Iran Denies Radioactive Pollution Of Aras River By Armenia

Andriy Yermak said on Tuesday he was hoping Ukraine would receive Israeli technology to counter Iranian drones used by Russia during its 16-month invasion.

“Nobody but Israel can provide equipment to combat attacks by Iranian drones,” said Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff.

He further expressed frustration that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not publicly supported Ukraine and suggested that Israel join the war if Russia and Iran made weapons deals.

“We can see the Kremlin dictator [Russian President Vladimir Putin] taking family photos with Iranian leaders and then this Iranian weaponry is being used against us and against you,” Yermak addressed the Israeli reporters from the Office of the Ukrainian President.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Israel expressed moral and humanitarian solidarity with the embattled country but refused to provide weapons, retaining a neutral stance between the two sides, primarily to ensure the safeguarding of the Jewish populations on both sides.

Forces of the Russian Federation began using Iran-made kamikaze drones in their attacks against Ukraine's infrastructure last fall, temporarily depriving millions of Ukrainians of heating, water and electricity during the winter.

Iran first denied it had supplied drones to Russia but in early November foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian admitted the deliveries, while claiming they were sent before the Russian invasion.

Iran’s supply of drones to Russia for use in its war on Ukraine has been condemned by the US and its NATO allies and met with sanctions by the US, European Union and other states.

The Financial Times reports that even if it is a negotiating tactic, the more advanced the program becomes, the more Tehran is expected to demand in return for reversing its gains.

That is why more media reports indicate a limited nuclear deal in the offing, with Iran to cap uranium enrichment at 60 percent while the United States gives some sanctions relief to Iran.

Henry Rome of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy told the newspaper: “As they [Iran] accumulate more and more chips on the nuclear side, yes they could give some away, but it also moves them closer to what has arguably been the long-term goal — to be recognized as a nuclear threshold state.”

As Iran gets closer to its goals, pushing evermore the boundaries of agreed terms, the chances of a reverse look increasingly unlikely. “Once you’re there, it might be tough to argue to give that up,” Rome added.

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Time is ticking with October approaching, the time when the nuclear deal, or JCPOA clauses that impose sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program expire. While the likes of the E3 (UK, France, Germany) and US scramble to makes things right, Iran shows no signs of abating.

The regime continues to sell weapons to Russia even after months of denial. New revelations reported by Israel’s ALMA research center show that it is a complex operation with no end in sight.

The Biden administration is trying its best to calm the situation, not least with the chances of a Trump return in 2024 -- or yet still, another Iran hawk - don’t look as unrealistic as many would hope.

Whether that be another destabilizing factor or a deterrent to Iran is yet to be seen as the regime becomes ever more emboldened in the wake of diplomatic victories such as its recent detente with Saudi Arabia.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Hossein Mousavian, a former senior Iranian official now at Princeton University, warns that if there is no deal there would be an escalation with Iran enriching at 90 percent, the west triggering snapback UN sanctions and Tehran suspending its membership of the Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

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He somehow believes Iran is ready to revive the JCPOA, or reach a deal in which Tehran reduces tensions and the US turns a blind eye to oil and petrochemical exports.

Though hard to believe given the extent of sanctions, Mousavian claims Iran expected to be set to benefit from a Russian war with Ukraine as oil and gas supplies became scarce. Hoping that would help secure a better deal, that, he says, led Iran to reject draft proposals last August.

What few analysts seem to be sufficiently aware of is Iran's worsening economic crisis, with inflation reaching 70 percent and the currency, rial, losing half its value in the past year. While Iran might be trying to use its nuclear escalation option, the United States has its foot on the regime's financial lifeline.

Moving forward, Mousavian seems to think as long as Khamenei is in power, the regime will not seek to develop a weapon. Its actions say otherwise. “If there’s a Trump school of thought, then everything would be terminated; plan A, plan B, the JCPOA, [everything] but coercion or war,” Mousavian says. “The response would be: go for nuclear to reach a deal.”

If the ageing supreme leader, now 84, were to be no more, “nobody knows what could happen after”, he said.

“The Albanian State Police have assured us that all actions were conducted in accordance with applicable laws, including with regard to the protection of the rights and freedoms of all persons in Albania,” read a statement issued on Tuesday.

Having found itself in quite a precarious predicament after dozens of Iranian dissidents seeking safe haven in Albania were reportedly injured Tuesday and one allegedly died in the raid, the State Department said it has been "assured" the Albanian government did not violate any human rights.

The State Department, which usually does not keep silent about such actions, and especially not against a group known to be active against the Islamic Republic, not only did not condemn the unexpected raid, but also distanced itself from the dissident group, raising concerns about the group’s actions against its own members.

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"The State Department continues to have serious concerns about the MEK as an organization, including allegations of abuse committed against its own members,” noted the statement.

The State Department, however, pointed to the Albanian police accusations that the inhabitants of the camp were involved in cyberattacks against the Albanian government, adding, “We support the Government of Albania’s right to investigate any potential illegal activities within its territory."

Emphasizing that Washington does not view the MEK as “a viable democratic opposition movement that is representative of the Iranian people,” the State Department said, “The US government does not provide support or training to the MEK, does not contribute funding to the organization, and does not maintain substantive contact beyond issues related to the MEK’s resettlement, which was completed in 2016.”

Earlier on Tuesday, MEK said about a thousand Albanian police officers raided the group's exile center, Camp Ashraf, using tear gas and pepper spray. The group said that one of their members, identified as Ali Mostashari, was killed and more than a hundred others injured.

Despite initial denials, Albanian Interior Minister Bledi Cuci and the head of the national police, Muhamet Rrumbullaku, said both police officers and Iranian dissidents were injured during the raid at the Ashraf-3 camp near Manze, a small hill-town 30 kilometers (about 20 miles) west of Albania’s capital. However, the authorities disputed that the raid caused the man’s death.

Alleging that the attack was instigated by the Iranian regime, the MEK claimed that the actions by the Albanian police are “reminiscent of the criminal attacks by forces of Nouri al-Maliki (former prime minister of Iraq) on the original Camp Ashraf in Iraq between 2009 and 2015.”

Camp Ashraf 3 compound in Durres, Albania, is MEK's first home outside the Middle East established a few years after the 2013 massacre in the original Camp in Iraq in which 52 members died and seven went missing, leading to the relocation of the group.

In September 2022, Albania severed its relations with the Islamic Republic and expelled all Iranian diplomats and embassy staff following an investigation into a large-scale cyberattack that targeted the country’s infrastructure in July. The attack happened around the time of a conference held by the MEK.

The Tuesday attack against the de facto headquarters of the MEK took place about a month after the MEK-affiliated hacktivist group Uprising till Overthrow breached into 120 servers of the Iranian presidential office, getting access to internal communications, meetings minutes, and leaking troves of confidential data.

Stephanie Liechtenstein who has been following the Iran nuclear negotiations tweeted Tuesday that according to her sources Mora and Bagheri-Kani met Tuesday and will also meet on Wednesday.

She said that “talks are focused mainly on Iran’s military support for Russia’s war against Ukraine as well as on the nuclear file and detainees.”

Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian arrived with a delegation possibly including Bagheri-Kani who is also deputy foreign minister in Doha Monday evening and held talks with Qatari officials on Tuesday, in what many believed to be related to issues pertaining to disputes with the United States.

“I am told the meeting is another attempt to help ease tensions,” Lichtenstein said, as the multilateral nuclear talks ended last September when Tehran put forth conditions unacceptable for Washington.

Since September, the US has demanded an end to Iran’s weapons supplies to Russia that has included hundreds of Kamikaze drones used against Ukrainian military and civilian targets.

In recent weeks there have been a flurry of reports about direct and indirect talks between Washington and Tehran on the nuclear issue, Americans held hostage in Iran and possibly Iran’s military cooperation with Russia. Some reports suggest that the US intends to reach a an unwritten interim nuclear deal, whereby it offers sanctions relief to Iran in exchange for a freeze on uranium enrichment at 60 percent.

It cautioned that Iranians residing in Germany could be targeted by Iranian intelligence and security services for abduction and espionage operations.

“Fighting opposition groups and individuals at home and abroad is the focus of Iranian intelligence activities,” reads the Constitutional Protection Report 2022, which has just been released.

The report further claimed that spying activities against (pro-)Israel and (pro-)Jewish targets in Germany are still part of Iran's field of espionage.

“Spying activities by Iranian intelligence services including IRGC’s Quds Force serve to prepare for state terrorist activities, including kidnapping or even killing the target.”

The report goes on to say that since 2019, Iranian intelligence services have repeatedly carried out costly, complex and professionally executed kidnappings of high-ranking targets from the opposition spectrum.

In January, an audio file shared on social media revealed that the regime threatens Iranians abroad for taking part in anti-government protests and expressing opposition.

The Daily Telegraph in December reported that the Islamic Republic uses mosques and political institutions in the United Kingdom as part of its “spying system” to target dissidents.

Canada's spy agency also launched an investigation into what it calls multiple "credible" death threats from Iran aimed at individuals in Canada.

In November, Israel’s Mossad informed Britain’s spy agency about an impending Iranian plot to carry out terrorist attacks against Iran International’s journalists based in London.