Top Iran Official Admits Corruption In Deadly Building Collapse

Republican Senator Mike Rounds from South Dakota said on Wednesday that “they have intents other than peaceful desires with regards to nuclear weapons. They have clearly been on the road to developing a nuclear weapon from day one.”

Highlighting that Israel is at risk of attacks by Iran, Rounds said the US has done “hopefully” its best to limit the Islamic Republic’s ability to get a nuclear weapon. 

Criticizing the Biden administration's Iran policy, he said that “when you move from one admin to another you have to have a consistent policy.”

He added that he had disagreed in the past and still disagrees with “the proposed settlements between the US and Iran."

Indiana’s Republican Senator Todd Young said the path Iran is pursuing is going to make the country even more isolated, noting, “This is not going to any place good for Iran's leaders. They want to continue to be isolated by the international community.”

Referring to the recent anti-government protests across the country, he said that “If they want to continue to hurt their people who have recently been rising up against their leadership because of their economic circumstances, then they're doing the right thing. If instead, they would like to enjoy prosperity and opportunity for their people and longer-term security, they're going to need to abide by the terms in the spirit of IAEA mandates to go in and look at all the facilities to ensure Iran is not trying to develop nuclear weapons."

The explosive drone detonated on Pirmam road in Erbil's outskirts at 9:35 p.m. Iraq time, the statement said.

Two security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the drone was shot down.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

A security source said earlier that a drone attack targeted the US consulate but did not give further details.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi told Kurdish Prime Minister Masoud Barzani in a phone call that Baghdad will cooperate with Erbil to hold the perpetrators accountable, according to a statement.

"Bomb-laden drone hit Erbil-Pirmam road, causing civilian injuries and damage," the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq said on Twitter. "Iraq does not need self-proclaimed armed arbiters. Asserting State authority is essential. If the perpetrators are known, call them out and hold them to account."

Last month, Iran Revolutionary Guards artillery fire hit an area north of Erbil, targeting what Iranian state television described as terrorist bases.

Also, in March the Guards attacked the capital of the Kurdish region with a dozen ballistic missiles in an unprecedented assault on the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region that appeared to target the United States and its allies

At least three other attacks have targeted oil refineries in Erbil since the March attack, but no group has claimed responsibility for them.

Report by Reuters

According to footage circulating in social media, security forces fired warning shots and used violence to disperse the gathering of people in front of the robbed branch of the bank near the University of Tehran.

State-owned Bank Melli (National Bank) public relations office announced that the head and deputy head of the branch had been fired "for negligence." But hundreds of people who lost their life savings or important documents demand compensation.

Officials said an investigation was also underway, with several bank employees “under observation” for possible “dereliction of duty.” Three suspects are being interrogated in custody. 

The gall of the robbers has fed social media speculation, and even comparisons with famous bank robberies elsewhere in the world, like the 1983 Brink’s Mat heist in the United Kingdom. 

Bank Melli issued a statement on Tuesday denying social media reports that 1,000 boxes had been breached, saying thieves had entered the branch and accessed 168 safety deposit boxes. Earlier reports said the number was 200 to 250 boxes. 

The exact details of the stolen property and documents have not yet been released, and in the past two days some Bank Melli officials have stated that the bank "has no criminal and legal responsibility for the contents of the boxes."

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Media and officials in Tehran say it is not clear what the bank robbers stole from the safety deposit boxes, since banks have no information about what people put in these boxes, which are used to safely store personal mementoes, precious foreign currency, and gold coins bought as a hedge against inflation.

It is also not clear if there is any kind of insurance covering losses sustained by customers. One report last year suggested Iranians were keeping $25-$30 billion in cash “at home,” which would include money in bank deposit boxes.

The bank is about half a mile from the headquarters and residence of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Iran was on a four-day holiday from Thursday to Sunday marking the death anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic. Apparently, the robbers gained access during the holiday, and it is not clear how long they were inside. They managed to open four sealed doors, reached the coffers, and destroyed security cameras, and took the hard drives, practically leaving no trace behind.

One former bank official told Iranian media that it would next to impossible to break through one of the main safe doors protecting the safe deposit boxes. “One would need days to break through the door with blow torches,” he said. Some doors were protected with electronic passes, codes and alarms.

A series of suspicious events that happened since last week, has led to speculations that the robbers may have sought some specific documents and have come from abroad for the heist.

On Thursday, an Iranian hacktivist group named ‘Uprising till Overthrow' hacked into and deactivated over 5,000 surveillance cameras and 150 websites and online services of Tehran Municipality. The robbery happened in the early hours of Friday. And the passport control system at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport was reportedly hacked on Saturday, stranding passengers for a couple of hours.

The newspaper said that a new one-ton bomb has been integrated into the planes’ arsenal without jeopardizing the stealth radar signature that disguises the aircraft from air defenses. The bomb was developed by the Haifa-based, state-owned corporation Rafael Advanced Weapons Systems and is said to be protected against jamming.

Israel has 33 F-35s advanced aircraft made by the United States company Lockheed Martin, and expects to have 50 by 2024. Its air-force has conducted four large-scale military drills simulating attacks against Iran in the last month.

In the first drill, the Air Force exercised confronting Iranian radar and detection systems, like those which protect its nuclear installations. The second included simulating long-range combat flights -- in this case to destinations in Europe -- and cooperation between the fourth and fifth generation of its fighter jets. The other ones included defensive measures against cyber weapons and electronic warfare systems that could be used by Iran to undermine a military operation.

Iran Wednesday announced that it had turned off two monitoring cameras used by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at Iranian nuclear sites, a day after Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged the IAEA to take measures so that Iran paid a “heavy price” for advancing its nuclear program.

Israel has opposed restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (the JCPOA, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), which came to a halt in March reportedly over Iran’s demands to remove its Revolutionary Guard from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Reformist daily Shargh wrote that the “Raisi Administration still does not believe that the Presidential election ended last year. Its officials still continue making exciting comments and offer strange promises as if they are on a TV show.”

Shargh charged that as far as government officials are concerned, ‌for every problem the easiest solution is blaming the previous government. This way of thinking has its own keywords including "Those who are responsible for the current situation" and "putting Rouhani on trial." These keywords are meant to provide social capital for the Raisi administration and make up for the inefficiency of the government.

According to Shargh, the government is not aware that these slogans will not solve the country's problems. For a short period, the people might accept to blame the previous government but soon they will realize it is the fault of the current administration.

Shargh charged that this approach will lead the people to believe that Iran's neo-cons and principlists or hardliner conservatives are the accomplices of the advocates of regime change in Iran, apparently by discrediting the regime.

On the other hand, Khorasan newspaper, which supports the Raisi Administration and is linked to the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, also criticized the government from a different perspective.

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Highlighting the country's serious economic problems, Khorasan criticized the government for lack of planning and urged it to prove that it can govern efficiently.

Interestingly, while under the previous government, President Hassan Rouhani was personally the main target of criticisms, now the media and politicians direct their criticism toward the “Raisi Administration” rather than the president himself, as if he is untouchable.

Khorasan wrote that "This is the fifth year Iran is experiencing unusually high inflation particularly with food prices, therefore, high inflation is Iran's most important problem." the daily warned that in the future the Raisi Administration will be judged by the degree of its success in tackling inflation.

The conservative daily stressed that "There are serious concerns about where this inflation is going and why it is not being harnessed."

This comes while the rate of exchange for the US dollar in Tehran surpassed 320,000 rials on Tuesday, setting a record low. "How this trend is going to continue, keeps everyone waiting for the decisions of the government's Economic Coordination Board,” wrote Khorasan.

During the past nine months or so, lack of coordination among various economic bodies has been a recurrent criticism that was being made by Iranian politicians and media.

Khorasan suggested that the government needs to prove that it is efficient, and its experts know what they are doing, bringing about positive prospects for Iran's foreign relations, and shifting from its reactive tactics to economic planning.

According to Khorasan, creating a positive atmosphere about the nuclear issue and negotiations will help form an optimistic mood towards the economy.

Although this might sound like a new approach by a conservative newspaper, the final paragraph of Khorasan's article shows that not much has changed as the paper called on the government to finalize the controversial 25-year economic cooperation deal with China.