Iran Says More Foreign Nationals Detained Over ‘Conspiracy’

The online campaign, which has so far been signed by over 115,000 people on worldwide nonprofit petition website change.org since it was started on Monday, is organized as a protest to a tweet by the envoy on Sunday that said Iranian protesters want respect from the Islamic Republic. The campaign also aims to remove Malley’s deputy Jarrett Blanc.

The campaigners say while Iranians are seeking a regime change, Joe Biden’s representatives refuse to recognize their demands and their policies are fixated on a nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic.

“Iranians of all ages and social groups are protesting to replace the Islamic Republic, a religious dictatorship, with a democratic and secular form of government. Yet, President Biden’s Iran Envoy, Robert Malley, is misrepresenting the nature of the protests, pushing for negotiations with the Islamic Republic,” the campaign stated. 

Malley minimized the Iran protest movement by portraying it as merely a quest by Iranians to have the government in Tehran “respect their human rights and dignity”, ignoring their call for change, Alinejad said. 

Redeeming his remarks, Malley told Iran International on Monday that that his Sunday tweet on Iran protests, which led to negative reactions, “was poorly worded.”

“It is not up to me; it is not up to the US government what the brave women and men who have been demonstrating in Iran want. It is up to them,” Malley said. 

Addressing the Haaretz Democracy Conference on Monday, Zelensky said that the Islamic Republic would have not been able to send equipment to Russia if Israel had not decided to stay neutral in the Ukraine war.

“In eight months of full-scale war, Russia has used almost 4,500 missiles against us. And their stock of missiles is dwindling. Therefore, Russia went looking for affordable weapons in other countries to continue its terror. It found them in Iran,” noted Zelensky.

The Ukrainian president further noted that “I have a question for you – how does Russia pay Iran for this, in your opinion? Is Iran just interested in money? Probably not money at all, but Russian assistance to the Iranian nuclear program. Probably, this is exactly the meaning of their alliance.”

Although Zelensky did not offer any evidence, Russia has built Iran’s sole nuclear power plant in Bushehr and has a contract to expand the plant with the addition of two new reactors at a cost of $10 billion.

Zelensky’s comments come as the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Intelligence Directorate said Monday that Russia's mobilized soldiers are being provided with Iranian-made body armors and helmets, and new groups of “advisers” are also arriving in Russia to train them on the use of a new and more lethal type of drones, Arash UAVs.

Major General Kyrylo Budanov stated that “Russian forces have used most of their cruise missile arsenal and only have 13 percent of their pre-war Iskander, 43 percent of Kaliber, and 45 percent of Kh-101 and Kh-555 pre-war stockpiles left.”

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Budanov added that with the supply of cruise missiles dwindling Russian military relies on Iranian drones, but Tehran can send 300 drones per shipment as it takes a long time to manufacture the drones.

In remarks reported Monday, Iran’s foreign minister appeared to accept as possible, despite past denials, that Moscow had used Iranian drones in Ukraine.

“If it is proven to us that Iranian drones are being used in the Ukraine war against people, we should not remain indifferent,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, as reported by Reuters.

The Iranian foreign ministry website and official news agencies last Friday reported Amir-Abdollahian denying claims at a European summit last week that Iran had supplied Russia with military drones deployed in the Ukraine war.

Last week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba officially asked for air defense systems and training from Israel’s Foreign Ministry in the face of attacks launched by Iranian Shahed drones. Yet, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz stressed “that we are not selling weapons to Ukraine.”

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However, Israeli Prime Minister told Jerusalem Post on Sunday that Tel Aviv is increasingly concerned by the “dangerous closeness” between Moscow and Tehran over the supply of Iran-made drones to attack Ukraine.

Lapid said Israel is holding daily assessments to review its position on the conflict, adding that “It’s not something we are going to ignore or do nothing about… so what we need to do is reassess on a daily basis and react.”

Meanwhile, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Monday that Iran was making the world less safe by supplying Russia with drones to be used against targets in Ukraine.

The US has been “trying for a while now to have a nuclear agreement with Iran so that we can make the world a safer place and now they're going off aiding the Russians and making the world a less safe place,” added Pelosi.

With the long suspension of negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement, Iran is now accused of involvement in the Ukraine war. On the other hand, Tehran’s crackdown on domestic protests is also drawing attention from the international community raising the possibility of more isolation and sanctions for Iran.

An Iranian daily on Tuesday said that the developments of the war in Ukraine are in an alarming way to the detriment of Iran.

Aftabnews warned the Iranian government that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an aggressive move to occupy an independent UN member state and the governments that support the aggressor will be considered violators of international law.

“It is said that the United States and three European countries have interpreted the provision of drones by Iran as a violation of UN Resolution 2231. If proved after investigations, it will justify and legitimize the activation of the snapback mechanism against Iran in the JCPOA agreement,” Aftabnews added.

If the snapback mechanism would be triggered, Iran will return to Chapter Seven of the UN Charter and all sanctions in place before the 2015 nuclear deal would be automatically reimposed on Iran.

The courts have indicted at least 201 detained protesters behind closed doors on October 24, Rouydad24 news website in Tehran reported. Citing the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Hossein Fazeli the chief of Alborz Province Justice Administration charged that some of those detained are the agents of the Islamic Republic's enemies, adding that others are either sympathize with the enemies or took part in the protests as an emotional reaction.

As in past cases, the regime blames foreigners for organizing the protests, denying any political responsibility for social restrictions and the prevailing economic crisis. On the contrary, it says the United States and its allies planned the uprising because the Islamic Republic was having great success in all arenas.

Fazeli said that the 201 who were indicted had encouraged others to take part in the "riots." He also accused some other protesters of taking their orders from foreign intelligence agencies, an incriminating charge that could entail death sentence for the detainees.

Meanwhile, hardliner cleric Mahmoud Nabavian, who is a member of the ultraconservative Paydari Party has said in Tehran, without providing any evidence, that BBC Persian and Iran International TVs that beam news and current affair programs into Iran via satellite are the commanders of the protests in Iran.

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He also said, again without presenting any evidence, that one of the protesters in Iran carried 10 billion rials of Iranian currency ($31,000) during the demonstrations and offered cash to protesters who chanted anti-regime slogans.

Nabavian reiterated that foreigners incited the "riots" with the aim of making Iran insecure.The clerics comments contradict remarks by some Iranian politicians and political activists who have said over and over that it was the government’s misguided policies, mismanagement, imposition of unpopular social restrictions and attempts to lie about Mahsa Amini’s death that triggered the protests. Amini was killed violently in hijab police custody, which triggered the first protests on September 16.

In another development, ultraconservative lawmaker Javad Kariomi Qoddousi claimed that Iran International TV knew about last week's fire at the Evin Prison, mindless of numerous reports that said prison officials knew about the fire from a few days earlier and they had given furloughs to some regime insiders who happened to be jail on corruption or murder convictions.

At the same time, the 40th day of Mahsa Amini’s death approaches on Wednesday and nationwide protests are scheduled.

Protest gatherings are gaining momentum in various cities according to reports. The 40th day mourning is not customary in the Sunni populated province of Kurdistan where the young woman came from, however, Shiite protesters are adamant to hold their custom as a sign of respect for the victim of police brutality.

Meanwhile, protests have been taking place non-stop since mid-September in Mahsa's hometown Saqqez in the Kudish province of Kordestan. At the same time, the north-eastern city of Tabriz has been the venue of major protests consisting of smaller gatherings at numerous spots across the city.

Protests took place in several western Iranian cities and town Monday evening, including Orumiyeh (Urmia), a mixed Azari and Kurdish city. The two linguistic groups who had some tensions in the past have issued statements of mutual support to overthrow the clerical regime.

Private sector trade officials have repeatedly warned about the massive damage that the six-week-old government internet disruption is causing to the production cycle and its destructive effect on the livelihoods of millions.

Deputy Chairman of Iran Chamber of Commerce Hossein Selahvarzi told the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) last week that production of many commodities including dairy products, medicine, textiles, and steel has been affected. “It’s naïve to think that disruption of the internet and filtering of so many websites, [online] programs, and platforms will only affect small businesses,” he added.

Selahvarzi explained that many operations including logistics as well as marketing and sales, financial transactions in foreign currencies are impacted and that the disruption will cause a drop in sales and profits. This will force companies to lay off workers in an already depressed economy.

According to Selahvarzi, the current unrest and lack of access to the internet has also resulted in the cancellation of visits and cooperation plans by foreign trade officials and businessmen.

There are many reports on social media about the scarcity of pharmaceutical products such as intravenous solutions, antibiotics, and even simple over-the-counter painkillers in most parts of the country.

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He added that recurrent unrest since 2009, when a disputed election drew huge crowds of protesters to the streets, has resulted in a drop in investment, economic growth rate, and unemployment.

From the very early days of the protests, social media users reported serious damage to a host of small and home-based businesses. These businesses relied on the internet, social media, and messaging applications for advertising and selling their products.

These small businesses, particularly those run from homes by women or small farms in rural areas, heavily relied on Instagram for advertising and WhatsApp for communication with potential customers. The government has specifically blocked these two apps used by protesters.

The number of these businesses exponentially grew after the Covid pandemic.

Larger e-commerce companies such as online retailers, hotel and transportation bookings and food delivery services have business and there are reports of many companies having serious difficulties in paying salaries and instalments of loans.

The government has been using the so-called “kill-switch” since antigovernment protests and civil disobedience began six weeks ago to stop the flow of information and footage of protests as well to disrupt communication among protesters. The use of VPNs and anti-filtering software has increased by 30-fold since the unrest began following the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of morality police.

Despite the toughest curbs that have been put into force, both information and footage have trickled out as young and tech-savvy protesters persevere, sometimes spending hours to post a single short video.

Authorities insist that foreign enemies take advantage of social media and messaging applications to incite “riots” against the government and insist that Iranians should use the National Information Network (NIN), a very tightly controlled intranet, and domestically developed applications such as Rubika and Rubio.

Experts say these applications are specifically developed to allow censorship and are very unsafe as they allow authorities to trace and identify users who do not abide by the censorship rules.

“If it is proven to us that Iranian drones are being used in the Ukraine war against people, we should not remain indifferent,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, as reported by Reuters.

The Iranian foreign ministry website and official news agencies last Friday reported Amir-Abdollahian denying claims at a European summit last week that Iran had supplied Russia with military drones deployed in the Ukraine war. The European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States all last week introduced sanctions against three Iranian military commanders and a defense company over the reported supply.

Abdollahian was last Friday reported as saying Tehran was “strongly opposed to war and to the arming of any warring side.” The minister said Iran had “told the Ukrainian officials to show any evidence they have that would prove the use of Iranian drones in the Ukraine war.”

Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani reiterated early on Monday that Tehran had not supplied Moscow with munitions for the war in Ukraine despite “defense cooperation.”

Volte-face?

Amir-Abdollahian’s latest remarks suggested a shift if not a volte-face. But it was unclear if he was implying “Iranian drones” might have reached Russia without any official sanction, or without the specific knowledge of the foreign ministry. Alternatively, some analysts have long argued Iran often employs a tactic of ‘plausible deniability.’

US officials began claiming back in July, without offering conclusive evidence, that Iran had agreed to supply drones to Russia. Security analysis have said they could offer Moscow a cheaper, if far less effective, alternative to missiles.

Iranian officials have denied these claims, but they have talked up the Iranian-made weapons. Major-General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a military adviser to Iran’s leader Ali Khamenei, claimed October 18 that 22 countries had expressed an interest in buying Iranian military drones.

‘Giving them to X and Y’

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei himself in a tweet October 19 compared past western dismissal of Iranian drone-manufacturing with their current fears: “A few years ago they questioned the authenticity of photos of Iranian-made advanced drones & missiles and claimed they’re photoshopped. Now they’re saying Iranian drones are dangerous, why are you selling & giving them to X & Y.”

The issue of drones was also taken up last week at the United Nations Security Council, where France, the United Kingdom, and the United States presented a letter arguing that it would contravene a provision in UNSC Resolution 2231, which in 2015 endorsed the Iran nuclear agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). The controversy at the UNSC adds a further challenge in the frozen talks aimed at reviving the JCPOA.

In a further political twist, Ukraine is highlighting Iran-Russia links as a way of justifying its arguments that the US and EU should supply it more advanced weapons.