Iranians March In London To Demand IRGC’s Designation

After meeting with Rashid behind closed doors Raisi claimed “the US presence in the region disturbs regional security."

Iraq's president arrived in Tehran along with foreign, water resources, and electricity ministers as well as the national security adviser Saturday morning.

Adding that Americans think about their own interests, not those of the regional countries, Raisi said, "Our relationship with Iraq is based on common interests."

Iran, emboldened by the hasty US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, has intensified its rhetoric about forcing American troops out of Iraq and Syria.

Referring to the security agreement between the two countries in March Raisi added, “the smallest insecurity in Iraq would be viewed as insecurity in Iran; therefore, Iraq's security is important to Iran.”

Despite the eight-year war between the two neighbors in the 1980s, relations between the Shiite-majority countries have improved significantly since the 2003 invasion which led to the ouster Saddam Hussein.

Raisi further expressed hope that Rashid's visit to Tehran would be "a turning point" in improving ties between the two countries.

With sanctions hitting Iran, Iraq has become one of its major economic lifelines, while Tehran provides Iraq with electricity, gas, and other goods, although US sanctions do not allow Baghdad to make full payments in hard currency that Tehran desperately needs.

This comes as Iran’s financial network in Iraq was bypassing the US sanctions regime at the cost of the Iraqi economy. An informed source in Baghdad told Iran International late in December that Washington has received reports that Iraq is conducting trade with Iran using US dollars despite sanctions.

In early February, Iran International obtained information that revealed some details about the inner workings of a Revolutionary Guard’s Quds force unit tasked with smuggling money from Iraq to Iran. According to the information, the IRGC and the Islamic Republic’s embassy in Iraq were involved in money laundering operations that aim to funnel the regime’s revenues from oil and gas exports back to Iran. As per a repeatedly extended sanctions’ waiver by Washington, Tehran is only allowed to import medicine and some essential goods in exchange for its exports of gas and electricity to its neighboring country.

It is not clear if the issue of Iraq holding more than $11 billion of Iran's money was discussed.

For his part, the Iraqi president said his trip to Iran was intended to expand the already-prospering ties between the two countries.

“Relations between the two countries are coherent and getting stronger, and we must all work to develop them in coordination and continuous cooperation at all levels, including taking into account Iraq’s share of water, especially since most of the tributaries of the Tigris River and Shatt al-Arab originate in the Islamic Republic,” added Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid.

There are a number of rivers shared by Iraq and Iran, and access to them has been the source of friction in the past, contributing to the bloody war in the 1980s.

During their joint press conference, Raisi also touched upon the issue saying that “we respect Iraq's right to water according to the agreements signed in the past, and both countries must be committed and adhere to this right so as not to create problems and disruptions.”

Another topic discussed by the two presidents was the drug trade in the Middle East.

“We must cooperate in the fight against drugs, since they have become a cancer that destroys lives,” stressed Rashid.

During the past few years, the sale and use of drugs has increased in the Arab country while Iraqi security forces have intensified their anti-narcotics operations.

Iran is “at the forefront of the fight against drugs,” claimed Raisi, adding that “it is a source of satisfaction that Iraq is also determined in the fight against narcotics.”

The municipality of Kermanshah in western Iran said in a statement that families sign a commitment letter not to put the pictures of women without hijab after their death on the tombstone, “but unfortunately this family did not comply with the regulations and must replace it as soon as possible.”

Last year, Iran started policing the compulsory Islamic dress code – or hijab – on tombstones in the country’s largest cemetery, located in the southern part of the capital Tehran.

The cemetery removed scores of gravestones which had pictures of deceased women without veils.

The director of the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, Saeed Ghazanfari, had stated that the procedure will continue in the future "in accordance with the opinion of [religious] scholars" until all the gravestones with such pictures are removed.

The Iranian regime has also closed at least 2,000 businesses since late March for female customers or staff refusing to wear compulsory hijab, while tens of thousands have lost their jobs.

On April 25, hardliner media outlets reported that some businesses, mainly restaurants and cafes, owned by celebrity artists and popular footballers have been shut down or received warnings over defiance of hijab rules by their staff and customers.

The recent campaign to enforce hijab rules has caused some violent incidents involving pro-hijab vigilantes and women who defy it.

Nonetheless, various conservative groups prepare for the parliamentary election in March 2024 and get together on an almost daily basis, discussing probable alliances.

Divides among conservatives were noted by the media when Majles Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf's supporters in February accused the ultraconservative Paydari Party of using the controversy over hijab for political gain as the next election nears. 

During the 2020 parliamentary elections, and Presidential election of 2021 conservatives at least pretended to be united in the absence of their reformist rivals. 

According to Etemad Online, Conservative figurehead and former Majles Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel warned in March against divides and infighting within the conservative front and suggested that various groups should forget about their differences in the interest of unity of the "revolutionary front." 

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According to the website, when the Society To Promote Popular Institutions of the Islamic Revolution emerged as a conservative alliance in February, it was clearly the same alliance that was called JAMNA (Persian acronym for the Popular Front of Islamic Revolutionary Forces) in 2017, which was led by Haddad Adel. 

The alliance was mainly consisting of IRGC-linked Isargaran and Rahpouyan groups. Like 2017, the group once again claimed to be the leading conservative group. Regardless of the word "revolutionary" in its name, the group is a traditional conservative entity. The group's rhetoric, however, looks like the fashionable revolutionary discourse promoted by Paydari, a younger and more aggressive group. Its leading figures are Haddad Adel, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani and current lawmaker Zohreh Elahian. 

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According to Etemad Online, it is evident that decisions about the group and its strategy are made in secret darkrooms rather than transparent congresses. The group is also said to be a rebranded version of SHANA (Coalition Council of Revolutionary Forces), another name for the same group, once again with the code word "revolutionary" which means a group that aligns itself with Khamenei's radical anti-US stance. 

However, as a tactic to reduce the significance of Ghalibaf's neo-con allies while giving him prominence as an individual, Haddad Adel is giving the leadership of the group to Ghalibaf, who knows that he has little chance if he remains just as the leader of his neo-con group. 

Another conservative group, SHARIAN, the Strategic Network of Supporters of the Islamic Revolution, was established in March with the presence of Vice President Mohammad Mokhber and Roads Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash, firebrand anti-US cleric Mahmoud Nabavian and former hard-line lawmaker Hamid Rasai. 

This group's members are known as younger conservatives. Meanwhile, a report in Khabar Online featured photos and a long list of the leading members of the Sharian group mainly to show that they are much younger. The website tagged the next parliamentary election in Iran as a competition between young and old conservatives.  

The third group is the notoriously non-conformist Paydari which consists of relatively younger anti-US politicians who have so far defied any alliances in almost every election since 2009. They support a totalitarian Islamic government as opposed to an Islamic Republic which at least pretends to be adhering to some democratic principles. They hold the majority in the current parliament where they ratified reactionary laws against Internet freedom and women's rights. 

The group's membership is not transparent. Many members do not openly show affiliation with the Paydari Party, and some others at times distance themselves from the party although it is public knowledge at the parliament that they belong to Paydari. 

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There are also smaller groups such as those who are affiliated with former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the supporters of former Speaker Ali Larijani but they are not big in numbers. 

Other groups running for the Majles include traditional parties such as the extremely unpopular Islamic Coalition Party and the allies of former President Hassan Rouhani. The latter group is said to be operating under the leadership of former Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, a "moderate" politicians who is known for his remarks after the violent crackdown on the 2019 protests: "It is a lie that we only shot the protesters in the head. We shot some in the leg." 

However, following the unresolved issues after the 2022 protests, there are every indication that the turnout in the March 2024 could be even less than the elections in 2020 and 2021, which were as low as 20 percent in some big cities. 

Amir-Abdollahian, who visited Lebanon on Friday, alleged in a press conference that the Islamic Republic and the United States had agreed to exchange prisoners "13 months ago".

"They introduced an English diplomat lady as a representative. Regarding how to exchange prisoners, an agreement was signed," added Amir-Abdollahian.

However, hours later, the Deputy Spokesperson of the US Ministry of Foreign Affairs said he had no new update to offer in this regard.

“Any comment by Iranian officials …is inaccurate. I would say that most things that come from the Iranian regime I would take with a grain of salt,” Vedant Patel told a press briefing late on Friday.

The Biden administration officials in March also categorically denied Iranian claims that a prisoner swap deal had been reached.

“Statements from Iranian officials that a deal regarding the exchange of prisoners has been reached are another especially cruel lie that only adds to the suffering of their families,” State Department former spokesperson Ned Price told CNN.

A prisoner exchange deal always seemed to be intertwined with a nuclear agreement with the US, but long negotiations in 2021 and 2022 to restore the JCPOA accord limiting Iran's nuclear program failed to reach fruition.

Iran has been accused by Western governments and human rights organizations of detaining Western citizens as hostages to extract concessions.

In a statement on Friday, the EU urged the Islamic Republic to refrain from carrying out Sharmahd's death sentence, repeal it and ensure he receives the basic rights to which he is entitled under international law without delay.

“The death penalty violates the inalienable right to life enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment,” reads the statement.

Earlier this week, Iran’s judiciary approved the death sentence of Sharmahd, for alleged involvement in terrorism.

Masoud Setayeshi, the spokesman of the judiciary, announced the news of the high-profile case in a press conference on Wednesday.

The news of Sharmahd’s kidnapping in Dubai and transfer to Tehran by regime agents was first released in August 2020. He was accused of heading a pro-monarchist group, Kingdom Assembly of Iran, behind a deadly 2008 bombing and planning other alleged attacks across the country.

Based in Los Angeles, the little-known group seeks to restore the Iranian monarchy that was overthrown by the 1979 Islamic revolution. It also runs pro-Iranian opposition radio and television stations abroad.

Since his arrest, human rights organizations have warned of 67-year-old Sharmahd’s deteriorating health. Sharmahd, who also holds US residency, has been held in solitary confinement and was denied an independent attorney and fair legal procedures. In February, Iran's judiciary sentenced him to death.