accord, not for money, to come to help the people living in Donbass, then we need to give them what they want and help them get to the conflict zone," Putin said at a televised security council meeting from the Kremlin.

Reports began emerging earlier this week that Russia wanted to recruit fighters in Syria, with the clear danger of Iran-backed forces and other militants going to Europe to fight.

"As to the delivery of arms, especially Western-made ones which have fallen into the hands of the Russian army - of course I support the possibility of giving these to the military units of the Lugansk and Donetsk people's republics," Putin added.

During the meeting, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu proposed that Western-made Javelin and Stinger missiles that were captured by the Russian army in Ukraine should be handed over to Donbass forces.

Responding in a video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said "thugs from Syria" would be coming to kill people "in a foreign land".

As a country with one of the world’s largest oil and natural gas reserves, Iran often faces power cuts and a decline in gas and oil production at a time when the Ukraine invasion has created a good opportunity for exports to Europe. Years of infrastructure neglect have left the energy sector underdeveloped.

A working paper prepared by President Ebrahim Raisi’s government calls for “a balance between production and consumption” in energy. While extremely cheap electricity and gas rates have been driving up domestic annual consumption by 6-8 percent in recent years, very little has been invested in increasing gas production to provide fuel for power stations.

Iran has been forced to use diesel and heavily polluting oil biproduct mazut in peak summer and winter months to keep power plants working. As a result, major cities have either experienced extensive blackouts or have been covered with smug and pollution in June-August and December-February.

In addition to insufficient fuel for power plants, an aging power grid also wastes large amounts of energy.

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The paper says that power generation and the electricity grid also need serious investment. In total, 17,200 kilometers of electricity transmission lines are needed. Based on existing cost estimates in other countries it would cost at least two billion dollars, (considering lower labor cost in Iran), to address immediate needs. The shortfall of around 10,000 megawatts of power generation would need an immediate investment of another $8 billion, and every year an additional $4 billion to keep up with power demand.

To secure these investments the government has theoretically three options: Raising private sector investments, raising energy cost for consumers or appropriating money for the infrastructure the country desperately needs. None of these options are feasible at the moment, for two reasons: Iran’s centralized economy is inhospitable for private investments in public sector and the specter of international sanctions keeps investors away.

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Foreign investors would hardly entertain the idea of investing in a country with an unpredictable internal dynamic of anti-West politics and rhetoric. The government, mired in economic crisis and potential political instability cannot raise energy prices either, and current oil revenues are too small to enable direct government financing. The cheap energy offered to consumers for years runs into hundreds of billions of dollars, mainly neutralizing the benefit of oil exports.

If Iran can reach a nuclear agreement with the United States, have sanctions lifted, and export around two million barrels a day at current high prices, it would earn around $60 billion annually and would be able to finance some infrastructure projects.

But the government plan published by IRNA also calls for investments in the upkeep and expansion of oil and gas production, without mentioning a price tag. However, in November 2021, oil minister Javad Owji did mention the huge amount of investments needed, when he said that Iran should secure $160 billion to revitalize its oil and gas sectors.

Based on these estimates, Iran needs to find $200 billion dollars in the 5-7 years to keep its energy infrastructure and fossil fuel resources adequately maintained. Removal od US sanctions and full oil exports would be insufficient, given so many different subsidies and entitlement programs the government must provide if it does not overhaul its economic system.

In his speech before the sermons at Tehran Friday prayers, the head of Iran’s Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, said he wanted to establish the “Union of Martyrs’ Foundations of the Resistance Axis.”

This would include Iranians and Iraqis killed in the 1980-88 war, as well as those killed in the ‘resistance axis’ of Iran-backed militias, including Palestinian and Iraqi groups, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Estimates of deaths in the 1980-88 war have ranged from 500,000 to 1 million.

Ghazizadeh said that “so far Lebanon and Iraq have announced their readiness.” He praised the “the axis of resistance” as “a symbol of self-sacrifice” and called on Iranians to “stand with our dear brothers…committed to the culture of the revolution around the world.”

The Iraqi martyr’s foundation is run by the government, while in Lebanon the Martyrs Foundation is a Hezbollah support network sanctioned by the United States. There is also a Palestinian martyrs foundation in Lebanon.

Earlier in March, Ghazizadeh signed a deal to provide a wide range of services to Iraqi veterans, including those from the Iraq-Iran war, drawing criticism and calls for his resignation from Iranians and veterans who say Iran can barely provide the needed services for its own veterans and their families