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Iran News in Brief – October 31, 2024

THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS

UPDATE: 5:00 PM CET

Germany Orders Shutdown of Iranian Consulates over Execution

Germany will close all three Iranian consulates on its soil in response to Iran’s execution of a German-Iranian dual national, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced on Thursday. “We have repeatedly and unequivocally made it clear to Tehran that the execution of a German citizen will have serious consequences,” Baerbock said in a televised speech announcing the closures.

The consulates are located in Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Munich. According to German media, the consulate employees will lose their rights to live in Germany and must leave the country, unless they have German citizenship.

On Thursday, Baerbock said Germany would seek European Union-wide sanctions against those involved in Sharmahd’s execution and called on the EU to add Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to its list of terrorist groups.

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UPDATE: 1:00 PM CET

The Curious Case of Ariane Tabatabai

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In the weeks leading up to Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Iran this Saturday, someone from inside the U.S. government leaked a cluster of highly sensitive documents outlining the Jewish state’s military deployments. 

We may never know the identity of the leaker—there are probably thousands of bureaucrats across the U.S. government who had access to the documents. But of those masses, a single name has been circulating online: Ariane Tabatabai, who’s served as a senior Defense Department official for the past two years.

There is no evidence we have found that Tabatabai is the leaker, despite the fact that various Arab and Israeli news sites reported as much. In fact, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin this week all but ruled out the culprit being Tabatabai or anyone else from the Pentagon.

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Argentina Reveals the Identity of Hezbollah’s Terrorist Leader in Latin America

On March 17, 1992, a Ford F-100 panel van drove in front of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and blew up a massive vehicle bomb of 224 pounds of high explosives, leaving 23 people dead and several hundred injured. Back then, no one thought that Iran and Hezbollah had the capability to carry out a massive terrorist attack halfway around the world from Lebanon.

Two years later, on July 18, 1994, Iran and Hezbollah did it again but this time directly targeting and attacking a Jewish Community Center called the “AMIA” killing 85 people, mostly Argentine and other Latin American nationals. Thirty years later, there are still skeptics as to the presence and penetration of Iran and Hezbollah in the Western Hemisphere.

Today, at a press conference in Buenos Aires, the security minister of the Republic of Argentina, Patricia Bullrich, and her director of criminal intelligence, Ricardo Ferrer Picado, provided critical evidence of Iran and Hezbollah’s long arm of terrorism in Latin America.

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UPDATE: 10:00 AM CET

Iran Will Likely Try to Contact Americans Directly in Influence Campaign, Sources Say

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U.S. officials expect that in the coming weeks, Iran is likely to contact individual Americans directly to try to influence how they vote, stir societal divide, or incite violence, according to three sources with knowledge of U.S. intelligence reporting on the issue.

While it’s unclear exactly what such an operation would entail, or even if it has already begun, the governments of the U.S., Sweden, and Israel have all accused Iran of sending threatening and intimidating emails and text messages to their citizens in recent years. The U.S. intelligence community noted this month that Iranian hackers appear to have gained access to some Americans’ voting records, as they did in 2020.

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UPDATE: 7:30 AM CET

Growing International Pressure to Designate The IRGC as A Terrorist Organization

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For over forty years, the Iranian opposition has warned about the threat posed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In this regard, the opposition has made extensive efforts through documented disclosures, gatherings, protests, conferences, interviews, books, book tables, and more, to reveal the IRGC’s wide-ranging activities and global terrorism. However, a world inclined towards appeasement did not hear or chose not to hear, turning a blind eye.

Now, after a year of warmongering by the clerical regime in the region, the IRGC’s role as the enforcer and arm of the regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s rule in continuing and expanding conflicts has become more evident. Consequently, international pressure has increased to designate this criminal entity as a terrorist organization.

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The “Most Challenging Budget” in Iran’s History

On Tuesday, October 29, 2024, the Iranian parliament discussed the 2025 budget bill. Experts and state-affiliated media have described it with terms such as “a buildup of imbalances,” “a debt-dependent budget,” “an opaque budget,” “a budget with a 40% deficit,” and “the most challenging budget in Iran’s economic history.”

Regime president Massoud Pezeshkian attended parliament to defend the bill, revealing aspects of this alarming budget and depicting the regime’s fear of explosive social tensions and potential uprisings. He stated: “We obtained permission from the Supreme Leader to include foreign currency in the budget in advance. Previously, we had to request it mid-year after social protests erupted, but this time, we secured it beforehand.” Pezeshkian also pointed out the insolvency issue in this budget, often referred to as “imbalance,” stating, “We face imbalances in electricity, water, and gas—all requiring scientific interventions, and we must take necessary action.”

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Iran’s Military Budget Surge Under New President Pezeshkian: Prioritizing Defense Over Economic Stability

In the first budget bill under President Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s new administration has proposed a substantial increase in military spending, requesting a 200% rise in the defense budget for 2025. Fatemeh Mohajerani, the government spokesperson, described the proposed budget hike as essential for strengthening the nation’s defense infrastructure but did not disclose the total amount allocated.

Officially, the proposed military budget is divided among the Iranian Army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Basij, and related institutions. Although the exact figures remain undisclosed, analysts believe the IRGC and its branches, including the elite Quds Force, are expected to receive the bulk of this increase. In addition to the standard military budget, substantial funds are likely reserved in undisclosed accounts for Iran’s support of proxy forces across the Middle East, as has been common practice in recent years.

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October 2024 Report: Maryam Akbari Transferred to Qarchak Prison

After extending the prison sentence of political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared for another two years, the criminal Iranian Judiciary committed another inhuman act on October 22, 2-24, by ordering her transfer to the notorious Qarchak Prison for women in Varamin, where she has been held in solitary confinement as this report is being published.

Maryam Akbari Monfared finished her 15 years of imprisonment without a single day of furlough on October 12, 2024. She spent the last four years of her sentence in exile in the Prison of Semnan among ordinary prisoners, in violation of the principle of separation of crimes.

The latest measure by the mullahs’ Judiciary aims to increase the harassment and abuse of this resistant and resilient political prisoner who has remained adamant despite long years of incarceration, torture, harassment, and pressures that have undermined her health.

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EU Condemns Execution of Jamshid Sharmahd, Weighs Actions Against Iran’s Regime

The announcement of the execution of Jamshid Sharmahd, an Iranian-German political prisoner under the Iranian regime, on Monday, October 28, has sparked widespread domestic and international reactions.

A few hours after Germany summoned its ambassador from Tehran in protest of Jamshid Sharmahd’s execution, the European Union also issued a strongly worded statement condemning the killing of this Iranian-German citizen and announced plans to pursue targeted and significant actions against the Iranian regime.

In its statement, the EU did not specify details of these actions but called on the Iranian regime to end its “troubling” practice of detaining foreign and dual nationals to gain political leverage.

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Salaries of Iranian Pensioners Increased by Equivalent of Four Loaves of Bread

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While officials from Iran’s Budget and Planning Organization have announced that, with the issuance of new pension equalization rulings, an average increase of 15 to 20 million rials (approximately $21.6 to $29) has been added to pensioners’ salaries, some pensioners report raises of less than 10 million rials (around $14.4).

retiree from the Postal Company, earning about 80 million rials (roughly $116), shared his new statement with the state-run ILNA news agency, showing a salary increase of only 430,000 rials (about $0.62).

He stated that, after months of promises and publicity, his salary increase was just 430,000 rials, equivalent to the cost of four loaves of bread.

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Hamburg—October 29, 2024: MEK Supporters Protest Iranian Regime’s Executions, Demand Political Prisoner Release

Hamburg, Germany—October 29, 2024: Freedom-seeking Iranians and supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) organized a rally protesting the escalating executions by Iran’s regime. They called for the immediate release of all political prisoners held by the regime.

Participants also aligned with the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign, condemning the ongoing executions in Iranian prisons. MEK supporters in Hamburg urged that the regime’s leaders be tried in an international court for crimes against humanity.

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Zurich—October 28, 2024: MEK Supporters Hold Exhibition Honoring November 2019 Martyrs and Denouncing Iran Regime’s Crimes

Zurich—October 28, 2024: MEK Supporters Hold Exhibition Honoring November 2019 Martyrs.

Zurich, Switzerland—October 28, 2024: Freedom-loving Iranians and supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran(PMOI/MEK) held an exhibition to show solidarity with the Iranian Revolution. The event honored the memory of those who lost their lives during the widespread protests of Bloody November 2019.

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Aarhus—October 28, 2024: MEK Supporters Hold Rally Honoring November 2019 Martyrs and Denouncing Iran Regime’s Crimes

Aarhus—October 28, 2024: MEK Supporters Hold Rally Honoring November 2019 Martyrs.

Aarhus, Denmark—October 28, 2024: Freedom-loving Iranians and supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) organized a rally to show solidarity with the Iranian Revolution. The event honored the memory of those who lost their lives during the widespread protests of Bloody November 2019.

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