• Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Plan To Upgrade Speed Boats With Stealth Technology
Reuters :Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Monday they plan to upgrade their speed boats in the Gulf with radar-evading stealth technology and new missile launchers as tensions rise between Tehran and Washington in the vital oil shipping route. Ending a long absence of U.S. aircraft carriers in the region, the USS John C. Stennis entered the Gulf last week, and was shadowed by the Revolutionary Guards’ speed boats.
• Iran Banking Reform Blocked For Second Time By Clerical Council
Bloomberg: Iran’s Guardian Council, a top political chamber of clerics and lawyers, has rejected for a second time an anti-terrorism financing bill aimed at bringing the lending sector closer to international standards, the semi-official Tasnim News agency reported. The council, which vets major parliamentary decisions and new legislation, said the bill was not yet compatible with Iran’s constitution and Islamic law, Tasnim reported, citing a letter from the council to Parliament on Sunday.
• Iranian Plan To Spend $2b On Russian Passenger Jets Collapses Due To U.S. Sanctions |
Forbes: A plan for Iranian airlines to buy Russian-built passenger jets appears to have collapsed as a result of U.S. sanctions, marking a further set-back for the country’s beleaguered aviation sector. Iranian airlines have been struggling to find ways to replace their ageing fleets ever since President Donald Trump announced in May 2018 that he was going to pull the U.S. out of the Iranian nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions.
• Iranian Police Disperse Protest Over Deadly Bus Crash
Associated Press: Iran deployed scores of policemen to disperse a brief protest in downtown Tehran over a bus crash last week that killed 10 people, including eight students. Monday’s rally – which saw about 200 protesters gather – was the third consecutive day of demonstrations over the accident. Earlier protests took place inside the Azad University campus in northern Tehran. Protesters demand the dean and other university officials resign.
• Britain’s Foreign Secretary Calls Iran’s Jailing Of Dual National ‘Monstrous’
UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has accused Iran of keeping a British-Iranian dual national in prison as a tool for diplomatic leverage, calling it “monstrous.” Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in April 2016 at the international airport in Tehran, when she was leaving the country after a visit with her family. She was charged with ambiguous accusations of spying and plotting against the Islamic Republic and sentenced to five years in prison.
• Iranian Security Forces Clash With Students At Bus Crash Protest
Reuters: security forces clashed with students in Iran on Monday in the third day of protests over a deadly bus crash, online videos showed, adding to officials’ fears that rising public unrest could threaten national security. President Hassan Rouhani has ordered an investigation into the accident at Tehran’s Azad University that killed 10 students last week. Students have protested over the aging transport fleet and lack of accountability from the authorities.
• Iran Drought Turns Political As Lawmakers Fight Over Water Share
Eighteen lawmakers representing constituencies from the central Iranian province of Esfahan, where water scarcity has reached an alarming state, have resigned collectively in a symbolic move against what they believe is an unfair distribution of water resources. In response, their counterparts from three other provinces, which share the same water supplies, hit back.
• US Citizens Sue Hezbollah Over Trauma Caused By Missiles
New York Post: A group of 22 U.S. citizens is suing Hezbollah in Brooklyn Federal Court for the harm the terror group caused by lobbing rocket and missile attacks at northern Israel while they were living there in 2006. The group simultaneously filed a lawsuit against Bank Saderat Iran and Bank Saderat in the same court Monday, accusing the banks of providing Hezbollah with the material support to carry out the attacks.
• Iranian Cargo Plane Suspected Of Bringing Arms To Hezbollah Departs Tehran
Fars Air Qeshm cargo 747 airliner left Tehran at 8 a.m. on Sunday and landed in Damascus at 10:30 a.m., returning to Tehran at 5 p.m. The 747 allegedly transported weapons to Hezbollah in September, according to a report from Fox News that was based on Western intelligence assessments. The aircraft also made suspicious flights in July and August to Damascus and Beirut.