Alarm Raised In Iran As Exports To Syria Shrink By 50%

Nourani was detained on Wednesday and subsequently moved to Evin Prison.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) revealed on Saturday that his detention is in connection with serving his sentence, and he now faces additional charges.

According to HRANA, he was summoned to Evin's courthouse last week. Following his court appearance, he was detained and transferred to Evin Prison to commence his sentence. It was disclosed during the court proceedings that a new case has been opened against him.

In December, Nourani was sentenced to six years in prison by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Iman Afshari. The charges against him included “propaganda against the regime, conspiracy against the state, and acts against national security.” However, upon appeal, his sentence was reduced to one year in behind bars. These charges are typical to trumped-up accusations routinely made against dissidents and protesters.

Nourani’s arrest on September 16, coinciding with the anniversary of Mahsa Amini's government murder, occurred alongside several other artists, including Leila Naqdi Pari. Reports indicate that security forces raided Nourani’s home, confiscating personal belongings and mobile phones before violently arresting him.

After spending twenty-four days in custody, Nourani, the acclaimed playwright and theater director, was released from prison after posting bail of thirty billion rials, approximately $60,000, an astronomical sum for Iranians.

“The continued presence of the system in western Crimea is likely evidence of Russia trying to identify threats to Russian ports and vessels following recent Ukrainian successes,” read the statement issued by the ministry on X.

The ministry also shared a satellite image which proved the presence of the Iran-made drone right beside a UAV ground control station in the airfield. The image was taken by an Airbus satellite on February 23.

Though the Mohajer-6 is mostly used in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations, it can also carry out air-to-surface missile attacks.

According to the UK’s Ministry of Defense, there is “a realistic possibility” that the drone is to be employed to back “Russian targeting processes for the south-west Ukrainian coastline.”

In September 2022, Ukraine’s army shot down at least one Mohajer-6 UAV over the Black Sea.

Russia annexed Crimea to its territory in 2014, a move that has not been recognized by the majority of the international community.

The Iranian regime has been one of the staunch allies of Russia in its war against Ukraine. Since mid-2022, Iran has reportedly supplied hundreds of kamikaze Shahed UAVs to Russia, which have been extensively deployed to target civilian infrastructure and cities in Ukraine.

Earlier in the month, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps accused Iran of supplying Russia with ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine, claiming the regime is a "bad influence" not only on the Middle East but also in Europe.

For the first time in his political career, Khatami not only refrained from voting in the parliament and Assembly of Experts elections, despite Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's repeated declarations that voting is a religious duty, but also defended his decision as a stance in solidarity with the majority of Iranians discontent with the country's governance, in a speech to his advisors on Wednesday.

While many reformists praise him as "a winner" for boycotting Iran's "stage-managed" elections, he faces strong criticism from other political factions and social media users, both within the regime and among dissidents, who accuse him of hypocrisy and opportunism.

In a note on Wednesday, the ultra-hardline Kayhan newspaper, whose chief editor Hossein Shariatmadari is an appointee of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, accused him and other abstaining reformists, such as the Etehad-e Mellat (Nation’s Unity) party, of complicity with the “known enemies of the regime”.

“Refusing to participate in the elections is the officially announced instruction of America and Israel. Is it not? So why are you selling your open complicity and collaboration with America and Israel as moving together with the people?” Kayhan wrote.

Khatami's election abstention, however, appears to have reinvigorated reformists who view his action as a significant step forward with the potential to reconcile with Iranians who have been disillusioned with reformists over the past decade.

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Protesters in the past few years often chanted not only against hardliners but also against reformists who they saw as part of the system.

Khatami stated that he abstained from voting in solidarity with the many dissatisfied people who believe that "correcting/reforming" the current trajectory of affairs is the only way to salvage the country.

To him, not voting in the current adverse circumstances is another form of voting, and he hopes that his abstention can help restore people's "damaged trust" in the government and political currents, including reformists.

He argued that the country's urgent need is to restore social capital and "settle differences" between the government and people to "save the country from threats and crises," emphasizing that the ruling system has a greater responsibility in reforming its structure, approach, and behavior.

Khatami has faced criticism for his "historical delay" in refusing to participate in the elections managed by Khamenei and his appointees in the Guardian Council, as well as for not officially articulating his departure from "political Islam."

The political act of abstention by Khatami and his supporters can only be taken seriously when they officially denounce political Islam in every shape and form and admit that all people are equal irrespective of their backgrounds, thinking, and lifestyle, one of his critics argued in an article by Ehsan Rastgar published by Zeitoon news website Wednesday.

“As long as it is devoted to political Islam, this school of thought [to which Khatami and his supporters belong] is not different in essence and its overall approach from Shia fundamentalism and people like the leader of the Islamic Republic,” he wrote.

Once an advocate of “religious democracy,” Khatami referred to “developmental democracy” as the ideal form of governance in his speech and seemed to be endorsing secularism in governance.

The use of the term “developmental democracy” has baffled many who expected him to offer a more straightforward and clear definition of the form of governance he is proposing.

“Developmental democracy” is a notion proposed by Richard L. Sklar, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of California in a book of the same name in which he said developmental democracy is the best form of democracy for African countries.

According to his own website, Sklar’s developmental democracy posits a causal relationship between democratic practice and economic development.

This form of democracy has also been interpreted as one that gives priority to cultivating the development of individual abilities and holds that the estimation of democracy lies in its commitment to national and individual improvement.

Jafari's remarks come amidst the deployment of government-affiliated forces, known as 'hijab enforcers,' in the Tehran metro since August, intensifying their activities and facing harsh confrontations with women and girls in recent months.

Jafari, also known as Aziz or Ali Jafari, who currently commands the Basij-e Mostaz'afin Brigade of the Revolutionary Guards, made the statement on Friday, emphasizing that "The activities of the promoters of virtue will persist in the Tehran metro, and we are determined to counter the hijab removal sedition through expanding our efforts."

He urged the expansion of enforcers actions, highlighting cooperation with the Tehran Municipality and the Tehran Metro to extend their police action to other metro stations. Drawing a parallel with election campaigns, he urged individuals to encourage their neighbors to promote virtue.

"I regret not being able to accompany you on the field due to physical limitations. The removal of hijab is a major cultural problem for us that can strike at the root of the revolution," he added.

Following the death of Mahsa Amini in custody, which triggered nationwide protests, the Iranian regime has escalated its crackdown on women defying mandatory hijab regulations, despite international condemnation. Amini was arrested in September 2022 on charges of ‘improper hijab’ and died three days later in the hospital.

Amini's death sparked widespread protests across Iran and catalyzed the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. On October 1, Armita Geravand, a teenage student in Tehran, was assaulted by hijab enforcers in the metro, resulting in a coma. She passed away after 28 days in the hospital.

Industry activists have identified government blocking of Google Play as the primary obstacle hindering the growth of the gaming industry. According to Donya-e-Eqtesad newspaper in Tehran, Iranian game developers say that the government's directive to filter Google Play has resulted in a significant loss of 30 to 40 percent in revenue for companies in this sector.

Mohammad Mehdi Esmaeili, the Minister of Culture recently announced President Ebrahim Raisi's directive to draft a comprehensive document on computer games. However, industry activists have criticized the drafting of new laws for the sector as futile.

Ali Nadalizadeh, a publisher of mobile games in Iran, has emphasized the removal of the Google Play filter as the most pressing concern in the sector. He argues that “since the gaming sector in the country has been legislatively addressed before, there is no need for new laws.”

Experts caution that the blocking of Google Play has severely impeded game producers' advertising capacity, with domestic alternatives unable to compensate for the loss. In January 2023, the Computer Guild Organization of Iran warned the Minister of Communications about the adverse effects of Google Play filtering, citing a decline in users, reduced developer income, and widespread unemployment among specialized personnel.

The Iranian government's broader internet restrictions, implemented following nationwide protests after the killing of Mahsa Amini in police custody in 2022, initially led to the temporary filtering of Google Play. However, the permanent removal of the government app Rubika from the platform prompted authorities to maintain the filter.

Despite ongoing concerns raised by industry stakeholders, the government has yet to provide a clear rationale for the continued blocking of Google Play.