US Conducts 'Self-Defense Strikes' Against Houthi Facilities

Adding to the nation's woes in the Iranian year that ended on March 20, the emigration of nurses and specialist doctors, leaving critical positions unfilled, coupled with a significant brain drain and substantial capital outflow, further dampened the outlook for the current year, which commenced on March 20.

However, the trials of the past year were not confined to the Iranian people alone. The regime, particularly under the leadership of Ali Khamenei, faced an arduous and disheartening period. This challenge can be delineated into five distinct aspects: regional developments, shifts in political dynamics and institutions, revelations, the plight of the impoverished, and the resilience of women's resistance.

Hamas on the verge of destruction

Following the brutal attack on October 7th, Ali Khamenei expressed his support by enthusiastically stating that he would honor Hamas fighters. However, the publication of videos depicting Hamas's atrocities, including rape, burning, and the killing of children, as well as the tragic deaths of over 200 young people at a music festival, deeply shook the international community. Consequently, Israel felt compelled to take control of Gaza. This attack has inflicted significant damage on Hamas and its infrastructure, with repercussions still unfolding.

The weakening of Hamas's military capabilities undermines one of Khamenei's key threats against Israel's existence. Much of this damage has already been done, and Ali Khamenei is quietly witnessing the setbacks to his "resistance axis."

Failed manipulated elections

The heavy-handed manipulation of the 2024 parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections, coupled with Reformists’ refusal to vote, resulted in a significant decrease in voter turnout, dealing yet another blow to Khamenei’s regime. Even a sizable portion of traditionalist Islamist forces opted out of the electoral process, leading to a stark decline in voter participation, particularly in major cities, where turnout plummeted to roughly one-third of eligible voters. The event marked the worst elections in the Islamic Republic’s 45-year history.

No member of the upcoming parliament (Majles) or Assembly of Experts can rightfully claim to represent the people, when some got elected with less than 5 percent of total eligible votes. The election results were so disappointing that there was a four-day silence before they were acknowledged, followed by a baseless characterization of the outcome as an "epic victory."

Clerics unmasked

Shia clerics have long operated in secrecy, avoiding transparency in their actions and dealings. They withhold information from the public for two main reasons: to cultivate an aura of mystery that reinforces their perceived sanctity and to evade accountability for the privileges, corruption, and crimes committed by members of their institution against the vulnerable populace. However, a series of judicial document hacks, government correspondence leaks, and revelations of corruption have shattered Khamenei's once tightly controlled image.

In recent years, Khamenei's governing approach, which allows his agents to exploit resources in exchange for loyalty, has become apparent to the public. Even the most devout segments of society no longer buy into the spectacle of him walking among the tombs of Shia imams, bathed in divine light, as portrayed on IRIB TV stations. The year concluded with the exposure of corruption involving one of his close associates, Kazem Siddiqi.

Persistent women torment Khamenei

Khamenei is characterized by his vindictive nature, relentlessly pursuing his adversaries even to their graves and showing little regard for anyone's fundamental right to self-expression.

In March 2022, Khamenei declared, “The hijab is not only a religious and legal obligation but also a moral and political one.” However, throughout the year, millions of Iranian women boldly flouted this decree in the streets, hospitals, banks, official gatherings, and entertainment venues, casting aside his words with defiance.

For Khamenei, who, until two years ago, ruthlessly enforced the hijab, violently apprehending women for showing even a glimpse of their hair and subjecting them to humiliation, torture, and fines, it is now deeply unsettling to witness this widespread disobedience. Firing teachers or doctors or targeting mothers with infants does little to quell the turmoil within him. At night, he is haunted by nightmares of women freely enjoying the beach in bikinis or riding bicycles through the streets and markets in tank tops and shorts."

Over the past weeks, US intelligence agencies had obtained alarming information about the rising threats of the Afghanistan-based cell of the Islamic State in Russia. The terrorist group is commonly known as ISIS-Khorasan or ISIS-K.

On March 7, the US embassy in Russia issued a security alert, saying it “is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours.”

However, Putin's decision to disregard the warning is similar to what took place in Iran recently. More than one week before a double bombing in the Iranian city of Kerman which killed more than 90 people on January 3, the US provided the Iranian government with a private warning about terrorist threats. The warning was ignored by Tehran.

Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, confirmed that the information was shared with Russian officials in accordance with Washington’s “duty to warn” policy.

However, Putin dismissed the warnings as provocative. “All this resembles outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society,” the Russian president was quoted as saying on March 19.

At least four armed assailants stormed the Crocus City Hall, a popular concert hall, on Moscow’s western edge. The attack claimed the lives of at least 60 people and left 145 injured.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the deadly assault. Following the incident, Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukraine’s presidential office, stressed that Kyiv “has absolutely nothing to do” with the massacre.

Citing Kremlin officials, Interfax news agency reported Saturday that 11 people have been arrested in connection with the attack, including four who were directly involved in it.

The ballistic missile attack came as retaliation days after the United States killed IRGC's Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad. Zarif also claims that he and then-President Hassan Rouhani heard about the missile attack after the Americans were informed through Iraqi officials.

In his new book, Mohammad Javad Zarif explains the buildup to the attack on Ain al-Asad Base in January 8, 2020, codenamed Operation Martyr Soleimani. Ten days after the publication of the book, social media circulated a photo of one of the pages of the memoir that detailed the moment when Zarif was informed of the attack.

“The last decision I heard [after Soleimani's killing] was that there is no rush for a response, and the most efficient method was thought to be the one pursued by Hezbollah in Lebanon, creating condition to exhaust the enemy,” Zarif says in the book, a memoir of the eight years (2013-2021) he served as foreign minister.

He added that he received the message about the missile attack from Abbas Araghchi, another senior Iranian diplomat, hours after Iran had fired over a dozen ballistic missiles at the base. This was the biggest ballistic attack against the US forces in recent history.

“Apparently, Americans were informed of the attack before Iran’s President and Foreign Minister by the Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi,” who had informed them of the operation in the evening, hours before the attack. Reuters reported at the time that Iraq's prime minister had received an oral message from Iran that the retaliatory attack would begin and that it would target locations where American forces were deployed.

At 11 pm on January 7, US Lt. Col. Antoinette Chase, responsible for emergency response at Ain al-Asad Base, gave the order for American troops to go on lockdown and take cover in bunkers. The first missiles landed sometime after 1:35 a.m. on January 8 and the barrage continued for nearly two hours. “Worst case scenario — we were told was it’s probably going to be a missile attack. So we were informed of that,” she told reporters touring the base later.

Zarif commends the “appropriate and correct” decision to give the heads-up to the US before the attack but questions why President Hassan Rouhani and himself were not aware of the attack, laying bare a point of contention in the Islamic Republic’s politics: The Revolutionary Guards do not coordinate their moves with the government.

Iran's coordination with the US regarding the attack suggests that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his IRGC aimed to project strength but were wary of the potential escalation resulting from any American casualties. Nevertheless, Iran was on alert for a possible US retaliatory strike and hours later mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian airliner thinking it was an American aircraft, killing 176 innocent people.

Zarif revealed that he and his team were preparing messages to the security council and other parties to explain the Ain al-Asad attack before he learned of the downing of the Ukrainian plane soon after its takeoff from Tehran.

It is not the first time Zarif talked about Iran’s the circumstances surrounding the killing of Soleimani and Tehran’s coordination for the surprise revenge attack and other developments of that week in January 2020. In a voice recording leaked in March 2021, Zarif could be heard saying that officials knew about the circumstances of the downing soon after it happened, but they had concealed the information from him, and continued to mislead the world about why the airliner had crashed.

Former US president Donald Trump, who ordered the killing of Soleimani, said on several occasions that Iranians informed him that they would hit a military base with ballistic missiles.

On February 5, former secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani dismissed claims by Trump that he had received an Iranian message before the attack. However, he chose his words very carefully, saying there were no contacts between the Iranians and Americans before the attack on Ain al-Asad. He was right. The IRGC informed the Iraqi premier, who later relayed the message.

The Iranian attack was the most direct Iranian assault on America since the 1979 seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran. Iran and the United States went to the brink of war three times during the Presidency of Donald Trump, Iran’s former president Rouhani said in January. 

The confrontation unfolded during a heated exchange with Iran International's Arash Alaie, where Medea Benjamin deflected scrutiny by asserting, "We're not on the side of any government anywhere. We support people."

Codepink has come under fire for its alleged connections to the Iranian regime, primarily from critics who perceive the government in Tehran as oppressive and authoritarian. Detractors argue that by maintaining affiliations with or expressing solidarity towards the Iranian leadership, Codepink legitimizes a regime accused of egregious human rights violations, crackdowns on dissent, and alleged support for terrorist entities.

The movement's critics further contend that Codepink's stance may inadvertently whitewash the Iranian government's track record of arbitrary arrests, torture, and executions targeting political dissidents, journalists, and minority groups. Some also accuse Codepink of disproportionately scrutinizing Western governments, particularly the United States, while downplaying or disregarding the actions of non-Western regimes such as Iran.

There are concerns among critics that the Iranian regime could exploit Codepink's support as a propaganda tool, utilizing it to bolster its international image and diminish its isolation on the global stage.

He called on the government to offer citizens, particularly women opportunities for advancement. Abdolhamid proclaimed that such empowerment could lead to the transformation of Iran into a promised land, emphasizing the immense potential harbored within the nation.

Highlighting the prevalent corruption plaguing the country, Abdolhamid issued a warning against the misappropriation of national assets, labeling such actions “perilous” and naming them as “the root cause of Iran's societal woes, which deprive the people of their rightful share.”

While Abdolhamid refrained from specifying the catalyst behind his address, it appears linked to recent revelations of corruption by Kazem Seddighi, the Friday Prayer leader of Tehran appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Sedighi stands accused of illicitly acquiring a valuable piece of land in northern Tehran, valued at millions of dollars.

The sermon follows Abdolhamid's earlier critique on March 1 regarding the government's failure to implement adequate flood management measures, which he reiterated in light of floods in his province. However, Abdolhamid's efforts to visit the flood-affected areas were thwarted by security forces, underscoring ongoing tensions between dissenting voices and authorities.

The torrential rains in late February in southern Sistan and Baluchestan triggered extensive flooding, particularly in the Dashtyari region, leading to submerged residential areas and the closure of numerous roads. Hundreds of households have incurred damage due to the recent floods in the province.