A US official says several American civilians and military personnel were wounded and a contractor was killed by a drone attack from an Iranian-backed militia in northern Iraq on March 23.
The origin of that attack had never been reported, but a senior US military official acknowledged it to The Wall Street Journal on Saturday.
As a result of the attack on a maintenance hangar near Hasakah, Syria, the US contractor was killed, making it the first American fatality since Biden took office. Injuries also affected 24 US service members, many of whom suffered traumatic brain injuries.
“When that attack happened, we did not know the launch point. We were able to exploit the engine of the drone, which had a serial number, which clearly tied it back to Iran,” the senior US official said.
“We’re not looking to get into tit for tat skirmishes with these groups, which some of the groups want us to do,” said the senior US official. “Our policy is to hold Iran accountable for all these attacks.”
It is clear from the strikes that the Biden administration faces difficulties in the Middle East as it shifts its military focus to deterring China and Russia.
Additionally, it highlights the challenges the United States faces in coming up with a policy to deal with Iraq 20 years after Saddam Hussein's regime fell.
Several former officials and experts have criticized the administration's approach for downplaying problems in Iraq, such as those caused by militias supported by Tehran.
However, the head of Medical Council, Mohammad Rais-Zadeh, said Sunday that no hijab-related case has been sent to the council so far.
The ruling follows reports of a doctor refusing to accept a veiled patient in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
In February, a medical office in the northeastern Iranian city of Kashmar was shut when a doctor there objected to a woman harassing a patient over her “improper clothing”.
Earlier in February, Iran’s Health Minister Bahram Einollahi said violation of hijab regulations is considered a crime at hospitals and if they do not abide by hijab regulations, they will not receive approval to operate. He added that public hospitals have been required to comply with the hijab law and provide services to women by female staff.
“Women's ultrasound should be performed by women, and in some cases that we do not have enough radiologists, we ask female general practitioners and gynecologists to be given short-term training,” underlined the minister.
The clerical regime continues to strictly enforce the "mandatory hijab", despite the mass protests that followed the death in custody last September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by the morality police for defying modesty rules.
About a month before the death of Mahsa Amini, the so-called morality police had started patrolling medical and academic centers in Iran’s northeastern city of Mashhad to enforce compliance with the Islamic dress code. Social media users earlier reported the presence of teams from what the Islamic Republic calls the ‘Enjoining right and forbidding vice headquarters’ in various wards of hospitals and medical centers in other cities, with some reports of pressures on hospitals to separate male and female patients admitted to the ICU.
The uprising has made it increasingly difficult for the clerical regime to enforce the mandatory Islamic dress code. Appearing in public without a full veil has become a common sight even in small and more conservative towns. Since the beginning of the ‘Women, Life, Liberty’ movement in September last year, thousands of girls and women have set fire to their headscarves in a symbolic move and voiced opposition to compulsory hijab.
Rais-Zadeh also voiced his concern over the low income of doctors and surgeons, saying current wages mean no one would study for many years to qualify.
Iran’s medical profession is facing a crisis as more and more doctors leave the country for better wages and working conditions.
Driven by economic and professional problems, as well as lack of social and political freedoms, an increasing number of Iran's healthcare professionals emigrate.
There are no transparent data on the emigration of healthcare and other professionals, but medical officials and lawmakers often offer fragmentary information on the scope of the problem. The number of doctors emigrating has more than doubled in the past decade, according to one report.
Thousands of physicians, dentists, midwives, and nurses have either emigrated in the past few years or are planning to leave for other countries. Many in Iran, including lawmakers, have repeatedly warned that the ever-increasing desire of healthcare professionals to leave will result in the deterioration of the country’s healthcare system.
In February, Mohammad Sharifi-Moghadam, a member of the central council of Iran's Nurses’ Organization, said between 2,500 to 3,000 nurses were emigrating from Iran each year, based on the number of requests for good standing certificates, confirming that the applicant is entitled to practice medicine in the country.
The average salary for a doctor in Iran is about $400 per month, against ten as much or more in the US and UK. Physicians and other health professionals’ maximum fees as well as private hospitals’ tariffs are set and announced by the government annually.
Mohammad-Ali Mohseni-Bandpey, a member of the parliament health committee, said last year that wrong government policies affecting doctors included ignoring their needs and demands and refusing to allow them to raise their fees despite higher costs of living and running their practices. According to Mohseni-Bandpey, despite an almost 50 percent annual inflation rate, the government is trying to prevent a similar increase in doctors’ fees, to keep healthcare costs down. He suggested that the government should allow them to increase their fees but shift the burden to insurance companies rather than patients.
Doctors in Iran must also contend with a lack of adequate medical equipment and resources.
With fewer doctors available to provide care, the quality of medical care in Iran is declining, especially in rural areas, where access is already limited.
Moreover, medical schools are struggling to attract and retain students, leaving the future of the medical profession in Iran in doubt.
A major investment in the healthcare system, as well as increased funding for medical schools and hospitals is required to salvage the situation and stop the flood of emigrating doctors. However, Iran’s dire financial plight means such investment is impossible for the foreseeable future.
The Guardian Council, a constitutional body controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, disqualified hundreds of candidates in the 2020 legislative elections and barred key presidential candidates in the 2021 presidential vote. The purpose was to hand over government control to Khamenei’s hard-line supporters.
The most prominent individual disqualified by the Council in 2021 was former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, considered a moderate conservative.
Last week, Larijani issued a statement denying any intention to run in the March 2024 parliamentary election, alluding to what transpired in 2021.
It should be noted that in the 44-year history of the Islamic Republic only regime insiders, loyal to the principle of clerical rule have been allowed to run for office. Those who had any ideas of secularism were persecuted and many had to leave the country.
Explaining the Guardian Council's intervention in the elections through arbitrary vetting, prominent conservative politician Mohammad-Reza Bahonar told Entekhab news website on Sunday that one of the reasons the Council offered for Larijani’s disqualification was that he had good relation with former President Hassan Rouhani, despised by Khamenei loyalists.
Bahonar said: "If we are looking for high turnout in the upcoming elections, we need to open the political atmosphere rather than calling for our rivals' disqualification." He added that the country's officials should guarantee a healthy, secure and competitive election.
Meanwhile, Bahonar who was a lawmaker for seven 4-year terms, said the parliament dominated by hardliners should not be involved in revising election laws, as current lawmakers tend to make sure that no one other than themselves are allowed to run.
In another development, reformist activist Ali Mohammad Namazi told Rouydad24 website that what Larijani has said about purging or purification of political atmosphere by Iran's hardliners alluded to the Guardian Council's vetting of election candidates.
The “strict filtering” by the Council, he said, was meant to bar everyone other than conservative "insiders" from getting elected. "So, what Larijani said meant: In this situation we will skip the trouble of nominating ourselves as candidates and save the hardliners the trouble of getting rid of unwanted candidates," Namazi said.
He added that the regime's leader should know that this situation is not desirable and will push the country toward a political breaking point. Most Iranian politicians believe that political impasse already exists.
Another reformist figure who commented on the issue of vetting and the Guardian Council's intervention in Iranian elections was reformist journalist and activist Ahmad Zeidabadi who spoke with Khabar Online website on Sunday.
Zeidabadi said that Larijani's comments were meant to convey the message that he is not going to be deceived once again by playing according to the rules laid down by hardliners.
According to Zeidabadi, Larijani has called for returning to the political processes before the 2021 election, that is allowing various political factions within the system to nominate their candidates for the presidency and giving them equal chance to garner the voters' support.
Meanwhile, answering a question by the conservative Nameh News website that asked why former President Mohammad Khatami no longer tells the people to take part in elections in the same way he did before, former lawmaker Jalal Jalalizadeh said such a call will be effective only if the people are assured that there will be a free and fair election. In the current situation, even if Khatami calls on the people to go to the polls, no one will listen to him, Jalalizadeh said.
