Canadian opposition leader to Iran's new president: End abuses in Canada

"Despite promises, three years into the current administration, we are still witnessing power outages which have severely disrupted the economy and brought about numerous crises," said Mohammad Reza Rezaei Kouchi.

Kouchi also noted that the onset of summer and the subsequent surge in peak electricity consumption "have increased production costs, ultimately impacting everyone."

In response to criticism from the private sector regarding the power outages, the Ministry of Energy has stated that the issue falls under the jurisdiction of security agencies, not the government.

Conversely, an official at the Iran Chamber of Commerce told the semi-official ILNA that one-day power outages in industrial parks, mandated by the Ministry of Energy, have become a standard practice despite being illegal.

The official also noted that these outages are sometimes extended to two days a week.

Iranian media reported that a new record was set yesterday with an unprecedented demand of 77,151 megawatts, necessitating extraordinary measures to maintain grid stability.

The country is currently grappling with a severe energy deficit crisis, worsened by the summer heat and the government's failure to meet natural gas and electricity production targets.

Iran has been unable to boost natural gas production although it has the world's second largest reserves. Meanwhile, extremely low energy prices, subsidized by the government, encourage persistent increase in consumption.

Reports of power outages affecting residential areas, including Tehran and Isfahan, have also emerged.

Media sources indicate that the residential grid experienced unannounced cuts despite temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius.

Khabar Online reported that power cuts in some central Tehran areas have extended to four hours, compared to the previous maximum of two hours during hot seasons.

Reports indicate that the power supply situation in southern provinces is even more critical, leading to the closure of some government offices.

Power outages have become a significant industry issue, causing considerable disruption and drawing complaints from business owners.

This week, electricity at the Saipa automotive factory was cut for at least five hours, severely affecting production.

Persistent power cuts have caused significant disruptions in Tehran's industrial hub. The newspaper "Donya-e-Eqtesad" reported that the electricity crisis has escalated from media warnings to SMS alerts to citizens. Each outage severely impacts industries, taking about 24 hours to restart operations, thereby increasing losses.

Dalga Khatinoglu, an oil, gas, and economic analyst, noted instead of addressing the fundamental energy imbalance, authorities have opted to reduce electricity and gas to industries—a short-term solution that fails to resolve the country's energy deficit.

Additionally, many of Iran's power plants are inefficient gas or steam types. Instead of modernizing the grid or converting to more efficient combined-cycle plants, the government has opted to adjust office hours and impose restrictions on industrial power supply.

"The fact that mourning processions are starting in America, Europe, and Africa signifies this very image of sacrifice and martyrdom," he said Wednesday.

Iran has been actively promoting Shiism globally, particularly in Africa, through orchestrated mourning processions during the month of Muharram. The processions, which commemorate the third Shia Imam, Hussein ibn Ali, are a tool for spreading Iran's religious ideology.

Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, is of great significance to Shia Muslims, marking the Battle of Karbala where Hussein ibn Ali and his followers were killed. This symbolic event is leveraged by Iran to propagate Shia values and extend its ideological reach.

According to the Pew Research Center, the number of Shia Muslims is projected to be between 219 million and 285 million in 2030, up from between 162 million and 211 million in 2010.

They predict that Shia Muslims will make up 10-13 percent of the world’s Muslims, roughly the same percentage as today.

In recent years, Iran has facilitated the spread of the processions beyond its borders. In the United States, Europe, and various African countries, such events are drawing participation from local Shia communities and others.

The processions feature gatherings, public displays of grief, and rituals such as recitations, lamentations, and reenactments of the Battle of Karbala.

The events serve not only religious purposes but also function as instruments of cultural and political influence as Iran seeks to strengthen the sense of unity and identity among Shia communities worldwide.

Zakani slammed the campaign, branding it "entirely slanderous" and "illegal". Addressed to the Tehran City Council, the petition criticizes his management, particularly his controversial decisions to repurpose green spaces for mosques and commercial projects.

In April, tens of thousands of people signed a petition to stop the destruction of Qeytarieh Park, where Zakani's administration planned to construct a mosque.

Last year he was put under sanctions by the UK, US, Canada and Australia "because he is and has been involved in the commission of serious human rights violations or abuses in Iran", including "determining and enforcing mandatory dress codes for women."

In response to the campaign for his dismissal, a group identifying as “faithful and revolutionary youth of the country” launched a counter-campaign on the Karzar website, praising Zakani as “undoubtedly unmatched in uncorruptness and honesty.”

Tehran City Council chairman Mehdi Chamran attempted to downplay the situation, comparing it to unsuccessful efforts to unseat US President Joe Biden. Chamran argued that the large number of signatures alone does not warrant Zakani's removal.

Tehran faces severe challenges such as air pollution, traffic congestion, land subsidence, water shortages, and high housing costs, which many residents believe have worsened under Zakani’s leadership.

The mayor withdrew from the recent presidential race in support of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Saeed Jalili.

Hengaw Human Rights Organization, a Kurdish rights group, reported that Zaheri had been summoned to the Sardasht Intelligence Office and interrogated for several hours while visiting his family.

The reason for his arrest on July 2 remains unknown. His passport, along with those belonging to his wife and two children, have also been confiscated.

The professional bodybuilder is one of a long line of dual nationals, the numbers of which remain a closely guarded secret, to be arrested by Iranian forces. They are often held on charges of espionage as Iran continues its policy of diplomatic hostage taking.

Last month, Sweden released former Iranian jailor Hamid Nouri, who faced life imprisonment for his involvement in Iran's 1988 mass executions. In return, Iran released Swedish EU diplomat Johan Floderus and Swedish-Iranian citizen Saeid Azizi.

And last year, the United States released around $6 billion in Iran's frozen funds to secure the release of five dual nationals held in Iran. This arrangement faced strong public criticism for its rewarding the policy of hostage-taking.

After last month's exchange, exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi criticized the Swedish Prime Minister's decision to release Nouri, calling it "an affront to the rule of law, human rights, and basic decency."

He branded the move as "feckless appeasement", arguing that it would only encourage more hostage-taking and blackmail.

Following Zaheri's arrest, rights group Hengaw issued a warning to all Iranian dual nationals that "traveling to Iran can have serious consequences".

It said: "Since the beginning of the "Woman, Life, Freedom" revolution, arrests and heavy sentences for dual citizens have significantly increased. The Iranian government does not recognize dual citizenship and may consider these individuals solely as Iranian citizens."

Jalili refused to allow the more pragmatic Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf to represent the ‘revolutionary front’ in the recent elections against the reform-leaning Masoud Pezeshkian.

Ghalibaf’s supporters have taken to social media to accuse Jalili and his political allies of looking up to Mohammad-Mahdi Mirbagheri, a mid-ranking cleric, as their true religious and political leader. They allege that Jalili's camp only "pretends" to emulate and respect Khamenei.

Jalili was backed by the ultra-hardliner Paydari (Steadfastness) Party led by Sadegh Mahsouli, a business tycoon and interior minister under populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as the recently established Jebhe-ye Sobh-e Iran. The latter, often called MASAF, is a political group led by the controversial politician and theorist Ali-Akbar Raefipour. The two political groups have spread their influence to many government and state organizations in the past few years.

The views expressed by Paydari and MASAF members often mirror Mirbagheri’s apocalyptic religious and anti-western political views that are sometimes even more extreme than Khamenei’s.

“First hit the United States in the face and break its wrist and then have fair negotiations with it if it is still inclined to talk,” Mirbagheri says about talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA). Jalili’s rivals say his supporters even stopped the government of the late President Ebrahim from reaching a nuclear deal to remove US sanctions.

Mirbagheri who heads the Islamic Science Academy of Qom is already one of the 81 members of the Assembly of Experts whose members are to appoint Khamenei’s successor. His followers are often collectively referred to as the “Academy current” by other hardliners.

The 63-year-old cleric who has never held any government office is little known outside seminaries, hardliner political circles, and networks of religious mourning groups (heya’at azadari) run by fundamentalist Shia eulogists. These groups and their leaders (maddahs) have gained huge political influence in the past two decades.

The Paydari Party and MASAF have taken over many top and sensitive positions in state organizations and the parliament where they are a sizeable but very influential minority since 2020.

Mirbagheri’s interpretation of Islam and Velayat-e Faqih (rule of Islamic jurists) is very similar to the views of the late Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, whom he is now considered a successor.

Mesbah-Yazdi who was held in very high esteem by Khamenei insisted that God appoints the Islamic jurist who becomes the supreme leader of the country and the role of the members of the Assembly of Experts is only to “discover” God’s appointee.

The role of the rest of the Islamic Shia society, in their view, is preparing itself for the emergence of Mahdi, the 12th imam who the Shia believe has been in occultation by divine will since 941 CE.

The loudest and clearest call to suppress the Paydari Party and MASAF in the past few days has come from hardliner politician Abdolreza Davari who campaigned for Ghalibaf but said he would vote for Masoud Pezeshkian in the runoff elections to ward off the “danger of Jalili”.

“The fundamentalist sedition cannot be overcome through political and logical methods. The eye of the sedition must be removed to rid the society of their evil … The eye of the fundamentalists’ sedition cannot be removed without setting up a few gallows,” Davari declared in a tweet Tuesday.

In his tweet, he compared the Paydari Party and MASAF to the Khawarij who turned their backs on the first Shiite Imam, Ali ibn-e Abi Talib and eventually assassinated him as well as Forqan, an anti-clerical Islamist militant group, that assassinated several senior officials of the Islamic Republic.

His post was accompanied by an image of the announcement of the execution of seven members of Forqan on the front page of Kayhan newspaper in March 1980.