Pentagon Looking Into Suspected Case Of Official With Iran Ties

It marks the third such incident in just a matter of days, with a particular focus on MODAFL installations across Iran. According to the Iranian Ministry of Defense, the incident was played down, described as a fire that was extinguished within one of its battery storage warehouses, causing no casualties.

The ministry released a statement on Thursday, stating, "Following last week's fire in a storage facility linked to our organization, the area was undergoing cleaning procedures when the remaining debris and waste unexpectedly ignited."

Last week, another explosion was contained at the battery warehouse belonging to Iran's Ministry of Defense.

Since July 2020, a series of sabotage acts and drone attacks have targeted sensitive military and industrial installations within Iran. These incidents have included at least three major operations resulting in substantial damage to nuclear facilities.

Iran has attributed these attacks to Israel, while successive Israeli administrations have refrained from publicly acknowledging or accepting responsibility. However, they have consistently issued warnings that Israel would employ all available means, including military actions, to thwart Iran's progress in its nuclear weapons program and the acquisition of such capabilities.

Back in March, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), designated four entities and three individuals in Iran and Turkey for their role in procuring equipment, including European-origin unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) engines, in support of Iran's UAV and weapons initiatives. The procurement network operates on behalf of MODAFL, overseeing several firms engaged in UAV and ballistic missile development.

Last week, hardliner Education Minister Reza-Morad Sahrai said "This year [which started in March], nearly 20,000 school principals have been replaced to bring about changes in schools." 

Mansour Haghighatdoust, a conservative political activist, criticized the “purification process” that is seen in almost all state organizations, describing it as “worrisome” that now educators and cultural figures are under the scrutiny of hardliners, fearing for how the sudden mass redundancies will affect children. “How can 20,000 school principals be replaced in a short period?"

Mohsen Borhani, a professor of criminal law at Tehran university, who was recently sacked for criticizing the regime on social media after the execution of four young protesters, told reformist daily Etemad that the order to remove professors critical of the regime was issued about a month after Ebrahim Raisi took office. 

By protocol, the President of Iran is ex officio the chairman of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, a hardliner-dominated body with a declared goal of ensuring that the education and culture of Iran remains "100% Islamic." Its duties include working against outside "cultural influences" and ideologies, a pretext that is used to sack academics who do not abide by regime dogma. It is also the body responsible for depriving the Baha'i religious minority of education, forcing university professors into retirement and gender segregation of educational centers. 

Teaching restrictions on Mohammad Soroush Mahallati, a professor of Islamic jurisprudence at Qom seminary, may be a sign that the purge has reached Iran’s seminaries, showing that Iran’s hardliners seek to sideline critics who once were members of their own circles. "These restrictions are clearly because of my critical remarks in speeches and articles, and they intend to dissuade students from engaging with me so that no one has any contact with me," Mahallati said about removing official credits from the courses he teaches at the seminary. 

Although the purge of academics has accelerated since last year’s protests ignited by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, Borhani said that “based on undeniable documents, the process of purging academics had been planned long before the protests and is now being implemented.”

Raisi embarked on his ‘purification’ in the first month of his tenure, expelling Bijan Abdolkarimi, an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy at the Islamic Azad University. However, Borhani claims that the firing of professors is based on the systematic plan that was started in former hardliner governments, and Raisi just made the best use of Women, Life, Freedom protests as a momentum to expedite the process. 

Since the uprising began in September last year, a large number of academics voiced solidarity with protesters and once the unrest was quelled, the Raisi administration intensified the crackdown, pushing professors into early retirement, not renewing teaching contracts, cancelling classes without prior notice, removing and suspending professors, and reducing monthly salaries. Tens of professors have also been summoned or temporarily detained.

In August, Etemad published a list of 157 tenured professors who were dismissed, forced into retirement, or banned from teaching for their criticism and dissenting views from 2006 to the end of August 2023. Of the 157 previously announced names, 58 were removed during Ebrahim Raisi's administration. The daily published another article to add 52 more names, illustrating the continuing effort by hardliners to eliminate dissenting voices from academia.

The purge of university professors in the past 17 years went beyond that, when non-tenured lecturers were replaced by "religious" and "revolutionary" professors. The trend started after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office and continued in Hassan Rouhani’s administration. Continuing into the Raisi era, it has seen successive governments in the Islamic Republic systematically expelling seasoned professors for their "secular views," among other political reasons.

According to a report from the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology in 2013, during Ahmadinejad's presidency, approximately 17,000 new faculty members were added to universities payroll. Such a move is speculated to be repeated as President Raisi plans to add 15,000 "revolutionary" professors to the academic faculty of universities nationwide.

The online ticket sales process for Sepahan's match against Saudi's Al Ittihad club in the second week of the AFC Champions League began without any provisions for female spectators, a move that clearly contradicts AFC regulations.

The incident occurred despite announcements from Iran's Football Federation regarding the readiness of Naqsh-e Jahan Stadium's infrastructure in Esfahan for accommodating women. Also, Sepahan's matches in Iran's Premier League have taken place without the presence of women.

The issue of women's presence in stadiums outside of Tehran has become increasingly controversial in recent years. FIFA has long advocated for women's access to stadiums, but Iran's Football Federation and other relevant entities persistently delayed its full implementation.

Iran had banned female spectators from stadiums for years, citing religious decency rules. The ban resulted in numerous arrests, beatings, detentions, and abuses against women.

The Iranian regime's handling of women's participation in football matches has also drawn international scrutiny. While there were some limited concessions granted last year, allowing controlled entry, the government's response to nationwide protests eventually led to the revocation of this privilege, resulting in months of matches conducted without spectators.

MP Mahmoud Ahmadi Bighash said the primary aim of the move is to formalize the presence of millions of illegal Afghan nationals in Iran, though it is understood to be a means of bolstering regime support and a declining population, amid a mass exodus of Iranians fleeing the country.

He admitted that “there is a lack of a comprehensive strategy to regulate and address the illegal entry of Afghans into Iran", where many come to work as economic migrants.

"The government appears to be inclined towards facilitating their entry and long-term residence, disregarding the extensive social, security, political, economic, and cultural repercussions stemming from the presence of over 8 to 10 million Afghans in Iran,” he said this week.

The issue of unlawful entry of Afghans into Iran is not a recent concern, the unregulated and unrestrained flow of Afghan nationals across the Iranian borders only intensifying since the takeover of the Taliban two years ago, prompting growing apprehension.

While the Islamic Republic may be considering accepting more Afghan Hazaras, who share Shiite beliefs with Iranians, there is a concern that an influx of Sunni migrants could potentially alter the demographic balance in the country.

Currently, Sunni Muslims constitute around 10 percent of Iran's nearly 88-million population. Hazaras make up the largest ethnic group among Afghan immigrants to Iran, followed by Sunni Tajiks, Pashtuns, and Uzbeks.

The Bloody Friday massacre in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, last September, saw security forces kill at least 93 protesters with dozens more injured.

Zahedan is one of the few Sunni-majority cities in predominantly Shiite Iran.

According to Halvash, the deployment of military personnel and convoys of vehicles saw a significant increase, particularly on Wednesday.

Halvash stated, "Dozens of military vehicles have entered the cities of Baluchestan from the provinces of Kerman, Hormozgan, and South Khorasan since Monday."

Over the past year, Zahedan has been the site of weekly protests against the regime, often occurring on Fridays.

Mowlavi Abdolhamid, the Sunni leader of Zahedan known for his outspoken criticism of the regime, addressed the death of Mahsa Amini during his Friday sermons.

Mahsa Amini's tragic death on September 16th last year at the hands of the morality police triggered months of anti-government protests, representing one of the most significant challenges to the Islamic regime since its establishment in 1979.

In recent weeks, the regime has intensified its efforts to quell dissent as part of a broader campaign to discourage protests. This has led to the arrest of dozens of individuals in the past week. Heavily armed military forces have been deployed in restive regions, and anti-riot police forces have become increasingly visible on the streets of major cities.