Iran Claims Foreign Minister Pursuing Ukraine Peace In Moscow Visit

On the sidelines of a ceremony for a national project to export liquefied gas via sea on Tuesday, the head of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), Jalil Salari, said that the quota of 250 liters was "a very high number" considering that fact that most Iranians do not consume that much petrol per month. 

All Iranians who own a car have a 60-liter quota of gasoline at the heavily subsidized rate of about five US cents a liter, but were also allowed to buy 250 liters more at about 10 cents, which is again heavily subsidized, at about 37 cents a US gallon. 

According to Jalili the new quota system will be implemented throughout the country soon. 

Some people in social media have described the move as a prelude by the administration of Ebrahim Raisi to increase the price of gasoline, despite repeated announcements by the government that the price of gasoline would not increase in the current Iranian year, which started on March 21. Such a plan had been earlier piloted in Sistan and Baluchistan province, leading to a whopping rise of gasoline prices to about 150,000 rials – or about 50 cent a liter – in the black market. 

According to a statement by US Naval Forces Central Command on Tuesday, the 5th Fleet observed an IRGC support ship, named Shahid Baziar, towing a Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vessel (USV) in an attempt to detain it while transiting international waters on Monday night local time, August 29.

The Navy patrol coastal ship USS Thunderbolt (PC 12), which was operating nearby, immediately responded and an MH-60S Sea Hawk from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 26 -- based in Bahrain was also launched, prompting the IRGC vessel to disconnect the towing line to the USV and depart the area approximately four hours later. The US Navy resumed operations without further incident, the statement added.

Describing the actions by the IRGC Navy as “flagrant, unwarranted and inconsistent with the behavior of a professional maritime force,” the commander of US Naval Forces Central Command, the 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper said, “US naval forces remain vigilant and will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows while promoting rules-based international order throughout the region.”

The statement said the Saildrone Explorer USV that the IRGC attempted to steal is a US government property and equipped with sensors, radars and cameras for navigation and data collection, the statement said, noting that this technology does not store sensitive or classified information.

Iran, which had closed its border and halted flights to its neighboring country, announced on Tuesday afternoon that Mehran, Qasr-e Shirin and Chazabeh land border crossings have been reopened, but urged citizens to remain cautious amid a fragile calm.

Clashes continued until Tuesday noon between the Sadrist forces with Iran-backed militia groups in major cities as well as near the Green Zone in central Baghdad -- home to embassies and government buildings -- before the cleric asked his supporters to stop the protests.

"I still believe that my supporters are disciplined and obedient. And if in the next 60 minutes they do not withdraw, as well as from parliament, then I will abandon these supporters," he said. Following the announcement, supporters began leaving central Baghdad on vehicles, holding rifles and chanting while driving away.

He apologized to the Iraqi people and said shedding the blood of an Iraqi is Haram (forbidden), noting that “I expected the protests to remain peaceful, but I don't want even peaceful protests any more... Had we dissolved armed groups, we wouldn't be witnessing the current situation.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi praised Muqtada al-Sadr over his call for cessation of conflicts, and urged immediate dialogue among political groups.

The unrest initially broke out on Monday, August 29, hours after Sadr announced he was quitting politics.

Mohammad Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, the secretary of Iran’s Headquarters For Enjoining Right And Forbidding Evil, tasked with promoting the clerical regime’s interpretation of Islamic morals, confirmed the move in an interview published on Tuesday, adding that the subway CCTV cameras are programed to use face recognition technology to take a photo of the unveiled women. 

He added that the photos will be matched against the database registered for the women’s national ID cards to identify them and then a ticket with a significant fine will be sent to them. 

Golpayegani had previously said that about half of the Iranian women currently do not observe the mandatory hijab rules. 

In recent months the Islamic Republic’s government and security agencies have intensified their efforts to pressure women into abiding by the hijab laws and several rounds of anti-hijab civil disobedience campaigns followed. The patrols by the “morality police” have increased on the streets and videos of violent arrests of women and girls as well as confrontations between people and hijab enforcers are surfacing on social media every day.

Authorities are hailing those who harass women for their insufficient hijab and security forces stepped up detention of women in the streets for their loose hijab.

During a weekly press conference on Tuesday, Judiciary spokesperson Masoud Setayeshi said the two, identified as Stephen Kevin Gilbert and Simon Kasper Brown, were arrested in January 2020 at an airport in Tehran as they were about to leave the country with large quantities of opium-based narcotics.

"Simon Kasper Brown was sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of about 10 billion rials (about $34,000) for transporting more than 21,000 illegal pills of tramadol," an opioid painkiller, and "Stephen Kevin Gilbert was sentenced to eight years in prison, 60 lashes and a fine, for being in possession of 9.8 kilograms (21 pounds) of opium resin," he said.

The trial of the men — accused of being part of an “international drug trafficking gang” — opened in September 2021. Iran is a key smuggling route for opium and heroin from neighboring Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer. 

The judiciary spokesman noted that the case of the pair is different from the Swedish man arrested in July on allegations of “espionage,” whose case is being investigated but his identity has not been revealed. 

Tensions are relatively high between Tehran and Stockholm over a Swedish court’s sentencing of former Iranian jailor Hamid Nouri to life imprisonment over executions of political prisoners in 1988. 

Earlier in the month, Sweden started planning for the prosecution of two Iranian-Swedish brothers who were arrested in 2021 over allegations of espionage for Iranian Intelligence organizations.