Iranian army chief warns Israel: Assassinations will not go unanswered

The Iranian media and social media users have particularly accused the President of giving top jobs to two politicians, Hamid Pourmohamadi as head of the Planning and Budget Organization, and Shahram Dabiri as Vice President for Parliamentary Affairs.

According to Iranian media, Pourmohamadi was implicated in a financial corruption case as top suspect in 2011 and was jailed for some time for that. According to the official news agency IRNA, Dabiri was also implicated in a financial corruption case at the Tabriz Municipality and was arrested in 2020 by the IRGC Intelligence Organization. However, he was cleared of the charges later.

Pourmohamadi's supporters in the centrist daily Sazandegi have characterized him as an economic technocrat who has served Iran's previous governments.

Meanwhile, Tehran Municipality's daily newspaper Hamshari has said that Iranians are not happy about the appointments by Pezeshkian. According to Hamshahri, contrary to promises made by the President and his aides, most of those he has so far appointed are aging politicians.

The daily has also charged that Pezeshkian has selected his aides and ministers, who have not been officially named yet, from among his friends and politically likeminded groups. The daily claimed that the public's attitude toward the new appointees is negative.

According to Rouydad24website, Shahram Dabiri is one of several medical doctors Pezeshkian has appointed to executive positions. Dabiri is the owner of a sports club in Tabriz and has held positions at the city's local council and university and is a shareholder of a major hospital in Tabriz. He has studied in Iran, Japan and Russia in the area of nuclear medicine. As a young man, he fought in the war against Iraq in the 1980s alongside Pezeshkian.

Meanwhile, quoting reformist daily Shargh, the website has characterized Pourmohammadi as the shadow governor of Iran's Cenral Bank, and pointed out that he has worked with the governments of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President Hassan Rouhani. Iranian media have said that he opposes the idea of merger of Iran's numerous government banks. He was once dismissed from the Iranian Central bank in 2008 for the same reason. He was jailed in 2011 for involvement in a financial corruption case but was released on bail after one month.

Accusations on social media sometimes go beyond charges of financial corruption. Some social media activists have charged that while Pezeshkian won the election by promising to improve relations with the West, on his first day in office he lashed out at the United States and strongly supported Hamas and similar groups in the Middle East. Another activist said that Pezeshkian has a limited mental capacity and keeps repeating himself.

Iranian journalist Farborz Kalantari wrote that Dabiri and his children run a commercial network in medicine and sports. Another journalist, Ali Gholhaki pointed out that Pezeshkian's political rivals have managed to block his choice for the post of Culture Minister and impose a hardline figure on the cabinet.

Meanwhile, several social media users posted a video of clashes at the Tabriz University in 2021 and accused Dabiri of instigating violence among the supporters of various candidates in the city's local Council election.

His selection of Mohamad Ja'far Ghaempanah as Vice President for Executive Affairs has faced criticism due to his two-decade absence from executive roles. However, many have praised Ghaempanah's courage for siding with protesters during the 2022 nationwide uprising.

The United States and Australia have denounced Iran's destabilizing behavior, including its support for armed proxies and militant partners.

The statement was released after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III hosted Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles on August 6 in Annapolis, Maryland.

They condemned threats to shipping and freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and Gulf of Aden, stressing the need to defend navigational rights and freedoms.

They also slammed Tehran’s arbitrary and unjust detention of foreign and dual nationals, as well as targeting, intimidation, and harassment of dissidents overseas.

The statement alsoexpressed concerns over Iran's nuclear-related expansions, proliferation of ballistic missiles, and provision of drones to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine.

The secretaries and ministers also slammed Iran's human rights violations and abuses, especially against women, girls, and members of minority groups and expressed a shared commitment to standing with the people of Iran.

White House officials said Tuesday that they believe President Joe Biden’s efforts to prevent a war in the Middle East "may be paying off" and "Iran may be reconsidering a plan for major retaliation" following the killing of the Hamas chief in Tehran, Washington Post reported.

"The Iranian response has been complicated by seeming confusion over the circumstances of Haniyeh’s death. Tehran at first claimed he was killed by an Israeli missile, requiring a similar Iranian response. But officials say that Tehran has concluded privately that he was instead eliminated by a concealed bomb, perhaps prompting a different response," read the article.

Tehran may also be dissuaded by the US show of force this week, and secret White House communications passed via the Swiss embassy in Tehran and the Iranian mission at the United Nations, the report said.

“Iran understands clearly that the US is unwavering in its defense of our interests, our partners and our people. We have moved a significant amount of military assets to the region to underscore that principle,” a senior administration official

According to media affiliated with Iran-backed Houthis, US and UK forces carried out two airstrikes targeting Houthi positions in Yemen's Taiz province on Tuesday night.

The report came after CENTCOM, the United States Central Command, issued a statement announcing that its forces had successfully intercepted and destroyed an uncrewed aerial vehicle and two Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen toward the Red Sea.

Throughout Tuesday, continuous exchanges of fire were also reported between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

A day earlier, an Iran-backed militia in Iraq launched a rocket attack on US troops at Iraq's Ain al-Assad base, injuring several American soldiers. Iraq has arrested three people in western Anbar suspected of carrying out the rocket attack.

The US has also moved an F/A-18 squadron from the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt to a regional partner base on Monday, in addition to the F-22 squadron arriving in the coming days, to help defend Israel and US assets ahead of expected Iranian attack, The Wall Street Journal reported citing a Pentagon official.

Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani departed for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday morning, leading a delegation to attend an extraordinary meeting of the Executive Committee of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The meeting is convened to discuss the implications of the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week.