Iran’s National Team Loses Boss With Only Four Months To World Cup

Ahmad Alirezabeighi, the representative of Tabriz in the parliament, said in an interview on Monday that “it is natural that dissatisfaction increases among people because our policies and strategies are carried out by ignoring the people."

Criticizing the government’s decision to scrap the subsidy for essential food and medicines, despite warnings of more inflation and hardship, he said, “Currently, where are our people in the economic equation?” People should be central in the decisions of the country, he noted. 

Alirezabeighi, a conservative retired police officer who served as the governor of East Azarbaijan province under former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, added that the problem in Iran is not nuclear negotiations adding that past experience shows that “our problem is ignoring people.”

He said that in negotiations if a government does not enjoy the support of its people, it will have to give in to the pressure of foreigners. 

“Many think that the solution to our economic problems depends on the [revival of] the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The past eight years of Rouhani's government showed that the JCPOA cannot be effective in this regard,” he added. 

Alirezabeighi also said that Iran’s interactions with Russia and China should be based on the country’s interests, referring to criticisms over the Islamic Republic’s a 25-year cooperation agreement with China and a proposed 20-year deal with Russia. 

According to the Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences on Monday, the number of cholera patients in the province has reached 39, most of which are reported in the city of Marivan located at the border with Iraq. 

The university’s public relations manager, Bahram Kandai, said the outbreak has not caused any fatalities in the province yet. 

Earlier in the week, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences confirmed that at least eight people have contracted the disease. 

The cholera outbreak in Iraq was officially confirmed by the country’s health ministry in June, with infections were mostly concentrated in Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah, in the autonomous Kurdistan region. The current number of cases is at least 160.

On July 10, health officials in Afghanistan's Helmand province said that 20 people died in the previous 24 hours of cholera and a further 120 were infected. 

Late in June, The UN humanitarian office (OCHA) said preparations were underway to avoid a cholera outbreak in Afghanistan after the country’s deadliest earthquake in two decades, saying that half a million cases of acute, watery diarrhea had already been reported. "Cholera outbreaks in the aftermath of earthquakes are of particular and serious concern," OCHA said in a statement. 

The acute diarrheal illness is caused by infection of the intestine with Vibrio cholerae bacteria, when people swallow food or water contaminated with the cholera bacteria. 

Unconfirmed social media reports said that Panahi, along with several other Iranian filmmakers, was at the prosecutor’s office of the prison and was detained there. There are other reports that said they were holding a protest in front of the prison for the release of Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Alehahmad when security forces arrested him. 

More than 300 figures of the country’s film industry have signed a statement calling for their release. The Berlinale, the European Film Academy and the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk have also spoken out against their arrest.

Panahi, who has won numerous awards, including the Golden Leopard at Locarno Festival, the Golden Lion in Venice, and the Silver Bear at the Berlinale, was once arrested in March 2010 and later charged with propaganda against the regime. 

Rasoulof – another prominent filmmaker with several international awards such as the Golden Bear – and Alehahmad – who is known in international film galas for his short works -- were arrested July 8 as part of the Iranian crackdown on the signatories of a collective statement titled “Lay down the gun” issued by more than 100 film industry personalities in the end of May. 

The statement called on military and security forces who “have become tools for cracking down on the people,” not to suppress protesters during a wave of protests across Iran that were triggered when a 10-story building collapsed in Abadan, leaving at least 37 people dead and dozens missing.

The middle-aged woman waved her headscarf as she was walking in a main square of the city of Tonekabon – formerly known as Shahsavar -- in Mazandaran province, shouting “freedom” and police forces sought to detain her by force as she was screaming “do not touch me!” 

In a rare scene in Iran where people are normally afraid of law enforcement forces, citizens of the city gathered around the police car, immobilized it, and released the woman. 

Authorities this year named the 12th of July as Hijab and Chastity Day and are planning state-sponsored rallies at stadiums and other places to promote the Islamic notion of the hijab (cover) for women. On the same day, women activists have their own plans to protest by taking off their hijab. 

The Islamic Republic has launched an extensive campaign this year against women they call ‘bad-hijab’. In addition to arrests by the ‘morality police’ on the streets, some officials have ordered extra measures, including to government offices, banks, and public transportation to withhold service to ‘bad-hijab’ women. 

The so-called morality police have also started patrolling medical and academic centers in some cities to enforce compliance with the Islamic dress code.

President Ebrahim Raisi on July 6 called lack of compliance with hijab rules “an organized promotion of [moral] corruption in Islamic society.”

Turkish-language Sabah Daily published more details on Sunday about the Iranian plot three weeks after Turkey’s security agencies nabbed 8 Iranian nationals in three different locations in Istanbul.

The agents, Sabah says, were allegedly sent by a unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), apparently to avenge a mysterious series of killings and deaths among its personnel in Iran in May and early June. Iranian blamed Israel for the incidents, as it became more apparent that it had penetrated various domains of government institutions.

Since July 2020, a series of spectacular attacks began against Iran’s well-defended nuclear and weapons development sites, as well as key individuals, such as top nuclear official Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November 2020. Hackings, mysterious fires, sinking of ships disruption of infrastructure continued until the daylight assassination of a key official of Colonel Hassan Sayyad-Khodaei on May 22 in Tehran. The man was reportedly the commander of a secretive unit tasked with terror operations abroad. The Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi immediately vowed revenge.

It is not clear exactly when and how the Iranian agents entered Turkey and congregated in Istanbul. Some might have been members of a ‘sleeping cell’. But Sabah reports that some checked into the same hotel where Israel’s former Consul General in Istanbul, Yosef Levi Sfari and a group of tourists from Israel were staying.

Being aware of a dangerous situation developing, Turkish authorities quietly moved the Israelis to another hotel, Sabah said, but Israeli media at the time spoke of close coordination between Israeli and Turkish security.

In fact, Israel might have been the one that tipped off Turkish intelligence about the Iranian plot. In late May, Israel warned its citizens to stay away from Istanbul and the warning was repeated in the first two weeks of June. By mid-June, the news about the foiled Iranian plot emerged in Israeli media, that also claimed Ankara had warned Tehran not to conduct any such operations on its soil, but it has so far not publicly accused Iran of planning terror attacks.

However, a planned visit by Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was postponed in mid-June amid widespread speculations that the cancellation was related the ongoing controversy over the terror plot. He eventually visited Ankara in late June, meeting with a sombre-faced Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey.

Sabah’s report says that Turkish security found three handguns with the arrested Iranian team, equipped with silencers, and published a photo of the weapons and ammunition, which can indicate Turkish police shared case material with the newspaper.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid spoke with Erdogan over the phone and reportedly thanked him for the close cooperation over derailing the Iranian plot.

Iran has dismissed the accusation of initiating a terror plan and has said the reports are Israeli fabrications to harm its ties with Turkey.