Any Operation By Israel Will Be Responded By Several Blows - Ex-IRGC Chief

In a statement issued on Wednesday, they urged those responsible for using excessive force to be held to account through comprehensive and independent investigations. 

“We are alarmed at the recent escalation of allegedly arbitrary arrests of teachers, labor rights defenders and union leaders, lawyers, human rights defenders and other civil society actors,” they said. 

In their statement, they said until May 24 over 80 teachers were arrested or summoned by security forces or the judiciary, and the houses of several trade unionists and teachers were raided, none of whom were given access to a lawyer. 

The authorities issued statements claiming that the arrests were due to “infiltration of foreign-affiliated elements into the ranks of teachers and workers” which threatened security of the country, they said.

“The space for civil society and independent associations to carry out their legitimate work and activities is becoming impossibly narrow,” they said, adding that “The crackdown comes in the context of an extremely dire economic situation, which the authorities themselves have acknowledged.”

“We call on the authorities to address the underlying causes of the protests, and to ensure that everyone can exercise their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.”

Anti-government protests and strikes by merchants continued in Iran for the fourth consecutive day in the capital Tehran and many other cities and towns on Wednesday.

The Iranian currency, rial, on Sunday fell to a historic low of 333,000 to one US dollar, a 25-percent fall since March. The slide seemed unstoppable as the rial was losing around 10,000 points a day last week, but since early Tuesday, the currency began to gradually regain some ground.

Iranian media reported on Tuesday that the government asked exporters, especially petrochemical companies, to sell their foreign-earned dollars directly to currency exchange dealers to stop the rials fall. This helped the Iranian currency to rise slightly, to just under 320,000 against the dollar.

But the government’s tactic has two major drawbacks. First, it seems to be an emergency measure and exporters will not agree to perpetually sell their dollars at a rate considered to be untenable on the long run. Second, the foreign currency that exporters bring back to the country is also needed by the government and the central bank, to finance needed imports and to maintain dollar reserves.

The precipitous fall of the rial has added to a sense of panic among a vast majority of Iranians who have become impoverished by persistently above-40-percent inflation for nearly two years. Anti-government protests have been taking place regularly since early May.

The Article 90 Committee -- a parliamentary body mandated by the Constitution to pursue complaints concerning the work of government institutions -- presented a report on Wednesday, claiming that Hassan Rouhani and Ali Akbar Salehi deliberately ignored a December 2020 legislation entitled "Strategic Action To Eliminate Sanctions and Defend Iranian Nation's Interests.”

Touted as putting a clear legal responsibility on the government to escalate the nuclear crisis, the law was aimed at boosting uranium enrichment and restricting international nuclear inspections, if JCPOA signatories did not scrap all sanctions on Iran, including those related to human rights.

The committee said that since the refusal of these two former officials to implement the law on several occasions has been proven, the case will be "sent to the judicial authorities".

Former president Rouhani and his ministers have been threatened before with prosecution for a host of alleged mistakes and shortcomings by hardliners dominating the parliament.

The parliament passed the legislation following the assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, arguing that Iran had gained nothing from the 2015 deal and even blamed it for the assassination.

Satellite images from Maxar Technologies showed Tuesday activity at a desert launch pad at Imam Khomeini Space Center southeast of Semnan, prompting Iranian authorities to react and acknowledge plans for tests. 

The state-run IRNA news agency quoted Defense Ministry spokesman Ahmad Hosseini as confirming the tests for the new solid-fueled rocket at the site of frequent recent failed attempts to put a satellite into orbit. 

He said Iran will launch its satellite-carrying Zuljanah rocket twice more after conducting a previous launch, but he did not elaborate on a timeframe for tests nor said when the previous launch occurred.

Asked about the preparations, State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that the US urges Iran to de-escalate the situation, saying that Iran “has consistently chosen to take provocative actions.”

A Pentagon spokesman, Army Maj. Rob Lodewick, said the American military “will continue to closely monitor Iran’s pursuit of viable space launch technology and how it may relate to advancements in its overall ballistic missile program.” The United States says that space launches by Iran could be a cover to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles that would be able to deliver nuclear warheads.

In March, Iran suffered another failed launch of a satellite-carrying rocket attempting to reinvigorate the program criticized by the West.

Israel and Arab countries that share its worries about Iran should build up their military capabilities under Washington's aegis, the Israeli defense minister said on Tuesday.

Biden's July 13-16 tour will include Israel, the Palestinian territories and Saudi Arabia, a US official said. According to Saudi state television, Biden will attend a summit with the leaders of Gulf states, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq.

A summit of foreign ministers was held in Israel in March with the participation of the United States, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt. Israel highlighted the event as a show of unity against Iran.

"This new architecture -- the shared capabilities we are building -- intimidates and deters our common enemies, first and foremost Iran and its proxies," Lapid said alongside his counterparts from the other countries at the Negev summit on March 28.

Iran's nuclear program, and so-far fruitless international negotiations to revive a 2015 deal capping it, are among issues likely to be on the agenda of Biden’s visit and meetings he will held.

In a speech, Defense Minister Benny Gantz cited Israel's security ties with Gulf Arab states that drew closer to it under a 2020 U.S.-sponsored diplomatic drive, as well as Egypt and Jordan, and said there were efforts to expand such cooperation.

"In the face of Iranian belligerence ... what is needed is not just cooperation, but also a regional force build-up, with American leadership, which would strengthen all parties involved," he said, according to an official transcript.

"On this, we are working continually, for the sake of the security of Israel's citizens," Gantz said.

Saudi Arabia signaled its backing for the so-called Abraham Accords under which the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain forged relations with Israel two years ago. But Riyadh has stopped short of formally recognizing neighboring Israel.

Israel has voiced willingness to work militarily with its new Gulf partners, which have been more publicly reticent about such a prospect.

Biden’s visit to the region and specially Saudi Arabia is a major attempt to improve frayed ties with the leading Sunni Arab country in the region, with an eye to boost the kingdom’s oil production in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting high fuel prices.

Riyadh and its Arab allies who had close ties with the Trump administration, were concerned with Biden’s policy of restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement and lifting sanction, without provisions to curtail Tehran’s interference in Arab countries and support for militant groups.

Speaking at an event on Tuesday evening, Bennett said Israel "will not hesitate to activate its power anywhere in the world to protect its citizens", alluding to a travel advisory to Istanbul because of what Israel said was a threat of Iranian attempts to kill or abduct vacationing Israelis.

"Israel's security arms are doing everything to thwart such attacks, and to preemptively neutralize those dispatching the terrorists, and the dispatchers’ dispatchers too," Bennett said.

With reporting by Reuters