Iran presses Armenia to address concerns over foreign forces near shared border

“The summer camp in rural Hertfordshire is just the latest example of how Iran abuses Britain’s charity sector, exploiting our commendable history of philanthropy to spread its tentacles and influence across our land, while sowing discord in our communities,” Blackman wrote for UK-based political website ConservativeHome on Tuesday.

The summer school camp known as Camp Wilayah, run by the Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission (AIM), was cancelled last week due to what its organizer described as safety threats, following accusations by a right-wing political party that it has ties to the Islamic Republic.

Blackman criticized other London-based groups including the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), and the Islamic Center of England, alleging that they have ties to Iran’s leadership and spread Tehran-backed narratives through UK-registered charities.

"Two other London charities with links to Iran, Dar Al Hekma Trust and Abrar Islamic Foundation, are currently being probed by the national terrorist financial investigation unit," he added.

Pointing to the government’s new foreign-influence registration rules, Blackman urged tougher action against “pro-Iranian regime activists” and questioned whether the IRGC would be proscribed by the United Kingdom.

“A start would be ridding our charity sector of extremists,” he said.

On June 30, a report by The Telegraph accused Iran of conducting a “shadow war” inside the United Kingdom that extends beyond sanctions violations and includes propaganda, financial networks, and digital disinformation campaigns aimed at dividing society

In July, John Woodcock, Baron Walney, the UK government’s former extremism adviser, said: “We cannot allow propaganda and influence from this theocratic dictatorship to be spread to children in the UK.”

Hassan Salarieh, head of the Iranian Space Agency, told the Tasnim news agency that the Soleimani constellation will be Iran’s first narrowband satellite network.

“In the initial phase, nearly 20 satellites will be built and placed in orbits with different inclinations to provide narrowband communications aimed at developing Internet of Things services,” he said.

The constellation is named after Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force - the foreign arm of the Revolutionary Guards -- who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.

According to Salarieh, test launches of prototype satellites will begin this year, with some placed in orbit to carry out preliminary checks.

The main production phase of the satellites will begin in 2025, with operational launches of the constellation expected to start in early 2026 and continue into 2027. “Technical challenges and delays are natural in the space industry,” he said, but added that progress so far was “satisfactory.”

The constellation is being developed by a consortium of government and private entities. Salarieh said design work began in late 2023, and that many subsystems and components are now under construction.

The announcement comes weeks after Iran launched its Nahid-2 telecommunications satellite aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome.

Salarieh has since said a second version of Nahid-2 will be launched aboard Iran’s domestically developed Simorgh rocket, underlining Tehran’s efforts to expand its independent launch capacity.

Iran is also developing heavier launchers, including the Sarir and Soroush classes, and is expanding its Chabahar spaceport to reduce reliance on foreign facilities.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has separately conducted suborbital tests of its Qased satellite carrier, most recently in July, weeks after the 12-day war with Israel.

Western governments have repeatedly voiced concern over Iran’s satellite launches, warning that the same rocket technology can be used for ballistic missiles. Tehran says its space program is peaceful.

The Tehran governor’s office confirmed all provincial offices will close on Saturday, August 23, as part of energy conservation measures.

The Tehran Electricity Distribution Company also said power would be cut to 100 high-consumption government offices. Provinces including Kerman and North Khorasan declared they would shut down on the same day.

Iranian media reported that the shortages are crippling industrial production and disrupting communications and internet services.

Industry at a standstill

“Units operating three shifts have lost nearly half their shifts entirely," Iran's trade chamber chief Arman Khaleghi told ISNA. "Overall, industries have lost 30 to 60 percent of their production capacity solely due to power shortages."

Khaleghi urged officials to adopt policies of engagement to ease sanctions pressure.

“The country must either engage with the world and leverage regional and international opportunities, or continue oscillating between selling resources to neighbors and importing from them.

This path is neither sustainable nor befitting Iran's economy,” he said.

'Expect internet outages'

The crisis has also taken a toll on daily life.

Dozens of citizens have reported internet disruptions, outages, and slowdowns in recent weeks, compounding the strain from inflation, unemployment, and shortages of power and water.

“We should expect that in the near future, just as we have daily power outages, we’ll also face three-hour daily internet outages,” warned Alireza Rafiei, head of mobile operator Irancell.

He said electricity shortages have rendered backup batteries ineffective, leading to frequent service breakdowns.

“Batteries aren't a viable solution for recurring power cuts, and with such frequent outages, we often can't recharge them. Two hours of daily outages equate to 2 percent of sites being offline 24/7, causing significant dissatisfaction,” Rafiei added.

Sanctions, corruption, and economic mismanagement have deepened the crisis, with Iran’s rial losing more than 90 percent of its value since U.S. sanctions were reimposed in 2018.

Amiri said a Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced her to two years in prison and a 500-million rial ($562) fine for “spreading falsehoods.”

She received an additional one year for “propaganda against the state” and a 30.3-million rial ($37) fine for appearing without a hijab in public.

“When simply opposing the death penalty is considered propaganda against the state, then execution itself is a political tool of intimidation,” Amiri wrote.

Amiri, a graduate law student at Tehran’s Allameh Tabataba'i University and a campaigner for students’ rights, previously served seven months of a one-year prison sentence in 2022 for her advocacy against the death penalty and for women’s rights in Iran.

“Speaking about the situation of prisoners and Evin prison has also been considered spreading falsehoods," she added in her post.

The court also imposed additional punishments, including a two-year ban on leaving the country and joining political or social groups.

Reflecting on the ruling, Amiri said her struggle is about standing up for ideals, supporting fellow prisoners, and resisting executions.

"At the end of the day, a person should know how many steps they have taken… With the hope that one day we burn all the gallows and execution scaffolds,” she wrote.

Amiri's sentence comes amid a broader clampdown, with student activist Khashayar Sefidi last year receiving a one-year prison term for propaganda against the state after opposing the death sentence of dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi.

Shaye al-Zandani said the peace process was “almost frozen” because Tehran encouraged the Houthis to resist compromise.

“The Houthis do not show a desire for peace because they live on war,” he told the Saudi-owned newspaper, adding that “Iran’s role is very large in keeping them entrenched in these positions.”

The minister also said the United Nations Security Council was discussing new measures on Yemen, adding that some states believe Resolution 2216 – the main international framework for the conflict – is no longer workable.

In 2015, the UN Security Council adopted the resolution, imposing sanctions on people undermining Yemen’s stability and calling on all parties, especially the Houthis, to end violence.

Any new resolutions would likely complement it with steps “focused on unified measures against the Houthis,” he said.

Al-Zandani added that the international community had not dealt “seriously enough” with Iranian arms transfers, which he said had enabled the Houthis to acquire drones, ballistic missiles and even hypersonic weapons.

“Unless Iran changes its policies and accepts good neighborly relations, its continued interference in Yemen is not in its interest or the region’s,” he said.

Last week, US ambassador to the United Nations, Dorothy Shea, condemned Iran for the Houthi rebels’ continued attacks on civilian cargo vessels in the Red Sea during the UN Security Council briefing on Yemen.

“Iran’s defiance of this Council’s resolutions enables the Houthis to escalate regional tensions. Iran’s continued support for the Houthis also poses a threat to the people of Yemen and to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea,” she told the council.

“In that regard, the United States commends Yemeni government-aligned forces for their July seizure of at least 750 tons of Iranian weapons bound for the Houthis. We urge the UN Secretariat to facilitate an inspection of that seizure by the Yemen Panel of Experts as soon as possible.”

The Iran-backed group, which controls around two thirds of Yemen's population in one third of the country, began a maritime blockade in the Red Sea in November 2023, following a call by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a show of allegiance to Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza.