Shrapnel Injures 12 At Saudi Airport As Houthi Drone Intercepted

OdaTV, the online news portal, broke the news with a figure of 11. TR Haber news website later said 17 had been detained in simultaneous operations on January 30. Turkish authorities have not made any official announcement, but have sweeping powers for detention under Turkey’s ‘anti-terrorism’ laws.

OdaTV alleged that the kidnappers included a Turkish state prosecutor, the owner of a defense company, a retired Turkish army colonel, and several non-commissioned officers. It claimed the target of the kidnappers was ‘Shah Nem,’ apparently an alias, who was wanted by Iran’s intelligence and lived in Zonguldak, a city in Turkey’s Black Sea region. The news portal alleged the ‘mastermind’ was Ali Ghahraman-Hajiabad, an Iranian intelligence agent who returned to Iran after organizing the team.

OdaTV also named an Iranian national, Morteza Soltan-Sanjali, as a “key link” in the operation and said he worked for By Saglam, a Turkish defense company, in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina.According to OdaTV, Soltan-Sanjali travelled to Zonguldak to find the intended victim, realized for some reason the operation had to be cancelled, and was then arrested by intelligence agents when attempting to reach Istanbul.

Soltan-Sanjali had supposedly recruited the kidnappers from retired Turkish and non-commissioned officers. Davut Yilmaz, who worked at the Kartal Anatolian Courthouse, was to use his judicial connections if anything went wrong.

Amid its growing use of extra-judicial powers in the face of criticism from rights groups and the European Union, Turkey has arrested dozens of Iranian and Turkish nationals in the past few years over alleged plots to kidnap or assassinate Iranian dissidents.

In 2021, Turkey released Mohammad Reza Naserzadeh, whom its intelligence agents had arrested in connection with the killing of Masoud Molavi-Vardanjani, a former Iranian defense official, in Istanbul in 2019.Turkey’s Daily Sabah had alleged that Naserzadeh, whom it said was a diplomat working in the consulate’s civic registry, had forged travel documents for Ali Esfanjani, the alleged ‘mastermind’ of the killing.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh denied reports at the time of Naserzadeh’s arrest early in 2021 that he was an embassy employee, although Turkey's official Anadolou (Anatolia) news agency subsequently published footage of Naserzadeh's arrest at Istanbul airport showing his Iranian service passport.

Turkish government’s official TRT channel reported in 2020 that the its intelligence service MIT had unearthed a network tied to Iran’s intelligence ministry working to abduct or assassinate Iranian dissidents, and that the network had lured Farajollah Chaab, an Arab separatist leader, to Turkey, and then rendered him to Iran, where he is currently on trial.

This week, Turkish media also reported that 16 people including Palestinians and Syrian nationals arrested last October would be put on trial in Istanbul for "political and military" espionage for Israel, while a Danish court this week convicted three members of a Saudi-backed Arab separatist group committed to ‘terrorism’ in Iran.

Press secretary John F. Kirby said in a briefing on Wednesday that Pentagon is continually watching Iran and is keenly aware of the threats its ballistic missile program poses to the region.

Earlier on Wednesday, at the heels of the new round of nuclear negotiations in Vienna, the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) unveiled a solid-fuel precision-guided ballistic missile with a range of 1,450 kilometers (900 miles), which puts US bases in the region and Israel within range.

Answering a question if the new missile -- dubbed Khaybar Shekan -- is a message to the US and Israel, Kirby said that the US doesn't look at this as a messaging issue, adding, “We see their malign activities as much more than messaging… they are malign activities on their own. They are destabilizing in the region. They're supporting terrorist groups across the region. They are harassing maritime shipping”.

He described it as “a legitimate national security threat issue in the region to our people, to our facilities, and to those of our allies and partners”, saying that “They are advancing a Ballistic Missile Program that is designed for offensive purposes to inflict harm and damage potentially lethal so on other states, other peoples”.

US lawmakers have asked President Joe Biden to focus on Iran’s missile program.

Farah Pahlavi, who married Mohammad Reza Shah at the age of 21 in 1959, is 83 years old and lives in Paris. She has come to be seen by many Iranians as a respected elder who campaigned for women’s rights during the secular monarchy.

The exiled queen said in a statement on Wednesday that she is certain “light will defeat darkness,” an implicit reference to pre-Islamic Iranian beliefs in a struggle between good and evil and the eventual triumph of light against darkness.

She expressed hope that all Iranians “who have the love of this ancient fatherland in their hearts” will unite to achieve victory over “gloom and hardships.”

In recent years as economic crisis and heavy-handed policies by the Islamic Republic have worsened, many Iranians have come to praise the Pahlavi dynasty for modernizing the country in the 20th century. On the anniversary of the revolution, many on social media condemn the 1979 revolution as a misguided step.

Islamic Republic’s top officials, increasingly disenchanted by the sharp turn in public mood, have reacted in their speeches and in government-controlled media. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei this week condemned foreign-based Persian broadcasters for showing conditions in Iran before the revolution.

The two documents categorized as “highly confidential” were passed last week by hackers Edalat-e Ali (Ali's Justice) to Iran International and other foreign Persian-language media outlets. There was also a document attributed to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) according to which discontent in Iran has tripled in a year.

The first document, purportedly a letter from the deputy prosecutor responsible for international cases to Tehran Revolutionary Prosecutor Ali Alghasi Mehr, refers to the London ‘Iran Atrocities Tribunal’ considering the 2019 fuel protests, the Iran Tribunal formed in The Hague in 2007 reviewing 1988 prison executions, and the Stockholm trial of former prison guard Hamid Nouri (Noury) over the 1988 executions.

In his letter, Mostafa Seyed Ashrafi, the deputy prosecutor, said that the foreign ministry, international affairs department in the president's office, government spokesman, judiciary spokesman, and the judiciary's Human Rights Headquarters should actively "explain that these tribunals and trials violate international laws.”

The letter, dated November 15, 2021, also advised unauthorized officials to "avoid making remarks on these events that may bear costs to the country,” citing a claim by deputy parliament speaker Hassan Norouzi, later denied, that he had been “one of those people” who opened fire during the 2019 disturbances.

Whereas the London and The Hague tribunals are non-state bodies whose ‘findings’ are symbolic or political, the Stockholm trial is conducted under Swedish law according to a principle of universal jurisdiction. Noury, who denies the charges, was arrested in 2019 and has been widely reported as guilty.

The second document, dated October 11 2020, is a letter from the International Deputy of the Judiciary Ali Bagheri-Kani, now deputy foreign minister, to then chief justice Ebrahim Raisi, after he visited Greater Tehran Penitentiary and met prisoners sentenced over the 2019 disturbances.

Prison visit

The letter said that people aged 19 to 27, who made up a large proportion of those jailed, had told him they had been coerced into confessing and suggested the cases should be reinvestigated and perhaps included in an amnesty that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was reportedly planning.

"All of them wanted to be freed at least conditionally,” the letter said. “Some of the younger ones begged and even cried and asked for help.” Such measures would "hugely blunt the sharp blades of the Western and human rights organizations,” it claimed.

The Edalat-e Ali hackers appeared last August in circulating footage from security cameras in Tehran's Evin prison and more recently hacked into state television's coverage of an Iran-United Arab Emirates football match with a video showing Guy Fox masks from the 2005 US-British film V for Vendetta.

The group, whose provenance remains unknown, claimed they wanted to turn the ten-day celebration of the 1979 Revolution into "the funeral of the Islamic Republic.”

Edalat-e Ali group's name evokes the first of the twelve Shiite Imams, Ali, but may also refer to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

"The two leaders committed to ensuring the stability of global energy supplies," the White House said in a statement.

Salman, emphasized the need to maintain the supply agreement OPEC has with its allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+.

Saudi Arabia, along other producers cut exports in April 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic sharply reduced demand, but later decided to maintain most of the reduction, increasing production incrementally.

Global crude prices, which have rallied about 20% this year, are likely to surpass $100 a barrel because of a weaker-than- expected hit to demand from the Omicron variant of coronavirus, analysts have said.

International Brent oil settled nearly 1% higher, at $91.55 a barrel, on Wednesday.

High oil prices are a risk to the Biden administration ahead of November's congressional elections in which his fellow Democrats will defend slim majorities in the Senate and US House of Representatives.

The White House said that on the call, Biden also repeated the commitment of the United States to support Saudi Arabia in defending itself against attacks by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group, the White House said.

Biden also briefed Salman on international talks revive the 2015 nuclear agreement (JCPOA) to "re-establish constraints on Iran's nuclear program," the White House said.

Saudi Arabia along with its Persian Gulf allies and Israel eye the talks with apprehension as the revival of the agreement will not constrain Iran’s ballistic missile program and aggressive regional policies.

In recent weeks, Iran-backed Houthis have fired missiles at the United Arab Emirates, in a rare escalation, which is believed to have had Tehran’s blessing as most of Houthi weapons are supplied by Iran.

The conflict in Yemen is largely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Houthis, who ousted the government from the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014, say they are fighting a corrupt system and foreign aggression.

Salman told Biden that Saudi Arabia wanted there to be a "political resolution" in Yemen, SPA said.

A US source familiar with the call said, "Saudi Arabia has historically played a vital role in ensuring global energy markets are well supplied to support strong and resilient economies.

"The president noted that it is especially important now, during this time of geopolitical instability and global recovery," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Oil has also been supported by the tension in Ukraine as Russia has put more than 100,000 troops on its borders.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this week the administration has been in coordination with allies and partners including on "how best to share energy reserves in the event that Russia turns off the spigot or initiates a conflict that disrupts the flow of gas through Ukraine".

That was an apparent reference to both the potential of oil and natural gas cutoffs in the aftermath of any invasion by Moscow.

Biden's last call with Salman was reported about a year ago around the time of the release of a US assessment that said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the king's son, approved an operation to capture or kill murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

With reporting by Reuters