US Military Destroys Seven Iranian-backed Houthi Drones in Yemen

“Albeit Iran deems as psychological warfare the Zionist regime’s propaganda about intending to attack Lebanon, should it embark on full-scale military aggression, an obliterating war will ensue,” the statement published on the official X account of Iran's Permanent Mission to the UN stated. “All options, including the full involvement of all Resistance Fronts, are on the table.”

The "Resistance Front" refers to an alliance of armed militant groups backed by Iran, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Houthis in Yemen, and Iraqi Shiite militias. Founded in 1982 by Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), Hezbollah is a key player in the Tehran-supported alliance hostile to Israel and the United States.

Iran’s statement comes amid rising concerns of an escalation in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. Alongside the ongoing Gaza clashes, the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah group has been exchanging fire with Israel for over eight months.

On Thursday, the Secretary General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, underscored the group's reliance on Iran, stating that the fate of the "Resistance Front" is linked to its main supporter, the Islamic Republic of Iran. "The future of the region hinges on the developments of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Hassan Nasrallah said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) noted that the four new cascades have not yet begun enriching uranium.

Two weeks ago, Tehran informed the IAEA of its plans to expand enrichment capacity at Fordow by adding eight IR-6 centrifuge cascades within three to four weeks.

Within two days, the IAEA verified the installation of two cascades. In a confidential report on Friday, seen by Reuters, the agency said after a verification was carried out that this number had doubled.

IR-6 cascades are advanced centrifuge clusters used by Iran for uranium enrichment. They are more efficient than earlier models, enabling faster and higher enrichment levels, which can be used for energy or potentially nuclear weapons.

Iran has been enriching uranium faster and at higher levels since 2021, as the United States and its European allies began talks with Tehran to revive the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal, which former President Donald Trump had abandoned.

Experts believe Iran has amassed enough fissile material for at least three nuclear bombs so far.

According to the IAEA, Iran has not specified when it will start using the newly installed cascades at Fordow with uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6), nor has it disclosed the intended enrichment level.

Diplomats say Iran added the IR-6 machines in response to a June 5 resolution by the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors, which called on Tehran to increase cooperation and allow inspectors access again.

The US announced new sanctions targeting Iran’s oil trade on Thursday, saying it was acting in response to “steps (by Iran) to further expand its nuclear program in ways that have no credible peaceful purpose.”

The Fordow plant, near the city of Qom in central Iran, is an underground uranium enrichment facility, built deep inside a mountain to protect it from potential attacks.

Leading expert on nuclear weapons programs, American physicist David Albright has previously said that the Fordow plant started its operations as part of Tehran’s secret weapons program in the early 2000s.

Earlier this month, Albright’s technical analysis projected that Iran will massively increase its ability to produce weapons-grade uranium (WGU) at the heavily fortified Fordow enrichment plant.

The report came in response to Iran's announcement that it would rapidly deploy 1400 advanced centrifuges at the Fordow plant.

At the Fordow plant, he told Iran International previously, the centrifuges, called the IR-6s, is the most advanced centrifuge Iran operates.

The 1,400 advanced machines would increase Fordow’s capacity by 360%, according to Albright.

The plant, he said, is a deeply buried facility that is very hard to destroy.

Iran is enriching uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% of weapons grade, at two sites: Fordow and an above-ground pilot plant at Natanz.

The FATF is a global financial watchdog that leads action to tackle money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing. The watchdog does not have enforcement powers but describes itself as a monitoring system on how criminals and terrorists raise, use and move funds.

The continuation of the blacklist designation means Tehran is subject to increased monitoring and restrictions.

Toby Dershowitz, the Managing Director of the FDD's Action, said being on the blacklist has “reputational” and real consequences like having an impact on investments, thereby deterring other countries from doing business with Iran.

“It sends a message to the whole financial system, that is to banks, to all kinds of financial institutions...that basically says it's not safe to do business with Iran.”

Dershowitz said it means Iran has to constantly find tactics to get around these measures.

But those implications, according Mahdi Ghodsi, an economist with the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, may actually benefit Iranian regime insiders who assist in circumventing sanctions, which hurt ordinary citizens.

“So these are the people who we don't know. They are not part of the government. They are hidden financial apparatus that nobody cares about them. They're just people that are providing some service circumventing sanctions. And they're getting enormous amount of financial profits. At the same time, they're benefiting the governments who are in line with them,” he said.

Ghodsi told Iran International that Tehran is selling oil in Malaysia which is being exported to China. US government officials have also said that Iran uses the help of service providers in Malaysia to sell its oil abroad, circumventing US sanctions.

“As long as they're benefiting from this, they don't care about blacklisting,” said Ghodsi.

Ghodsi said the significance to the Iranian government is a message from the FATF that “we are watching you.”

“I don't think that it can have any significant impact on what they're [Iran] is doing,” said Ghodsi.

While Dershowitz agrees that ordinary citizens suffer the most, because of the regime’s money laundering and terror finance, she said the FATF listing can make Iran’s economy risky to its partners like Venezuela, which was, for the first time, placed on the graylist Friday.

"And one of the reasons that it did so is because of the ties that Venezuela has with Iran. So because Iran has some malign activities these are adversely impacting other countries such as Venezuela,” she said.

Friday’s blacklist also a signaling, Ghodsi, said that the US administration may change their tone on Iran to include more pressure and stricter policies.

Myanmar and North Korea are also on the FATF blacklist in addition to Iran.

The daughter of Mousavi and Rahnavard, who have been under house arrest since 2011, announced on Friday that her parents would abstain from participating in the presidential election. Meanwhile, Karroubi was photographed casting his ballot, and his son had previously confirmed his endorsement of Pezeshkian.

The Green Movement sprang up in 2009, when in a dubious presidential election Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was unexpectedly was announced the winner, triggering protests. Mousavi and Karroubi who were running against Ahmadinejad were later put under house arrest after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei denounced then as "seditionists."

This is while the relatively moderate Pezeshkian's candidacy is seen by many as an attempt to create an illusion of competition and boost historically low voter turnout, as witnessed in the 2023 parliamentary elections, where turnout hit a record low since 1979.

Iran's un-elected election watchdog, the Guardian Council allowed five conservative-hardliners and one reform-minded candidate to run. Two hardliners dropped out and four candidates remained.

Activists also announced that while authorities brought a ballot box to Ward 4 of Tehran's Evin prison, housing numerous political prisoners, the prisoners abstained from voting.

Many, including several students, women's and youth organizations, and civil and political activists, have called for boycotting the presidential election. Over 500 teachers, union activists, and cultural figures publicly declared their abstention. Also, notable figures such as imprisoned Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi criticized the upcoming election, denouncing it as a facade orchestrated by an “oppressive regime.”

Friday's presidential election is the first after the "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests in 2022, which marked a significant demand for secular governance, human rights, women's rights, and rational foreign policies in Iran.

Last year, following the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement that was triggered following the death of Mahsa Jina Amini while in the custody of the so-called morality police, Mousavi called for the end of clerical rule, which over 400 political activists and journalists supported. The state's subsequent killing of at least 550 protesters during its crackdown has been labeled a crime against humanity by a UN fact-finding mission.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in a Friday phone call "delivered a clear message" to Iran’s acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani on the urgent need for de-escalation in the region, the Germany Foreign Ministry said.

"Clear message from Baerbock in today's phone call with the acting Iranian FM Bagheri Kani regarding the situation in the Middle East: Further escalation must be prevented at all costs, and Iran must also contribute to this," reads a post on the German Foreign Ministry's X account.

Later in the day, EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell said on his X account that he held a phone call with Bagheri Kani to discuss the "rising tensions" along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have been escalating in recent days, raising concerns about a potential full-blown war. Both sides have exchanged threats and engaged in increasingly aggressive actions, leading to fears of a larger conflict that could engulf the region.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah recently warned that "no place" in Israel would be spared in the case of a full-blown war against the Lebanese group, and even threatened to target Cyprus if it opened its airports to Israel.

Israel has also threatened to “plunge Lebanon completely into the dark and take apart Hezbollah’s power in days."

The Israeli threat to plunge Lebanon into darkness, issued by former war cabinet member Benny Gantz on Tuesday, won't be difficult for the IDF to carry out. Lebanon's power grid, already crippled by decades of mismanagement and the current economic collapse, barely functions as it is. Israel will be able to easily finish it off with a few well-aimed airstrikes.

However, the US is warning Israel that any IDF offensive in Lebanon would risk a broader conflict that draws in Iran and Iran-aligned militants, particularly if Hezbollah's existence is threatened.

German Citizens Jailed in Iran

In the Friday phone call, Berlin said, Baerbock also raised the issue of German citizens jailed in Iran, which include Jamshid Sharmahd and Nahid Taghavi.

Jamshid Sharmahd, a 68-year-old software developer and California resident, was abducted by Iranian agents during a visit to the United Arab Emirates in 2020 and forcibly taken to Iran. In February 2023, the Iranian judiciary sentenced him to death on charges of endangering national security.

Sharmahd, who holds German and Iranian citizenship, was convicted of heading a pro-monarchist group named Tondar accused of a deadly bombing incident that occurred in 2008 at a religious center in Shiraz, killing 14 and injuring 215 more.

Nahid Taghavi, 68, has also been jailed in Iran since 2020, and as detailed by her daughter, endured psychological torture during her detention.

Reports indicate that she was confined to solitary confinement in the notorious Ward 2-A of the Revolutionary Guards at Evin Prison for a staggering 220 days.

She was granted a brief furlough in January, but the furlough was terminated next month, and she was forced to return to prison before "being able to receive necessary medical treatment," according to the German Foreign Ministry.