Iran hackers passed purloined Trump info to Biden camp - US agencies

The museum, overseen by Tehran's municipality, is now embroiled in a scandal that raises questions about corruption and negligence at the highest levels.

Naser Amani, a member of Tehran's city council, revealed the situation on Monday, estimating that just one of the missing works alone was valued at 300 billion rials (approximately $500,000).

During a city council session, he announced that 30 priceless paintings had vanished after being loaned out for a supposed exhibition—an exhibition that never took place.

Amani’s revelations have stirred outrage as the council member underscored the municipality's legal responsibility to protect public assets. Despite repeated inquiries, officials have failed to provide any explanation or accountability.

"We’ve tried to follow up on this, but not only have we not received a report, no one has provided a clear answer about where the valuable artworks are,” Amani lamented.

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This latest scandal is far from an isolated incident. Iran has seen a pattern of negligence and outright theft involving its artistic and historical treasures under the Islamic Republic’s governance. From carpets stolen from the Sa’dabad Palace to now-missing paintings, critics argue that corruption and a lack of oversight are enabling the plunder of Iran’s cultural heritage.

The report brings further attention to the gravity of the issue, noting that while 14 of the artworks have already been sold in Dubai, home to as many as half a million Iranians, there may still be hope for the remaining 16 pieces which have not yet surfaced in any known markets. The question remains, however: where are these priceless works, and in whose hands have they fallen?

"Most of the artworks have been sold at prices significantly lower than their real value and the Iranian art market prices,” added the Sanadegi publication.

The sale of Iranian cultural artifacts in foreign markets has long been a point of contention. Many believe that these "disappearances" are not just the result of bureaucratic mismanagement but could be linked to operations involving the black market.

Some users on social media have even accused officials of profiting from the sales, suggesting a deliberate neglect of the country's cultural assets.

The fate of the 30 missing paintings is just one chapter in a broader narrative of how Iran’s cultural heritage is being systematically undermined. The theft of 48 handwoven carpets from Sa’dabad Palace between 2013 and 2016 is another glaring example of the government's inability—or unwillingness—to protect national treasures.

The plot escalated following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, according to Shin Bet.

The Iranian scheme also included plans to target former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and other senior Israeli defense figures, although the details have not been confirmed.

The operation sought to exploit an Israeli businessman with extensive ties to both Turkey and Iran, leveraging his financial networks to facilitate the assassination attempts within Israel. The businessman was indicted on Thursday.

In April, Turkish citizens Andrei Farouk Aslan and Guneid Aslan contacted an Israeli businessman, involving him in financial transactions and inviting him to a meeting in the Turkish city of Samandag, according to the Jerusalem Post.

At the meeting, he was asked to travel to Iran where he met with a wealthy Iranian named Wadi and an Iranian security official named Haj. The Jewish businessman initially requested $1 million before agreeing to participate.

In August, during a second smuggled trip to Iran, he received €5,000 and was tasked with logistical and weapons-related activities for a plot, including converting a Mossad agent into a double agent and assisting in assassination plans against Israeli leaders.

He was also asked to film Israeli sites for intelligence purposes and deliver threats to Israelis working for Iran who weren't following orders.

Additionally, the businessman was approached about recruiting Russians and Americans to assassinate Iranian dissidents living in Europe and the US.

Last year, Mossad intelligence chief, David Barnea, revealed Israel had foiled multiple plots against Jewish or Israeli targets around the world but this is the highest level assassination attempt on Israeli soil.

It comes as Israel and Iran continue their shadow war, Iran's proxies surrounding the Jewish state with attacks from Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq amid the war in Gaza against Iran-backed Hamas.

For over a decade, Iran has been recruiting Israelis to carry out plots inside Israel. Most recently, in July, three Israelis were arrested for supporting a plot paid for by Iran.

In his recent note from Evin Prison entitled “New Era or Mirage” , the former advisor to reformist President Mohammad Khatami has outlined a long list of fundamental political and social reforms that only Khamenei can authorize. Without these changes, he believes, no real progress is possible.

These reforms include ending the Revolutionary Guard’s involvement in politics, economy, and diplomacy and a revision of the Constitution that would limit the powers of the Supreme Leader and his appointed bodies.

“I believe that changing governments without a shift in leadership strategies will not resolve the country’s issues or ensure the welfare of its citizens,” Tajzadeh asserted in his note. He also expressed support for some of the recent steps taken by Pezeshkian’s government, including several appointments.

He also insisted that Khamenei must make peace with the United States and end proxy wars in the region and give priority to the country’s economic and technological development in the same way that the first leader of the Islamic Republic, Ruhollah Khomeini, accepted UN Resolution 598, ending an eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s.

Khomeini famously referred to the acceptance of the Resolution as drinking a “chalice of poison”.

Tajzadeh’s note comes amid ongoing debates among Iran's 'reformists' about whether Pezeshkian’s presidency marks a ‘new era’ or if his ‘national unity’ government—which he claims has Khamenei’s approval—is merely a scapegoat that will bear the blame if the country’s deep-rooted economic issues remain unresolved.

Prominent reformist journalist and politician Abbas Abdi is the leading proponent of the idea of a ‘new era’ with Pezeshkian’s presidency. Abdi argues that Khamenei has accepted the necessity of change and insists that reformists like Tajzadeh should not make ‘radical’ demands that may put him off.

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Last week, Abdi called on the authorities to release Tajzadeh, who has been serving an eight-year sentence for his political activities over the past two years. This appeal came after Tajzadeh was informed of a new five-year sentence. Abdi himself has been convicted of “spreading lies and writing against the Constitution” and is currently awaiting sentencing.

There are also those who argue that Khamenei did not allow Pezeshkian—endorsed by most reformists—to win the Presidency in order to usher in a new era, and that he had no intention of initiating fundamental political, cultural, and social reforms.

Instead, they believe, the Supreme Leader only wants difficult and unavoidable economic "surgeries" including increasing the prices of fuel, electricity, and other subsidized commodities and services to be carried out by Pezeshkian’s government.

According to Tajzadeh, these critics argue that everyone—especially the ruling establishment—will benefit if the new government succeeds in making and implementing "difficult economic decisions." They suggest that if the government succeeds, the Leader will avoid criticism, while reformists will bear the blame if it fails.

Tajzadeh warned Khamenei in his note that he must never think he can “survive through crises” by giving a share in government to reformists and by implementing the difficult economic reforms that he knows cannot be avoided “without fundamental political, cultural, social, and diplomatic changes.”

Those sanctioned include members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and officials from Iran’s Prisons Organization who played a role in suppressing widespread protests that followed the death of a young Iranian woman in September 2022.

“Two years have now passed since Mahsa Amini’s tragic death in the custody of Iran’s so-called ‘Morality Police,’ and, despite the Iranian people’s peaceful calls for reform, Iran’s leaders have doubled down on the regime’s well-worn tactics of violence and coercion,” said a senior Treasury official on Wednesday.

Top on the new sanctions list are four senior IRGC personnel who supervised crackdowns in four Iranian provinces, named as Hamid Khorramdel, Mustafa Bazvand, Ali Malek-Shahkoui and Saeed Beheshti-Rad.

“In cities all over Iran, IRGC units have used lethal force against protestors, arrested people for political expression, and attempted to intimidate the Iranian people through violence,” the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said.

Also on the list are two IRGC and intelligence officials who allegedly targeted critics of the Islamic Republic abroad and four prison officials from three other provinces where dozens of prisoners were executed for drug offenses which even per Iranian law do not rise to the level of capital punishment.

The new measure has been coordinated with Canada and Australia and builds on multiple rounds of U.S. sanctions since the 2022 protests in Iran.

"The center of gravity is moving from Gaza to the north through the diversion of resources and forces. We are opening a new phase in the war," Gallant said.

The remarks came as explosions targeting communication devices owned by Hezbollah fighters rocked Lebanon for a second day, killing nearly thirty people in total and injuring over 3,000 including Tehran's ambassador to Beirut Mojtaba Amini.

Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attacks but Hezbollah blames the Jewish state and has vowed revenge.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel will ensure that tens of thousands of residents evacuated from northern border areas will be able to go back home.

"I have said it before; we will return the citizens of the north to their homes safely and that's exactly what we are going to do," he said in a brief video statement, giving no further details.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese citizens have also fled their homes since the start of cross-border combat since Hezbollah began trading fire with Israeli forces following the attack of their Palestinian allies Hamas on Israel on October 7.

Israel emphasized securing its frontier with Lebanon as a key war goal and equipped border forces with thousands of advanced new rifles on Monday, a day before an apparent Israeli attack detonated pagers carried by Hezbollah members across Lebanon.

"We still have many capabilities that we have not yet activated," Israeli army chief General Herzi Halevi told top commanders on a visit to Israel's north on Wednesday

"The rule is that every time we work on a certain stage, the next two stages are already ready to advance. At each stage, the price for Hezbollah must be higher."