Iranian Regime tv Channel One hacked while it was airing Khamenie speech

Iranian Regime national tv Channel One hacked about an hour ago. During a broadcast of Khamenie speech, a red crosshair appeared over his face and chanting of Women. Life. Freedom. There was writing to the side saying "Rise up. Join us". Also 4 photos at the bottom of the screen of young people killed and additional writing: "The blood of our youth is dropping from your paws".

Also, there was a huge banner in the middle of Tehran highway today that read: We are no longer afraid of you. We will fight.

Also, attempted attack on IRI ambassador in Denmark. Her bodyguard was stabbed. Diplomatic Security intervened before the attacker could stab the ambassador.

Iran Update, May 3, 2023

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi signed 15 cooperation agreements with Syrian President Bashar al Assad in Damascus, Syria on May 3, which could improve the Iranian economy and increase regime stability.
At least six protests occurred in five cities across five provinces on May 3.
Iranian officials and clerics continued to express concern about deepening divides between the regime and its populous.
President Ebrahim Raisi and an IRGC-affiliated media outlet discussed strengthening indoctrination efforts in Iranian schools.
Reformist-affiliated Etemad reported on May 3 that some Iranians have resorted to bartering household goods to afford chicken amid deteriorating economic conditions.
The IRGC Navy seized the Panamanian-flagged oil and Greek-managed Niovi tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on May 3, the second tanker seized by Iranian naval forces this week.

Iranian reconstruction and economic partnership in Syria may include contracts for Iran's Axis of Resistance in Syria, which would provide the groups with an alternative source of revenue to fund their military operations. The Iranian regime had to cut salaries for its proxies and militias due to the compounded effect of US sanctions and COVID-19 measures.[5] Contracts for Iranian-backed proxies and militias would provide other sources of revenue to pay fighters and purchase weapons to support Iran's military posture and influence in Syria. Iraqi proxies already have demonstrated their willingness and capability to take part in Syria's reconstruction. Several of the groups built several hundred apartment units in north-western Syria following the February 6 earthquake which proxies also used to strengthen and expand militia positions as CTP previously assessed.[6] Iranian economic and reconstruction projects would have the added benefit of retaining Iranian influence within Syria at a time when several neighboring countries are engaging in normalization efforts with Syria.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-may-3-2023

Iran Update, May 4, 2023

The Iranian regime is seeking to take advantage of political and economic developments in Syria and Iraq to improve the Iranian economy and advance its strategic goals in the region.
The regime may use economic and political initiatives with the Assad Regime to pay for and increase the Axis of Resistance's influence in the region.
Iran may respond to renewed Israeli airstrikes on Iranian and Iranian-backed forces in Syria by causing Iranian-backed militias to attack US forces ostensibly in retaliation.
Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister for Political Affairs and Chief Nuclear Negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani met with his Irish counterpart, Sonia Hyland, in Tehran on May 4.
IRGC Quds Force Commander Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani met with prominent Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani on May 4 to present a report on the Quds Force's regional activities.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met with senior Palestinian militia officials in Damascus on May 4, likely to emphasize their increasing integration into the Axis of Resistance.

Eye of Euphrates reported on May 4 that over 200 local recruits for Iranian-backed militias abandoned their posts in Mayadeen, Deir ez Zor Province. [28] Eye of Euphrates claimed that the militants vacated their headquarters facilities in Mayadeen and outposts facing out into the Central Syrian Desert for fear of US-led international coalition airstrikes.[29] US-led international coalition airstrikes typically do not target these outposts. CTP has previously reported that ISIS militants have conducted attacks on these outposts, however.[30] The militants may have alternatively abandoned their positions for fear of ISIS attacks.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-may-4-2023

Iran Update, May 5, 2023

Attacks on Iranian clerics increased during the past month, which may reflect broader public antipathy to the regime’s sociocultural and economic policies.
At least one protest occurred on May 5.
The Iranian regime has increased the pace of state executions, which could reinvigorate anti-regime sentiments in Sistan and Baluchistan Province
Iranian leadership is signaling greater cohesion among Palestinian resistance factions, likely to support their integration into the Axis of Resistance.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani may replace Popular Mobilization Authority Chairman Faleh al Fayyadh according to Iranian-backed Telegram channel Sabreen.
IRGC Quds Force Commander of Eastern Syria Hajj Mahdi and IRGC Quds Force Commander of the Albu Kamal rail crossing Hajj Hussein met with a Russian delegation in Albu Kamal City on May 3.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-may-5-2023

Iran Update, May 8, 2023

Iran is maneuvering to economically benefit from Syria's reintegration into the region, which may enable Iran to circumvent US and international sanctions, as well as support Iranian-backed militias operating in Syria.
The Iranian regime is pressuring the relevant parties to resume nuclear negotiations, likely to preempt the reimposition of nuclear sanctions amid a deteriorating internal economic situation.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met with Islamic Revolutionary Guard Quds Force Commander of Albu Kamal Hajj Askar met in Sayyida Zainab on May 3 and 4, according to a report from Syrian opposition outlet Eye of Euphrates.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-may-8-2023

After two months delay, the Iranian government has finally released inflation data for the previous year, putting it at 45.8 percent.

Neither the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) nor the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) had released complete reports on the inflation data until Sunday. The SCI has been the only government entity regularly announcing the inflation rate in the past four years.

The CBI announced late March that the annual inflation rate stood at 46.5 percent but did not mention the point-to-point inflation of the last month of the Iranian year.

Although the official inflation rate announced by the authorities is usually less than what it seems in the market, even 46.5 percent inflation is among the highest in Iran in more than 30 years.

According to the SCI, the reason behind the delay is the process of changing the base year from 1395 to 1400, which ended on March 20, 2022. A base year is used for comparison in the measure of business activity or economic or financial index.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202305082959

Iran on Monday hanged two men on charges of spreading blasphemy on social media, prompting US condemnation and accusations from Amnesty International the Islamic republic has reached a “new low” in a spree of executions.

Sadrollah Fazeli Zare and Youssef Mehrdad, convicted of desecrating the Koran and insulting the Prophet Mohammed, were hanged in the morning in a prison in the central city of Arak, the judiciary's Mizan Online website said.

Their execution came as concern intensifies about a spike in executions in Iran this year, after 2022 saw more people hanged than in any year since 2015, according to rights groups.

The pair were accused of operating social media channels and groups that promoted atheism and insulted Islamic “sanctities”, Mizan said.

It added one of them in March 2021 had purportedly confessed during a court session to publishing the content in question on his social media account.

Reports said the two were arrested in June 2020 over a channel on the Telegram messaging app. They were sentenced to death in April 2023 and then held in solitary confinement, according to reports. Mehrdad was the father of three children, according to Persian media based outside Iran.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230508-outcry-after-iran-hangs-two-on-blasphemy-charges

Iran’s Quds Force Media Arm Laundering Money In Iraq

Iran International has obtained more information revealing that an aide to former Quds force commander Qassem Soleimani is a key figure in money laundering for Tehran.

Hamid al-Husseini is an Iraqi-born Shiite cleric who is the head of Iraq’s section of the Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU), an affiliate of the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance that is practically run by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). The union has more than 200 media outlets in 35 countries, including 100 satellite TV channels, 30 radio stations, and dozens of websites — several of which are in Iraq.

see details:
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202305098088

“Islamic Republic actually hired killers here (in the UK) to kill a journalist from Iran International, the biggest Persian TV broadcaster here. So if you don’t support our fight against the regime, you have to face terror on Western soil,” @AlinejadMasih told @PiersUncensored.

https://twitter.com/IranIntl_En/status/1656053180629766144

“The Iranian regime hired three Russians to kill me”

A U.S. Coast Guard fast response cutter seized $80 million worth of heroin from a fishing vessel transiting the Gulf of Oman, May 10, during the ship's second drug bust this week.

USCGC Glen Harris (WPC 1144) was operating in support of Combined Task Force (CTF) 150 when a boarding team discovered 1,964 kilograms of heroin on a vessel transiting international waters after departing Chah Bahar, Iran. Glen Harris also seized $30 million worth of methamphetamine and heroin two days ago from another fishing vessel that departed the same port. Glen Harris's previous seizure on May 8 included 580 kilograms of methamphetamine and 35 kilograms of heroin.

The ship arrived in the Middle East last year as part of a contingent of U.S. Coast Guard cutters that are forward-deployed to the region under Patrol Forces Southwest Asia.

CTF 150 is one of four task forces that form the world's largest multinational naval partnership, Combined Maritime Forces. Naval forces supporting CTF 150 have now seized illegal drugs worth a combined estimated U.S. street value of more than $250 million in 2023. These efforts help ensure legitimate commercial shipping transits the region free from non-state threats.
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/444440/us-seizes-80-million-heroin-shipment-gulf-oman

Iran Update, May 15, 2023
Iranian leaders are stoking conflict between Israel and Palestinian militias, likely to enable the IRGC to transfer military equipment into Syria with a lower risk of Israeli interdiction. Iranian weapon shipments into Syria could trigger a new escalation cycle with Israel that risks entangling US and Coalition forces.
Ultra-hardline political factions are mounting a political campaign against pragmatic hardline Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, likely to restrain him from pursuing major political reforms. Ghalibaf has been calling for major political and economic reforms for several months.
The Iranian regime is portraying clerics as allies of the Iranian people likely to prevent further acts of violence against them. Unspecified individuals attacked clerics on five separate occasions in April and May 2023, marking a five-fold increase in attacks against religious figures compared to the first three months of 2023.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-may-15-2023

Iran Update, May 16, 2023

Iran is taking steps to improve operational security for convoys traveling into Syria from Iraq, likely to protect arms transfers from Israeli airstrikes. Iran also is stoking conflict between Israel and Palestinian militias, likely to enable the IRGC to transfer military equipment into Syria with less risk of Israeli interdiction.

Iranian-Russian defense and economic cooperation is part of a broader and evolving Iranian-Russian entente. Both sides are engaging one another in several different fields, highlighting the potential for this partnership to deepen and expand further. Artesh Navy Commander Admiral Shahram Irani, for instance, met Russian Navy Commander Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov in Tehran on May 15.[14] Irani emphasized that the West is trying to prevent cooperation between Iran, China, and Russia and praised previous joint naval exercises between these countries. Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji separately discussed expanding cooperation in the oil and gas sectors with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak at the Oil Industry Research Institute in Tehran on May 16.[15] Iranian Supreme Court head Ahmad Mortazavi Moghadam additionally discussed judicial cooperation and Iran’s membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) with his Russian counterpart Vyacheslav Lebedev in Moscow on May 16.[16]

Russia is pursuing mutually beneficial economic and military programs with Iran, very likely to ensure Iran continues to provide material support for Russian operations in Ukraine. Iran’s acquisition of Russian Su-35s through those deals may enable Tehran to more readily and independently project power in the coming years.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-may-16-2023

Iran Update, May 17, 2023

Iranian-backed Iraqi militias threatened to attack US forces in Iraq, likely elevating the risk of an attack on US or Coalition forces. The militias do not always follow through with their threats to attack US forces, however.
Iran is establishing a military base in southern Damascus, likely accelerating efforts to secure its long-term presence in Syria ahead of Arab-Syrian normalization.
Iran has reinvigorated efforts to complete a rail line that connects India to Russia through Iran but is unlikely to complete this project within the next four years.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-may-17-2023

The Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) have made a criminal Iran's leading drug lord, Iran International can reveal.

Information obtained by Iran International shows how Naji Sharifi-Zindashti and his cartel now dominate the narcotics trade thanks to the support of the government militia.

His extraordinary rise comes despite his having killed a prison guard in Iran and fleeing abroad, only to return with impunity.

Investigative reporter Mojtaba Pourmohsen has uncovered how a recent rise in the number of executions of convicts sentenced to death on drug-related charges is the result of infighting between rival drug cartels with connections within the ranks of the IRGC.

Emerging triumphant from this criminal war, Sharifi-Zindashti and his accomplices – dubbed “The Friends’ Club” – have used the IRGC’s vast reach and control over transit routes and logistics to gain the upper hand in Iran's drug market, according to sources.

The Club comprises senior IRGC officials and high-ranking members of Iran's Supreme National Security Council as well as managers from Tehran Municipality and members of parliament. Sharifi-Zindashti not only pays bribes but also supplies opium and heroin for the personal consumption of many of these senior officials.

According to the sources, Sharifi-Zindashti's gangs traffic more than 20 percent of drugs distributed across Iran and about 35 percent of the drugs pushed in the capital Tehran. The narcotics that are confiscated and destroyed as part of the Islamic Republic's regular war on drugs mostly belong to rival gangs.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202305171838

Iran Update, May 18, 2023

Iran is trying to expand its economic cooperation, especially energy ties, with Syria to reinforce Iranian influence over Damascus, as Assad pursues improved ties with the Arab states. Deepening Iranian economic influence in Syria will help Iranian leaders revitalize their own economy, especially if Arab states begin to send investment and reconstruction funds to Syria.

The Raisi administration issued veiled threats toward the Afghan Taliban, calling on the group to release more water from the Helmand River from Afghanistan into Iran. The Raisi administration is likely concerned that water shortages in the coming summer could fuel protests across the country, especially in Sistan and Baluchistan Province.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-may-18-2023

Leaked Document Reveals Iran's Multiple Telecom Deals With China

A whistleblower active in the IT industry has leaked documents revealing hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of telecommunications contracts between Iran and China.

London-based Iranian-British internet security expert and cyber espionage investigator Nariman Gharib released a list of contracts signed between the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Information and Communications Technology and Chinese companies.

The secret document – which has no date and cannot be verified independently by Iran International — contains a table of 10 contracts for various projects such as development of Iran's landline network, infrastructure for fourth and fifth generation of broadband cellular networks and three satellite projects as well as production of smartphones and developing messenger services.

The project for the supply and operation of a geosynchronous telecommunication satellite is announced to be at $100 to $450 million for a 42-month project while another satellite project is valued at $300 million for a three-year project.

The project for landline development is worth $220 million while the project for the modernization of Telecommunication Company of Iran, or TCI — the country's main mobile service provider — is $325 million followed by the modernization of MTN Irancell — another telecommunications company — at $250 million.

Each company will get 1,500 5G sites and 3,000 LTE networks, according to the contracts.

China's large-scale effort to control and censor the Internet has become a viable conceptual and technical model for authoritarian regimes, like Iran's Islamic Republic. The Islamic Republic of Iran follows China's lead in systematic oppression techniques. China has combined legislative actions and technological enforcement to regulate the Internet domestically, calling it “The Great Firewall” of China.

Details
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202305181859

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