Biden Administration Faces Tough Week Of Iran Questions

In an exclusive interview with Iran International, Nouripour voiced concerns about the alleged activities of the center and the broader network of Islamic centers established by the Islamic Republic within Germany.

Nouripour, during his conversation with an Iran International reporter in Berlin, highlighted the existence of what he termed a "spy network" created by the Islamic Republic through these Islamic centers. He said that regime officials used the network to engage in espionage activities targeting both the German populace and Iranians seeking protection within Germany.

The German domestic security apparatus has repeatedly issued warnings that the Islamic Center in Hamburg is promoting the ideology of the Shiite Islamic Republic. Furthermore, the deputy head of this center faced expulsion from Germany in November 2022 on charges related to connections with Hezbollah members, designated as a terrorist group in Germany.

Nouripour explained, "We have long been advocating for the closure of Islamic centers affiliated with the Islamic Republic in Germany and have exerted significant pressure in pursuit of this goal."

In July 2021, the Hamburg State Office for the Protection of the Constitution obtained new documents suggesting that the Islamic Center in Hamburg not only maintains ties to the Iranian government but has also evolved into one of the most important institutions of the Iranian regime in Europe.

Daniel Abed Khalife was in Wandsworth Prison when he escaped by clinging onto the bottom of a food delivery van. The 21-year-old is accused of trying to leak information to Iran and leaving fake bombs at a military base before his arrest in January.

Charged under the Official Secrets Act, he is accused of collecting personal information about soldiers from the Ministry of Defence joint personnel administration system while serving as a soldier.

Justice minister Alex Chalk told MPs that “strapping” had been found underneath the delivery vehicle and said an internal inquiry must report to him by the end of the week with a list of prison staff who were on duty at the time, notably those at the kitchens and security gates.

“No stone must be left unturned in getting to the bottom of what happened,” he told MPs.

Questions now remain as to how Khalife - labeled a flight risk and in turn, denied bail while awaiting trial - was allowed to work in the kitchen, giving him access to the delivery vehicle, a “privileged job” given usually only to the most trusted inmates, according to former Prison Governor, John Podmore.

Podmore told Times Radio: “Someone like him would not be allowed access to work the kitchen”, suspecting it was a premeditated escape with little chance of his being found. Further questions are being asked as to why, given the nature of the charges against Khalife, he was not in a maximum security category A or B prison such as Belmarsh.

Bijan Abdolkarimi, a philosopher and academic who upholds an ontological world view rather than the Iranian regime’s Islamic ideology, made the comments in an interview published by the reformist Etemad daily Tuesday. At the same time, perhaps trying to protect himself, he denied being an opponent of the regime. 

“The revolt of the [religious] masses and hardliners against the elite is one of the serious dangers to the Iranian Revolution,” he said in the interview that mainly focused on the recent purge of the academia and the announcements of several die-hard regime eulogist (maddah) having been invited to teach in universities.  

The recent purge which some have dubbed as “homogenization” of the academia, limitations imposed on students, persecution of journalists and the parliament’s attempt to destroy independence of the country’s bar association, are examples of the campaign against the elite, he added. Persons and groups who “do not belong to the elite in any way” are seeking to find their way into the academia with the government’s help, he said. 

Saeed Haddadian, one of the three maddahs who has gained a tutorial seat at Tehran University’s Literature and Humanities Faculty will be teaching “Analysing Resistance Verse”. 

Resistance verse refers to poetry written about the Islamic Revolution and the eight-year-war with Iraq in 1980s. 

The role of maddahs in Shiite mourning ceremonies is reciting the praises of the prophet and his companions and mourning the slaying of his grandson, Imam Hussein in the battle of Karbala, which in reality was a struggle over power in the nascent Islamic empire in the seventh century. 

In the past, most maddahs had very low education or were even illiterate but in recent years some have gained university degrees, mainly in religion-related or humanities fields with the establishment’s support.  

The 58-year-old Haddadian holds a PhD in Quran and Hadith and has previously been a tutor of subjects such as Islamic Revolution and Quran Interpretation at the same university. He is one of the maddahs who is often invited by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to perform at his own religious ceremonies on special occasions. 

During his three-decade rule Khamenei has hugely encouraged the growth of the maddah establishment against the seminary-educated clerics. Less educated or even illiterate maddahs whose role was singing mourning songs in graveyards at funerals or during religious mourning occasions for a small fee have now attained high status and political influence. The majority are aligned with hardliners. 

“These methods [Islamification of the academia] will not calm the country’s fueled circumstances but will rather make it worse,” Abdolkarimi said while pointing out that there is a massive class gap in the Iranian society where the middle class as “the engine of development” is excluded from involvement in decision-making by the state controlled by the hardliners. 

The purge of academia, which is now being referred to by some pundits as ‘the second cultural revolution’, has shaken many Iranians who are already grappling with various pressures. The purge comes amid loss of hope in improvement of the country’s circumstances, including its economy, better relations with the international community and removal of sanctions, as well as even relative social and political freedom. 

It appears from social media posts that loss of hope has even affected some religiously people who formerly supported the establishment for ideological reasons. Financial corruption and same-sex video scandals involving regime officials could have been the last blow to those whose world-view is centered around Sharia laws and had so far put up with economic pressures for “the greater good” of the society. 

Among those who have lost hope, particularly the younger generation from all walks of life, emigration seems the only option for a better life. A recent poll by the US-based Statis Consulting found that almost half of Iranian youth want to leave the country amid pessimism about their future. 

“All around me there are people who are emigrating, who never wished or liked to leave. I wish you [the Islamic Republic] were gone and all of these people stayed,” an anonymous person wrote in a post.  

Speaking on Wednesday, Abdolhamid stated, "The sudden deaths of certain detainees, both during their incarceration and after their release, have left a profoundly negative impression on the international stage, exacerbating pessimism."

Rouhi, a prominent figure in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, is the latest activist to have passed away in prison last week, purportedly due to a "seizure," as claimed by Iranian judicial authorities, his death echoing the tragic circumstances which led to the death of Iranian-Kurd, Mahsa Amini, in morality police custody. Her death subsequently triggered a year of uprising against the regime.

Rouhi had become one of the most prominent faces of the recent Woman, Life, Freedom movement, and had been held at the northern Nowshahr prison and initially sentenced to death, a sentence later overturned by the Supreme Court, pending re-sentencing.

Amnesty International previously documented extensive instances of severe physical and psychological abuse during the young man's detention. His death has sparked outrage among Iranians demanding action, while international human rights organizations are urging a comprehensive investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death.

Calls for a United Nations investigation and international accountability measures against the Islamic Republic regime are growing louder among human rights organizations, while activists are rallying for a declaration of public mourning and nationwide protests in Rouhi's memory.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan on Thursday of building up troops along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh disputed region and the Armenian-Azerbaijan border. In the past week, both Yerevan and Baku reported casualties after intense shelling near their common border.

The escalation comes amid a continuing crisis over Nagorno-Karabakh where Yerevan and local ethnic Armenian authorities accuse Baku of continuing its “illegal blockade” of the region, resulting in severe shortages of food, fuel, and medicine as well as a rationing of bread. Azerbaijan has justified its nine-month Azerbaijani blockade of the highway linking Armenia to the enclave -- internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but populated by around 120,000 ethnic Armenians -- by saying Armenia was using the road to supply weapons to Karabakh, which Armenia denies. The critical Lachin corridor serves as the sole communication route between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Tensions are simmering as the Armenian Defense Ministry announced earlier in the month that it will hold a joint war game with NATO forces from September 11-20, dubbed Eagle Partner 2023 aimed at increasing the level of interoperability of units participating in international peacekeeping missions. 

Traditionally, Armenia has leaned on Russia and Iran, both nations against any border changes between the two longtime rivals. However, Yerevan seems to have recently distanced itself from Moscow, perhaps because Russia is engrossed in its invasion of Ukraine as well as its warming ties with Turkey and Azerbaijan. 

The joint drill with the United States forces can be construed as Armenia leaning towards the West to secure support in case of a looming military conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Pashinyan recently said that exclusive dependence on Russia does not serve Armenia's security well anymore, a statement that Moscow described as "public rhetoric bordering on rudeness".

RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reported this week that Armenia is providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine for the first time since the Russian invasion of the country. Sources told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that Pashinyan’s wife, Anna Hakobian, will personally hand over aid to the Ukrainian side when she flies to Kyiv to attend the annual Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen. 

Despite the small scale of the joint military exercise, Russia – which sees itself as the pre-eminent power in the South Caucasus region that was part of the Soviet Union until 1991 -- said it would be watching closely. "Of course, such news causes concern, especially in the current situation. Therefore, we will deeply analyze this news and monitor the situation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this week, adding, "In this situation, holding such exercises does not contribute to stabilizing the situation in any case and strengthening the atmosphere of mutual trust in the region." 

Russia maintains a peacekeeping force in the region to uphold an agreement that ended a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020, the second they have fought since the Soviet collapse. 

Footage on social media in recent days also showed increasing Azerbaijani military movements near the front line between the two countries. According to Crisis Watch – a global conflict tracker, several cargo aircraft have airlifted hundreds of tons of weapons including ballistic missiles from Israel and Turkey to Baku, adding that “Azerbaijan’s Air Force received a new batch of Bayraktar TB2 armed drones from Turkey in order to use them in its incoming invasion of Armenia.”

“Azerbaijan is ready for another invasion of Armenia. They are just waiting for Turkey to get Iran's permission," said military expert and author Babak Taghvaee. Iran has been deeply concerned about Azerbaijani moves to establish a corridor through Armenian territory to a piece of its territory to the west. While an Azerbaijani military threat exists to force such a corridor, Iran will lose its historic land connection with Armenia. Tensions over the transit road have led to military exercises conducted by the Iranian armed forces near the border with Azerbaijan in recent years.

Earlier in September, US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken also spoke with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev to express the United States’ concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, calling to reopen the Lachin Corridor to humanitarian, commercial, and passenger traffic. He also underscored the need for dialogue and compromise and the importance of building confidence between the parties, and pledged continued US support to the peace process.