A US Navy ship fired at a fishing boat off the United Arab Emirates (UAE), killing one—as Iran again threatens to block the Strait of Hormuz and the UAE opens a new pipeline that strategically bypasses the choke-point.
A meeting of 60 Iranian trade unionists was raided by security forces in the northern city of Karaj, and all were arrested. Nine remain in detention, and Amnesty International has issued a call for their release.
The International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI) released a statement condemning the threats of war and economic sanctions against Iran, as well as opposing the Islamic Republic’s internal repression of workers’ struggles.
Protesters took to the streets of Tehran one year after opposition leaders were put under house arrest for supporting Iran’s last protest wave. An Iranian patrol boat meanwhile had a “close encounter” with a US fleet in the Strait of Hormuz.
Benjamin Netanyahu blamed “Iran and its proxy Hezbollah” after a deadly attack on an Israeli diplomat’s wife and attempted bombing in Tbilisi, Georgia— the day after the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Hezbollah’s operations chief.
Two men in Azerbaijan were arrested in an alleged Iranian-backed plot to kill two Jewish educators and the Israeli ambassador—as Obama in his State of the Union address made an oblique threat to use nuclear weapons against Iran.
Foreign Policy magazine cites US intelligence memos to the effect that Mossad agents recruited militants from the Iranian terrorist group Jundallah by passing themselves off as CIA agents in a “false flag” operation. Is this logical?
Yet a fourth nuclear scientist was mysteriously blown up in Iran, just as the Islamic Republic began a uranium enrichment program at an underground facility near Qom. Even Russia said the enrichment is beyond what is needed for civilian purposes.
The US “withdrawal” from Iraq comes as the Pentagon is set to augment its troop presence in the Persian Gulf region, Iran threatens to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, and the price of oil nears $100 a barrel.
Iranian labor activist Reza Shahabi has begun a prison hunger strike in protest of his undetermined judicial status. The Vahed Company Union Workers website reports that Shahabi has been detained for more than 15 months without charge.
A blast at Iran’s Alghadir missile base at Bid Ganeh—so powerful it rattled windows 30 miles away in Tehran—has raised speculation about Israeli covert action against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
Oil prices rose as the IAEA released a report finding that Iran is capable of developing a nuclear weapon and Israel tested a long-range ballistic missile. The British armed forces are said to be preparing for military action against Iran.
