Slain Teen’s Sister Moved to Shahr-e Rey for Hijab Defiance

In remarks to the semi-official ILNA news outlet, Meshkini, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, emphasized that Iran is equipped with "the most advanced military equipment and precision missiles."

Early Friday morning, explosions were reported near the airport and an army base in Isfahan province, located in the central part of the country. The attack prompted Iran's air defense systems to be activated at several sites, according to state media.

While US officials have confirmed the attack, Israel has not yet acknowledged any involvement in the airstrike.

Iranian state media, controlled by the regime, is downplaying the strike. An official stated that the country’s air defenses intercepted three drones and denied any impacts from missiles.

Iranian media also reported that their nuclear sites remained secure and showed calm scenes in areas where explosions were reportedly heard.

This latest military action follows Iran attacks on Israel, where it launched hundreds of drone and missile strikes over the weekend. Tehran says it was retaliating for a widely believed Israeli attack on Iran’s purported consulate in Syria, which killed several high-ranking Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) officials.

Before the Friday attack on Iran, Esmail Kowsari, another parliamentarian on the national security commission, spoke about potential actions against Israeli nuclear facilities.

"If necessary, it will definitely be done," Kowsari told Jamaran news.

He emphasized that Iran does not seek conflict with any regional country, but that it will be considered if they act “maliciously”.

Leader of the Reformist Front party Azar Mansouri urged the government to end the “devastating conflict” over compulsory hijab on Thursday.

“Before the death of Mahsa [Amini] and the protests that followed, we time and again demanded that the morality police be dismantled. But just at a time when national solidarity is needed more than ever, the same ugly scenes are seen with more intensity and violence against Iranian women and girls,” she wrote on X.

Meanwhile, Reformist commentator Abbas Abdi rejected the government’s harsh measures as violating “the law and morality,” further warning that the compulsory hijab policy will backfire. “If they are doing this to make people disgusted with hijab and Islam, they will definitely succeed because this will have no other achievement,” he stated.

In a video message released on Thursday, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a senior aide to former president Mohammad Khatami, criticized the “street offensive” against Iranian women to enforce hijab laws. Referring to the threats of possible Israeli retaliation against Iran’s recent attacks and the division in the Iranian society over hijab laws, Abtahi said, “According to political conventions, you need to think about internal unity during wartime.”

On Saturday, Iran's police initiated a plan to force unveiled women to adhere to the hijab laws, resorting to violence against detainees and people who attempted to intervene to prevent women's arrests.

One of the last victims of the Iranian regime’s repressive hijab policy was Armita Geravand, a sixteen-year-old girl. She died on October 28, 2023 after about a month in coma for brain damage she suffered during a violent encounter with hijab enforcers deployed at Tehran’s subway stations.

According to an exclusive report by the Guardian on Thursday, the investigators are looking into whether one of the suspects has connections to Albania.

The investigators interviewed by The Guardian believe that the assailants were recruited and flown to the UK specifically to execute the assault.

Iran International presenter Pouria Zeraati was stabbed outside his home in Wimbledon, in south London, late in March and sustained leg injuries.

Shortly after the attack, London Metropolitan Police announced that considering previous threats against journalists in Persian-language media outlets, the incident is being handled by specialized officers from the Met's counter-terrorism division. Earlier in the month, London Metropolitan police said the three suspects fled the UK after the attack, triggering an international manhunt.

Guardian further reported that Western sources believe that those likely responsible for the attack, presumed to be acting in the interests of the Iranian regime, utilized connections and insights into criminal networks to recruit the assailants.

Senior British counter-terrorism officials, as per The Guardian's report, believe that employing "criminal proxies provides Tehran with plausible deniability" as those recruited are unlikely to be on terror watchlists which would prevent them from entering the UK.

Last year, federal indictments revealed that three individuals linked to an Eastern European mafia group were charged by the United States for plotting to assassinate Iranian-American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad at the request of the Iranian regime.

The US Justice Department announced that the Eastern European mafia group charged "has ties to Iran and is violent, engaging in murders, kidnappings, assaults, and extortions".

Karami was being held at Karaj Central Prison. He was arbitrarily arrested near his home by the Iranian intelligence ministry agents August last year. According to reports by Dadban -- a group of pro-bono lawyers in Iran defending political prisoners and rights activists -- Karami was transferred from the prison without any prior notice on earlier this week.

In the wake of Iran's "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests, Karami's eldest son, Mohammad Mehdi, was arrested without justification. Accused of involvement in the alleged killing of Ruhollah Ajamian -- a member of Revolutionary Guard's Basij forces -- he was hanged in January 2023, alongside fellow protester Mohammad Hosseini.

According to his lawyer, Ali Sharifzadeh, Mashallah Karami is accused of “propaganda against the Islamic Republic", and "collusion with the intention of committing a crime against national security" and two other accusations in relation to money laundering.

Last month Sharifzadeh reported that Karami's mental health was deteriorating in prison due to “the loss of his child and being far from his wife," adding that he hoped Karami would be granted furlough for the Norouz holidays (Persian New Year). Iranian authorities have refused to grant bail or furlough to Karami.

Arbitrary arrests, detention, and prosecution are part of the Iranian authorities' systemic suppression of protest victims’ families. Last year in August, Amnesty International released a 42 page report titled “Iran: Harassment of families victims unlawfully killed during protests must end,” documenting cases involving 36 victims' families from 10 provinces in Iran.

Additionally, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported that it has been 10 days since the disappearance of Kamal Lotfi, the father of slain protestor Reza Lotfi.

Lotfi was arbitrarily arrested and assaulted by security forces earlier in April and taken to an undisclosed location, according to reports by Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA).

Lotfi's son, Reza, was killed by Iranian security forces during the protests in Dehloghan in September 2022.

“If the fake Zionist regime wants to use the threat of attacking nuclear sites to put pressure on Iran, it is possible and conceivable for the Islamic Republic to revise its nuclear doctrine and policies, and deviate from its past declared considerations,” said Ahmad Haghtalab, who is in charge of the security of Iran’s nuclear sites.

His remarks came a day after Zohar Palti, the former intelligence director at the Israeli spy agency Mossad, announced that Israel has many options on the table to retaliate Tehran’s recent missile and drone attacks and could even choose to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.

According to Haghtalab, Israel’s threats to target Iran’s nuclear facilities “are not from today or yesterday” and Israel has already been involved in “sabotage and terrorist acts” to stop Iran’s nuclear program over the past years.

One of the most significant attacks on Iran’s nuclear program occurred in 2010 when the Stuxnet computer virus disrupted the control systems of the country’s most sensitive and tightly watched nuclear facility in Natanz.

The Dutch daily Volkskrant reported in January that the malware, widely believed to be an American-Israeli creation, was delivered by a Dutch engineer working at the enrichment plant.

In 2020 and 2021, two internal explosions hit Iran's highly protected Natanz uranium enrichment facility, inflicting considerable damage. The attacks were attributed to Israel, although Iran's chief adversary never took responsibility. In November 2020, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, known as the father of Iran's nuclear program was assassinated in broad daylight near Tehran.

Further in his remarks, IRGC Commander Haghtalab threatened that the Iranian government can target Israel’s nuclear sites if the Jewish state decides to respond to Iran’s recent offensive on the Israeli territory: “The nuclear sites of the Zionist enemy have been identified and we have the information we need on all targets. In case of their so-called retaliation, our hands are on the trigger to fire powerful missiles to destroy specified targets.”

On Saturday night, Iran launched its first ever direct offensive against Israeli territory with more than 350 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles. The Israeli army announced that 99% of the projectiles were intercepted and downed.

According to IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, Iran shut down its nuclear facilities last Sunday over “security considerations.” He confirmed that the facilities had reopened within 24 hours, but with no IAEA supervision, as the agency decided to temporarily keep its inspectors away until the situation is “completely calm.”

When asked about the possibility of Israel hitting Iran’s nuclear sites, Grossi said, “We are always concerned about this possibility.” The UN nuclear chief also reiterated the IAEA’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.

Iranian officials have always maintained that Tehran’s nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes. But nuclear experts are almost unanimous in their assessment that enrichment to the levels and in the amounts that Iran has been doing since 2021 cannot be justified in the absence of a weapons program.

In February, Ali-Akbar Salehi, the former head of Iran's nuclear agency, implied that the country has everything it needs for an A-bomb: "We have [crossed] all the thresholds of nuclear science and technology. Here's an example: Imagine what a car needs; it needs a chassis, an engine, a steering wheel, a gearbox. You're asking if we've made the gearbox, I say yes. Have we made the engine? Yes, but each one serves its own purpose."

On Wednesday, an advisor to Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf hinted at Tehran’s military use of its nuclear program. “Iran has a nuclear program in addition to its missile program,” wrote Mehdi Mohammadi on X in what can be construed as a shrouded threat against Israel and its allies.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Marandi, a political analyst close to Iran’s hardliners, claimed that Iran has not yet used “its most advanced weapons” against Israel. When asked if Iran might use nuclear weapons, he said, “Iran is not like the United States which has and uses and has already used nuclear weapons.”

In November, an IAEA confidential report indicated that Iran has enough uranium enriched to up to 60% for three atomic bombs.