Israel Seizes Millions In Digital Currencies Meant For Iranian Proxies

Ebrahim Raisi made the comments in a phone conversation with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani who had called to felicitate him on Eid al-Adha.

Raisi also appreciated the efforts of the Emir and Prime Minister of Qatar in advancing joint plans and agreements with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Al-Thani congratulated the Iranian President and the Iranian people on Eid al-Adha and expressed willingness to boost economic cooperation.

Last week, European Union foreign policy official Enrique Mora and Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani held meetings in Qatar in what many believed to be related to issues pertaining to disputes with the United States.

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 February, US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley met with the Qatari foreign minister in Washington over efforts to kickstart the stalled talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, Qatari sources said.

Late in January, Al Thani visited Tehran where he delivered messages from world powers that are party to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, particularly the US which does not have direct contact with the Islamic Republic.

“There is a small minority who abuse their position and tarnish the image of the judiciary in the eyes of the people,” Khamenei said in a revealing meeting with judiciary officials Tuesday. 

He called on authorities to fight corruption within the judicial system and warned that "corruption is contagious". He said: "When corruption enters a system, this disease spreads. It is increasing day by day."

Khamenei said the media is partially to blame, tarnishing the judiciary's reputation further, refusing to acknowledge the heavy-handed and brutal punishments it has been handing down to civilians since the protests began in September in the wake of Mahsa Amini's death in morality police custody.

Khamenei's words contradict the fact that he controls the religious judiciary that is only accountable to him and plays the role of both prosecutor and judge. The courts in Iran are not independent, but part of the large bureaucracy known as the Judiciary, whose head is appointed by the Supreme Leader,

As “one of the main pillars in the establishment of the Islamic republic,” he said instability in the judiciary can lead to disruptions in the entire regime as he urged his inner circle to tighten up the flailing system. 

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Political pundit Rouhollah Rahimpour told Iran International that the main duty of the judiciary has become defending the regime against the people and cracking down any voice of dissent. 

He called the distrust of the judiciary a natural consequence "when the judicial system does not pursue justice" and only works as a tool in the hands of the regime to stifle criticism and quash protests.

The regime used overwhelming force with military weapons in its crackdown on the protests since September, killing more than 500 civilians and arresting tens of thousands more. Hundreds of other protestors suffered hospitalization and permanent injuries, including the loss of eyes when shotgun pellets were fired at the faces of demonstrators.

After the wave of nationwide protests which has still yet to subside, the Iranian regime has embarked on a wave of executions which has seen dozens of prisoners hanged this year.

Iran's Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei claimed Monday that scores of Iranians only took part in protests due to foreign influence, undermining the strength of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement which has seen hundreds of thousands of Iranians calling for the end of the brutal dictatorship. 

The PIJ has established several armed cells and recruited dozens of gunmen in the northern West Bank, specifically in Jenin and Nablus. “The PIJ has become a dominant force in the northern West Bank, largely thanks to the financial aid it receives from Iran," a source told Israel's Jerusalem Post. “Islamic Jihad is using Iranian money to buy weapons and loyalty in the West Bank [and] the organization is paying high salaries to its members.”

Palestinian Islamic Jihad has stepped up its activity over the last year, largely thanks to extra funding from Tehran, including an incident in April in which dozens of rockets were launched in a cross border attack on Israel from Gaza, Syria and Lebanon. Last August, the PIJ unleashed almost 2,000 rockets and mortars in three days of fighting.

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The PIJ, like Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, have become full-fledged Iranian proxies, receiving Iranian funding, training, sophisticated equipment, and, most importantly, Tehran’s instructions on their confrontation with Israel. Last year, then defense minister Benny Gantz claimed that the PIJ was receiving tens of millions of dollars from Tehran. This week the group's leaders met with President Raisi, among others, in a show of force against Israel.

The evolution from guerrilla-terrorist militias to armies results from a long process initiated by Tehran with the active assistance of Hezbollah in Lebanon. The escalating events in recent months have shown the ongoing coordination and consultation among the top leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and PIJ in Beirut, Damascus, and Tehran, with the aim of creating a united front facing Israel from Iran-supported Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank.

According to the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency, the two sides discussed security and law enforcement cooperation and holding of a joint security commission in Iran.

The release of Iranian fishermen and their boats, which Iran claims had entered the waters of Qatar due to ignorance of border limits, was raised, and the Qatari side agreed to their release. Bilateral solutions to tackling drug smuggling in the area were also discussed.

Iran and Qatar signed several bilateral deals last year during a visit by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Doha to attend the Gas Exporting Countries Forum. Raisi's visit was the first to Qatar by an Iranian president in 11 years.

Qatar has strong ties with Iran, with which it shares a giant gas field. Tehran supported Doha after Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies imposed a boycott on Qatar in mid-2017 in a dispute over its links with Islamist groups and with non-Arab Turkey and Iran.

Recent restoration of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran signaled a new policy by the Persian Gulf Sunni Arab states for closer regional cooperation.

A deal brokered by China in March ended a diplomatic rift between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and re-established relations following years of hostility.

Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, the commander of IRGC navy, made the comments on Tuesday during a ceremony in the southern Khuzestan province.

“We, the soldiers of the Revolutionary Guards, perform our duty to defend the nation of Islamic Iran till the last drop of our blood,” he said.

His statements were made after senior officials from 22 nations and the GCC held a multilateral meeting in Bahrain this week to discuss the current maritime security environment and ways to further enhance that in the region which has seen numerous incidents as Iran flexes its muscles in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. 

After the meeting in Bahrain, the Spokesman of the US State Department, Matthew Miller said in a tweet on Tuesday that “the United States and like minded partners in the Middle East and from around the world are committed to enhancing maritime security in across the Middle East region and ensuring freedom of navigation through the region’s vital waterways.”

Earlier this month, the US Navy reported that Iranian military speed boats were "harassing" a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC claimed to have assisted the vessel.

Iran has hundreds of fast attack boats that for years not only have harassed civilian vessels but, on many occasions, have come dangerously close to US and other warships in a show of force.

Iranian attacks on cargo vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping lane that carries about a fifth of the world’s oil, have increased over recent years and raised tensions between the US and Iran, in addition to other Western and Persian Gulf nations.