Iran Threatens Israel Over IRGC Officers Killed In Syria

As scrutiny deepens, the CBSA is investigating dual nationals with links to Tehran. Nine cases have already been forwarded to the Immigration and Refugee Board for a thorough assessment of their eligibility to enter Canada.

The stringent measures are a direct outcome of a policy implemented by the Liberal government last year, coinciding with widespread protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, in the custody of Iran's morality police.

Concerns about Canada serving as a safe haven for high-ranking Iranian officials were exacerbated after the identification of a former Tehran police chief at a gym near Toronto in 2021.

Under pressure from the opposition Conservatives and the Iranian-Canadian community, the Liberal government, under the leadership of then-public safety minister Marco Mendicino, designated the Islamic Republic of Iran as a "regime that has engaged in terrorism and systematic and gross human rights violations" under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) in November 2022.

The designation resulted in the inadmissibility of tens of thousands of Iranian regime officials, including several from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to Canada.

As of November 20, 2023, the CBSA has reviewed around 17,800 visa applications under the IRPA designation, leading to 78 individuals being denied access to the country.

Based on referrals and tips, the CBSA has initiated investigations into 141 individuals with status in Canada, closing 38 cases. Ten individuals have been deemed inadmissible under the IRPA designation.

University students living in the diaspora or studying abroad are utilized as an asset to promote Shiite Islamism in Western democracies and recruited to transfer information and know-how to the um-ul-Qora (Islamic motherland).

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointed Ahmad Vaezi to oversee the Islamic students' organizations in Europe in 2020. As Khamenei’s trustee, he is the direct link between Khamenei’s office and the Islamic Students Associations in Europe. An ardent supporter of the Islamic Republic regime, writing in a letter to members of this union, he said "Try to follow your role model, the great leader of Islam, martyr Qasem Soleimani,” referring to the slain commander killed by the US in 2020. Responsible for the violent proxies across the Middle East, Soleimani has now become a symbolic figurehead for the Iranian regime spreading its influence and destruction not only across the Middle East but to young students in Europe. 

Until the 1979 revolution, Islamic student associations in the West mainly consisted of Iranian students and worked against the Pahlavi monarchy while most of them were receiving generous scholarships provided by the government.

After the revolution, these associations, due to the financial need for government resources and the desire of students to gain power and status through the new regime, were completely at the service of the ideology of the Islamic Republic and purged the opposition forces such as Marxists and MEK members. For about four decades, these associations start their annual gatherings with the messages of Khamenei, Iran’s leader.

While millions of Iranian university students pursue their education by getting loans, working, and using their hard-earned parents’ savings, these students and their family members have a luxury life in universities abroad. 

Due to this privilege, they are willing to perform several functions for the regime including spreading political propaganda, participating in anti-Israel Qods (Quds) rallies, and recruiting their professors and colleagues to steal information for bolstering military and technical knowledge in addition to establishing pseudo companies to help Iran’s military programs.

Members of the Islamic Students Association in Britain have met at least eight times with commanders and members of the IRGC since 2020. According to the Jewish Chronicle, the text of the commanders’ speeches has focused on anti-Semitism and anti-West sentiments. They also organized a technological conference held in Tehran in 2023 with invitees including faculty members living in the UK and people who are involved in tech companies in Iran, mostly working for the IRGC. 

History has shown that any member of a branch in the coalition of Islamic students associations who criticizes the government faces certain arrest on returning to Iran. An example is Saeed Razavi Faqih, a reformist, who was arrested after entering Iran in 1992 and sentenced to five years in prison and 148 lashes.

Later, they added another 3.5 years to his sentence in prison. Razavi Faqih, who was elected as the general secretary of this coalition, revealed that the associations receive money for their expenses from Khamenei's office through the leader's representatives in Europe. After 1992, reformists were purged from these associations.

Every few years, the members of these associations are invited to Iran, paid for by the government, to meet with Khamenei, groomed for eventually joining the government ranks. The last such meeting was on January 2, 2023, at the height of the student repression during the protests of the Women, Life, Freedom movement. Even amidst mass oppression of students in Iran, the associations still firmly aligned with the regime in Tehran.

Until the beginning of the1990s, members of these associations were mainly related to Shia clerics who were sent to Europe by government propaganda organizations for religious programs such as Muharram mourning and Ramadan ceremonies. In recent years, the connection between the members of these associations has reached the level of continuous communication with the commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The overall path to support a more military-security based regime rather than a religious or hierocratic one is well underway. Khamenei has been successful in transforming the hardcore power of the regime into the hands of a small group of IRGC commanders and sideline the religious establishment and as each year's budget shows, that priority only strengthens year by year.

Nasser Kanaani said Monday that “the country has the freedom to utilize the funds based on its needs", in response to the approval of a bill in the US Congress aimed at blocking Iran's assets in Qatar.

Kanaani said, "The bill necessitates approval from the US Senate and the President of the United States to become operational. The US government, bound by its international commitments and agreements with Iran concerning the released financial resources involving third-party countries, is obligated and committed. We have secured necessary assurances in this regard."

On Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed a bipartisan measure titled the "No Funds for Iranian Terrorism Act." The measure aims to prevent Iran from accessing the $6 billion recently transferred by the US in a prisoner swap. Republicans pushed for the step in response to Iran's alleged involvement in the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, which triggered the worst conflict in Gaza since the Iran-backed group took control in 2007. 

The tentative agreement between the US and Iran in August led to the release of five detained Americans in Tehran and an undisclosed number of Iranians imprisoned in the US. The agreement involved the transfer of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets from banks in South Korea to Qatar. However, following the Hamas attack, the US and Qatar agreed to restrict Iran's access to the funds, stopping short of a complete refreeze.

According to the judgment issued on Saturday, Soha Sabeti received a sentence of 33 months of punitive imprisonment, a 13-year prohibition from engaging in any educational activities, and a cash penalty of approximately $750.

Similarly, Behrouz Rahmani and Sanaz Alizadeh Roshankouhi were each handed a 10-year ban on educational activities, accompanied by a cash penalty of around $500.

The charges include "managing and membership in groups, societies… within the country with the aim of undermining national security, promoting the interests of groups or organizations opposing the Islamic Republic system, engaging in educational activities, and promoting the Baha'i Faith."

The revolutionary court judge claimed the group were involved in educational activities and the implicit promotion of the Baha'i Faith, incorporating its principles and beliefs, especially aimed at children, forbidden under the Islamic Republic which only permits the practice of Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Islam.

Recent weeks have witnessed a surge in pressure from security and judicial institutions targeting the roughly 300,000 strong Baha'i community.

Baha'is constitute the country's largest non-Muslim religious minority and have faced systematic persecution and harassment since the revolution of 1979 and the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

Amid the government's faltering attempts to assert control over the foreign exchange market, Mohammad-Reza Farzin, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), said Sunday that Iran faces no obstacles in acquiring dollars or euros. He also emphasized that the government has access to recently released funds from South Korea that are on deposit in Qatari banks. However, the market realities in Iran tell a different story. 

The United States agreed to unblock the funds and allow Iran to use the money for imports of non-sanctionable goods, presumably for vital needs such as food and medicine. The funds reached Qatar in September but so far there have been no reports of Iran spending it to ease shortages in the country.

Local media quote officials and businessmen almost on daily basis who speak of severe shortages of essential goods, including medicine, car parts, and food products. One pressing question remains unanswered by Iranian officials: If the country possesses the necessary foreign currency, why is it failing to import vital products, especially considering that items like food and medicine are not under US or European sanctions?

In addition to animal feed that is essential for the country’s food supply chain, shortages have also hit Iran’s pharmaceutical industry which heavily relies on the government for hard currency to import raw materials. In November, the Food and Drug Organization of Iran reported a shortage of approximately 100 types of essential drugs within the country. 

The economic challenges faced by Iran, exacerbated by US oil sanctions, have strained the government's ability to allocate foreign currencies. Despite an increase in oil exports in recent months, reaching nearly six times the 2019 levels at approximately 1.5 million barrels per day, the Iranian rial is near an all-time low. With inflation soaring above 60 percent, the country is facing a complex economic situation that is directly affecting the healthcare sector and the well-being of its citizens.

With the Iranian currency rial in historic decline, the government has implemented various measures to curb devaluation, with little impact. Government-controlled currency exchange mechanisms and fixed rates ordered by the authorities have proven ineffective, with the official rate significantly lower than the open market. Limited availability of foreign currency at the lower government rate has pushed buyers toward the unofficial black market. In an attempt to keep tabs on the unofficial foreign currency exchange market, the Iranian government has also criminalized a broad spectrum of "unauthorized" transactions, including those in the virtual space. However, these measures seem to have little impact on the currency's downward spiral. 

“We aim to gradually move towards making the country's exchange center the primary reference for currency exchange rates," Farzin said in a desperate attempt to foster hope. 

Officials repeatedly claim to conduct business with friendly countries using local currencies such as the Chinese yuan and Russian ruble. Farzin has gone so far as to suggest replacing local currencies with the dollar and euro. “We are pursuing the substitution of local currencies in dealings with neighbors, including Iraq, Turkey, and Syria,” Farzin said. 

As the government desperately tries to control the currency market, the Iranian rial tithers on the verge of another large devaluation. Since the US withdrawal from the JCPOA nuclear accord in 2018, the currency has lost 12-fold of its value. The rial is currently trading at over 500,000 to the US dollar, a stark contrast from around 250,000 rials just a year ago. 

In the current climate of a possible wider conflict across multiple borders from Yemen to Iraq, Palestine to Syria, Iran continues to dedicate billions of dollars to its domestic and foreign armies, with capabilities showcased in grand displays from Iran to Lebanon.