American-Iranian Jailed In Iran Writes In Tehran Paper Amid Prisoner Talks

The source said that exchanging prisoners is not part of the final text of the agreement but is part of the ongoing negotiations, in parallel with nuclear talks.

Earlier, Reuters reported some details about a draft agreement being completed in Vienna and quoting diplomatic sources who said that release of Western prisoners held in Iran was one of the first steps in case a deal is finalized.

Russia’s chief envoy, Mikhail Ulyanov, however, told Iran International that exchanging prisoners is not part of the JCPOA negotiations. The new information received is a confirmation that a prisoner exchange is part of the overall talks, but as Ulyanov indicated, not part of the official draft text charting a return to the JCPOA.

Iran has detained several Westerners and dual nationals on spurious charges, in what human rights organizations have called 'hostage taking'. In the past Iran has traded such prisoners for money or to free Iranians jailed in the West for sanctions violations.

A resolution published on Thursday notes that since Ebrahim Raisi took office as President of Iran in August 2021, there has been a significant rise in the number of executions, including of women.

It also points out that the death penalty in Iran is disproportionally applied to ethnic, religious and other minorities, notably the Baluch, Kurds, Arabs and Baha’is as well as LGBTIQ persons.

In addition, Parliament urges the authorities in Iran to urgently amend Article 91 of the country’s Islamic Penal Code to explicitly prohibit the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by persons below 18 years of age, under all circumstances.

The report highlights that Iran has the world’s highest number of executions per capita. According to the United Nations, between 1 January and 1 December 2021 at least 275 people were executed in Iran, including at least two child offenders and 10 women. Parliament’s resolution also states that 85 juvenile offenders were on death row in the country in January 2022.

The resolution also highlights the case of Swedish-Iranian Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali, a scholar who was sentenced to death on spurious espionage charges in October 2017 following a grossly unfair trial based on a confession extracted under torture.

The text was adopted by 617 votes in favor, 8 against and 59 abstentions.

Israel’s Channel 12 News reported on Wednesday that during his rare visit the Iranians told him they expect Hezbollah to respond militarily in case of a possible Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The report, which did not cite sources, described Nasrallah’s trip from his secure, secret location in Beirut to Tehran as “definitely unusual”, noting that the Islamic Republic informed the Hezbollah chief that it is time that the Shiite group returns years of Iran’s investment.

The Israeli site did not say what the outcome of the meeting was or what Nasrallah agreed to with the Iranians.

In an interview with Iran’s Arabic-language al-Alam news network earlier in February, Nasrallah said Hezbollah would not necessarily become involved if Israel hits Iran’s nuclear sites but noted he didn’t think Israel was serious about attacking.

In a televised speech to followers earlier on Wednesday, Nasrallah said for the first time, that it can convert thousands of rockets into precision missiles within Lebanon.

"We have been producing drones in Lebanon for a long time, and whoever wants to buy them, submit an order," he said.

Hezbollah and Israel fought a month-long war in 2006 and have at times in the years since traded fire across Lebanon's southern border.

In a video speech on Thursday, the Supreme Leader defended the commanders implicated in the scandal and said that the enemy spends billions of dollars in their think tanks for slander and lies against the Islamic Republic.

Khamenei said that the enemy’s smear campaign targets “the foundations of the revolution”, adding that “one day they slander the parliament, one day they slander the Guardian Council, and today it is the turn of the IRGC and martyr (Qasem) Soleimani”.

The 50-minute audio-file includes a conversation between the former Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Commander Mohammad-Ali Jafari and his Economic Affairs Deputy Sadegh Zolghadr in 2018 about corruption involving IRGC's Qods Force, Tehran municipality and Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, a former IRGC commander himself, who was Mayor of Tehran from 2005-2017. The $3 billion embezzlement took place during Ghalibaf’s tenure as mayor.

In the recording, Zolghadr tells Jafari that Ghalibaf suggested the IRGC and Tehran Municipality sign a false contract for the same amount to justify the disappearance of the money.

Jafari tells Zolghadr that Soleimani was aware of the embezzlement, which prevented the funds from reaching the Qods Force and had spoken to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei about it.

It is not clear who shot down the drones. US forces in Iraq are equipped with air defense weapons, but there has been no confirmation that they engaged the drones

According to Arutz Sheva on Thursday, the Iranian drones were downed on Tuesday while reports by Iranian media say Israel is helping American forces to attack the Houthi rebels and militant organizations affiliated with Iran.

Israel’s Kan 11 News reported on Wednesday that the Israeli defense establishment is preparing for the possibility of a drone attack from Iran and believes that Iran will continue its attempts to carry out such an attack.

Earlier on Thursday, Israel targeted a Syrian army base near Damascus used by Iranian forces with surface-to-surface missiles fired from Golan Heights.

In early February, the Israel Air Force held a drill to simulate an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities with dozens of warplanes, as tensions remain high in the region.

The Israelis touted the participation of a US official as an observer as evidence of a shift in Washington’s approach to Tehran’s nuclear program as the Vienna talks to revive the deal seem to falter.