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Rafsanjani's Daughter Accused of Propaganda Against Iranian Regime

Faezeh Rafsanjani, 2016 (File photo: AFP)
Faezeh Rafsanjani, 2016 (File photo: AFP)
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Rafsanjani's Daughter Accused of Propaganda Against Iranian Regime

Faezeh Rafsanjani, 2016 (File photo: AFP)
Faezeh Rafsanjani, 2016 (File photo: AFP)

An Iranian court has charged the daughter of the former Iranian president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, with carrying out propaganda against the regime and blasphemy in social media posts, the Iranian judiciary announced Sunday.

Tehran's Public Prosecutor, Ali Salehi, said that the indictment was issued and referred to the court on charges of "propaganda activity against the system of Iran and blasphemy," according to the judiciary's website Mizan.

The charges relate to supposed comments made by Faezeh Rafsanjani, who is a former lawmaker and women's rights activist, during a radio debate on a social media forum last April.

Local media quoted Faezeh Rafsanjani as saying that Iran's request to remove the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the US list of foreign terrorist organizations is harmful to "national interests."

The official Iranian news agency IRNA later reported that Rafsanjani's daughter had apologized on April 23, saying she was "joking without intending to insult."

Faezeh, 59, is the daughter of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president who advocated rapprochement with the West and the US.

The former MP was arrested and sentenced to six months in prison at the end of 2012 on charges of "propaganda against the Republic."

The removal of the Revolutionary Guards from the list of terrorism is one of the tricky demands in the negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement.

Informed sources had recently stated that it is likely that European-mediated efforts to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement will be resumed following the visit of US President Joe Biden to the Middle East this month.

According to Bloomberg, a recent round of talks in Qatar failed to overcome the differences within the framework of the negotiations.

Two European diplomats with direct knowledge of the Doha negotiations said the talks had not made progress, but efforts to restore the deal are expected to continue beyond the July deadline suggested by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

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North Korea Sent More Conventional Weapons to Russia, South Korea Says

A TV screen shows a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)
A TV screen shows a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)
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North Korea Sent More Conventional Weapons to Russia, South Korea Says

A TV screen shows a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)
A TV screen shows a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)

North Korea recently supplied additional artillery systems to Russia to support its war efforts against Ukraine, while some of the thousands of North Korean troops deployed in Russia have begun engaging in combat, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Wednesday.

The South Korean assessment came after Russia warned Monday that US President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with US-supplied longer-range missiles adds “fuel to the fire” of the war. US officials said Biden’s decision was triggered almost entirely by North Korea’s entry into the war.

In a closed-door briefing at parliament, the National Intelligence Service said that North Korea exported 170mm self-propelled guns and 240mm multiple rocket launch systems to Russia, according to lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun, who attended the meeting.

Lee told reporters that the NIS assessed those weapons are a type of artillery the Russian military doesn’t operate so North Korea likely dispatched personnel to teach the Russians how to use them and handle their maintenance.

Last week, Russian Telegram channels and other social media posts published photos apparently showing North Korean’s “Koksan” 170mm self-propelled guns being moved by rail inside Russia. The Financial Times, citing Ukrainian intelligence assessments, reported Sunday that North Korea in recent weeks sent some 50 domestically produced 170mm self-propelled howitzers and 20 240mm multiple launch rocket systems to Russia.

The artillery systems are the latest conventional weapons that North Korea is believed to have provided to Russia as the two countries are sharply expanding their military cooperation in the face of separate confrontations with the US and its allies. Last month, the NIS said that North Korea had sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional arms to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpiles.

During its Wednesday briefing, the NIS said that an estimated 11,000 North Korean soldiers in late October were moved to Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops seized parts of its territory this year, following their training in Russia's northeast, Lee said. He cited the NIS as saying the North Korean soldiers were assigned to Russia’s marine and airborne forces units and some of them have already begun fighting alongside the Russians on the frontlines.

The US, Ukraine and others have similar estimates on the size of North Korea's troop deployment. They say the North Korean soldiers arrived in Russia in October and that some of them have since engaged in combat in the Kursk region. Observers say North Korea's participation in the almost 3-year war threatens to escalate the conflict.

Park Sunwon, another lawmaker who was present at the NIS meeting, made similar comments on the briefing. He said the spy agency couldn’t provide an assessment on possible North Korean casualties.

Moscow said Tuesday that Ukraine fired six US-made ATACMS missiles at Russia’s Bryansk region, in what would be Kyiv’s first use of the weapon inside Russia. Ukraine’s General Staff did not confirm whether the weapon was used, but said the armed forces struck an ammunition warehouse in the Bryansk region, which neighbors Kursk and was likely supplying Russian forces fighting there.

Since the first year of the war, Ukrainian leaders have lobbied Western allies to allow them to use advanced weapons to strike key targets inside Russia.