THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS
UPDATE: 10:30 PM CET
State Media Warn of Severe Shortage of Medicine
In an article on Monday, the state-run Bahar News acknowledged the medication shortage in Iran, which has turned into a new crisis.
“There is no end to the lack of medicine in Iran. Now, activists say that with this year’s budget, the country will probably face a new wave of medicine shortages. The range of deficiencies is not limited to a few items and just one type of disease. Even the names of antibiotics and serum have been on this list for months,” the paper writes.
On April 21, the state-run Tejarat News published an interview with Ali Fatemi, the vice-chairman of the Pharmacists Association, during which he acknowledged that “the assessment of the Ministry of Health for the budget required by the Ministry of Health was 105 quadrillion rials. But in the end, only 69 quadrillion rials were approved.”
Azerbaijan Prevents Smuggling of Large Batch of Heroin Coming From Iran
The Nakhchivan Main Customs Department has prevented an attempt to smuggle a large batch of drugs from Iran to Azerbaijan, Azernews reports citing the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee. According to the source, a customs inspection of a cargo vehicle transiting through the territory of Azerbaijan from the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Netherlands was carried out at the Julfa checkpoint. The department has implemented a thorough inspection of the vehicle, as a result, almost 500 kilos of heroin were found in the cargo compartment of the vehicle. An investigation is underway.
Iran: Council Sanctions Eight Additional Individuals and One Entity Over Human Rights Violations
The Council decided today to impose restrictive measures on eight additional individuals and one entity responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. The Council is sanctioning Ariantel, an Iranian mobile service provider, which contributed to the telecommunications surveillance architecture mapped out by the Iranian government to quash dissent and critical voices in Iran.
New listings also include lawmakers in the Iranian Parliament, members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the IRCG Cooperative Foundation, which is the body responsible for managing the IRGC’s investments and in that framework responsible for funneling money into the regime’s brutal repression.
UPDATE: 9:00 PM CET
Iran Uprising at a Glance
Based partially on reporting by PMOI (MEK) Network in Iran
Sunday, April 24, 2023 – 8 PM GMT + 1
- Days: 221
- Protests: 282 cities
- Fatalities: 750+ estimated deaths, 675 identified by MEK
- Detentions: 30,000
Iran’s nationwide uprising witnessed its 221st day on Monday as more workers of the country’s sensitive industrial sites are joining an escalating campaign of strikes spreading throughout Iran.
April 24 – Shadegan, southwest #Iran
More footage of contract workers at a steel plant on strike, protesting their officials' refusal to increase their salaries.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/BXNFatFQ9u— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 24, 2023
According to reports tallied by the Iranian opposition, Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), protesters across the country are increasing their anti-regime measures and attacking the mullahs’ interests in solidarity with Iran’s hardworking laborers who are courageously continuing their strike as we speak.
On Monday, protests and strikes were held at several sites, including:
- A steel plant in Shadegan, southwest Iran
- A copper plant in Rafsanjan, central Iran
- An LPG site in Asaluyeh, southern Iran
- A local petrochemical site in Gachsaran, southwest Iran
- An industrial site in Kangan, eastern Iran
- The Der Alo Copper Mine in Kerman, south-central Iran
April 24 – Kerman, south-central #Iran
Contract workers at the Der Alo Copper Mine are on strike, protesting their officials' refusal to increase their salaries.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/3vDS8E4zlo— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 24, 2023
- Various industrial sites near Isfahan, central Iran
- The Madkush steel company in Bandar Abbas, southern Iran
- A local industrial company in Jask, southeast Iran
- The Rezhin Sanat Company in Chabahar, southeast Iran
- The Gostaresh Steel Company in Shadegan, southwest Iran
- The Sarcheshmeh Janpars Copper Company in Kerman, south-central Iran
- The Fraptrosazan Company in Jask, southeast Iran
On Monday, regime operatives in Karaj launched chemical gas attacks against two all-girls schools in the city’s Mehrshahr district. Many students were poisoned and needed immediate medical care. Families and students rallied after the incident, protesting this brutal action.
April 24 – Karaj, west of Tehran #Iran
Aftermath of regime operatives launching a chemical gas attack targeting the all-girls Fatemeh Medical School in the city's Mehrshahr district. Many students were poisoned and needed medical care.#IranChemicalAttackspic.twitter.com/xVLCTcHKhw— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 24, 2023
UPDATE: 7:30 PM CET
Treasury Sanctions Senior Iranian Officials Overseeing Violent Protest Suppression and Censorship
WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned four senior officials of the Law Enforcement Forces of Iran (LEF) and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the primary Iranian security forces responsible for the regime’s brutal suppression of the protests that broke out in September 2022 following the arrest and death of Mahsa Jina Amini while in the custody of Iran’s Morality Police. OFAC is also taking action against the new Secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace (SCC), the authority responsible for Iran’s cyberspace policy and blockage of popular websites. Today’s action is being taken in coordination with the United Kingdom, which is also imposing similar sanctions on senior Iranian security officials.
UPDATE: 3:00 PM CET
Principalist MP Lashes Out Against Raisi’s Administration
Warning about the fluctuating currency market, MP Mohammad Sabzi, who affiliates himself with the so-called principalist faction and happens to be close to the regime’s Supreme Leader, said on April 22: “If this issue with the dollar is not managed, it will lead to public protests. The enemy is paving the way for a converged war, and we must eliminate the roots of the riots and prevent the opponents of the state to take advantage of it.”
“Various factors are involved in the issues concerning the currency, the soaring prices, and inflation,” Sabzi told the state-run Ruydad 24 website. “We had a meeting with the government’s economic team and told them that you cannot blame everything on sanctions. More than 18 months have passed since they started as the new administration and it was expected that the economic team who used to promise everything as presidential candidates would do something and be accountable. But now we see that the promises have not been fulfilled.”
He warned: “No matter how much we blame things on insecurity, tie the problems with foreign factors, and claim that the central bank has nothing to do with inflation and high prices; it is not going to solve anything for the people.”
UK and International Partners Announce New Sanctions on Iranian Regime
The UK, US and EU are today announcing further sanctions on Iranian regime officials responsible for human rights violations, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The UK has designated more than 70 Iranian officials and entities for human rights violations since October 2022, with the total number of Iran-related designations amounting to more than 300. The list includes the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in its entirety, the Iranian Prosecutor General and the Morality Police.
The UK, US and EU have taken consistent and coordinated action to hold the regime to account, announcing sanctions on a monthly basis on those response for human rights abuses. The latest UK sanctions are against 4 IRGC commanders, under whose leadership IRGC forces have opened fire on unarmed protestors resulting in numerous deaths, including of children, and have arbitrarily detained and tortured protestors.
UPDATE: 12:00 PM CET
Woman Dies in Kerman Following Dispute with Basij Forces
State media reported the death of a 60-year-old woman in Kerman during a conflict between the people and the paramilitary Basij. The state-run website Ruydad 24 published a video clip and wrote: “A clash that erupted over hijab in Kerman led to the death of a person.”
#Iran News in Brief
State media reported the death of a 59-year-old woman in Kerman during a conflict between the people and the paramilitary Basij. According to Ruydad 24, "a clash that erupted over #hijab in #Kerman led to the death of a person.” Read⬇️https://t.co/Ijj1AQMDTZ pic.twitter.com/VdClb7E0Wl— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 24, 2023
“Following a warning [by Basij forces] about the hijab of some visitors to Bagh Shazdeh in Mahan Kerman, people came to the support of the women and got into a dispute. During this fight, a 60-year-old woman suffered a cardiac arrest and later died in the hospital,” the website reported.
Meanwhile, the governor of Mahan stated: “In a mass fight on Sunday evening in Mahan, Kerman province, several people were injured and a 59-year-old woman also died.”
He claimed that the incident started as a result of a personal conflict, and when the officers arrived, the “wrongdoers were arrested and prosecuted.”
Along With Flight of “International Coalition” Drones, Iranian Militias Mobilize and Evacuate Headquarters in Their Control Areas East of Deir Ezzor
Deir Ezzor province: In the early hours of Sunday, Al-Mayadeen city in its countryside in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor which is controlled by Iranian militias, witnessed a flight of “International Coalition” drones. This coincided with high mobilization of the militias in the area, where the Iranian militias put her members on high alert and evacuated many of their military headquarters in fear of being targeted by the drones.
On April 11, SOHR reported that Iranian-backed militias evacuated their positions in the “signal platform centre” in Ain Ali in Al-Mayadeen countryside in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor and blocked the road leading to “Suleimani base.” The militias also established a “signal platform centre” in “Suleimani base” and imposed a curfew for civilians and militiamen. This comes a day after the attack on the Coalition’s base in Koniko gas field, which was followed by a state of high alert by International Coalition Forces.
US Congresswoman Tenney Slams IRGC
In a TV interview, United States House Representative Claudia Tenney called the Iranian regime’s IRGC a terrorist organization that wants to assassinate American officials.
According to Newsmax, Rep. Claudia Tenney, a member of the US House Science, Space, and Technology Committee said her report is about the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards, “that’s a quasi-military, a terrorist organization within Iran where billions of dollars of Iranian money is diverted to support them.”
“The IRGC quashes rebellions, oppresses its country’s citizens, and supports terrorist proxies all over the world, including in Yemen and Lebanon,” you name it,” said Tenney.
“They’re all over the world,” she continued “They plot foreign terror where they’re talking about the assassination of Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, and other people in the United States, a very dangerous group.”
UPDATE: 9:30 AM CET
Ukrainian President Sanctions IRGC Drone Commanders
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sanctioned hundreds of individuals and companies, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well as several Iranian officials associated with the production of Shahed drones.
On March 18, Zelensky announced that most of the more than 400 individuals and companies designated for sanctions are Russian adding that several Iranian and Syrian individuals “who aid terrorism” are also blacklisted.
According to a presidential order issued by Zelensky, sanctions against al-Assad will be applied for 10 years. In the new sanctions, the names of Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous and Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Moqdad are also included. Furthermore, the commander of the IRGC drone force and several other Iranian authorities were placed on the sanctions list as well.
UPDATE: 8:00 AM CET
Dozens of Oil, Petrochemical Sites on Strike Across Iran
The mullahs’ regime in Iran received a major wake-up call on Saturday as at least 60 sites of the country’s oil and petrochemical industry saw workers walk off and go on strike. Workers are protesting not receiving any raises in their salaries and having paychecks delayed, parallel to being treated inhumanely at their jobsites with poor food and low-quality resting/housing facilities. These strikes, continuing on Sunday as the country marks the 220th day of the nationwide uprising, portray how truly vulnerable the mullahs’ regime is as so many workers in some of the country’s most sensitive sites coordinate their strike. This also serves as a reminder about Iran’s nosediving economy under the mullahs’ rule that even these important workers, that are critical to the country’s revenue, are not receiving the salaries they deserve.
Cut Ties With, Stop Supporting the Dying Regime in Iran
On Saturday, April 22, 2023, Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee, a political prisoner in the women’s ward of Evin prison, issued a message to the world governments. In her message, she urged these governments to cut diplomatic ties with the regime in Iran, close its embassies, and refrain from supporting the perpetrators of violence against the Iranian people. It is worth noting that on April 13, 2023, Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee received a six-year prison sentence for the charge of “assembly and collusion” and an additional one-year sentence for “propaganda against the state.” These charges were handed down by Tehran’s 26th branch of the Revolutionary Court. Below, you will find the complete text of her message.
Karlsruhe, Germany—April 19, 2023: Mek Supporters Rally To Support the Iran Revolution
On April 19, 2023, in Karlsruhe, Germany, freedom-loving Iranians and those who support the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) gathered for a rally to show their support for the ongoing Iranian Revolution. The demonstrators came together to stand in solidarity with the brave protesters in Iran who are advocating for a democratic and secular republic.
Hamburg and Munich—April 19, 2023: Freedom-Loving Iranians Rally to Support the Iran Revolution
On April 19, 2023, supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and freedom-loving Iranians gathered in Hamburg and Munich to show their solidarity with the ongoing Iranian Revolution. The demonstrators emphasized their rejection of any form of dictatorship, whether it be the mullahs or a return to Shah’s regime. Instead, they called for a democratic and secular republic in Iran.
Also, read Iran News in Brief – April 23, 2023
