Tehran bazaar calls for protest memorial gatherings
Traders at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar called for nationwide gatherings later this month to mark the 40th day since protesters were killed in January, according to a post on a Telegram channel linked to bazaar merchants.
The call, published by the Telegram channel Eteraz-e Bazar, urged shopkeepers to gather on Tuesday Feb. 17 and Wednesday Feb. 18, marking 40 days since deaths reported on Jan. 8 and Jan. 9, during protests earlier this year. The post called for gatherings from noon until late in the evening.
It said events should take place across Tehran’s bazaars and main market streets, and in other cities at central markets, inviting families of those killed to attend memorials.
Eteraz-e Bazar is a Telegram channel that has previously carried protest-related calls and statements attributed to bazaar traders.
Qatar said on Tuesday that regional countries were working together to de-escalate tensions linked to Iran.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said there was ongoing regional coordination aimed at reducing tensions.
He spoke after Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met senior Iranian official Ali Larijani in Tehran on Saturday to review efforts to calm the situation
Australia imposed new sanctions on 20 individuals and three entities linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, accusing them of involvement in a violent crackdown on protests.
“The Australian Government is today imposing further targeted financial sanctions on Iran in response to the regime’s horrific use of violence against its own people,” read a government media release on Tuesday.
The Australian government said those sanctioned include senior IRGC officials and entities that violently suppress domestic protests and threaten lives inside and outside Iran.
Among those named are Iran’s national police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan, who has been a central figure in directing street-level repression, mass arrests and the use of force against protesters.
Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib was also on the list. He oversees the security and intelligence apparatus responsible for surveillance, detentions and interrogations of activists and dissidents.
Ali Fazli, a senior IRGC commander and former Basij chief, who has long been associated with suppressing protests and coordinating paramilitary forces against demonstrators, was also sanctioned by Canberra.
Other notable names on the list included Mohammad Reza Fallahzadeh, a senior commander in the IRGC’s Quds Force, Mohammad Saleh Jokar, a former commander of student Basij forces, and Yahya Hosseini Panjaki, the intelligence ministry's deputy for domestic security.
Canberra’s sanctions also targeted the IRGC Cyber Defense Command, involved in online surveillance and information control; IRGC Quds Force Unit 840, a covert unit accused of planning operations against dissidents and foreign targets; and the IRGC Intelligence Organization, which oversees domestic intelligence, arrests and interrogations and plays a central role in suppressing protests inside Iran.
Australia officially designated IRGC as a state sponsor of terrorism in November after intelligence linked the group to attacks on Jewish centers in Sydney and Melbourne.
The Guards, who have been designated a terrorist organization by the United States since 2019, were also put on the EU’s terrorist list in late January.
The Albanese government has so far sanctioned more than 200 Iranian individuals and entities, including more than 100 linked to the IRGC.
Iranian police have arrested 139 foreign nationals in the central province of Yazd over their involvement in recent protests, Guards-linked Tasnim reported on Tuesday.
“During the review of recent unrest cases, it was determined that 139 of those detained were foreign nationals,” said Ahmad Negahban, the provincial police chief.
Negahban said the detainees “played an active role in organizing, inciting and directing riotous actions” and that in some cases they were in contact with networks outside Iran. Authorities did not identify the detainees or say where they were from.
Iran’s police chief warned the United States on Tuesday against any attack, saying Iran’s forces were ready and would respond firmly to any "misstep".
“If the enemies make an error, they will regret it,” Ahmad Reza Radan said, according to state media.
Radan said Iran’s border forces were operating from a position of strength and were fully prepared, drawing on experience from past conflicts and security operations.
Talks between Iran and the United States in Istanbul this week aim to avoid conflict and de-escalate tensions, a regional official told Reuters on Tuesday.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several regional powers had also been invited, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
The official said the format of the meetings remained unclear but that the main meeting was expected on Friday, adding that starting dialogue was key to preventing further escalation.
