Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan faces irreversible collapse as Hamoun wetlands dry up

The gatherings followed a first wave of commemorations the previous day.

In Toronto, Hamed Esmaeilion, a board member of the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims, told demonstrators: “Who is more deserving than the people of Iran to determine the fate of the country? Who is more deserving than the people of Iran to bring the perpetrators of crimes to trial? Who is more deserving than the people of Iran to drag Khamenei and other criminal clerics out of hiding?”

Amini, 22, died on September 16, 2022, after being detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating mandatory hijab rules. Her death sparked months of unrest in which at least 551 protesters, including 68 children, were killed, according to rights groups, and thousands detained.

Voices in London

Several rallies also took place in London, called by around 15 political and civil groups. Videos sent to Iran International showed protesters chanting the names of Mahsa Amini and others killed in the 2022 protests.

Mahsa Piraei, daughter of protest victim Minou Majidi, addressed one gathering. “Today we have come together to shout the names of the victims and not let their memory be forgotten, because what dictatorships do is erase memories. We are heirs to a wounded truth, and we will not let the Islamic Republic bury justice,” she said.

Protests worldwide

Events were held in The Hague, Brussels, Frankfurt, Nicosia, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Auckland, Calgary, Montreal, Los Angeles, and Washington.

In Sydney, demonstrators urged the Australian government to designate the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, days after Canberra closed Iran’s embassy and expelled its diplomats over involvement in terror operations.

Alongside the street demonstrations, a two-day National Dialogue for Iran conference was convened in Washington. The 13-panel event gathered former political prisoners, journalists, activists, and victims of state violence.

Participants included former US State Department spokesperson Alan Eyre, German MEP Hannah Neumann, Swedish-Iranian MP Alireza Akhundi. Writers and activists such as Nazanin Afshin-Jam, Nazanin Boniadi, Azar Nafisi, and Atena Daemi joined, alongside Iranian journalists and survivors of eye injuries sustained during protests.

On Saturday, Iranians in Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Cyprus, Canada, and the United States had also rallied to mark the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s killing in morality police custody.

Iran had 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% before the Israeli and US airstrikes in June, according to the UN nuclear watchdog.

While the international community has been pressing Iran to disclose the whereabouts of the near weapons-grade stocks, The Jerusalem Post says Mossad knows their location and could intervene if Tehran tried to make any new dangerous moves with the uranium.

On Thursday, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi acknowledged that Iran’s inventory of highly enriched uranium is buried under rubble following the strikes.

Araghchi’s comments came after the UN nuclear watchdog warned that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is “a matter of serious concern,” saying the agency has no visibility country’s activities since the June strikes on its nuclear facilities.

However, unnamed Israeli defense officials cited by the Jerusalem post believe that even if Iran immediately began rebuilding the bombed components of its nuclear program, it would take roughly two years before it could attempt to produce a nuclear weapon.

Female Mossad agents in Iran

Dozens of female Mossad agents were deployed inside Iran during Israel’s June strikes on Tehran’s nuclear and missile programs, The Jerusalem Post report said citing unnamed sources.

The report added Mossad Director David Barnea viewed the women’s role during the 12-day conflict as “very substantial.”

While their exact activities remain classified, the Post said that the spy agency has increasingly assigned women to all types of missions, from surveillance to kinetic operations.

The report added that Barnea sent hundreds of agents, including Iranian dissidents recruited by Mossad, into operations in Iran simultaneously. Targets included radar platforms, ballistic missiles, and sites struck by Israeli jets.

Javad Mortazavi, who ran a marriage registration office in Behbahan, was in a temporary marriage with his secretary for several years before she married another man.

After her marriage, Mortazavi invited the husband to his office, laced his drink with sedatives, and fatally stabbed him in March 2023, HRANA said.

The cleric was put to death in Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz.

100%

In a 2023 report, Iranian newspaper Etemad said that Mortazavi had invited the woman’s husband to his office under the pretext of handing over a marriage certificate and killed him by poisoning his coffee.

The report said another account suggested he first drugged the man unconscious and then stabbed him to death on a street in Behbahan.

Some reports claimed Mortazavi even led the funeral prayer over the body before burying the victim in a deserted area, according to Etemad.

At least 818 people, including 21 women, have been executed in Iran this year in Iran according to HRANA.

Iran accounted for 64% of all known global executions in 2024, with at least 972 people executed, according to Amnesty International.

Panahi added that she continues to live on through acts of defiance and calls for freedom, as he marked the third anniversary of her death which ignited nationwide protests.

“When they took her life, a veil of lies was lifted and a generation rose up that decided to remain silent no longer,” Panahi said in a post on Instagram.

“With killings and intimidation, they wanted to impose silence, but a greater cry echoed. Since that day, nothing has been the same…We are no longer those former people. The blood of Mahsa and hundreds of others does not allow anything to appear normal again."

“Mahsa has not died; she lives in every defiant glance, in every image that breaks censorship, in every cry demanding freedom. She breathes in the eyes of the girls who have let their hair fly in the wind,” he said.

Panahi, who has faced imprisonment and a 15-year travel ban for his outspoken criticism of the Islamic Republic, received the Palme d’Or at the 78th Cannes Film Festival earlier this year in May.

In his acceptance speech, he urged unity among Iranians striving for democracy: "Let's set aside our differences. The important thing now is the freedom of our country, so that no one would dare to tell us what to wear or what film to make."

Panahi, one of Iran’s most acclaimed directors, was arrested in July 2022 after he protested against the arrest of two fellow filmmakers who had voiced criticism of the authorities. He was sentenced to six years in prison before being released on bail in early 2023.

Among the tasks Elimelech Stern was given was to place a sheep's head in a box of flowers in front of the home of Israel’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ronen Shaul, in June amid the war with Iran.

The court heard that the 22-year-old was in contact via the Telegram app with a handler named Anna Elena, who paid him in cryptocurrency.

"The defendant went to stores and asked to buy a sheep's head, but it was not available. He informed 'Anna' that he could not find an animal's head, and 'Anna' told him to buy a whole sheep," the indictment said. In the end, Stern pulled out of the task fearing the legal repercussions.

The court ruled that Stern was aware that he was talking to a foreign agent.

For other tasks such as hanging adverts given to him, which included flyers with hands covered in blood, with a caption that read, “It will go down in history that children were killed [in Gaza], let us stand on the right side of history”, the young man recruited two additional Israeli citizens whom he paid.

The investigation found that he agreed to carry out most of the tasks, with the exception of murder and burning a forest.

The indictment said that Stern was also asked to break a car window, or set fire to a car during a demonstration -- and to send a video of it. The handler promised him $500 for each window he broke, and $3,000 for each vehicle he set on fire.

"The defendant asked 'Anna' whether to go to the demonstrations on the right or left side of the political map, and 'Anna' replied that it did not matter. She also suggested that he break the glass of a store window during a demonstration in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem," the indictment said.

The case is among the first to reach court after a wave of espionage cases surfaced in Israel since the Gaza war, in which dozens of Israelis were accused of taking money to spy for Iran.

In some cases, they involved plotting to murder top political, security and military officials.

Stern's lawyer requested a probationary service memorandum at the hearing on Sunday to see if it was possible to give him only community service.

Israeli courts have previously convicted citizens of contacts with Iranian intelligence. In 2019, former cabinet minister Gonen Segev was sentenced to 11 years in prison after admitting to spying for Iran.

More recently, in April, 72-year-old Moti Maman received a 10-year sentence after acknowledging contact with an Iranian agent.