Destruction Of Ukrainian Infrastructure By Iranian Drones ‘Terrorism’ - MP

Like most provincial governors under the Raisi administration, now Sistan and Baluchistan province also has a military man on top of its administrative system. Karami replaced Hossein Modarres Khalili one of the very few civilian provincial governors.

According to Rouydad24 website, Khalili, a man with a background in economic affairs failed to make Ebrahim Raisi's promise of developing the province come true. Raisi, a hardliner, had made the promise in return for the votes the people in the province cast in his favor in the 2021 presidential election. Four years earlier, voters in the poverty-stricken region had cast their ballots mostly for reform-minded candidates.

As the commander of IRGC's Quds Headquarters in southeast Iran, Karami has been the most powerful man in Kerman and Sistan-Baluchistan provinces for several years. The government naturally expects him to help pacify the volatile security situation after months of unrest marked by the IRGC's bloody attack on protesters in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan on September 30, that killed more than 80 people.

The government also hopes that Karami's past experience will help him to succeed in development projects to alleviate poverty in the region. The former governor's inability to do so led to complaints even among government supporters.

On the other hand, Karami has paid lip service to equality between Shiite and Sunnis. This could be part of the formulaic rhetoric aimed at Sunnis, the number of times he has made such statements may indicate his interest in pacifying the Sunnis who traditionally live in the Baluchistan part of the province as opposed to the Shiite populated Sistan. Considering the consequences of the attacks that have killed over a hundred Sunnis in the past 3 months, he might need many more gestures.

Karami said in the aftermaths of IRGC attack in Zahedan and Khash as "scenes where the blood of Sunnis and Shiites mixed to support Islam against terrorism," the IRGC's Tasnim news website quoted him as saying. Meanwhile, local newspaper Asr-e Hamoon quoted Karami as saying that "Iran's enemies wish to sow discord among Iran's Shiites and Sunnis."

However, the difference between Karami and other officials who have said the same things is that he always makes a comment or two about the region's desperate need for economic progress and improvement of health and education systems.

In another development, ultraconservative daily Vatan Emrooz welcomed Karami's appointment and described his it as "a choice in favor of security." The daily wrote that one of the reasons for Karami's appointment was the escalation of “Takfiri terrorist activities” in the province and the ensuing insecurity in the region. Nonetheless, the daily observed that in his mandate for Karami, President Raisi stressed the need to improve the people's livelihood.

The daily also pointed out Karami's comment at a recent conference in the province, during which he said that "the enemies are taking advantage of the province's economic problems to sow discord between Muslim sects," a remark that highlighted both his missions, strengthening security, and improving the economy.

According to Rouydad24, the former governor's biggest weakness was his inability to control the security situation in the province. Obviously, the government can be sure that even if the new governor cannot do anything about the economy, his ability to crack down on protests is a certainty.

In articles in media affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards on Sunday, the regime boasted about its “integrated missile network” and how it has armed the axis of “resistance” in the Middle East, a term which refers to a network of pro-Iranian proxies and Tehran-backed militias across the region, particularly Hezbollah, the Palestinians and Yemen. 

The articles also paid a tribute to Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, an IRGC general who was one of Iran’s earliest missile architects. He was killed when a huge explosion rocked a missile facility 30 miles from Tehran on November 12, 2011. Moghaddam was among 17 top IRGC officers killed that day, in what many believed was an operation by Israeli intelligence.

He was important for the Islamic Republic because he was one of the main experts who shifted the focus of country’s air force to missiles and drones instead of fighter jets that Iran could not acquire due to Western sanctions and unwillingness by others to get their hands dirty. Tehrani Moghaddam is often described as the “father” of Iran’s missile program. 

Facing a disparity in air power, Iran started developing missiles and drones based on Soviet models or Soviet-origin models that came from China, or even, from North Korea. 

“Tehrani Moghaddam also established the Lebanese Hezbollah’s missile units during a visit to Lebanon in the 1980s. Analysts believe that Tehrani Moghaddam has based Iran’s defense strategy on missile capabilities and missile deterrence, a move that effectively removed the military option of the enemies of Iran from the table,” read one of the articles. 

IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency claimed that thanks to Tehrani Moghaddam “the Islamic Republic has become the first missile power in the region and one of the top missile powers in the world, with a diverse range of ballistic missiles at its disposal." Tasnim provided a long list of Iranian drones and missiles, as well as the ones that the regime helped its allies develop based on its models, such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, the Hashd or the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, and the Syrian regime. 

According to the article, Palestinian groups began using missiles and Iran’s Fajr 5 rocket against Israel years ago. Hezbollah also began to deploy Iranian-backed missile technology against Israel, Tasnim claimed, saying that missiles were used in the Second Lebanon War in 2006, and Hezbollah was eventually equipped with the Fateh 110 missile. The article also mentioned more examples of Iranian missiles used by its proxy groups, from Yemen to Lebanon.

“What is a noteworthy point in this field is that the resistance forces in both Yemen and Lebanon today are equipped with surface-to-surface, anti-ship and long-range cruise missiles, that are able to hit all types of vessels in different ranges with proper accuracy and destructive power, and if appropriate tactics are used, they are also able to pass through the defense systems of combat vessels,” read the piece by Tasnim.

It, however, said “No official source in Iran has yet officially confirmed the sending of missiles to Yemen and the resistance front. It seems that now the resistance groups have achieved the technologies of using and sometimes manufacturing all kinds of missiles and rockets.” 

The whole point of the article is that the Islamic Republic has knit together a unified network of its allies using its drones to expand their range of action and now seek to create an “integrated missile network” across the region putting it “under the umbrella of the integrated missile and drone network of Iran and its allies, and a new challenge will arise for America and its regional supporters.”

Details of the incident are not available yet, including if the suspect was linked to any security risk related to Iran International.

In mid-November, Iran International was informed that elements connected to Iran’s intelligence services posed a threat to two of its journalists. A few days later, the police positioned armored vehicles outside the headquarters of the television network in London and other security measures were put in place.

Islamic Republic officials have used threatening language speaking about Iran International, which has been reporting around the clock on the popular protests in Iran since mid-September.

Tehran has accused “enemies” of fomenting the unrest, which began when Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman was killed in police custody. She was arrested for her ‘improper hijab.’

The term ‘enemies’ in the official Iranian jargon usually means the United States, United Kingdom, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The Islamic Republic has been persecuting journalists for decades, but began a harassment campaign against foreign-based Iranian journalists more than a decade ago, by direct and indirect threats, including against family members still residing in Iran.

According to IRNA, Chief of General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Bagheri said Sunday that the country’s UAVs are accurate enough to respond to any threat endangering its interests.

This comes as the Biden administration launched a task force last week to see how US and western components are ending up in Iranian drones used in Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Although strict measures were in effect to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining such materials, some evidence shows Tehran has more than enough access to US-made microelectronics that are used in manufacturing drones.

Last month, a UK-based investigative organization found that over 80 percent of the drones downed in Ukraine have components made by US companies.

Kyiv has accused Tehran of supplying 1,700 Shahed-136 loitering munitions to Moscow, which it says have been used to hit targets in Ukraine since September. Iran denies the allegations.

The United States and its European allies, as well as the European Union have sanctioned various Iranian individuals and entities for supplying drones to Russia.

“It’s official: Congress has passed the Masih Alinejad HUNT Act, imposing mandatory sanctions on Iranian officials responsible for ongoing suppression of basic human rights in Iran and identifying any foreign banks transacting with those sanctioned individuals,” Twitter account of Senate Banking Committee Republicans said on Saturday.

Its Ranking member is Pennsylvania’s Republican Senator Pat Toomey, who cosponsored the act with Maryland Democrat Senator Ben Cardin. The Masih Alinejad Harassment and Unlawful Targeting Act of 2021 or the Masih Alinejad HUNT Act of 2021 was introduced in the Senate in December 2021 after the New York-based journalist was the target of an Iranian plot to kidnap her and take her to Iran via Venezuela, according to US law enforcement. On July, a man armed with a loaded AK-47 was arrested outside the Brooklyn home of the Iranian dissident and women’s rights activist. A federal complaint said the man named Khalid Mehdiyev, 23, was found with the assault rifle, multiple high-capacity magazines and additional rounds of ammunition and a suitcase full of cash as well as two other different license plates when he was arrested after lurking in the area for two days.

This bill imposes sanctions on foreign persons (i.e., individuals or entities) that are acting on behalf of Iran's government and involved in the harassment of certain individuals, such as human rights activists.

The news about the adoption of the bill was announced on Christmas eve, December 24 when the US Congress is in recess. It is not clear when it was approved, unless if it was part of the omnibus budget bill that was passed right before the holidays.

The bill requires the Department of State to periodically report to Congress on the identities of foreign persons acting on behalf of the Islamic Republic regime that are knowingly responsible for or complicit in the surveillance, harassment, imprisonment, or killing of citizens of Iran or the United States. These can be individuals “who seek to expose corruption or illegal activity by Iranian government officials; obtain, defend, or promote internationally recognized human rights; or obtain, defend, or promote the rights and well-being of women, religious and ethnic minorities, and the LGBTQ community in Iran.”

The report must include foreign persons involved in such actions that occur inside or outside Iran, and then the US president must impose property-blocking sanctions on such person, as well as visa-blocking sanctions on the identified individuals.

The Department of the Treasury must also submit to Congress a report identifying any foreign financial institution that knowingly conducts a significant transaction with a person sanctioned under this bill. The Treasury may prohibit the opening or impose strict conditions on the maintaining of a US correspondent account by such a financial institution.

Dozens of Iranian journalists in other countries, including those working for BBC Persian TV and London-based Iran International TV, repeatedly complain about their own and their family members' harassment in Iran, and say they have been threatened by authorities about possible actions.

Iran executed in December 2020 Rouhollah Zam, editor of a social-media channel, after he was kidnapped in Iraq and convicted on security charges and televised confessions, without due process of law.