UN To Follow Up On Iran Supplying Drones To Russia

Antony Blinken, the Secretary of State, released a statement saying Washington would “continue to impose costs on individuals and entities in Iran who engage in the brutal repression of the Iranian people.”

The US Treasury, in a separate statement, said it was sanctioning officials in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, including its intelligence chief, and prisoner governors including Hedayet Farzadi, whom it named as warden of Tehran’s Evin prison, which has housed dual-national prisoners including still-held businessman Siamak Namazi. Heshmatollah Hayat Al-Ghaib, director-general for prisons in Tehran province, was also named.

The Treasury cited two officials in the south-east province of Sistan-Baluchistan, where Iranian security forces killed more than 80 Baluch residents during protests on September 30. Blinken’s statement cited Mohammed Reza Mirheydary, “chief of police in Isfahan Province…for his involvement in gross violations of human rights, namely the cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of peaceful protestors during the November 2021 protests in Isfahan.” The Secretary of State noted that Mirheydary was now ineligible for entry into the US.

‘Disrupting communication’

The Treasury Department designated the Ravin Academy, which it said “trains individuals in cyber-security and hacking,” as well as Samane Gostar Sahab Pardaz, a company in the same field. Blinken’s statement alleged some trained at Ravin had “been involved in directly disrupting the communication of those protesting against the Iranian regime.”

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The designations allow the US authorities to seize any assets held in the US and to sanction anyone – American or third-party – dealing with them. US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions already threaten punitive action against any person or entity worldwide in contact with the Iranian financial system.

Blinken gave Wednesday’s total number of designations as 14 individuals and three entities, so “demonstrating our commitment to use all appropriate tools to hold all levels of the Iranian government to account.”

In September the US designated several Iranian companies over involvement in alleged supply of drones to Russia, ten involved in Iran’s energy exports, and Iran’s ‘morality police’ following the September 14 death in custody of a young woman.

‘Hypocritical statements’

After being sanctioned last week by the European Union over the alleged supply of drones to Russia, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, suggested his seized assets should be used to “buy coal” for the coming winter – a reference to fears over diminished Russian energy supplies.

Analysts have pondered the likely effects of extending sanctions on talks, currently frozen, to restore the 2015 agreement – the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) – limiting Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian Wednesday said US officials were making “hypocritical statements in the media in a way that contradicts their diplomatic messages.”

Special envoy Rob Malley recently told CNN US policy was “not of regime change instigated from Washington.” Officials have said that while talks remain the best way to revive the JCPOA, this was not their “main focus.” There have been no reports lately of parallel talks for a prisoner-swap, possibly including Namazi, with some analysts suggesting contacts are on hold pending the US Congressional elections November 8.

Tasnim and Fars news agencies affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard said that 10-13 people were killed and about 15 wounded, but the later government media raised the death toll to 15.

According to these reports three or four people opened fire inside the shrine and two were arrested.

Tasnim quoted a security source who said those responsible were "Takfiri, Wahhabi elements," referring to Sunni extremists.

Nationwide protests are raging in Iran on Wednesday to mark the 40th day of Mahsa Amini’s death, who was arrested by the ‘morality police’ in mid-September and died in police custody.

The information from government-controlled websites cannot be independently verified and the possibility of a false-flag operation to blame the protesters and “enemies” of the Islamic Republic exists.

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In a statement released on Wednesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry again condemned the EU’s October 17 sanctions targeting Iranian individuals and entities over their role in the brutal suppression of peaceful protesters, calling the punitive measures a clear example of interference in Iran’s domestic affairs.

The ministry claimed that the Islamic Republic’s sanctions were imposed due to “deliberate actions in support of terrorism and terrorist groups, encouraging and inciting terrorism, violence, and hatred, which has caused riots, violence, terrorist acts, and human rights violations against the people of Iran.”

Iranian authorities, including the Supreme leader and the president, accuse Western countries and Israel of being behind the current wave of antigovernment protests, ignited by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

The new list of sanctions includes the Friends of Free Iran and the International Committee in Search of Justice (ISJ) and their members -- two informal groups in the European Parliament, in addition to Stop the Bomb, an organization advocating sanctions on Tehran with the stated goal of preventing it from acquiring nuclear weapons.

The Persian-language services of Germany’s Deutsche Welle and France’s RFI were also sanctioned, extending Iran’s animosity against foreign-based channels that it says are promoting an uprising such as BBC Persian and Iran International. Two directors of the German newspaper Bild were also blacklisted.

An IRGC Colonel, identified as Mehdi Mollashahi, and Javad Keikha a member of the Salman Brigade, which belongs to IRGC's Basij paramilitary forces, were killed Tuesday when gunmen opened fire at them from a car and fled, the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news reported.

The incident followed weeks of brutal crackdown by the IRGC and other Iranian security forces on protesters in Zahedan, who have joined the nationwide antigovernment protests triggered by the death in custody of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini.

Earlier in the week, the influential leader of Iranian Sunnis among the Baluch held Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible for the September 30 massacre of Sunnis in Zahedan. 

The intelligence chief of the IRGC in the province was also shot dead earlier in the provincial capital Zahedan. According to Tasnim, in addition to Colonel Mousavi, three other members of IRGC and its Basij paramilitary force were killed and 32 more injured in Zahedan clashes.

The attack by the IRGC on protesters, September 30, left more than 90 unarmed Baluch citizens dead as reported by human rights watchdogs in Iran and abroad. Sunnis in Iran comprising at least 10 percent of the population have had a rocky relationship with the Shiite clerical regime for four decades.

Addressing the Haaretz Democracy Conference on Monday, Zelensky said that the Islamic Republic would have not been able to send equipment to Russia if Israel had not decided to stay neutral in the Ukraine war.

“In eight months of full-scale war, Russia has used almost 4,500 missiles against us. And their stock of missiles is dwindling. Therefore, Russia went looking for affordable weapons in other countries to continue its terror. It found them in Iran,” noted Zelensky.

The Ukrainian president further noted that “I have a question for you – how does Russia pay Iran for this, in your opinion? Is Iran just interested in money? Probably not money at all, but Russian assistance to the Iranian nuclear program. Probably, this is exactly the meaning of their alliance.”

Although Zelensky did not offer any evidence, Russia has built Iran’s sole nuclear power plant in Bushehr and has a contract to expand the plant with the addition of two new reactors at a cost of $10 billion.

Zelensky’s comments come as the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Intelligence Directorate said Monday that Russia's mobilized soldiers are being provided with Iranian-made body armors and helmets, and new groups of “advisers” are also arriving in Russia to train them on the use of a new and more lethal type of drones, Arash UAVs.

Major General Kyrylo Budanov stated that “Russian forces have used most of their cruise missile arsenal and only have 13 percent of their pre-war Iskander, 43 percent of Kaliber, and 45 percent of Kh-101 and Kh-555 pre-war stockpiles left.”

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Budanov added that with the supply of cruise missiles dwindling Russian military relies on Iranian drones, but Tehran can send 300 drones per shipment as it takes a long time to manufacture the drones.

In remarks reported Monday, Iran’s foreign minister appeared to accept as possible, despite past denials, that Moscow had used Iranian drones in Ukraine.

“If it is proven to us that Iranian drones are being used in the Ukraine war against people, we should not remain indifferent,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, as reported by Reuters.

The Iranian foreign ministry website and official news agencies last Friday reported Amir-Abdollahian denying claims at a European summit last week that Iran had supplied Russia with military drones deployed in the Ukraine war.

Last week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba officially asked for air defense systems and training from Israel’s Foreign Ministry in the face of attacks launched by Iranian Shahed drones. Yet, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz stressed “that we are not selling weapons to Ukraine.”

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However, Israeli Prime Minister told Jerusalem Post on Sunday that Tel Aviv is increasingly concerned by the “dangerous closeness” between Moscow and Tehran over the supply of Iran-made drones to attack Ukraine.

Lapid said Israel is holding daily assessments to review its position on the conflict, adding that “It’s not something we are going to ignore or do nothing about… so what we need to do is reassess on a daily basis and react.”

Meanwhile, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Monday that Iran was making the world less safe by supplying Russia with drones to be used against targets in Ukraine.

The US has been “trying for a while now to have a nuclear agreement with Iran so that we can make the world a safer place and now they're going off aiding the Russians and making the world a less safe place,” added Pelosi.

With the long suspension of negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement, Iran is now accused of involvement in the Ukraine war. On the other hand, Tehran’s crackdown on domestic protests is also drawing attention from the international community raising the possibility of more isolation and sanctions for Iran.

An Iranian daily on Tuesday said that the developments of the war in Ukraine are in an alarming way to the detriment of Iran.

Aftabnews warned the Iranian government that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an aggressive move to occupy an independent UN member state and the governments that support the aggressor will be considered violators of international law.

“It is said that the United States and three European countries have interpreted the provision of drones by Iran as a violation of UN Resolution 2231. If proved after investigations, it will justify and legitimize the activation of the snapback mechanism against Iran in the JCPOA agreement,” Aftabnews added.

If the snapback mechanism would be triggered, Iran will return to Chapter Seven of the UN Charter and all sanctions in place before the 2015 nuclear deal would be automatically reimposed on Iran.