TOP STORIES
Iranian leaders on Friday accused the United States and
Saudi Arabia of supporting the Islamic State-claimed dual attacks
that killed 17 people in Tehran this week. The country's Supreme
Leader said the attacks will add to the hatred that Iranians harbor
toward the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. In a condolence message ahead of a
funeral for the victims, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the attack:
"will not damage the Iranian nation's determination and the
obvious result is nothing except an increase in hate for the
governments of the United States and their stooges in the region like
Saudi (Arabia)," state media reported. On Thursday, Iran's
Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavai said investigators were working
to determine whether Saudi Arabia had a role Wednesday's attacks but
said it was too soon to say if that was the case.
At least five assailants in the deadly Tehran attacks
were recruited by the Islamic State from inside Iran, the government
said Thursday, a strong indication they were Iranian citizens The new
detail about the assailants, who were killed during the attacks on
Wednesday, came as the Iranian news media reported that the civilian
casualty toll had risen to 17 dead and 52 wounded, and as the police
presence in the Iranian capital increased noticeably. The assaults'
aftermath also was punctuated by new acrimony between Iranian leaders
and the Trump administration, which expressed condolences on
Wednesday coupled with an assertion that their country had fallen
"victim to the evil they promote." The assaults also
coincided with Senate action advancing new sanctions on Iran.
U.S. authorities have charged two operatives belonging
to the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah with terrorism
offenses, accused of plotting to target American and Israeli targets
in New York and Panama. Police arrested Samer El Debek, 37, of
Dearborn, Michigan, and Ali Kourani, 32, of the Bronx, New York, on
June 1. They both appeared in a Manhattan federal court on Thursday.
U.S. authorities said the pair had been supporting "Hezbollah's
Islamic Jihad organization" and had been in Lebanon for weapons
and bomb-making training. Kourani is accused of scouting targets in
the U.S., specifically Israeli military personnel and U.S. military
and law enforcement facilities. He looked for firearms suppliers,
airport security information and returned information to the group
via coded emails sent to a handler. He had receiving military
training with the group on several occasions between 2008 and 2014.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Russia has announced readiness to electrify a main
railway that connects the Iranian capital Tehran to the northwestern
city of Tabriz. First Vice President of Russian Railways
operator Alexander Misharin told reporters in Sochi that he had
presented the proposal in a meeting with the President of the Islamic
Republic of Iran Railways (RAI) Saeed Mohammadzadeh. "We are
discussing the following electrification segments: Tehran -Tabriz,
around 600 kilometers," Misharin was quoted as saying by Russia's
TASS news agency. Appropriate agreements can be made this year, he
added. Russia and Iran signed an agreement worth €12 billion in
November 2015 to electrify a train line that would connect
north-central Iran to the northeastern border with Turkmenista.
SYRIA CONFLICT
American and coalition forces operating in southeast
Syria were attacked Thursday by a drone that hit a coalition patrol,
part of a rapidly escalating war with Iranian-backed militias in the
country, according to the Pentagon. The attack, which U.S. military
officials say caused no casualties or damage to equipment, was the
first time U.S.-backed forces had been targeted by a drone in Syria,
and indicates that the Bashar al Assad regime and his Iranian backers
are willing to target American and coalition troops directly. It also
came just after American warplanes struck Shiite militias, backed by
Iran, for the third time in as many weeks near the U.S. garrison at
al Tanf. A spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, Col. Ryan
Dillon, told reporters at the Pentagon Thursday that the drone was
similar in size to a U.S. MQ-1 Predator, indicating it was likely
Iranian-made, even if it was piloted by Syrian forces. Dillion would
not comment on the make of the drone, or where it might have come
from.
US-backed forces announced Tuesday that they had begun
the long-awaited assault on the northeastern Syrian city of Raqqa,
the so-called Islamic State's main stronghold in the country and its
self-declared capital. But some 170 miles to the south, in a remote
corner of Syria's southeastern desert, another clash is brewing that
is pitting the strategic objectives of the United States against
those of Iran, and that could soon bring US troops and Iranian-backed
forces into direct military confrontation. Both US and Russian
warplanes have been deployed, and some shots have already been fired,
including by US-backed coalition forces on Tuesday, the US military
said. The clash is over a military garrison at Tanf, located near a
border crossing on a highway that cuts through hundreds of miles of
flat desert. It was captured from jihadist forces more than a year
ago and is being used by US Special Forces and allies to train Syrian
militias to fight ISIS, which controls territory to the northeast.
The Syrian government's allies will strike at American
positions inside Syria if it crosses any "red lines,"
Hezbollah warned on Wednesday. The Lebanese militant group, a close
ally to the Syrian government, issued the threat via its military
media arm - one day after American forces bombed pro-government
forces in eastern Syria. The Pentagon said Tuesday the pro-government
forces were infringing on a "de-confliction" zone
established to protect U.S.-backed local opposition forces, who are
engaged in fighting the Islamic State group. On its TV station
al-Manar, Hezbollah broadcast footage it said was of an Iranian drone
tailing an American one over eastern Syria. It said the video was
proof the Syrian government's backers could strike American units at
will. Iran is a key backer of Hezbollah and the Syrian government,
and is deeply involved in the Syrian civil war.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
China's foreign minister has told his Iranian
counterpart that maintaining peace and stability in the Gulf is best
for everyone, after several Arab states cut off ties with Qatar
accusing it of supporting Islamist militants and Iran. Saudi Arabia,
the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt severed relations
with the small Gulf Arab state on Monday. Qatar has denied the
charges levelled at it. Meeting on the sidelines of a regional
security summit in Kazakhstan, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that peace and
stability in the Gulf accords with the common interests of the region
and the international community. "China upholds that the
relevant countries should appropriately resolve the disputes between
them," the Chinese foreign ministry cited Wang as saying on
Thursday. The brief statement gave no other details of their talks
over what the Chinese foreign ministry described as "the present
situation in the Gulf region".
A German government spokesman on Friday urged Iran to
avoid any actions that could further exacerbate tensions in the Gulf
after key Arab states cut off ties with Qatar, and underscored
Germany's opposition to any state funding of militant groups. Foreign
Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said Gulf states believed that
Iran was playing a role behind the scenes in the conflict, but Tehran
should not do anything to increase tensions. "At any rate, it is
important that nothing is done on the other side of the Gulf ... to
pour oil on the fire. That is really the last thing that this region
can use," Schaefer told a regular government news conference.
Schaefer said Germany would do all it could to promote a resumption
of dialogue to resolve the crisis, but had no intention of becoming a
key mediator despite meetings in recent days between German Foreign
Minister Sigmar Gabriel and his counterparts from Saudi Arabia and
Qatar
TERRORISM
Iranian authorities have arrested two suspects linked to
attacks in Tehran this week that killed 17 people, Iranian media
reported on Friday. "Two suspects with links to the terrorist
raids in Tehran on Wednesday have been arrested in (the western Iranian
province of) Kermanshah," state TV quoted intelligence ministry
as saying. "Some terrorist cells also have been
dismantled." Islamic State claimed responsibility for
Wednesday's suicide bombings and gun attacks in Tehran.
When terrorists strike Iran, they usually target the
Sistan-Baluchistan province on the country's border with Pakistan. It
was there in April that Jaish al-Adl, a Sunni Muslim insurgent group,
killed 10 Iranian border guards. Between 2013 to 2015, the group
killed at least 22 other border guards in a bid to call attention to
religious discrimination against Iran's Sunni population. Terrorist
attacks in major Iranian cities are rare, which is one reason the
near-simultaneous assaults Wednesday in Tehran were so remarkable.
They struck at the heart of the capital - the parliament building and
the shrine of the founder of the Islamic Republic - leaving 17 people
dead and dozens more injured. Islamic State quickly claimed
responsibility for what would be its first successful terrorist
operation on Iranian soil.
Perpetrators of the twin attacks in Tehran were
recruited inside Iran by Islamic State and fought in both Iraq and
Syria, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry said on Thursday. Five
assailants who died in the attacks "had ties to Wahhabi
groups," the ministry said in a statement published by Fars news
agency, referring to the austere form of Islam practiced in Saudi
Arabia. After joining Islamic State they left Iran and
"took part in operations in Mosul and Raqqa," according to
the statement, which withheld the attackers' surnames citing security
reasons. A sixth assailant -- a female -- was caught alive and is
being interrogated, Tasnim news agency reported, citing the chairman
of parliament's national security and foreign policy committee,
Alaeddin Boroujerdi. The jihadist group had claimed responsibility
for the attacks shortly after they occurred on Wednesday.
SAUDI-IRAN TENSIONS
Thousands packed Tehran's streets on Friday to mourn the
victims of two suicide bomb and gun attacks, and joined their supreme
leader in accusing regional rival Saudi Arabia of involvement in the
assaults. People in the crowd chanted "Death to Saudi
Arabia" alongside the more customary "Death to
America" and slogans against Israel, as they reached out to
touch coffins wrapped in flags and covered in flowers. Bombers and
gunmen killed 17 people in Iran's parliament and near the mausoleum
of the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, on Wednesday,
in rare strikes on the capital that exacerbated regional tensions.
The Sunni Muslim militants of Islamic State claimed responsibility
for the attacks on the Shi'ite Muslim state. Iran's Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message read at the funeral, said the
raids would increase hatred for Saudi Arabia, the region's main Sunni
power, and America.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Farzad Safaei was one semester away from a bachelor's
degree in industrial metallurgy at the Islamic Azad University in
Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province, when he was expelled on May 20, 2017 by
the security office for being a member of the Baha'i faith.
"In all my four years at the university I concealed my
faith, even from my classmates and professors because I didn't want
to be prevented from studying," Safaei told the Center for Human
Rights in Iran (CHRI). "I didn't even talk about it outside the
university, but I was suddenly expelled because of my faith."
Iran's Constitution does not recognize the Baha'i faith as an
official religion. Although Article 23 states "no one may be
molested or taken to task simply for holding a certain belief,"
Bahai'is are denied many basic rights as one of the most severely
persecuted religious minorities in the country. "One day I
noticed I couldn't log onto the university's website to select
courses," Safaei told CHRI. "I went to the security office
to ask what the problem was. To be honest, based on what had happened
to other expelled Baha'i students, I had a feeling what had happened,
but I was still hoping it was only a mistake."
DOMESTIC POLITICS
Appeals for unity answered with calls for revenge.
Pledges of solidarity competing against vows to "eliminate"
the culprits. The deadly twin terror attacks that rocked the Iranian
capital, Tehran, on June 7 have triggered a dramatic split in public
opinion. Many officials, as well as the country's pro-reform and
moderate press, are calling for unity in the aftermath of the
attacks. Hard-liners, however, are vowing revenge while pointing
fingers at Iran's main regional rival, Saudi Arabia, and the United
States. Seventeen people were killed and more than 40 wounded when
assailants stormed the parliament building in central Tehran and
simultaneously attacked the shrine of the founder of the Islamic
republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Islamic State (IS)
extremist group has claimed responsibility, a first for the militants
in Iran.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
For the first time since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution,
a Sunni extremist group managed to successfully carry out a terrorist
attack in Tehran. Iranians sat mesmerized in front of their TV sets,
watching the unfolding events in disbelief and waiting for any
information on the terrorists, their motivation and their
affiliation. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks
against two potent symbols of power in Iran, which left at least 12
dead and 42 wounded. By attacking the Imam Khomeini mausoleum, the
final resting place of the founder of the Islamic republic, the
terrorists targeted the Islamic revolution itself. And by attacking
the parliament, they assaulted Iran's vibrant yet imperfect
democracy. These were attacks on Iran's political institutions, not
Shiism. By targeting both the symbols of Iranian democracy and the
autocratic system of the velayat-e faqih (governance of the jurist),
the terrorists, paradoxically, ended up uniting an Iranian society
fractured by the recent presidential campaign that saw Hassan Rouhani
get reelected.
One could be forgiven for confusing Saudi King Salman
with Frank Underwood this week. The way the Saudi monarch cajoled
Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates into isolating
Qatar by withdrawing recognition of Doha, as well as restricting
land, sea, and air travel, were eerily reminiscent of the
effectiveness of House of Cards' protagonist's ability to whip votes
in the House. President Trump not only backed the move, but has taken
credit for it - followed by a quick "thank you" to the
Qataris for giving the U.S. basing rights. However, Iran is the real
winner. Qatar's search for status has put it at odds with other Arab
states for years. Measures from Al Jazeera's open criticism of other
regimes and promotion of Qatari interests, to Doha's support for the
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood to unilaterally backing its own horses in
Syria have put it at odds with its neighbors. And then there's Iran -
the nation most Arab states - starting with Saudi Arabia, view as
their biggest existential threat.
Since the early days of the Islamic Revolution, Iran's
prisons and legal systems have been frequently used by the regime as
a method to eradicate all its outspoken political opponents, as well
as to instil terror into the population. At the time of the 1988
massacre, many of those being hung, had been held in custody for
several years, suffering under a horrific regime of torture and
abuse. The majority of those held were one-time political allies of
Khomeini that had turned against him, after realizing he was
replacing one violent dictatorship with another. Others were those
deemed by their accusers to be a threat to the fledgling regime, due
to their popularity amongst the Iranian people. Countless numbers of
these political prisoners had been incarcerated for organizing street
demonstrations against Khomeini's rule, or had spoken openly
condemning it. While many others had committed no crime at all,
except for having taken part in street demonstrations.
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