Orientul Mijlociu

Iranian Majles member Masoud Pezeshkian, who has previously served as Iran’s Minister of Health, said in a September 19, 2022 show on IRINN TV (Iran) that he is sorry over the recent death of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman who recently died after being beaten and arrested by Iran’s morality police for wearing her hijab “improperly.” He said that Iran’s laws are meant to make people more chaste and modest, but instead the Iranian regime should adopt different methods if its behavior is making Iranians hate Islam. He blamed himself, the Iranian government, the mosques, the religious scholars, and Iran’s broadcasting authority for the current situation in Iran, and he argued that it is impossible to make people religious by force. Amini’s death has sparked widespread protests in Iran (see MEMRI TV Clips No. 9833 and No. 9837).

“We will fight, we will die, we will take Iran back” and “Mullahs must get lost,” Iranian demonstrators keep chanting.[1] On September 23, in response to the regime’s cutting off mobile Internet, the State Department tried to take some measures to help the protestors, issuing a “General License” that would allow a general category of services and hardware not to be under sanctions.[2] After the announcement, Elon Musk immediately tweeted: “Activating Starlink.”[3]

The leader of Lebanese Hezbollah is threatening to attack an Israeli gas project off the Lebanon-Israel coast if it becomes operational before their sea border is agreed upon.

Hezbollah’s threats demonstrate the ability of the Iran-backed party to influence Lebanon’s national security decisions.

For more than a year, the Iranian population has taken to the streets to ask for more rights and more jobs. However, it seems that the West became aware only now of the existence of demonstrations in Iran against the dictatorial regime. The Iranians have tried in every possible way to communicate to the West that the regime of the ayatollahs does not represent them. This became clear with the elections of June 2021, in which the real winner was not the current ultra-conservative president Ebrahim Raisi, but “the boycott.” The Iranians had in fact chosen not to go to vote, in order not to give legitimacy to the government.[1]

The renewed agreement entails further steps to reform peshmerga forces as Pentagon aims to prepare Iraq’s forces for long-term self-sufficiency.

The United States renewed its agreement with Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Wednesday to continue providing security support in the wake of the war against the Islamic State (IS).

Botched suicide bombings came less than two weeks after the top US general in the Middle East sounded the alarm over security and humanitarian conditions at al-Hol camp.

Amid the ongoing circus over efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, two rumors have started to gain traction inside and outside Iran: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is on his deathbed and preparations are being made for his son, Mojtaba, to succeed him.

The latest round of mass protests in Iran erupted over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman. She died on Sept. 16 at the hands of the so-called morality police for allegedly violating Iran’s rules on mandatory veiling in public.

The Heads of Turkey and Syria’s intelligence agencies have recently met in Damascus, according to Asharq al-Awsat.

Head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) Hakan Fidan and Syrian intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk have recently met in Damascus.