Iranian Politicians, Pundits Question Drones For Russia

The attack by the IRGC left more than 90 unarmed Baluch citizens dead as reported by human rights watchdogs in Iran and abroad. The comments by the Sunni leader came as EU and US officials are reportedly considering sanctions against Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi for violations of human rights.

Sunnis in Iran comprising at least 10 percent of the population have had a rocky relationship with the Shiite clerical regime for four decades. Abdolhamid has often complained of systemic discrimination by the government, to the extent that Sunnis are not permitted to have a proper mosque in the capital Tehran.

In his sermons on Friday, October 21, Mawlana Abdolhamid said: "Beating and killing the people is not the solution to the provinces problems." He further reminded that "No one can evade their responsibility for the massacre of the people of Zahedan," and reiterated that all top Iranian officials, particularly Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who is the commander of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) are also directly responsible for the massacre.

Responding to the allegations that those who were killed were armed, Mawlana Abdolhamid asked: "If the people in the mosque were armed, how many of you [the security forces] have been killed?" The Sunni leader then reiterated that "The people of Baluchistan have been the victims of discrimination for 43 years," that is since the 1979 Islamic revolution that brought Shiite clerics to power in Iran.

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Meanwhile, reminding President Ebrahim Raisi that he and millions of his followers supported him in the 2021 presidential election and helped him rise to power, Abdolhamid told Raisi: "You got the people's vote and even did not try to condole them" after the massacre. Mawlana's remarks were summarized in an October 21 tweet in his Twitter account.

Saying that "plainclothes officers shot unarmed people in the head or heart," Mawlana Abdolhamid characterized the massacre of Sunnis in Zahedan as "a catastrophe and an unprecedent major act of oppression" in his remarks on October 2, a few days after the attack. He also stated that IRGC special force units were placed at the local police station before the attack.

The religious leader said that a group of youngsters threw stones at the police station before the deadly attack started. "In return, the special units shot those youngsters as well as others."

The Belgium-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHR NGO) condemned the massacre in a strongly worded statement calling the attack a "crime against humanity." At the same time, IRGC-linked Tasnim news agency claimed that five IRGC members were also killed during the attack.

Responding to Mawlana Abdolhamid's sermons on Friday, Majid Mirahmadi, the Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs said on Saturday that "Mawlana Abdolhamid's remarks were provocative."

He added that "after the sermons, some 150 local thugs attacked Sunni people's cars and shops, but the situation was quickly controlled." He said “Mawlana's statements were regrettable because counter-revolutionaries and the enemies of the country's security took advantage of them."

Judiciary’s Deputy Kazem Gharibabadi said on Saturday that Iran International, BBC Persian and all their personnel have to be added to the list of terrorist groups and individuals.

He further threatened that legal measures will be taken against these TV channels that are beaming programs into Iran.

“These two TV networks are directing and inciting riots in Iran through promoting terrorist actions and encouraging people to destroy public and private property,” noting that they are providing training on how to provoke conflicts and make relevant equipment.

Iran has been harassing journalists of foreign-based Persian media for more than a decade, threatening their families in Iran and confiscating some property. The targeted media outlets are the BBC Persian, Manoto TV, Iran International, the US financed Voice of America and Radio Farda.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Gharibabadi accused the UK and Saudi Arabia of supporting the Persian-speaking TV channels.

On Monday, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Hossein Salami also threatened Riyadh over the coverage of nationwide protests in Iran by the media it allegedly controls.

Salami claimed that Saudis are trying to provoke the Iranian youth, threatening that if they do not control their media the consequences will be unavoidable.

Syunik includes Armenia’s narrow southern strip called Zangezur where it has a land border with Iran and it launched a free trade zone there in 2017 to attract more investments to boost its exports to Iran.

Azerbaijan backed by Turkey demands a transit corridor through Syunik province to have access to its Nakhichevan Autonomous region without Armenian checkpoints.

However, Yerevan objects to the concept saying that it is a breach of the ceasefire signed after 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, that Azerbaijan won, taking back vast territories that Armenia had conquered in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in the early 1990s.

Iran supports Yerevan in this dispute as it might lose its only joint border with its de facto ally Armenia and Caucasus.

During the opening of its consulate on Friday in Syunik’s capital city of Kapan, the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that Tehran will not accept any changes to historical borders in the region.

“That is our redline and we will take all steps to resist every such intention,” noted Amir-Abdollahian.

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Meanwhile a deputy commander of Revolutionary Guard said on Friday that Iran would respond to any move threatening its land corridor to Europe.

“Azerbaijan achieved what it was looking for, and Karabakh was liberated, and we also congratulated it, but today, if there is any aggression we will deal with it,” threatened Ali Akbar Jamshidian.

On the other hand, Azerbaijan and Turkey also inaugurated an international airport here Thursday in Zangilan near Iran-Armenia border.

This is the second airport run in the territories Azerbaijan retook after the 2020 war with Armenia. Last year, another airport was inaugurated in Fizuli in the same region.

At this event, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said concerns by some circles are not accepted over the land corridor Ankara and Baku seek.

Apparently referring to Iran, Erdogan said “In my opinion, fears and worries among some circles about the Zangezur Corridor, which will connect Nakhchivan to Azerbaijan, are unfounded. There is no place for such fears after the steps taken in all Karabakh.”

Earlier this week Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) launched a large-scale military drill in the northwestern region of Aras along the borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

In September 2021 tensions flared up between Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan after Baku arrested two Iranian truck drivers, accusing them of going to Nagorno Karabakh that lies within its international borders.

The tensions led to military drills by each side and political mudslinging, including Iranian accusations that Azerbaijan allows an Israeli military and intelligence presence on its territory.

According to these reports the Softqloud GmbH company in the city of Meerbusch, near Dusseldorf, is helping Iranian regime to run its intranet known as the national information network.

The research by Taz and Netzpolitik as well as Correctiv research center said that Softqloud GmbH is a branch of Arvancloud or Abr Arvan, an Iranian company which helps to disconnect the internet in Iran. It is not even clear if Softqloud has any other contracts in Germany or is simply a front company.

In an interview on Thursday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called the case “very surprising” and said security officials would investigate the matter.

The German foreign minister said that if the allegations are true, it could have punitive consequences.

According to this joint research, Softqloud GmbH is one of the four digital connection gates that connect Iran to the global Internet.

This company has set up several data centers in Europe which can guarantee the operation of the intranet in Iran in case of internet shutdown by Iran’s government.

In the past years, Abr Arvan was criticized by many people on social networks due to signing an agreement with the Iranian government to censor the Internet.

The reported project is about the Iran Cloud project, which is intended to help build the national Intranet and further isolate the country from the global network. That would mean that Abr Arvan is involved in setting up internet censorship and surveillance in Iran.

However, Arvancloud has rejected its involvement in the censorship saying that “A cloud service provider is not able to play a role in censorship of the Internet, neither in Iran nor in any other part of the world.”

It further said that the German company was an “international partner”, and this contract was terminated by Softqloud on September 30, 2022.

Arvancloud did not provide any further information on the reasons of termination and the German company Softqloud is yet to respond.

If these accusations are true, it could mean that European firms have facilitated the oppression of Iranian citizens.

While this report could have wide repercussions around the world, the Iranian regime keeps using the Internet to launch disruptive acts to hack information.

The FBI on Thursday announced it has obtained information that an Iranian cyber group called Emennet Pasargad has conducted hack-and-leak cyber operations.

The FBI says since at least 2020, Emennet targeted entities primarily in Israel with cyber-enabled information operations that included an initial intrusion, theft and subsequent leak of data, followed by amplification through social media and online forums, and in some cases the deployment of destructive encryption malware.

Although Emennet’s latest attacks have primarily targeted Israel, the FBI warns the company could attack US entities like in 2020 when Emennet targeted the US Presidential election.

In another development, The US Department of State released a statement on Thursday condemning Iran’s restrictions to internet access during nationwide protests over the death of Mahsa Amini last month.

“The United States is pleased to join the Freedom Online Coalition’s consensus Joint Statement on Internet Shutdowns in Iran,” reads the statement.

The Freedom Online Coalition is made up of 34 governments that collaborate to advance internet freedom worldwide.

The October 20-21 meeting of the European Council, the EU policy-making body made up of its 27 heads of state, will review Iran’s involvement in the Ukraine war after disagreements yesterday over proposals to price-cap Russian energy exports in the face of spiraling prices.

Among ideas circulating is a proposal made Friday by Estonian Prime Kaja Kallas to establish as special tribunal to consider Russian “aggression.” But it is unclear if the EU will take further action against Iran or Russia over the alleged supply of Iranian drones (UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicles).

After Josep Borrell Monday said the EU needed evidence before acting, a closed-door United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting Wednesday reviewed available information.

The EU and the United Kingdom Thursday sanctioned three Iranian military commanders and a defense company over allegedly supplying drones to Russia. This followed the US imposition of sanctions in September on four companies it said were either involved in supplying Russia or in copying US and Israeli drones.

US, French and British officials have argued that any supply of Iranian drones to Russia violates UNSC Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). While the US left the JCPOA in 2018 and while State Department spokesman Ned Price said Thursday the agreement’s revival was “largely academic at the moment,” the US argues that Resolution 2231 precludes Iran from exporting drones until October 2023. Price said Thursday that Washington considered it “important that the UN and every responsible UN member state stand by the various Security Council resolutions.”

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‘All means…to confront’

US officials argued Thursday not just that Iran had sent military personnel to train Russia in using Iranian-made drones. In a separate media briefing, John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, said Russian military personnel remotely piloting drones used in Ukraine were based in Crimea. Kirby said the US would use “all means” to “confront Iran’s provision of these munitions against the Ukrainian people.”

“We assess that Iranian personnel, Iranian military personnel, were on the ground in Crimea and assisted Russia in these operations,” Price said at a separate media briefing. “Russia has received dozens of these UAVs…. some of ..[the] proof was put on display before the UN Security Council yesterday.”

Price claimed that Moscow “may also seek to acquire advanced conventional weapons from Iran that includes potentially surface-to-air missiles.” He also warned China it would incur “costs” if it chose to provide security assistance, military assistance, or otherwise to systematically help Russia evade sanctions.”

Ukraine can use the issue of Iranian drones to ask for more Western military assistance, so far totaling around $17 billion from the US, including 1,400 Stinger missiles, and $3.1 billion from the EU, including howitzers. Washington has refused to supply more advanced weapons so as not to escalate the conflict, believing its current approach can drain Russia’s ability to conduct the war. Drones, while of limited military value, are far cheaper than missiles.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted Thursday he had discussed with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid a request for missile defense assistance. Israel has so far refused to aid Ukraine militarily so as not to upset its relations with Russia.