Canada To Deny Residency To Ex-Iran Minister Reportedly Seen In Montreal

News of the ongoing purge angered the public after Professor Ali Sharifi-Zarchi announced on X on August 26 that Sharif University of Technology had expelled him.

Sharifi-Zarchi, a member of the bioinformatics and AI Faculty of the university's computer engineering department, supported dissident students during the months-long nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death in custody on September 16 last year.

In the past few days, the university has also invited three hardliner figures, including Amir-Hossein Sabeti, a television presenter, to teach Islamic subjects at the university.

Observers say the dismissal of dissident professors may be a preemptive move to reduce the chances of campus protests on the first anniversary of Amini's death.

Iran’s former nuclear chief Ali-Akbar Salehi, who is also the deputy head of the Academy of Sciences of the Islamic Republic of Iran, spoke to the reformist Jamaran news website about Sharifi-Zarchi's expulsion on Monday. He said the academic level of universities will deteriorate due to the "mass injection" of unqualified academicians replacing the expelled professors. "It can no longer be called a university!" he exclaimed.

Salehi added that he had tried to contact the university's chancellor and had sent messages to him, stating that decisions of such sensitivity should be made with tolerance and careful consideration, even if Sharifi-Zarchi had not fully abided by some of the university's rules and regulations, as they claim.

In the past couple of days, at least ten university professors from Sharif, Allameh Tabatabai, and Tehran universities were either sacked or suspended. In April, nine professors from Tehran Azad University, who had openly criticized the regime and its policies, were similarly purged through forced early retirement.

According to the reformist Etemad newspaper, from 2006 to the end of August 2023, 157 tenured professors have been dismissed, forced into retirement, or banned from teaching due to their critical and dissenting views, as part of a broader initiative to cleanse universities of critics of the hardline establishment.

During the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013), who was closely aligned with hardliners, the regime also attempted to employ professors who were ideologically aligned with the hardline and religious establishment.

The intensification of the purge appears to have caused delays in the start of the academic term in some universities, with several institutions potentially resorting to online lectures.

Ameneh Aali, a psychology professor at Allameh Tabatabai University, who is among those sacked, told the Didban-e Iran news website on Saturday that she was informed of her expulsion over the phone and was not provided a reason for the termination of her contract with the university.

She asserted that she was dismissed because she had signed statements supporting protesting students last year, participated in their sit-ins, and objected to the suspension of students.

While the Ministry of Higher Education has not commented on the issue, the Interior Ministry released a statement on Monday describing criticism of the expulsion of academics as "media propaganda" and asserting that the Higher Education Ministry had taken "revolutionary action."

The Interior Ministry's statement also accused the sacked professors, who had opposed the crackdown on students and supported those who were arrested or suspended, of "political immorality and media show-off," and of "defiling" the academic arena with their "factional and even anti-national views."

In a statement on Sunday, the National Union of Iranian University Professors criticized the "profuse meddling" of security bodies in academic affairs and warned about the "gradual decline" of universities.

Ghafour Kargari, who currently serves as the president of Iran's national Paralympic committee, is presently in France attending a gathering with representatives from other nations participating in the 2024 Summer Paralympics games, according to statements from event organizers.

The two human rights groups assert that Kargari was a former commander of the Quds Force, a division of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) responsible for clandestine military operations and intelligence efforts throughout the Middle East.

Emmanuel Daoud, an attorney representing the French collective Femme Azadi and the Swedish NGO House of Liberty who filed the complaint, stated that France should not have issued him a visa for the meeting.

"The IRGC and the Quds group have been at the forefront of the violent repression of peaceful movements for democracy, civil rights and equality of men and women in Iran," they said in a document filed with France's anti-terror prosecutors and seen by AFP.

Given Kargari's high-ranking position in Iran's military hierarchy, the organizations assert that he was involved in formulating and executing strategies for these groups, leading them to argue that his actions "could also be qualified as crimes against humanity."

The 2024 Summer Paralympics are scheduled to be held from August 28 to September 8, featuring the participation of over 4,000 athletes.

Meanwhile, officials said an increase in weapons being smuggled across the border was raising concerns about a new Iranian-instigated threat beyond drugs.

The army said in a statement that the drone was brought down in its territory but did not say what it was carrying. Officials have recently revealed weapons were being smuggled as well as narcotics by drone.

Jordanian officials said the increasing use of drones carrying explosives was adding a new dimension in a relentless cross-border billion-dollar drug war the staunch US ally has long blamed on Iranian-backed militias that hold sway in southern Syria.

"This is Iranian targeting of Jordan helped by the presence of their militias near our border. It poses a security threat that goes beyond drugs," Samih Al Maitah, a former minister familiar with developments along the border said.

Syria is accused by Arab governments and the West of producing the highly addictive and lucrative amphetamine captagon and organizing its smuggling into the Persian Gulf, with Jordan a main transit route.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government denies allegations by Jordan and the West of its involvement in drug-making and smuggling, or complicity by Iranian-backed militias protected by its forces.

Jordan, which has intensified military drills along its border with Syria, announced 10 days ago it had foiled a large smuggling operation.

During a visit by the top US general last week, Jordan raised getting more US support for its efforts to curb drug trafficking by Iranian militias, Jordanian officials say.

General Mark Milley, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed in an interview that Washington was working closely with its ally to provide equipment, training and advice to deal with the growing drug trafficking threat.

The bus was crammed with pilgrims en route to the city of Karbala, where Shiite Muslims commemorate Arbaeen religious ceremony.

Arbaeen (literally meaning fortieth) is a Shiite religious observance that occurs forty days after the Day of Ashura, when according to religious legend Husayn (Hussain) ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad was killed on the 10th day of the month of Muharram in 680 AD.

A medical source told Reuters that 31 people, including women and children, were injured and five of them were in a critical condition.

The Islamic Republic regime views the event as a show of influence in the region, encouraging high participation via numerous perks, including providing free medical services and rest stops along the way, free internet on the road and inside Iraq, offering interest-free loans and granting 200,000 Iraqi dinars ($153) to pilgrim as well as special passports with less bureaucratic requirements. The ration of cheap foreign currency – which used to be dollars or euros until this year – will be paid from Iran's frozen funds in Iraq, about to be released as part of a prisoner swap deal with the United States.

Despite the incentives, the number of Iranians willing to undertake the Arbaeen Shiite pilgrimage is in decline.

Nasser Kanaani, spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry, explained the details of the agreement during a press briefing, stating that the Iraqi government had undertaken the commitment "to disarm the armed terrorist groups stationed in Iraq's territory by September 19, and subsequently, evacuate and transfer them from their military bases to camps designated by the Iraqi government."

Kanaani stressed that the stipulated deadline would remain non-negotiable. Despite characterizing the relationship between the two countries as "entirely friendly and warm," he acknowledged that the presence of these dissident groups in northern Iraq had cast an undesirable shadow on mutual diplomatic ties.

Historically, Iran has intermittently executed targeted operations against the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Iran (KDPI) and other Iranian Kurdish dissident elements operating within Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, adjacent to Iran's borders.

Various Iranian dissident factions in Iraq have aligned their allegiances with the two principal Iraqi Kurdish parties: the Kurdistan Democratic Party, headquartered in Erbil, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, with its stronghold in Suleimaniyah.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who assumed his role via a coalition of Iranian-backed political entities last year, is widely perceived to share close alignment with Iran although he has also attempted to build ties with the United States and Turkey.