Iran Says Stability Of Mideast Hinges On Iraq’s Stability

The recent cases happened in the northern city of Lahijan and western city of Ilam due to financial hardships the victims faced. The prosecutor of Lahijan, Ebrahim Ansari, said on Sunday that one of the workers of the city’s water and wastewater management company set himself on fire in protest to his suspension by the contracting company. 

Hengaw Organization for Human Rights also reported that a 30-year-old man, identified as Jamil Valibaygi, set himself on fire because of financial pressures. 

In June, two workers in Bandar-e Mahshahr in the southwestern province of Khuzestan also set themselves on fire in protest to their dismissal. They survived thanks to prompt intervention by their coworkers. Earlier, a worker in the city of Yasuj, the capital of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, set himself on fire over his inability to pay a debt of about 10 million tomans, or $300. 

Earlier in the year, a biology teacher killed himself in the city of Minab in the southern province of Hormozgan over economic problems. In recent months, there have been other reports about teachers committing suicide due to financial problems, including Gholamabbas Yahyapour, a mathematics teacher from the city of Gerash in the Fars province who killed himself late in 2021.

Food prices have risen by more than 80 to 100 percent in recent months, on top of high inflation in the previous three years, while most wage earners get less than $200 a month.

Fariba Kamalabadi, Mahvash Sabet (Shahriari) and Afif Naimi, three former directors of the Iranian Baha'i community known as "Yaran", were among those who were arrested on Sunday, July 31, in Tehran and Karaj. The three had been detained before in 2018 and spent 10 years behind bars. 

Several arrests were also reported in the cities of Sari in the northern Mazandaran province and Qazvin, near the capital. 

Iran’s intelligence ministry claimed on Monday that the arrested Baha’is were linked to the Baha’i center in Israel, where the religious group’s international headquarters are located, and had collected and transferred information there.

The Worldwide Baha’i Community said in a July 20 statement that Tehran had intensified its systematic campaign to suppress the religious minority in recent weeks, either arresting, summoning to court, putting on trial or closing the businesses of at least 20 Baha'i citizens just in July.

According to the community, in June at least 44 Baha'is were detained, summoned to court, put on trial or given prison sentences, or had their homes searched.

The 1979 constitution of the Islamic Republic recognizes only Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has on several occasions called the Baha'i faith a cult and in a religious fatwa in 2018 forbade contact, including business dealings, with followers of the faith.

Baha'is, who number around 300,000 in Iran, say their rights are systematically violated and they are often harassed, forced to leave their homes and businesses, and are deprived of government jobs and university education.

In a message released on Sunday, Sadr -- who seeks to curb the influence of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Iraqi politics -- urged his followers, including tribal leaders and paramilitary forces, to join his cause, saying now is the best time to change the political system and constitution.

“This is a great chance for radical change to the political system. Don’t miss your chance,” he said. 

Protesting against corruption and political mismanagement, hundreds of followers of Sadr occupied the country's parliament on Saturday after mounting concrete barricades on roads leading to Baghdad’s Green Zone, which houses government buildings and foreign embassies. 

At least sixty protesters were injured in clashes with security forces, according to the Iraqi Health Ministry. 

The protesters stressed the need for an independent government in Baghdad, emphasizing that they do not want an Iranian-linked government or a subordinate one.

It was the largest protest since the federal elections and the second time al-Sadr has used his ability to mobilize the masses to send a message to his political rivals this month,and renewed his call to dismantle outlaw armed factions, referring to the Iran-backed Shiite militia Hashd al-Shaabi, which was led by former Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis before he was killed alongside Qasem Soleimani in January 2020 by a US drone strike.

Following a meeting with the members of parliament's energy committee on Sunday, Mohammad Eslami, vice president and the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said that the parliamentarians are pushing to turn the so-called comprehensive roadmap for nuclear industry into law in such a way that the nuclear development process is not damaged by the change of administrations.

The document, which was unveiled on April 9 this year by the AEOI, includes the country’s plans for nuclear activities such as power generation, increasing nuclear radiation applications, radiopharmaceuticals, protection against radiation, and developing nuclear infrastructures. 

He added that the AEOI wants people to feel the tangible effects of nuclear technology in their lives. 

During the past weeks, many Iranian observers including commentators and lawmakers criticized President Ebrahim Raisi for claiming that the people wish to resist rather than reach an agreement that would lift US sanctions and bring about a breakthrough in Iran's economy.

Some former Iranian diplomats suggested that Raisi and other ultraconservatives take advantage of the current foreign policy impasse over the revival of the JCPOA for their own personal or factional political gains to strengthen their foothold in Iran's domestic politics.

Diplomats negotiating to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, JCPOA, have repeatedly said that an agreement has almost been completed in 11 months of talks in Vienna, but Tehran demands more sanctions be lifted than Washington is willing to waive.

Yaghoub Rezazadeh, a member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on Sunday that the decision has been taken thanks to the latest efforts of the European parties to reach a conclusion about the negotiations. 

Rezazadeh added that the Islamic Republic had proposed that the next round would be held in Iran, but the final location of the negotiations will be determined following the agreement by the parties.

He said during the past few days the members of the committee held several meetings with Ali Bagheri-Kani, the head of Tehran’s negotiating team.

Moreover, Ali Bagheri-Kani tweeted on Sunday that “We shared our proposed ideas, both on substance and form, to pave the way for a swift conclusion of Vienna negotiations which were aimed at fixing the damaging complicated situation caused by the US unilateral and unlawful withdrawal.”

He added that Tehran works closely with the JCPOA partners, in particular with the EU coordinator of the talks “to give another chance to the US to demonstrate good faith and act responsibly. As Iran, we stand ready to conclude the negotiations in a short order, should the other side be ready to do the same.”

State Department spokesman Ned Price said on July 26 that the US was mulling European Union’s proposals over Iran’s nuclear program. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell recently produced new ideas to bridge differences between the United States and Iran and allow both to return to the agreement.