Latest Company Involved In Iran’s Drone Program Revealed

Two men publicly burned the Quran outside Stockholm's central mosque on Wednesday, an act approved by a Swedish court.

It was deliberately timed to coincide with the significant Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha, further magnifying the incident's significance.

Urging the European country to take responsibility and address the issue seriously, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said: “Creating a platform for the repetition of sacrilege against celestial sanctities, especially during the sacred days of the Islamic world and the gathering of millions of Muslims at the world congress of hajj, is a provocative, unacceptable act.

“Insulting heavenly scriptures is a manifestation of violence, hatred, and contrary to the fundamental values of human rights," disregarding the regime's systematic oppression of women and minorities under its own jurisdiction and its generally appalling human rights record.

Some 200 onlookers witnessed one of the two protesters tearing up pages of a copy of the Koran and wiping his shoes with it before putting bacon in it and setting the book on fire, while the other spoke into a megaphone.

Some of those present shouted "God is Great" in Arabic to protest against the burning, and one man was detained by police after he attempted to throw a rock.

Meanwhile, Morocco recalled its ambassador to Sweden late Wednesday to protest the desecration.

Turkey’s foreign minister also criticized the move saying it is “unacceptable to allow anti-Islam protests in the name of freedom of expression”.

Burning religious texts is "disrespectful and hurtful", the deputy spokesperson for the US State Department told reporters in a daily briefing as well. "What might be legal is certainly not necessarily appropriate," Vedant Patel said.

The man is Hossein Shariatmadari, a hardliner trusted by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and appointed by him to run the Kayhan Daily in Tehran, the regime’s most uncompromising media outlet.

While Shariatmadari can be regarded as an extremist who does not mince words and is less diplomatic than the 84-year-old autocrat who appointed him, his ideas cannot be dismissed. As long as Khamenei is alive, Shariatmadari’s words are closer to his thinking than what any Islamic Republic diplomat might say.

Addressing a congregation marking the death anniversary of an ayatollah assassinated four decades ago, Kayhan’s chief editor said that the kind of Islam the regime upholds is “not American Islam.” The difference between true Islam and ‘American Islam’, he claimed is pursuing justice. But for Khamenei justice means an unending war against Israel and the United States.

Any kind of Islam other than what Khamenei demands is fake according to the ideology of the Islamic Republic, which the aging autocrat defends with all the destructive means at his disposal. This was also in the heart of his animosity toward Saudi Arabia, which he many times described as a “corrupt” system because it cooperated with the United States, which protects Israel.

Shariatmadari said, “our war with the enemy is ever lasting and permanent, and we have achieved a lot from the beginning, but still have a long way to go.”

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The Islamic regime has indeed armed and supported tens of thousands of militants throughout the region with the aim of defeating the United States and destroying Israel. It is also a few steps away from becoming a nuclear threshold state, if not outright producing nuclear weapons.

When President Barack Obama was crafting the JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran, his aides told the media that the President aimed higher than a nuclear deal. His ambitious goal was to use “the strategic opportunity” to try to convert Iran from foe to “friend”, as an influential media outlet put it at the time.

However, as soon as the deal was signed, the following year Iran’s Revolutionary Guard wrote ‘death to Israel’ on their missiles, and Obama had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to get American hostages back.

In the approximately 18 months Obama was in office after the JCPOA was finalized in mid-2015, no strategic breakthrough took place. Iran got its billions from the deal and spent most of the money fueling the wars in Yemen, Syria and building up its proxy forces in Iraq, despite subtle hints of possible wider cooperation his diplomats gave during the nuclear talks.

The Biden administration after trying for two years to revive the JCPOA has apparently realized that Iran is not ready to play ball and is contemplating a limited agreement to nominally limit its nuclear program while the president fights for re-election.

But Khamenei is the one who defines the nature of US-Iranian relations. For him the concept of America and Israel being eternal enemies is almost sacred and he does not miss a chance to say so. On June 4, he once again revealed his lack of interest in any shift in policy, indirectly referring to a limited deal.

“Our young people should pay attention. The enmity of world arrogance will not disappear with tactical retrenchments. Some imagine that if we retreat on some issue, their enmity will decrease against us. This is a mistake.”

The US State Department said incident led to the deaths of the gunman and a security guard, but no Americans were harmed in the incident.

"A person in a car stopped near the American Consulate building in Jeddah Governorate and got out of it carrying a firearm in his hand, so security authorities took the initiative to deal with him as required, and the exchange of fire resulted in his death," a spokesperson for the Makkah Region police said.

A Nepalese worker in the consulate's private security guards was injured and subsequently died, state news agency SPA reported.

Investigations are underway into the shootings.

"The US Embassy and Consulate remain in contact with Saudi authorities as they investigate the incident," a State Department spokesperson said.

The consulate has been targeted several times in recent years. In 2016, a suicide bomber was killed and two people were wounded in a blast near the compound.

And in 2004, five people stormed the US consulate with bombs and guns, killing four Saudi security personnel outside and five local staff within. Three of the attackers were killed in the assault and two were captured.

The 2004 attack in Jeddah followed other deadly bombings and shootings against expatriate compounds, Westerners working in the kingdom and other targets that were part of an al Qaeda campaign aimed at ousting the ruling Al Saud family.

Reporting by Reuters

Abdi told the clerics in an article in Etemad newspaper: "If you cannot solve any of the people's problems, at least do not put more burdens on their shoulders."

Abdi's comments appeared to be a response to Expediency Council member and conservative cleric Gholamreza Mesbahi-Moghaddam who lashed out at the people for causing high inflation and told them on Sunday: Learn to live like the people of China who have only two meals every 24 hours."

He also claimed that the people of Iran have more resources than the Chinese, but the Chinese are content with what they have, and Iranians are expecting more every day. 

Abdi responded by asking: "How many meals do you have in a day?

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Mesbahi-Moghaddam’s comment came at a time when food prices have risen by around 100 percent since May 2022. Meat, dairy and fruit consumption has drastically decreased due to high prices.

Abdi also criticized the Friday Imam of Mashhad, the firebrand Ahmad Alamolhoda and father-in-law of President Ebrahim Raisi for saying "The more you pay Iranian workers, the more demands they will come up with."

Abdi said, the clerics usually interfere in many areas but the economy is not a subject in which the they can express unsubstantiated opinions. Abdi further charged: "There is no pay increase for the workers. The inflation rate was 48 percent last year and it is going to be around 55 to 60 percent this year. Have you added that much to the workers' wages?" 

Meanwhile in another response the Chairman of the Sino-Iranian Chamber of Commerce Majid Reza Hariri said: "May I respectfully tell his Excellency Mesbahi-Moghaddam that the Chinese have four meals a day."

Only to be fair with Mesbahi-Moqaddam, Rouydad24 quoted him as having told Jamaran News that "People expect the inflation rate to rise, and this expectation coupled with the news about Iran's relations with the West and the failure of nuclear talks lead to an increase in the inflation rate."

In another development, former vice president Massoumeh Ebtekar wrote in Etemad newspaper: "Rising prices have broken the people's back," adding that "The people are tired of seeing the government prioritizing the issue of hijab over the problems of inflation and rising prices."

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Ebtekar added: "A majority of Iranians just want to live a simple life and benefit from what the world can offer them. They do not wish to be dependent on the West or rely on the East. They are against lawlessness and promiscuity and at the same time they are against rigid rules of social life that the hardliners wish to impose on them.” 

Ebtekar argued that "What people want is stability. An economic stability without sudden political changes that give rise to inflation, and political stability to ensure that laws do not change every day [to protect the interests of a certain group].

She said: "People hate lies in the corridors of power, they do not like the impossible promises politicians make, they hate powerful men playing with their state of mind and insulting their intelligence. They do not like to be humiliated and abused. They are tired of politicians who deny the impact of years of sanctions and rising prices."

Ebtekar who was a staunch revolutionary in the early years of the revolution and one of those who took American diplomats hostage, insisted that "The people are tired because their criticisms remain unheard and they see that the government has no plan for the future of young Iranians. Every time they have voted to improve the situation, powerful elements entered the scene to turn their joy into bitterness." 

As part of his official visit Ahmadreza Radan, a general notorious for repressing protests, met with General Viktor Zolotov.

The TASS news agency reported that the two sides discussed cooperation and exchange of experiences in law enforcement and "fighting terrorism and extremism."

"The document provides for an exchange of experience in law enforcement, protection of crucial government facilities, combating terrorism and extremism, and providing support for measures to counter crime," the press service added.

Before the meeting, the Iran in delegation visited the central museum of Rosgvardiya to view the latest models of weapons and special equipment. In addition, dog trainers and members of the rapid reaction unit demonstrated their skills at neutralizing armed criminals.

Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council, also spoke earlier on Wednesday with Iran's police chief.

Earlier, Alexei Zhuravlev, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense, suggested that Radan would discuss with Patrushev the fight against terrorist organizations in Eurasia and alleged plots by Western intelligence agencies to destabilize" the situation in Russia and Iran.

“It is possible to exchange experience in countering the attempts of Western intelligence services to destabilize the situation and organize riots...We are cooperating productively both in Syria, where Tehran initially took the side of Damascus, and in the Caspian region, where together we determine the vectors of navigation and fishing traffic in this inland reservoir,” Zhuravlev noted on Tuesday.

According to him, Iran also has the experience of successfully resisting Western sanctions that it can share it with the Russian Federation.

Meanwhile local media in Iran reported that Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, the chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, had a phone conversation with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, during which he invited him to visit Tehran.

Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointed Ahmadreza Radan as Iran's police chief in January after four months of popular anti-regime protests.

Most of Radan's ill reputation dates back to his role as police chief during the post-election unrest in 2009 and the performance of his men at the Kahrizak detention center where several young protesters including children of some state officials were killed as a result of police brutality.

Radan was sanctioned for his human rights violations by the United States as early as 2010 and has been blacklisted by the European Union.