Thread: The fourth televised debate among the six Iranian presidential candidates has kicked off with a focus on issues related to foreign policy.
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Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf said he will "definitely negotiate" with the West if elected, and he will "definitely clinch a deal within the framework of the Islamic Republic's macro policies."
"Any agreement that has economic benefits for Iran will be pursued step by step and action by action," he said.
He also dismissed his pro-reform rival Masoud Pezeshkian's advisor @JZarif's claim that the parliament obstructed the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal by passing the Strategic Action Plan to Lift Sanctions and Protect Iranian Nation's Interest, saying "the Strategic Action Plan is no obstacle to the removal of sanctions."
"The Supreme Leader stressed that this law will be our strategy," Ghalibaf said.

Iran is believed to be developing chemical weapons, decades after publicly giving them up, British news website @tortoise said in an exclusive report on Tuesday.
“Iran maintains a chemical weapons program that includes… incapacitating agents for offensive purposes,” the US ambassador to the @OPCW Nicole Shampaine told @tortoise. “This is an area that is a significant concern to us.” "While the world has been focused on Tehran’s nuclear program, reports from inside Iran and statements from the US government point to a growing industry of pharmaceutical-based weapons ... which are based on substances such as fentanyl... and are aimed at rendering targets unconscious," the report said.
"Leaks from regime-backed universities in Iran appear to show that fentanyl and other central nervous system-acting substances are being developed into aerosolized forms for use on civilians in riot control situations," @tortoise added.

#BREAKING A chopper carrying Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi and his Foreign Minister @Amirabdolahian has been involved in an "incident" in Jolfa region, northwestern Iran, according to Iranian media reports.
A deputy provincial governor general says the chopper has crashed, and rescue teams have been dispatched, but Iran's state TV says it has had an "emergency landing" amid foggy weather. Three helicopters were in the convoy, with two reaching their destination safely, according to media reports.
The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News says Raisi's companions managed to establish contact, raising hopes for a resolution without loss of life.
The foggy weather is hindering rescue efforts.

The scandal surrounding the German corporation @BoschGlobal's delivery of surveillance technology to Iran has expanded to include Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and China.
https://t.co/AKOLMETnTviranintl.com/en/202308081259
@BoschGlobal Iranian activists told @DasErste that the Danish security company Milestone Systems delivered video analysis software to Iran.
The German outlet says the company sold Iran the XProtect software until 2019, which according to its website, can be used to compare faces. It also… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Thread: Iran's former foreign minister @JZarif in a Clubhouse meeting: The @NIACouncil did not receive even a single penny from Iran. There were groups who were paid, but NIAC was not one of them. My cooperation with NIAC was limited to exchange of information. @JZarif @NIACouncil Zarif: Hossein Taeb (then chief of IRGC Intelligence) was always trying to link me to NIAC, and radical figures in both sides tried to make the same allegations because @NIACouncil held critical stances on the situation of human rights in Iran.

At the ongoing meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors which is discussing Iran's nuclear program, the European Union's envoy said the Islamic Republic's program is on an "alarming" path right now, and strongly urged Iran to backtrack and "immediately" return to its commitments. The EU's envoy to the IAEA told the Board of Governors that the latest developments in Iran's nuclear program have made it increasingly difficult to achieve a diplomatic solution.

IAEA Director General @rafaelmgrossi told the Board of Governors that the UN nuclear watchdog has, for the first time, installed uranium enrichment monitoring devices at Iran’s Fordow and Natanz sites.
“But this is a fraction of what we envisaged,” he noted. @rafaelmgrossi “What needs to happen now is a sustained and uninterrupted process that leads to all the commitments contained in the Joint Statement being fulfilled without further delay,” the IAEA chief said.

#BREAKING The United States and United Kingdom Royal Navy forces responded to a distress call from a merchant vessel transiting the Strait of Hormuz, June 4, as Iran's IRGC fast-attack boats harassed the commercial ship. According to @US5thFleet, the civilian crew reported three fast-attack craft with armed personnel approached and followed the merchant vessel at close distance. The fast-attacked craft were assessed to be from the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy.

Iran is continuing to lie to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the agency’s “capitulation” to Iran’s pressure is a “black stain” on its conduct, Israeli Prime Minister @netanyahu said on Sunday, accusing the IAEA of ineffectually policing Iran's nuclear activities. @netanyahu "If the IAEA becomes a political organization, then its oversight activity in Iran is without significance, as will be its reports on Iran's nuclear activity,” Netanyahu said.

The hacktivist group "Uprising till Overthrow" affiliated with MEK group, says it has hacked the official website of the Islamic Republic's president, and gained access to the data of 120 servers.
The group is releasing the confidential documents while the website is still down. According to one of the leaked documents, Iran's First Vice-President Mokhber has written to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to inform him that Syria owes Iran $12 billion in civilian and security areas until 2020.

#BREAKING Telegram channels affiliated with Iran's IRGC are reporting casualties on the Iranian side during Saturday clashes with the Taliban. More details to follow. There have also been casualties on the Taliban's side during clashes with Iranian border guards, according to media reports citing a Taliban official.
No figures have been provided yet.

Amid escalating tensions, Iran’s Border Guard and the Taliban exchanged heavy gunfire on Saturday on the Islamic Republic's border with Afghanistan. Iran says its forces inflicted “heavy casualties and serious damage”. Iran’s deputy police chief: At about 10 am today, Taliban forces, without observing int’l law and good neighborliness principles, used various weapons to shoot at Iran’s Sasuli outpost located in Zabol border regiment, which was met with decisive response from our border guards.

A @StateDept spokesperson told @IranIntl on Islamic Republic’s test of Khorramshahr-4 ballistic missile: “Iran’s development and proliferation of ballistic missiles poses a serious threat to regional and int’l security and remains a significant nonproliferation challenge.” @StateDept @IranIntl “Despite restrictions on Iran’s missile-related activities under UNSC Resolution 2231, Iran continues to seek a range of missile technologies from foreign suppliers and to conduct ballistic missile tests in defiance of the resolution,” the @StateDept spokesperson said.

The Biden administration's "classified" Iran briefing for senators Tuesday was not a "particularly useful briefing. I don't know if they really have a coherent strategy on Iran; if there's one, I didn't hear," Senator @HawleyMO told @IranIntl's Arash Aalaei after the briefing. @HawleyMO @IranIntl "Nothing that I heard just now required a classification briefing... It could totally have been done open and you (reporters) all could have been there. We didn't learn anything new or remotely classified," @HawleyMO told @IranIntl following the classified briefing Tuesday.

Iranian opposition figure @esmaeilion announced his withdrawal from the Alliance for Democracy and Freedom in Iran (@ADFIranOfficial), the alliance of opposition figures formed after the February meeting at @giwps.
"I'll continue to make sure the focus is on toppling the regime." @esmaeilion @ADFIranOfficial @giwps Esmaeilion, whose daughter and wife had been killed after the IRGC shot down the Ukrainian flight PS752 in 2020, said he left @ADFIranOfficial because "pressure groups from outside the Alliance were trying to impose their positions through non-democratic methods."

Israeli Defense Minister @yoavgallant says Iran funds Lebanon's Hezbollah group with $700 million a year, as well as “knowledge and strategic weaponry” such as precision-guided munitions. @yoavgallant The Israeli defense minister said Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip is funded by Iran with $100 million annually, with additional funding worth tens of millions of dollars going to the second largest group in the Palestinian enclave, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Iran's regime is spending "20 to 30 billion dollars a year" on its proxy forces "if I take all operations in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and elsewhere as well as salaries of IRGC Quds Forces," former Israeli PM @naftalibennett told @IranIntl in an exclusive interview with Arash Aalaei. @naftalibennett @IranIntl "The regime is making a big mistake towards its own people by investing tens of billions of dollars every year in terror of Hezbollah & Islamic Jihad & others instead of its own people. It has a meaningful impact on quality of life of Iranians," @naftalibennett told @IranIntl.

Iran International's exclusive video of the interrogation in Tanzania of Iranian Intelligence Ministry officer Hamidreza Abraheh reveals Iran's efforts to infiltrate into Africa through economic collaborations with purpose of recruiting Africa's Balochs for terrorist operations. Abraheh, aka Hamid Salari, is an agent of Iranian Intelligence Ministry Unit 853 who was arrested & interrogated in Dar es Salaam in autumn 2022. He was tasked with building a clandestine network for implementing Iranian regime's plots to kidnap/kill Western targets in Africa.

Iran’s Attorney General says the “morality police” has been disbanded but the judiciary continues to monitor behavioral conduct among the people, a hint that hijab rules are not scrapped and only special patrols in streets are disbanded.
iranintl.com/en/202212043012 The Attorney General's claim about abolishing "morality police" comes as the Islamic Republic's Judiciary does not have the authority to make such a decision, and no other Iranian official has talked about any such plan so far.

Canadian Foreign Minister @melaniejoly says the country has "imposed sanctions on an additional four Iranian individuals and five entities for their roles in the regime’s gross and systematic human rights violations and actions that continue to threaten int'l peace and security." @melaniejoly The list of sanctioned individuals includes former police chief of Tehran and IRGC general Morteza Talaei, whose trip to Canada had sparked controversy last year. The sanctions also target Commander of Iran's Police Special Units Hassan Karami and Safiran Airport Services.

#BREAKING American warplanes have launched airstrikes against a convoy carrying logistics including several tanks along the Iraqi-Syrian border, according to Iran's state broadcaster.
IRGC-affiliated Sabereen News says 25 militants have been killed and 21 others injured so far. #BREAKING An Iranian fuel shipment has also been targeted in the US airstrikes. Sabereen News says the fuel shipment was supposed to be delivered to Lebanon.