Young Man Dies As Iranian Police Raid Party
A young man has died in mysterious circumstances after allegedly falling from the sixth floor of a balcony after a police raid caught men and women reveling in the religious city of Mashhad.
A young man has died in mysterious circumstances after allegedly falling from the sixth floor of a balcony after a police raid caught men and women reveling in the religious city of Mashhad.
It is unknown whether the young man fell or was pushed, as has long been documented as a tactic used by regime forces to eliminate opponents across Iran.
Police conducted the Thursday night raid under the auspices of inspecting for women flouting hijab rules after receiving calls from neighbors.
"A young man who was trying to escape fell from the sixth floor and lost his life,” a statement made to Iranian daily Qods claimed. “This party was a mixed-gender one with alcoholic beverages served and the case is still under investigation". Mashhad's judicial and law enforcement authorities have not yet commented on the issue.
Iran's strict Islamic laws prohibit the mixing of genders in parties and public gatherings. It is only allowed in families for men and women to hold parties in the same room. Wedding parties or other large gatherings should have separate spaces for men and women.
However, the restriction is often ignored, with some bribing local police to look the other way. In the last two years, there have been many surprise raids, particularly when young people held parties with alcohol.
Ahmad Bakhshayesh speaking to Rouydad24, a relatively independent website in Tehran said that "Any country that has tensions in its relations with the United States cannot have a serious presence in the world market."
The new rhetoric by some regime insiders appears to be a justification for the Islamic Republic's sudden turn to a limited rapprochement with the United States that is presumably intended to relieve the government from economic pressures of US sanctions.
Washington and Tehran are reportedly in contact to explore a limited unofficial deal to reduce tensions. Iran would promise not to enrich uranium beyond the 60-percent level in exchange for release of its frozen funds abroad that could be as high as $20 billion.
Iran’s annual inflation rate has risen close to 70 percent and its currency has lost 50 percent of its value in the past year.
The conservative politician reiterated: "Harnessing the high rate of inflation requires time and expecting a quick solution to the country's economic problems is unrealistic."
He probably made the statement not to create exaggerated hope among Iranians about the outcome of the limited diplomatic exchanges between Tehran and Washington.
However, not everyone in Iran speaks softly about the West and particularly the United States. "Bad cops" such as IRGC aerospace commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh are still around. Hajizadeh told IRGC-linked Fars News Agency on Thursday: "We have now access to all the sophisticated technologies in the area of defense industry."
This could potentially include the know-how to make a nuclear bomb. Highlighting Iran's dual policy, Hajizadeh said that despite the breakthrough in foreign relations including the restoration of ties with Saudi Arabia, it is meaningful that President Ebrahim Raisi was personally present at the ceremony for showcasing Iran's "hypersonic" Fattah missile.
Welcoming diplomacy, Bakhshayesh maintained that to attract foreign investments, Iran should take certain steps. He did not elaborate, but the preconditions are presumably playing according to the rules of international relations, limiting uranium enrichment, not sponsoring international terrorism, and stopping regional ambitions and weapons development among other things.
Nonetheless, he said, even if measures are taken, it takes at least two to three years before prices begin to come down in the Iranian market.
In another attempt to justify the talks with Washington, Bakhshayesh said Iran used to have trade and investments by other countries including the United Kingdom and Italy. He said although the Raisi administration is trying to improve ties with Iran's neighbors, that is nothing to be compared with the benefits of having trade relations with the West.
He said although countries such as Saudi Arabia are interested in investment in Iran, we should note that Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE and Qatar are Iran's rivals in the area of exporting oil, so it is in their interest that Iran remains under US sanctions.
Meanwhile, Jomhouri Eslami, the only conservative newspaper that at times criticizes the President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration, wrote Thursday that it is a miracle hardliners are suddenly in favor of talks with the United States, while they used call the previous government a traitor for advocating diplomacy.
The daily pointed out that "Even those who insisted that no one should be allowed to talk about negotiating with the United States following the killing of former IRGC Qods Force Commander Qassem Soleimani, now support the negotiations."
"Thank God that everybody in Iran has returned to the realm of rationality and thinks in terms of the country's national interests."
The ministry’s spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a very brief statement published on the ministry’s website that the recent events in Russia were an internal issue of the country.
The statement was issued several hours after Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin announced he had directed his troops towards Moscow.
There are unconfirmed reports of a phone talk between presidents Ebrahim Raisi and Vladimir Putin Saturday afternoon.
However, many Iranians opposed to the Islamic Republic regime were celebrating Putin’s apparent misfortune, saying that his demise will hasten the fall of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Alireza Nader an Iran watcher and activist tweeted: “Dictators fall, regimes are overthrown, freedom is achieved. Don’t believe the naysayers. Keep doing what you think is right.”
Iranian government media -- including the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) linked Tasnim and Fars news agencies and Press TV, the English Channel of the Islamic Republic State TV -- only reflected the Putin government’s narrative all day on Saturday.
They published selected news about Prigozhin’s challenge, such as Putin calling Prigozhin’s move “mutiny” and a “stab in the back”, and saying he would not succeed in his endeavor to take control of Moscow.
Nour News, affiliated to the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), said in a tweet on Saturday that Wagner group's action could lead to "destructive psychological consequences" given Russia’s involvement in the Ukraine war. “But this group essentially lacks the minimum power necessary to challenge the Russian army,” it added.
In another tweet a few hours later, Nour News said Putin’s remarks about “the issue of internal treason as well as his determination to prevent civil war” could indicate that he knows “the West has a new plan to weaken Russia’s national cohesion and bring Moscow to its knees in the Ukraine war.”
A Telegram channel identifying itself as the Revolutionary Guards channel re-published a Twitter post by Reza Abbasi, a hardliner journalist, who suggested Iran would help Russia defeat opposition to Putin. The channel is believed to be affiliated to the IRGC.
‘’We once prevented the downfall of the Syrian government for our own national interests! If necessary, we will also prevent the downfall of Putin’s government,” Abbasi had said in his tweet.
Tasnim later on Saturday afternoon published an interview with Mehdi Seyf-Tabrizi, a Russia expert, who said Prigozhin was helped by “hands from outside Russia” and that in the current circumstances his actions may “deal a fatal blow to Russia from the inside” and distract Moscow from the Ukraine war.
Seyf-Tabrizi said the Russian people will strongly defend the government against the Wagner forces if the course of events continues in the same way in the next few days. “But I don’t think these operations last more than a few days.”
Relatively more independent media outlets have cautiously been providing some real coverage to the events unfolding in Russia.
The conservative news website Nameh News, however, published an interview with Nematollah Izadi, the last Iranian ambassador to the Soviet Union, who said the Russian people are not happy about Putin’s policies and his war on Ukraine which have brought on sanctions.
He also said the Islamic Republic’s involvement in the Russian war on Ukraine was “pointless” and “based on wrong calculations” and has put the country in a difficult place and had disagreeable consequences.
