Israel Warns Iran Not To Harm Its Citizens In Turkey

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said at a weekly press conference on Monday that the grounded plane operating for the cargo division of Venezuelan national carrier Conviasa does not belong to Iran’s Mahan Airlines. The United States sanctioned the airline in 2008 for its links to Tehran’s extraterritorial intelligence and secret ops outfit, the Quds (Qods) Force. 

Khatibzadeh, however, confirmed that some of the crew on the plane – which was seized upon arrival in Buenos Aires on June 6 -- were Iranians, noting that "The plane has been sold to Venezuelan airlines for more than a year and its crew is not entirely Iranian."

Iran’s aviation chief Mohammad Mohammadi Bakhsh said on Sunday that the Iranian crew on the plane were instructors working as part of an aviation deal between Iran and Venezuela, and that the seized aircraft has not been on Mahan Air’s register. 

Argentine lower-house lawmaker and member of the country's Congressional Intelligence Commission Gerardo Milman, who has raised attention to the case in recent days, presented a complaint to a judge asking to fingerprint the crew and share the information with the Federal Intelligence Agency, saying that "Our information is that this is a plane that has come to conduct intelligence in Argentina." 

Among the Iranians on board, is Gholamreza Ghasemi, who is a member of the IRGC and a former board member of Fars Air Qeshm, the Iranian airline that is accused of transporting weapons for Hezbollah covering up as civilian jets. He is reportedly a relative of current Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, whose assignment by President Ebrahim Raisi triggered condemnation from Argentina given his suspected role in the 1994 AMIA bombing that killed 85 people and injured over 300.

First came the announcement that a relatively junior officer, Ali Kamani, died in a “car accident in line of duty” in Khomein, central Iran. From the text of the announcement, it seemed the Revolutionary Guard officer was more important than what his rank would suggest. In expressing condolences to various military officials, the text even mentioned Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Then within hours news came that another officer of the Aerospace Force, Mohammad Abdus, had also died, in Semnan, central Iran where a space launch center is located.

Abdus was also tagged as a “martyr” although no explanation was offered by media affiliated with the IRGC about how he had died.

So far, the IRGC or their media have not offered any further details about the death of the two officers from the same force in one day, although the deaths could have occurred earlier and only announced on Sunday.

In the latest updates on Monday, Iran's defense ministry emphasized that both officers died on dury in Iran, and IRGC sources deleted their earlier reports, deferring to the ministry.

It is possible that the two officers were killed in Israeli air and missile strikes in Syria recently, but a series of other killings and deaths among IRGC ranks in Iran leads to suspicion that they might have been targets of a secret series of operations.

The IRGC aerospace force is tasked with Iran’s missile development and space program. The country has made considerable progress in developing long-range ballistic missiles that can threaten the far fringes of the Middle East, including Israel. Regional countries have been concerned about the potential threat from a large number of these missiles.

Considering recent killings of other Revolutionary Guard officers in Iran, some Iranians on social media drew the conclusion that the deaths most likely are part of a highly professional anti-IRGC operation carried out with precision. Iranian intelligence organizations that usually boast of breaking up “terrorist operations” and discovering secret caches of weapons and explosives, have so far not pretended to have arrested anyone who might have been a recent string of killings and deaths.

The first high-profile killing took place in November 2020 when a chief architect of Iran’s nuclear program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was killed near Tehran in an operation more fitting for a Hollywood thriller. He was shot by a remote-controlled heavy gun place in the back of a pickup truck while driving on a highway.

Eventually it was generally accepted that Israel was behind the highly complicated operation, and that is what most people believe now.

Just last week, there was the mysterious death of an aerospace scientist, Ayoob Entezari, who died shortly after dining with an unnamed man, as authorities scrambled to deny that his death was the result of poisoning.

Just days earlier, a commander in IRGC’s extraterritorial Quds Force’s secretive unit 840 died when he fell from the roof or balcony of his home in Karaj, west of Tehran.

He was a colleague of Colonel Ali Esmailzadeh who was assassinated outside his home in Tehran in broad daylight on May 22. A foreign security source told Iran International that he was in charge of operations against Israeli citizens and interests in various countries.

Whoever is behind these attacks not only weakens the Revolutionary Guard by eliminating key individuals but creates fear and panic among Islamic Republic officials and harms the image of Iranian military and intelligence establishment of being omnipotent.

The establishment has long tried to convince the people in Iran that it has total control over the country and can guarantee security.

According to information obtained by Radio Farda, these 26 people, all of whom are residents of the city of Shiraz in the southwestern province of Fars, are charged with "conspiracy to disrupt internal and external security."

The verdicts was issued on June 8 by a branch of the city’s Revolutionary Court, and pertains to the arrests of numerous Baha'is in Shiraz in 2016.

The 1979 constitution of the Islamic Republic recognizes only Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism. Baha'ism − established as a new religion in Iran in 1863 by Baha'ullah, who claimed to be a prophet following Jesus and Mohammad − has always been deemed heretical by the Shia establishment and subject to intermittent bouts of political persecution.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has on several occasions called the Baha'i faith a cult and in a religious fatwa in 2018 forbade contact, including business dealings, with followers of the faith.

Baha'is, who number around 300,000 in Iran, say their rights are systematically violated, that they are often harassed, forced to leave their homes and businesses, and are deprived of government job and university education. There are Baha’i communities in many countries worldwide but there is no reliable figure about the total number of followers.

Deputy Chief of the Economic Security Police, Brigadier General Sohrab Bahrami, announced Sunday that several “other such criminals” have been identified and will be dealt with soon.

Police will deal with these people for "disrupting the economic system," he said, and claimed that these people create false demand for the US dollar in the Iranian market, hence disrupting the market stability.

The Islamic Republic facing continuing economic crisis in the past 4 years often arrests dealers and businessman accusing them of rigging demand or supply, in an effort to show the public that it is proactive.

Last week, the police announced the detention of 16 so-called criminals in coordination with the judiciary and the Central Bank.

Iran’s rial is hitting new lows against the US dollar daily amid runaway inflation and economic chaos, with one US dollar surpassing 333,000 rials on Sunday.

The drop comes as the last rays of hope for reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers are fading away, with multilateral talks in Vienna paused since March.

Food prices have soared since early May when the government lifted import subsidies for essential goods to save foreign currency, and anti-government protests have become a regular scene in several cities.

The program announced the reward on Sunday [June 12] in a tweet emphasizing that “IRGC-QF conducts its terrorist activities around the globe via proxies, and uses various financial means to bypass U.S. sanctions. Have relevant info? SEND US A TIP!”

The announcement can be seen additional pressure on the Islamic Republic as it continues to support militant groups across the Middle East and beyond, after negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement known as the HCPOA came to a halt in March.

Reports indicated that Tehran insisted on removing the IRGC from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). President Joe Biden’s administration has so far not accepted the Iranian demand, as dozens of American lawmakers have also told the White House not to make such concessions.

The Quds Force is a branch of the Revolutionary Guard that conducts operations beyond Iran’s borders. Its long-time commander and the architect of its expansion, Qasem Soleimani, was killed by a US drone attack in Iraq in January 2020. Top Iranian officials have vowed revenge, with reported threats against former Trump officials, such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.