News Digest: Week of June 26, 2023

June 26

International: The European Council sanctioned seven individuals in Iran for human rights violations. They included judiciary officials, provincial governors, and leaders of security forces responsible for harsh sentences, arbitrary detentions, and violence against protesters. 

Human Rights: A security guard at Allameh Tabatabai University shoved a male student during an altercation over enforcement of the Islamic dress code. Students had protested the university’s requirement for female students to wear the maghna’eh, a black cloth covering the head and chest. A video of the student hitting his head on the railing went viral and prompted public outcry. Subsequently, students from the university and from Azad University issued statements decrying his treatment. 

June 27 

Domestic: Iranian security forces announced that they had disbanded an illegal weapons trafficking ring in Sistan and Baluchistan Province. They detained 18 people in connection with the operation. Sistan and Baluchistan Province borders Pakistan and Afghanistan and is home to most of Iran’s Baluch minority ethnic group.

International: Israel’s Defense Ministry seized millions of dollars of cryptocurrency assets connected to Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “ issued an order that enabled the confiscation of said funds, as well as their transfer to the State of Israel,” he said. “In doing so, we have effectively cut off the flow of terror funds via this channel.”

Nuclear: Iranian intelligence attempted to obtain illegal nuclear and ballistic weapons information from European sources multiple times in 2023, according to the Washington Free Beacon. The report cited intelligence from the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden alleging that Iran was pursuing technology, materials, and scientific knowledge to advance its weapons programs.   

Military: A Russian-guided missile ship docked at Iran’s Anzali port on the Caspian Sea. The visit was an implementation of the Joint Commission for Military Cooperation between Russia and Iran. The Russian vessel was expected to visit the Bandar-e Anzali free zone and participate in sport competitions and joint drills with the Iranian Navy.

Diplomatic: President Ebrahim Raisi discussed expanding bilateral relations and commercial agreements during a phone call with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. “Iran and Qatar, through their shared outlooks, possess great capacities for expanding bilateral, regional and international cooperation with each other,” said Raisi. Sheikh Tamim added, “Considering the good discussions and consultations we have held in the development of relations, we are prepared to hold a joint commission for economic cooperation in the near future.”  

Diplomatic: Iranian Police commander Brig. Gen. Ahmadreza Radan arrived in Moscow and held talks with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Platonovich about bilateral ties. During the two-day visit, Radan would meet with top security officials and sign “a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in law enforcement and exercising laws fields.” 

Domestic: Several associates of Iran’s top Sunni cleric, Mowlavi Abdolhamid, were detained for “disturbing public minds,” according to local media. Security forces detained Abdolhamid’s grandson, Abdol-Nasir Shahbakhsh, who was reportedly violently apprehended in Sistan and Baluchistan province. The arrests came after security guards foiled an alleged state-backed assassination attempt against him the previous week.  

June 28

International: Iran filed a case against Canada at the International Court of Justice for violating the Islamic Republic’s state immunity. Tehran argued that Ottawa’s allowing of civil damages for alleged acts of terrorism linked to Iran ran contrary to international law. For example, in 2022, a Canadian court ruled in favor of the families of six victims killed in 2020 when the Revolutionary Guards shot down a passenger plane. It awarded them some $84 million. In 2012, Canada had designated Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism and severed diplomatic ties. 

June 29  

International: The nonprofit monitoring site Top10VPN reported that Iran had the world’s second-highest virtual private network (VPN) blocking rate, 63 percent, from January 1 to May 15, 2023. The data, collected by internet privacy watchdog Open Observatory of Network Interference, ranked Iran just behind China. VPNs allow Iranians to get access to the uncensored global internet.  

June 30 

International: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that Iran would be admitted as a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, an economic and security bloc led by China and Russia, at a July 4 meeting of the group.

International: Israel’s national security advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi, said that Israel was not advancing plans to attack Iranian nuclear facilities. "We are not getting closer because the Iranians have stopped, for a while now, they are not enriching uranium to the level that in our view is the red line," Hanegbi said. "But it can happen. So we are preparing for the moment, if it comes, in which we will have to defend the people of Israel against a fanatic regime that is set on annihilating us and is armed with weapons of mass destruction.” 

July 2

Diplomatic: Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian announced that Iran would delay sending a new ambassador to Sweden in protest of a Koran burning outside of Stockholm’s central mosque. The incident took place on June 28, the first day of the Islamic holy week around Eid al Adha. “Although administrative procedures to appoint a new ambassador to Sweden have ended, the process of dispatching them has been held off due to the Swedish government's issuing of a permit to desecrate the Holy Koran,” Amir-Abdollahian tweeted.