Iranians Protest in Zahedan Despite Tight Security

Demonstrators protest following the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran, in Berlin, Germany (File photo: Reuters)
Demonstrators protest following the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran, in Berlin, Germany (File photo: Reuters)
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Iranians Protest in Zahedan Despite Tight Security

Demonstrators protest following the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran, in Berlin, Germany (File photo: Reuters)
Demonstrators protest following the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran, in Berlin, Germany (File photo: Reuters)

Thousands took to the streets in Zahedan Friday despite the checkpoints and roadblocks established by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces and police officers.

Videos from the march showed protesters carrying banners and chanting against the Iranian government.

The military forces designated checkpoints in different areas of Zahedan and outside the homes of Baloch citizens in anticipation of these protests.

Residents complained about the treatment of the military forces, as everyone was interrogated, searched, and forced to show their identity cards.

According to the Iran International website, military forces were also present at some schools, noting that they had been converted into what resembled military bases.

Iran has been witnessing massive protests for months, after the death of the young woman, Mahsa Amini, on September 16, 2022, at the hands of the "morality police."

Despite pressures and threats, anti-regime Friday protests continued for the fifteenth week in Zahedan.

According to the United Nations, Iran arrested at least 14,000 people during the protests.

The authorities executed four people for their role in the unrest and imposed death sentences on 18 people, sparking widespread international outrage.

The EU will impose new sanctions on 37 Iranian officials and organizations over the crackdown on protests but is still debating listing the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group, diplomats said Friday.

Foreign ministers from the bloc will agree to adopt the fourth package of sanctions against Tehran due to its repression of the demonstrators at a scheduled meeting on Monday in Brussels.

The EU imposed sanctions, including freezing assets and a visa ban on more than 60 Iranian officials and entities over the suppression of protests, including the morality police, IRGC commanders, and state media.

However, the EU is still discussing adding the IRGC to the blacklist of terrorist organizations despite calls from Germany and other member states to take this step.

For its part, Iran warned the EU against this move, and European officials fear that it could hinder attempts to revive the 2015 agreement on Tehran's nuclear program, mediated by Brussels.

"I think it's not a good idea because it prevents you from going ahead in other issues," a senior EU official said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry said that the EU foreign ministers are expected to agree to impose more sanctions targeting IRGC commanders at their meeting in Brussels on Monday.

Asked at a regular government news conference in Berlin whether sanctions could hamper diplomatic efforts to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, the spokesperson said: "The focus of our policy currently is increasing pressure on the Iranian regime."



Trump-Musk Showdown Threatens US Space Plans

This combination of pictures created on June 06, 2025 shows US President Donald Trump boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on May 12, 2025 and Elon Musk exiting Air Force One upon arrival at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, on March 22, 2025. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)
This combination of pictures created on June 06, 2025 shows US President Donald Trump boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on May 12, 2025 and Elon Musk exiting Air Force One upon arrival at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, on March 22, 2025. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)
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Trump-Musk Showdown Threatens US Space Plans

This combination of pictures created on June 06, 2025 shows US President Donald Trump boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on May 12, 2025 and Elon Musk exiting Air Force One upon arrival at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, on March 22, 2025. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)
This combination of pictures created on June 06, 2025 shows US President Donald Trump boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on May 12, 2025 and Elon Musk exiting Air Force One upon arrival at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, on March 22, 2025. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)

SpaceX's rockets ferry US astronauts to the International Space Station. Its Starlink satellite constellation blankets the globe with broadband, and the company is embedded in some of the Pentagon's most sensitive projects, including tracking hypersonic missiles.  

So when President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to cancel Elon Musk's federal contracts, space watchers snapped to attention.

Musk, the world's richest person, shot back that he would mothball Dragon -- the capsule NASA relies on for crew flights -- before retracting the threat a few hours later.

For now, experts say mutual dependence should keep a full-blown rupture at bay, but the episode exposes just how disruptive any break could be.

Founded in 2002, SpaceX leapfrogged legacy contractors to become the world's dominant launch provider.

Driven by Musk's ambition to make humanity multiplanetary, it is now NASA's sole means of sending astronauts to the ISS -- a symbol of post–Cold War cooperation and a testbed for deeper space missions.

Space monopoly?

The company has completed 10 regular crew rotations to the orbiting lab and is contracted for four more, under a deal worth nearly $5 billion.

That's just part of a broader portfolio that includes $4 billion from NASA for developing Starship, the next-generation megarocket; nearly $6 billion from the Space Force for launch services; and a reported $1.8 billion for Starshield, a classified spy satellite network.

Were Dragon grounded, the United States would again be forced to rely on Russian Soyuz rockets for ISS access -- as it did between 2011 and 2020, following the Space Shuttle's retirement and before Crew Dragon entered service.

"Under the current geopolitical climate, that would not be optimal," space analyst Laura Forczyk told AFP.

NASA had hoped Boeing's Starliner would provide redundancy, but persistent delays -- and a failed crewed test last year -- have kept it grounded.

Even Northrop Grumman's cargo missions now rely on SpaceX's Falcon 9, the workhorse of its rocket fleet.

The situation also casts a shadow over NASA's Artemis program.

A lunar lander variant of Starship is slated for Artemis III and IV, the next US crewed Moon missions. If Starship were sidelined, rival Blue Origin could benefit -- but the timeline would almost certainly slip, giving China, which aims to land humans by 2030, a chance to get there first, Forczyk warned.

"There are very few launch vehicles as capable as Falcon 9 -- it isn't feasible to walk away as easily as President Trump might assume," she said.

NASA meanwhile appeared eager to show that it had options.

"NASA is assessing the earliest potential for a Starliner flight to the International Space Station in early 2026, pending system certification and resolution of Starliner's technical issues," the agency said in a statement Friday to AFP.

Still, the feud could sour Trump on space altogether, Forczyk cautioned, complicating NASA's long-term plans.

SpaceX isn't entirely dependent on the US government. Starlink subscriptions and commercial launches account for a significant share of its revenue, and the company also flies private missions.

The next, with partner Axiom Space, will carry astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary, funded by their respective governments.

Private power, public risk

But losing US government contracts would still be a major blow.

"It's such a doomsday scenario for both parties that it's hard to envision how US space efforts would fill the gap," Clayton Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told AFP.

"Both sides have every reason to bridge the disagreement and get back to business."

Signs of a rift emerged last weekend, when the White House abruptly withdrew its nomination of e-payments billionaire Jared Isaacman -- a close Musk ally who has twice flown to space with SpaceX -- as NASA administrator.

On a recent podcast, Isaacman said he believed he was dropped because "some people had some axes to grind, and I was a good, visible target."

The broader episode could also reignite debate over Washington's reliance on commercial partners, particularly when one company holds such a dominant position.

Swope noted that while the US government has long favored buying services from industry, military leaders tend to prefer owning the systems they depend on.

"This is just another data point that might bolster the case for why it can be risky," he said. "I think that seed has been planted in a lot of people's minds -- that it might not be worth the trust."