Iran

The defence ministry said three drones were involved, but there was only minor damage to the site.

Local authorities did not comment on activities at the site, but called it a "workshop". No details about the cause have been revealed. The Iranian defence ministry says it has foiled a drone attack on a military facility in the city of Isfahan.

The Israeli weblog Intellitimes says the target of a drone attack Saturday in Esfahan was the "Iranian Space Research Institute" affiliated with the ...

[defense ministry reported](https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-729949) that “small drones targeted one of the defense ministry centers in Isfahan province, central Iran.” This happened around eleven in the evening Saturday. [While Iranian authorities claim](https://www.iranintl.com/en/202301282372) that the drone attack in one of its “munition manufacturing centers” was "unsuccessful", Intellitimes said the targeted site was “the Material and Energy Laboratory of Esfahan.” The report also added that the timing of the attack was not accidental, and it was carried out on the day the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ali Khamenei, visited the exhibition of Iran's industrial accomplishments, including drone achievements.

Drones attacked a military plant in Iran's central city of Isfahan, Tehran said on Sunday.

Fortunately, this unsuccessful attack killed no one and minor damage was sustained to the roof of the complex.” “There was an unsuccessful attack by small drones against a defense ministry industrial complex and fortunately with predictions and air defense arrangements already in place, one of them (struck),” IRNA said in a post on Twitter, citing the country’s defense ministry. “An explosion has occurred in one of the military centers affiliated to the Ministry of Defense,” the deputy head of security for Isfahan Governorate Mohammad Reza Jan-Nesari told the semi-official Fars News Agency.

Situation Report in English on Iran (Islamic Republic of) about Contributions, Education and more; published on 29 Jan 2023 by WFP.

In December, WFP provided 2,770 refugee girls with a cash incentive of IRR 500,000 (US$ 2) transferred to their bank accounts. WFP provides cash assistance to 7,197 Afghan and Iraqi refugee households each month. In December, WFP reached 32,699 beneficiaries including 32,082 refugees and 617 Iranian teachers as per the monthly target under unconditional resource transfers (URT), of whom 9,168 were women, 9,415 men, 6,737 girls, and 7,379 boys.

Iranian media and economic experts are characterizing a privatization plan the officials keep secret as "a plunder of public property" and "economic ...

Referring to the fact that during previous privatization projects government assets have been distributed among well-connected individuals, Pazouki said that properties should be sold by tender where everyone can bid to buy them. [Economic experts including Mehrdad Pazouki have already warned](https://www.khabaronline.ir/news/1724632/مصونیت-قضایی-اعضای-هیات-مولدسازی-اموال-مازاد-نوعی-آپارتاید-است) about the unpleasant consequences of this type of privatization. Pazouki added that the government should spend the resulting money on development plans. Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has approved the sales and wants them to be done as soon as possible. The ratification leaves no room for transparency and accountability. In current exchange rates the sum is close to $2.7 billion.

Seven actors in Iran have boycotted their own film to be screened at the state-sponsored Fajr Film Festival in protest to the bloody crackdown on ...

“Over time, all dictators have the illusion of imagining themselves as God, and they think they are absolutely right and eternal…but they are all mentally ill,” he said. Filmmakers and actors have been periodically boycotting the event, including in 2019, in protest to state violence against protesters. During this time, he explained, the festival meant nothing to him and even less so “in this bloody and grim year”. The Fajr Film Festival has existed since 1982, highlighting Iranian cinema for 10 days, during a period known as the Ten Days of Dawn (Fajr). Those who are withdrawing from the festival have taken a remarkable step because this means that they will no more have a chance of working in Iran, he said. “The film’s participation at any event is not and will not be my choice or decision.”

Iran does not attribute responsibility for attack but points finger at Israel, which has long-running hostilities with Tehran.

“If (the attack) was from outside it indicates a huge air defence failure and significant intelligence failure,” he said. [Israeli-owned oil tankers ](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/16/liberian-flagged-oil-tanker-owned-by-israeli-billionaire-hit-by-drone)and fired missiles at what it claimed was an Israeli base in Iraq over the past year as the long-running conflict between the countries has escalated. Several other explosions were reported in locations across the country but not confirmed by Iranian authorities. [Ukrainian media reported](https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1619501064046387200) that the factory in Isfahan was used to produce the Shaheed suicide drones that Russia has used to attack cities and energy infrastructure in Ukraine. “If it is Israel behind the attack, we are witnessing a considerable shift in the rules of engagement and a blatant escalation.” Israel has also admitted [Octopus doctrine](https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2022/06/08/israels-prime-minister-explains-his-new-approach-to-iran)” to describe a programme of combating Iran’s activities inside the country as well as abroad. [pointed to Israel](https://inews.co.uk/topic/israel?ico=in-line_link), which is implicated in a covert campaign of sabotage of Iranian military facilities – such as a cyber attack on [the Natanz nuclear reactor](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-56715520) in 2021 – as well as assassinations inside Iran. [Iranian city](https://inews.co.uk/topic/iran?ico=in-line_link) of Isfahan was struck by drones over Saturday night, Iran’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) reported, with speculation the site manufactured the [drones used by Russia](https://inews.co.uk/news/iranian-drones-russia-ukraine-manufactured-british-us-components-1895442?ico=in-line_link) to attack Ukraine. Israeli diplomatic correspondent Barak Ravid reported claims from a source with knowledge of the operation that it was “specific, surgical & successful” and that the building was connected with Iran’s missile program. Western intelligence sources said the attack was a “phenomenal success” causing significant damage to the site, Israeli newspaper “There were no casualties in this incident, but the damage and the…factors that caused this explosion are under investigation,” said a spokesman for the MoD.

The Iranian defence ministry said a drone carrying a small bomb hit the roof of one building in the facility late on Saturday night, while two other drones were ...

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After a gunman assaulted Azerbaijan's embassy in Iran's capital Tehran, Baku says it is evacuating staff and family members from the country.

During a phone call with his Azeri counterpart late Saturday, Raisi said Tehran and Baku have inseparable historical relations and will not allow those relations to be affected by the two countries' ill-wishers. The Islamic Republic’s state broadcaster also talked to the seven-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter of the family, who purportedly were in the car outside the embassy. Iran’s state media broadcast confessions by a grey-haired man identified as the assailant, who claimed he attacked the embassy believing that his wife was held inside the building. Member of the Iranian parliament’s presidium Ali Nikzad has promised that necessary investigations will be done regarding the attack. There have never been such hateful and threatening statements against Azerbaijan,” he said, referring to warnings from President Ebrahim Raisi and other leaders against any border changes or threats to Iran’s transit route to Armenia, which is vulnerable since 2020 changes. Police in Tehran says it arrested the attacker at the scene and authorities condemned Friday's incident, claiming that the gunman appeared to have had a personal, not a political, motive. Tehran-Baku tensions have simmered since the 2020 war, when Iran moderated its past support for mainly Christian Armenia due partly to domestic pressures from both ethnic Azeri and Shia clerics supporting fellow Muslims. Earlier, the Azerbaijani foreign ministry said the shooting was the result of Tehran failing to heed its calls for better security. According to an article in Trend, the incident at the embassy occurred as “part of Iran's policy of hostility towards Azerbaijan.” A deputy of the country’s parliament said, "Iranian televisions and radios continuously promote hostility towards Azerbaijan. The terrorist incident against our embassy proved this once again." It is not yet clear whether the embassy will continue to function. The embassy staff had given him a written statement attesting that she was not there, but the man said he was sure his wife was in the building and attacked the embassy to prove that.

Iran and Azerbaijan disagree on whether Friday's attack on the Azeri embassy in Tehran constituted a 'terrorist act'.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to cooperate to clarify the dimensions of the incident. After exiting the car with the rifle in hand, he passes an unarmed Iranian guard sitting in a booth and enters the embassy shooting. CCTV footage released by Iran showed the attacker hurriedly arriving at the scene with his car and crashing into another vehicle parked in front of the embassy. Iranian state television also interviewed the man’s two young children, whom he had reportedly brought to the embassy and were in the car at the time of the attack, with the daughter saying her mother had travelled back to Baku – where she was from – but her father believed she was at the embassy. [Translation: I was at the hospital and learned about the treatment process of the Azerbaijan Republic embassy staff. The attacker, a man identified as Yasin Hosseinzadeh, was interviewed by Iran’s state television and said he stormed the embassy to “rescue” his wife, whom he said had disappeared after entering the embassy close to a year earlier.

After the attack, the Azeri foreign ministry said it summoned Iran's ambassador in Baku to demand justice and would evacuate embassy staff from Tehran. It gave ...

It gave no further details, including whether the embassy would continue to function. Register for free to Reuters and know the full story Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called for "a comprehensive investigation" of the incident and sent his condolences to Azerbaijan and the dead man's family, state media said.

Israel carried out the drone attack on an Iranian military center for research and development midnight Saturday, the Wall Street Journal said in an ...

Russia has used hundreds of these drones to target Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure. Small or quadcopter drones, however, cannot fly hundreds of kilometers to reach Esfahan, located in central Iran. [The WSJ quoted unnamed US officials ](https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-strikes-iran-amid-new-international-push-to-contain-tehran-11675004979?mod=hp_lead_pos10)and people familiar with the operation that the drone attack was carried out by Israel.

Bomb-carrying drones targeted an Iranian defense factory in the central city of Isfahan overnight, authorities said early Sunday, causing some damage at the ...

It “is not in the interest of the region and its future,” Gargash wrote on Twitter. Iran in October launched a military exercise near the Azerbaijan border. Meanwhile, Iran continues to arm Russia with the bomb-carrying drone that Moscow uses in attacks in Ukraine on power plants and civilian targets. In 2020, Iran blamed Israel for a sophisticated attack that killed its top military nuclear scientist. Separately, Iran’s state TV said a fire broke out at an oil refinery in an industrial zone near the northwestern city of Tabriz. A third apparently made it through to strike the building, causing “minor damage” to its roof and wounding no one, the ministry said. Its rial currency has plummeted to new lows against the U.S. The attack comes after Iran's Intelligence Ministry in July claimed to have broken up a plot to target sensitive sites around Isfahan. It said the cause was not yet known, as it showed footage of firefighters trying to extinguish the blaze. The Defense Ministry only called the site a “workshop," without elaborating on what it made. Meanwhile, tensions also remain high with neighboring [Azerbaijan](/topic/azerbaijan) after a gunman attacked that country's embassy in Tehran, killing its security chief and wounding two others. A Defense Ministry statement described three drones being launched at the facility, with two of them successfully shot down.

Newspaper cites US officials, saying that attack carried out amid talks between Jerusalem and Washington on new ways to counter Tehran.

To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this In 2018, despite Tehran's compliance with the deal, former US President Donald Trump exited the agreement, reapplying heavy sanctions against Iran. bring back all the dangerous UN security council resolutions against Iran." "The attack has not affected our installations and mission… A spokesperson for the Israeli military declined to comment. "Explosive night in Iran," Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted.

Iran's hardliner Kayhan newspaper has proposed to form a national 'soft war' headquarters to deal with what it called the "hybrid war of the enemy".

In November, Khamenei called the ongoing anti-regime uprising following the death of Mahsa Amini a "hybrid war" led by the “enemies”. Ali Fadavi, the second highest commander in the Revolutionary Guard, also said in October that the country’s ‘enemies’ who used to focus on ‘hard war’ against the Islamic Republic for decades have now adopted a hybrid approach, combined with soft power. Iran’s hardliner Kayhan newspaper has proposed to form a national ‘soft war’ headquarters to deal with what it called the "hybrid war of the enemy".