Iran Executes Seven More Amid International Outcry

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, part of a government deemed one of the harshest dictatorships in the world, stated that the Taliban is only part of the reality in Afghanistan not all of it.

In spite of Iran's oppression of women which has led to months of uprisings since September, when Mahsa Amini was killed in morality police custody for the wrong wearing of her hijab, the minister said: “We are unhappy with the ban on Afghan women and girls to study because this is against the teachings of the Prophet of Islam."

Iran had good relations with the Taliban before the tensions over the Islamic Republic’s water share from the Hirmand river.

Due to Taliban damming to halt the flow of water from Afghanistan hundreds of thousands of civilians' lives have been badly affected in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan.

While Afghanistan says it needs dams to store water for agriculture or to produce electricity, which it imports from neighboring countries including Iran, many environmentalists are critical of large-scale water engineering projects.

“We have had negotiations with the Afghan authorities, and we believe that according to the 1351 treaty, the issue must be resolved through legal channels,” said Amir-Abdollahian.

Afghanistan’s embassy in Tehran was “formally” handed over to the Taliban after the fall of President Ashraf Ghani in 2021.

Iran was the third country after Pakistan and Russia that handed the Afghan embassy to the Taliban.

"A short while ago, IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers identified and downed a drone crossing from Lebanese territory into Israeli territory towards the town of Zar'it," the military said.

It did not immediately identify who had sent the drone from Lebanon and released a photo of a UAV lying in a thicket of thorns. "The IDF will continue to prevent any attempt to violate Israeli sovereignty," the military said.

Iran-backed Hezbollah controls a wide strip of land along Israel's borders, with fighters, weapons and military installations covering southern Lebanon to Israel's northern border. Hezbollah is financed and armed by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Last month, Israel said Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was behind a rare roadside bomb attack that wounded a motorist in northern Israel in March, and in the past has said it shot down the group's drones.

In April, rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel during Palestinian Israeli clashes. Lebanon claimed that Palestinians on its territory had fired the rockets, and not the Hezbollah, creating a convenient ambiguity to relieve Israel of the pressure to retaliate against Hezbollah.

Iran has been encouraging all its proxy forces in the region to intensify attacks against Israel this year.

Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel fought a month-long war in 2006 and have traded fire on several occasions since, but have avoided a large-scale confrontation.

A banner has been installed on the closed door of the center that reads, “After receiving the concerns of the community and for their safety, we are saddened to inform you that all upcoming programs, including prayers, have been suspended until further notice.” The message was later removed.

The center was closed on Wednesday following an investigation by the UK Charity Commission into how it was run, following weeks of efforts by the charity watchdog to take control. The Telegraph cited unnamed sources as saying that "the Iranian regime decided to pull the plug on the operation rather than lose control to an interim manager appointed by the Charity Commission.”

According to the Charity Commission, the building was closed down, but the center’s charity will be run by the interim manager -- a senior partner at an international law firm identified as Emma Moody – who has been appointed “due to the trustees’ failure to comply with their legal duties and responsibilities and their failure to protect the charity’s assets”.

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The inquiry into the charity was opened in November last year after the watchdog issued an official warning over “serious governance concerns” as well as the content of its website and the events it organizes.

Founded in 1995 and opened officially in 1998, the Islamic Center of England Ltd (ICEL) is a religious and cultural institute run by Ali Khamenei’s representative in the UK, Seyyed Hashem Mousavi, and funded by the Islamic Republic. The center, which hosted a vigil for Qassem Soleimani, head of IRGC’s extraterritorial Quds force who was killed in a US drone strike in 2020, has been called the cultural arm of the regime.

Senior UK officials have been calling for the closure of the center for years, with MP Alicia Kearns, the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, describing it as the "London office" of the Iranian regime. Theresa Villiers, a member of the intelligence and security select committee, called the charity "the voice" of Khamenei in the UK.

As calls continue to shut down the center, Security Minister Tom Tugendhat last week described it as a "vile threat" against the country.Tugendhat told The Times that the government was “pulling together” to deal with “this vile threat that’s taken over a country and is now threatening ours.”

During a parliamentary debate last week, several UK lawmakers called for the Islamic Republic’s outpost to be closed.

Tugendhat stated that MPs are “absolutely right” to be worried about such “cultural centers” in Britain, adding: “Sadly, the Islamic Centre for England is not alone and the work of the IRGC is not limited to those Iranian proxy organizations.”

Previously, a group of Iranians had prepared an online petition for the closure of the Islamic Center of England, which was signed by tens of thousands of people.

In recent months while global rallies against the Islamic Republic are growing, Iranians have demonstrated many times in London demanding the closure of the center.

Two officials told The National Daily that President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Iran's Ebrahim Raisi have agreed to meet by the end of the year.

It comes after Oman's ruler, Sultan Haitham bin Tarik, spent two days in Egypt where he discussed Cairo's relations with Tehran with El Sisi.

The Iranian government, for its part, has said that it wants to improve relations with Egypt.

Earlier this month, Iranian lawmaker Fada-Hossein Maleki, a member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy committee, said in an interview with Tasnim news agency that talks to bolster ties between Iran and Egypt are being held regularly in Iraq.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also told IRNA in early May that “We have always welcomed the improvement of relations between Tehran and Cairo.”

Egypt has not yet commented on Iranian relations, but regional media have reported that the ties are thawing.

Tehran and Cairo’s history of on-off relations predates the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Iran’s relations with Egypt, a close ally of Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations, have been fraught since the Shah fell in 1979. His subsequent refuge in Egypt, where he died and was buried in 1980, damaged relations.

State media reported that the country successfully tested the ballistic missile on Thursday, two days after Israel's military chief raised the prospect of "action" against Tehran.

Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, chief of Israel's armed forces, warned: "Iran has advanced with uranium enrichment further than ever before ... There are negative developments on the horizon that could bring about (military) action.”

Iran, which has one of the biggest missile programs in the Middle East, says its missiles can reach Israel and US bases in the region.

Tehran has said it will continue to develop its "defensive" missile program despite opposition from the United States and European countries.

"Our message to Iran's enemies is that we will defend the country and its achievements. Our message to our friends is that we want to help regional stability," said Iranian Defense Minister Mohammadreza Ashtiani.

Iran claims its ballistic missiles are a deterrent and retaliatory force against the United States, Israel, and other potential regional adversaries.

Efforts to revive Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal have stalled since last September amid Western fears about Tehran's accelerating nuclear advances.

Iran's nuclear activities were restricted by the nuclear agreement, which Washington ditched in 2018, extending the time it would take for Tehran to produce nuclear material for a bomb. Iran denies pursuing nuclear weapons.