Councillor Says Angry Iranians Attack Officials On Sight

Referring to a Swedish court’s sentencing of former Iranian jailor Hamid Nouri to life imprisonment over executions of political prisoners in 1988, Hossein Shariatmadari, whose newspaper Kayhan is believed to reflect Ali Khamenei’s views, said on Wednesday, "When Iranians aren’t safe in EU, why should EU citizens be safe in Iran?"

He urged authorities to remove obstacles for “punishing Sweden in a regrettable way”.

Earlier in the day, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani called the court “a show” in line with “purification of a terrorist organization,” adding that the court violates the rights of an Iranian citizen as well as Iran's sovereignty. Sweden must stop supporting this terrorist group, referring to Albania-based opposition group, Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK). 

Iran accused Sweden of giving into pressure by the MEK that Tehran considers a terrorist organization. Most of the approximately 5,000 prisoners summarily executed in prisons were members of MEK serving their sentences.

Nouri -- a former deputy prosecutor at Gohardasht Prison in Karaj at the time of the killings -- 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.” 

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.

Ministry spokesman Naser Kanaani said, “We definitely expect that respected foreign ambassadors residing in Tehran do not comment and intervene on Iran's internal issues.”

Iranian media have often perceived Levan Dzhagaryan's (Jagarian) controversial behavior as intervention in Iran's internal affairs or as flat insults although he does not seem to be bothered by the accusations.

Kanaani added that the foreign ministry is absolutely sensitive to these issues and will act based on its inherent responsibility.

“We must refrain from fueling issues that cause unnecessary problems in our relations with our neighbors,” he emphasized. “We must read Dzhagaryan's statements carefully and see how much his opinion is consistent with his statements.”

On social media and recently in Tehran media, however, Iranians have been demanding an answer to the ambassador's outrageous and provocative remarks. 

“Where are the government and the foreign ministry?" Khabar Online, a moderate conservative news outlet in Tehran asked on Sunday, July 17, after Dzhagarian told Sharq newspaper a day earlier that "We have always been on Iran's side, but the West want to bring their absurd values such as homosexuality and other dirty things to Iran but we object to that!"

Many Iranians on social media reminded the ambassador that Russia is a large producer of pornography in the world.

John Kirby, the White House's chief National Security Council spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday, “I would say three things about this trip. One it shows the degree to which Mr. Putin and Russia are increasingly isolated. Now they have to turn to Iran for help.”

“Two, it shows the degree to which his own defense industrial base is having a hard time keeping up with his unprovoked war in Ukraine,” he went on, highlighting Russia’s troubles regarding precision guided munitions and advanced systems, tanks, even aircraft, particularly with the microelectronics due to the sanctions and export controls. He said the pace of operations in Ukraine has also become a challenge. 

Kirby said the third thing is Russia “has absolutely no intention of stopping the war” and negotiating a settlement with Ukraine, because he wants to buy several hundred UAVs from Iran “to continue to kill Ukrainians.” Putting prefers to turn to Iran rather than just doing the right thing... and ending the war, he added. 

However, Kirby said there is no indication yet that the sale has actually occurred, and that Iran has started training Russian forces to use armed drones, referring to remarks by Jake Sullivan, the US National Security Adviser, who said last week that Tehran planned to supply “several hundred UAVs, including weapons-capable UAVs, on an expedited timeline.”

He said the US is watching the situation closely, as “the Iranians have a domestic production capability of drones and those drones have lethal capabilities. We've seen that for ourselves in the attacks that they have perpetrated in Iraq and in Syria against our own troops and against our own facilities there.”

The intelligence organization of the IRGC made the accusation in a statement on Monday about Zahra Mansouri Hamdani, also known as Sareh, who was previously arrested on charges linked to an appearance in a BBC documentary on gay rights in Iraqi Kurdistan. 

The statement described her "the leader of the biggest gang of Iranian girls trafficking to Erbil,” saying that following months of surveillance, the IRGC intelligence tracked her to the trafficking gangs that had “sold hundreds of Iranian women and girls” to customers in Erbil. 

The IRGC also accuses her of promoting homosexuality, gambling and fraud as well as de-stigmatization of illicit sexual relations in cyberspace. 

The organization added that her gang was run in collaboration with a man identified as "Alireza Farjadi-Kia" and another woman that goes only by the name "Kati".

She was arrested while trying to cross the border and seek asylum in Turkey on October 27, 2021. She was held in solitary confinement for 53 days, during which, the Revolutionary Guard subjected her to intense interrogations, insulted her identity and appearance, threatened to execute her and to take away custody of her children. On January 16, Sareh was accused of “spreading corruption on earth,” including through "promoting homosexuality”, “communication with anti-Islamic Republic media channels” and “promoting Christianity.”

Rights group Amnesty International appealed to Iran’s Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei on January 25, calling for release. 

The current worth of Russia’s contracts in Iran's oil and gas fields is $4 billion, but Iran’s state news agency IRNA says if the new MoU leads to any contracts, Moscow’s total investment will increase 10-fold to $40 billion.

The agreement, as announced by the oil ministry’s Shana news agency, covers development of the Kish and North Pars gas-fields, as well as six oil fields.

It was penned during an online ceremony by the companies’ chief executives on the day Vladimir Putin arrives for a three-way summit with Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The most significant aspect of the Gazprom-NIOC memorandum for Iran may be access to technology for LNG (liquid natural gas), which Tehran once hoped to access through agreements with western majors, especially Total, that withdrew in the face of United States ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions after 2018.

North Pars has around 33,000 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas, and Kish gas-field 8,300 bcf. Both are currently at the feasibility stage.

While Iran has the world’s second largest gas reserves after Russia, it has been slow to develop its fields and boost exports in the face of sanctions.

Putin’s visit is being watched close with the expectation of closer links between Moscow and Tehran, boosting trade from just $4 billion in 2021, with both subject to international sanctions and as the Ukraine crisis pushes up global oil and food prices.