Biden Commits To Israel’s ‘Military Edge’ And Stopping Nuclear Iran

The 2022 report, which was released 13 July, benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four major dimensions of Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment as well as in several other categories. Now in its 16th year, the report analyzed the evolution of gender-based gaps in 146 countries, providing a basis for robust cross-country analysis. 

On average Iran finished 143rd in the list but in economic participation, Iran sits at the 144th place; in political empowerment, the Islamic Republic is the 142nd country; in health and survival, Iran ranks 118th; and in educational attainment on the 106th spot. 

Iranian women held a nationwide civil disobedience protest on Tuesday (July 12) against the Islamic Republic’s forced dress code, while the government has recently increased harassment of women for their insufficient hijab and many have been detained by special police patrols. This has led to more tension amid economic hardship for 90 percent of the population on fixed income, while inflation has reached 55 percent and food prices have risen by more than 80 percent, according to May-June official reports. (https://www.iranintl.com/en/202207120933)

In another report published by the Economist intelligence unit -- the research and analysis division of The Economist -- on June 23, Tehran stands at the 163rd place of the list of 173 cities in Global Liveability Index, which quantifies challenges to an individual's lifestyle in cities worldwide.

Souri Babai Chegini, a civil activist who published a video removing her hijab, was arrested Wednesday evening, July 13, in Qazvin, probably the first activist detained following the anti-hijab protests. 

According to her husband, Mohammad-Reza Morad-Behrouzi, eight agents, including two women, raided his brother-in-law's house and arrested the activist. The security forces seized her children's cellphones as well as hers and threatened her 13-year-old daughter.

Melika Qaragozlu, another woman who took off her headscarf on Tuesday and shared a video on Social media, was arrested Thursday morning.

In her video on the anti-hijab day, Chegini also criticized various other discriminations against women, including their share in inheritance compared to men, the right to custody of children and divorce, the right to travel to other countries without the consent of a male guardian, as well as Muslim men’s right for formal marriage with four women and their right to infinite number of concubines (in Shiite sect). 

Following a call by women’s rights activists for civil disobedience with the hashtag of ‘No2Hijab’ social media exploded with dozens of videos and photos of women unveiling in public.

For the past few weeks, the government has increased harassment of women for their insufficient hijab and many have been detained by special police patrols.

Nouri was a former deputy prosecutor at Gohardasht Prison in Karaj near Tehran at the time of the killings.

He was charged with “war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture, and participating in the continued crime of refusing to return the bodies of executed prisoners to their families.” He has denied any wrongdoing and said plaintiffs' allegations were a "completely imaginary story".

Witnesses have told Swedish prosecutors that Nouri, who went by the alias Hamid Abbasi at the time, was responsible for handing down death sentences and taking prisoners to where they were hanged or shot.

There are allegations that Iran seeks to exchange Nouri with Swedish-Iranian scientist and academic Ahmad-Reza Djalali arrested on vague charges of espionage and collaboration with Israel in 2016 and sentenced to death in 2017.

Sweden arrested Nouri, now 61, upon his arrival in Sweden at Stockholm Airport in 2019 and in 2021put him on trial over the mass execution and torture of prisoners at Gohardasht Prison in July and August 1988.

Most of victims were linked to the opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) but there were also some with links to leftist and secular groups such as Fadaiyan Khalq Organization (FKO) and Tudeh Party as well as some Kurdish groups such as Komala and Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran.

On the eve of the court ruling on July 13, Iran repeated calls for his release, saying Nouri’s detention is driven by “false allegations” made by the Albania-based MEK.

Amir-Abbas Jafari said on Wednesday that Iran's most famous lake has lost an average of 40 centimeters of its depth per year over the past two decades. 

He said drought, water evaporation, mismanagement in development of horticulture and unscientific use of region’s water for growing crops are among the most important factors of Lake Urmia’s gradual disappearance.

The central and provincial governments are determined to revive the lake, Jafari noted. 

Experts say groundwater extraction and using the water of the once bountiful Zarrineh Rud − which feeds Urmia Lake − for irrigating apple trees have both contributed to the lake shrinking by nearly 95 percent in volume over the past 20 years. In 2021 alone, more than 100,000 tons of apples of the province’s production went to waste.

Urmia, which is the largest lake in Iran and the sixth largest salt lake in the world began shrinking in the mid-1980s and was in danger of disappearing altogether until recovery plans began to be implemented in 2014.

According to authorities at the government of President Hassan Rouhani, 150 trillion rials – which can be about one billion dollars considering the lower rate of dollar against rial back then – were allocated for the plan in seven years as well as another $10 million aid by Japan and some other amounts by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to save the lake. It is not clear whether or how the earmarked budget was spent.

Nour News close to Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the supreme national security council also said that “Any steps to disrupt the current security order in West Asia can impact other spheres, such as transportation and transit of energy and add to the existing global food and energy crisis.”

The reference to transportation of energy could be a threat to shipping in the Persian Gulf. Iran in recent and distant past has repeatedly made such threats and in the summer of 2019, attacks took place against many tankers, which were generally blamed on Iran.

The note published by the “international desk” of Nour News also dangled the prospect of continued nuclear talks, as President Joe Biden on Wednesday told an Israeli television that he is willing to use force against Iran “as a last resort.”

The article went on to argue that Israel has always opposed the 2015 nuclear agreement known as JCPOA and is determined to block its revival. In a candid admission of mysterious incidents, Nour News said that Israel has intensified attacks inside Iran in the past year, “to perhaps create chaos and fish in muddy waters…”

Talks since April 2021to revive the JCPOA are now stalled, with Iran speeding up its uranium enrichment, which is seen as a serious step to approach a nuclear weapons threshold.

The United States “has adopted silence toward Israel’s destructive acts,” the article stressed, and has shown its inclination to use these acts to get leverage in nuclear talks. But Washington should know that “Israel’s mischiefs can, under some circumstances, cause loss of control over the situation and lead to the use of different options for punishing the usurping Zionist regime.”

Nour News then picked up the issue of a proposed joint air defense network between Israel and Arab states, ridiculing Israel’s capabilities. It said the current Israeli air defense weapons were for stopping small, short-range rockets and were ineffective against ballistic and cruise missiles, a reference to Iran’s long-range capabilities that have created concern among regional countries.

Nour News had issued a warning on July 10 about US, Israeli and Arab plans to set up a regional air defense system. It said that “the creation of a joint defense pact in the region by the US with participation and hidden management of Zionists is a threatening act.”

The plan to set up coordination between air defenses of Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and other allies goes back months. The Wall Street Journal reported in June that a secret meeting took place between top military officers of the countries involved in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt in March.

Biden’s trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, his recent tougher stance toward Iran, as wells as talk of steps to establish cooperation between Riyadh and Tel-Aviv have apparently rattled Tehran officials.

President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday also warned about a regional alliance aimed at Iran. "if American visits to the regional countries are aimed at strengthening the position of the Zionist regime and normalizing its relations with certain countries, their efforts will not in any way bring about security for the Zionists."