Suspect In Iranian Nuclear Scientist Assassination Freed On Bail

Speaking to reporters in Tehran Friday, the ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh rejected Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s allegations about Iranian plots to attack Israeli citizens in Turkey. He described Israeli accusations as a “scenario to destroy relations between the two Muslim countries.”

"Our neighbor Turkey is well aware of the baseless allegations made by the deceitful, terrorist Zionist regime and we expect them not to remain silent about such divisive allegations," he added.

Commenting on Ankara’s announcement Thursday that its National Intelligence Organization (MIT) thwarted a planned attack against Israeli diplomats and tourists in Istanbul, Khatibzadeh also alleged that Tel Aviv is trying to divert Turkish and regional public opinion from the Palestinian cause and its own actions against Palestinians.

The MIT said Thursday that it detained eight suspects including five Iranian nationals and three others allegedly working for an Iranian intelligence cell working to assassinate Israeli citizens on Turkish soil.

In a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart in Ankara on Thursday a few hours after the announcement, Lapid accused Iran of planning to attack Israelis in Turkey and thanked the Turkish government for taking action to foil the plots.

At the same press conference, the Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu stressed Ankara’s security pact with Israel, contacts with his Israeli counterpart over terrorist threats against Israeli tourist, and said Turkey would “never allow such revenge and terror attacks against Israelis” on its soil.

“Necessary messages have already been given [to those who are responsible],” he added in a clear reference to Tehran.

“About a week ago they launched a psychological operation using false and orchestrated information to engage the media in fictitious scenarios to prepare the ground for the Israeli Foreign Minister's smear campaign," Khatibzadeh told reporters without making any mention of Turkish media reports about the arrests made by the MIT.

“Iran’s response to the Israeli regime’s assassination and sabotage will always be definite, authoritative and without threatening the security of ordinary citizens and the security of other countries,” Khatibzadeh insisted.

Ankara has canceled a planned visit by the Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian’s visit to Ankara in the past few days, apparently due to its frustration with Tehran’s alleged terrorist operations on its soil.

A further date for Amir-Abdollahian’s visit has not yet been announced. An informed Israeli source told Iran International’s correspondent in Tel Aviv that this was the second time in the past week that Ankara canceled the Iranian foreign minister’s visit.

Tel Aviv’s concerns over attacks on its citizens in Turkey have considerably increased following the assassination of Colonel Hassan Sayyad-Khodaei in Tehran last month.

Sayyad-Khodaei, the acting commander of the elite Unit 840 of the IRGC’s Qods (Quds) Force, was shot dead behind the wheel of his car outside his home May 22 by two gunmen who fled the scene on a motorbike.

A European security source last month told Iran International that Sayyad-Khodaei had been in charge of planning terrorist operations outside Iran, including attacks in India, Taiwan, Cyprus and Georgia. Suspicions for his assassination fell on Israel and according to some reports, Israeli officials told the United States that they had targeted Sayyad-Khodaei.

According to TASS, Peskov made the remarks on Friday, a day after Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian expressed hope that the Iran-Russia-Turkey summit will eventually convene in Tehran. 

"He will certainly [go there] over time, but exact dates are yet to be determined," the spokesman said, when asked to comment on the possibility of Putin visiting Iran and participating in a summit in the framework of Astana talks over the conflict in Syria.

Plans to hold such a meeting in Tehran were announced several times before the covid-19 pandemic hit the world, but the event had to be postponed many times since.

After the 16th meeting of the Astana process in Kazakhstan's capital Nur Sultan in July 2021, Turkey, Russia and Iran pledged to maintain cooperation in Syria to bring the warring sides together to find a permanent solution to the decade-long war.

Initiated by Turkey, Iran and Russia, the Astana meeting is focused on the constitutional system, political transition, security and resettlement. The first Astana meeting was held in Turkey in January 2017 to facilitate United Nations-sponsored peace talks in Geneva.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was in Tehran on Wednesday and Thursday for an official visit, aimed at boosting trade and energy cooperation as the two countries grapple with Western economic sanctions.

The EU announced the two-day trip of Josep Borrell as part of his role as “co-ordinator of the JCPOA,” referring to the 2015 deal in his official title as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Year-long talks in Vienna over reviving the JCPOA paused without success in March, reportedly due to disagreement between the United States and Iran, including over Washington listing Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a ‘foreign terrorist organization.’

“Diplomacy is the only way to go back to full implementation of the deal and to reverse current tensions,” Borrell tweeted.

The EU foreign policy chief is due to meet Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who has just hosted Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Tehran. “Bilateral relations, regional and international issues, as well as the latest status of sanctions lifting will be discussed during the visit, which is part of the ongoing consultations between Iran and the European Union,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said.

European officials have expressed impatience over the impasse in the Vienna talks, while Russia, which has always voiced support for the JCPOA, may want to avert another crisis as it copes with the consequences of the Ukraine war.

While US President Joe Biden came into office committed to restore the JCPOA, from which his predecessor Donald Trump withdrew the US in 2018, he has kept in place Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions and his officials have rejected Iran’s request to remove all sanctions introduced by Trump, including the IRGC listing.

Biden has also, partly in an effort to persuade Saudi Arabia to pump more oil and ease upward pressure on US gasoline prices, softened his previously critical approach to Riyadh, especially over human rights and the Yemen war. Both JCPOA opponents, Saudi Arabia and Israel want US support for great military co-operation, including air defense, against Iran and its regional allies.

Welcoming Borrell’s visit, Iran’s official news agency IRNA quoted Peter Stano, the EU’s lead spokesperson on foreign affairs, that the trip was part of continuing efforts to achieve “full implementation” of the JCPOA.

There has been a raft of speculation – briefing and counter-briefing– that Iran is ready to soften its stance over the IRGC listing in order to ease sanctions through restoring the JCPOA. While Iran has not let up on efforts to expand trade with Russia and Asia, and is benefiting from the rising price of oil, the Iranian rial Friday hovered around 320,000 to the dollar, showing no market optimism over JCPOA revival.

The video that went viral on Thursday showed dozens of teenage boys and girls gathered in one of Shiraz's main streets. Many of the teenage girls were not wearing headscarves as is mandatory for girls over the age of nine.

The city’s governor Lotfollah Sheibani called it a "norm-breaking rally," adding that as soon as they were informed about the gathering, the police, in coordination with the judiciary, took action to identify and detain the organizers. "So far, 10 people who organized the rally have been arrested."

However, a few hours later, Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, quoted the Chief Justice of Fars province as saying that only "five of the main organizers of the ceremony were arrested, and none of the participating teenagers are detained."

Recently, Iran’s morality police arrested 120 people in a nature tour in the forests of the Caspian Sea area for flouting their hijab, dancing together, and drinking alcohol.

Since hijab became compulsory in Iran, within a couple of years from the establishment Islamic Republic in 1979, many women have been resisting the prescribed standards of hijab promoted by the state and refuse to accept it even at the cost of being arrested, fined or even lashed.

Pence, who traveled to Albania to visit the Ashraf-3 camp 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of Albania’s capital, Tirana, home to some 3,000 Iranian exiled dissidents from the MEK on Thursday, urged the Biden administration “to immediately withdraw from all nuclear negotiations with Tehran, voice support for the organized opposition in Iran, and make it clear that America and our allies will never permit the regime in Tehran to obtain a nuclear weapon.”

Pence described Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi as “a brutal mass murderer responsible for the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners,” noting that his election was “intended to quash internal dissent and intimidate the people of Iran into remaining silent.”

The estimated number of prisoners killed in 1988 is around 5,000, however MEK insists 30,000 were massacred.

Pence warned that “a renewed deal with Iran won’t block Iran’s path to a nuclear bomb,” adding that a deal would not “benefit the people of Iran in any way but “merely empower and enrich a corrupt regime that has tormented and tortured the Iranian people for generations.”

In May, former Secretary of State under President Donald Trump Mike Pompeo also paid a visit to the camp in Albania.

Some Iranian dissidents criticize US officials' visit to the MEK center in Albania, as they regard the organization as non-democratic.

The Islamic Republic holds the MEK responsible for bombings in Iran in 1980s and for its alliance with Saddam Hussein until his overthrow in 2003. The United States relocated the opposition group from Iraq to Albania in 2013 as pro-Tehran Shiite groups were attacking the MEK and Kurds were demanding to hold the organization accountable for siding with Saddam.