TEHRAN: Iran has executed two men convicted of killing four police officers in 2016 in a region hit by a wave of violence in September, the judiciary said Wednesday.
"Two members of the Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) terrorist group, Rashid Baluch and Eshaq Askani, were executed yesterday in Zahedan prison," the judiciary's Mizan Online website reported.
Jaish al-Adl was formed in 2012 by former members of an extremist Sunni Muslim organisation that led a bloody rebellion in Sistan-Baluchistan, on Iran's border with Pakistan.
The two men were found guilty of killing four police border guards and wounding several officers in 2016 in the impoverished southeastern province, Mizan Online said.
Dozens of people, including six members of the security forces, were killed in clashes that broke out in Zahedan after Friday prayers on September 30, the authorities said.
Iranian media outlets reported at the time that Jaish al-Adl claimed responsibility for an attack on a police station during the violence.
But an influential leader of Sistan-Baluchistan's Sunni minority, cleric Molavi Abdol Hamid, rejected the involvement of Jaish al-Adl or any other group in the violence.
After an investigation at the request of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, authorities dismissed two senior security officials in the region, including Zahedan's police chief.
The bloodshed in Zahedan came two weeks after nationwide unrest erupted over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, following her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating Iran's strict dress code for women.
According to London-based rights group Amnesty International, Iran is second only to China in its use of the death penalty, with at least 314 people executed in 2021.
Iran executes two men convicted over 2016 police killings
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Iran executes two men convicted over 2016 police killings
Timeline of tensions and hostilities between Israel and Iran
Israel said it targeted nuclear and military facilities, killing Iran’s top military and nuclear scientists.
Israel’s attack comes as tensions have escalated over Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, which Israel sees as a threat to its existence.
Here is a timeline of some significant events in the hostilities between the two countries:
Early days
1967 — Iran takes possession of its Tehran Research Reactor under America’s “Atoms for Peace” program.
1979 — Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, fatally ill, flees Iran as popular protests against him surge. Pahlavi maintained economic and security ties with Israel. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran and the Islamic Revolution sweeps him to power. Students seize the United States Embassy in Tehran, beginning the 444-day hostage crisis. Iran’s nuclear program goes fallow under international pressure. Iran’s new theocracy identifies Israel as a major enemy.
August 2002 — Western intelligence services and an Iranian opposition group reveal Iran’s secret Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.
June 2003 — Britain, France and Germany engage Iran in nuclear negotiations.
October 2003 — Iran suspends uranium enrichment.
February 2006 — Iran announces it will restart uranium enrichment following the election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Britain, France and Germany walk out of stalled negotiations.
June 2009 — Iran’s disputed presidential election sees Ahmadinejad reelected despite fraud allegations, sparking Green Movement protests and violent government crackdown.
October 2009 — Under President Barack Obama, the US and Iran open a secret backchannel for messages in the sultanate of Oman.
Iran’s nuclear program is a primary target
2010 — The Stuxnet computer virus is discovered and widely believed to be a joint US-Israeli creation. The virus disrupted and destroyed Iranian centrifuges.
July 14, 2015 — World powers and Iran announce a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limits Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
2018 — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel obtained tens of thousands of pages of data showing Iran covered up its nuclear program before signing a deal with world powers in 2015. An ex-Mossad chief confirms the information was obtained by more than a dozen non-Israeli agents from safes in Tehran in 2018. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdraws from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
2020 — Alleged Israeli attacks against Iran’s nuclear program are stepped up significantly after the disintegration of the 2015 nuclear deal meant to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
July 2020 — A mysterious explosion tears apart a centrifuge production plant at Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. Iran blames the attack on Israel.
November 2020 — A top Iranian military nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, is killed by a remote-controlled machine gun while traveling in a car outside Tehran. A top Iranian security official accuses Israel of using “electronic devices” to remotely kill the scientist, who founded Iran’s military nuclear program in the 2000s.
April 11, 2021 — An attack targets Iran’s underground nuclear facility in Natanz. Iran blames Israel, which does not claim responsibility, but Israeli media widely reports the government orchestrated a cyberattack that caused a blackout at the facility.
April 16, 2021 — Iran begins enriching uranium up to 60 percent, its highest purity ever and a technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.
June 2022 — Iran accuses Israel of poisoning two nuclear scientists in different cities within three days of each other, though circumstances remain unclear.
Mideast wars
Oct. 7, 2023 — Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip storm into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostage, beginning the most intense war between Israel and Hamas. Iran, which has armed Hamas, offers support to the militants.
Feb. 14, 2024 — An Israeli sabotage attack causes multiple explosions on an Iranian natural gas pipeline running from Iran’s western Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province to cities on the Caspian Sea.
April 1, 2024 — An Israeli airstrike demolishes Iran’s Consulate in Damascus, Syria, killing 16 people, including two Iranian generals.
April 14, 2024 — Iran launches an unprecedented missile and drone attack on Israel, firing over 300 missiles and attack drones in response to the Israeli airstrike in Damascus. Working with a US-led international coalition, Israel intercepts much of the incoming fire.
April 19, 2024 — A suspected Israeli strike hits an air defense system near an airport in Isfahan, Iran.
July 31, 2024 — Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is assassinated by an apparent Israeli airstrike during a visit to Tehran. Israel had pledged to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the Oct. 7 attack.
Sept. 27, 2024 — Israeli airstrike kills Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Formed by Iranian Revolutionary Guard members who went to Lebanon in 1982 to fight invading Israeli forces, Hezbollah was the first group that Iran backed and used as a way to export its brand of political Islam.
Oct. 1, 2024 — Iran launches its second direct attack on Israel, though a US-led coalition and Israel shoot down most of the missiles.
Oct. 16, 2024 — Israel kills Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in the Gaza Strip.
Oct. 26, 2024 — Israel openly attacks Iran for the first time, striking air defense systems and sites associated with its missile program.
April 30, 2025 — Iran executes a man it said worked for Israel’s Mossad foreign intelligence agency and played a role in the killing of Revolutionary Guard Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei in Tehran on May 22, 2022.
Friday, June 13, 2025 — Israel launches blistering attacks on the heart of Iran’s nuclear and military structure, deploying warplanes and drones previously smuggled into the country to assault key facilities and kill top generals and scientists.
Saturday, June 14, 2025 — Israel expands its airstrikes to include targets in Iran’s energy industry as Iranian missile and drone attacks continue on Israel.
Sunday, June 15, 2025 — Israel unleashes airstrikes across Iran for a third day and threatens even greater force as some Iranian missiles evade Israeli air defenses to strike buildings in the heart of the country. Planned talks on Iran’s nuclear program in Oman between the United States and Tehran, which could provide an off-ramp, are called off.
Iran says Israel attack on Gulf gas facility attempt ‘to expand war’
TEHRAN: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday Israel’s attack on a major gas facility on the shore of the Gulf sought “to expand the war beyond” Iran.
“Dragging the conflict into the Arabian Gulf region is a major strategic mistake, likely deliberate and intended to extend the war beyond Iranian territory,” Araghchi told foreign diplomats, referring to the attack on the South Pars refinery, adding that that attack was “an extremely dangerous move.”
Jordan reopens airspace after overnight Israel-Iran attacks
AMMAN: Jordan announced the reopening of its airspace Sunday morning after a night of attacks by arch-foes Israel and Iran.
The civil aviation authority in Jordan, which borders Israel, said in a statement that the country’s airspace had been reopened “for civilian flights following a careful risk assessment.”
The kingdom had closed the airspace late Saturday, its second closure since the start of the most intense direct confrontation between Israel and Iran.
Israel’s goal might be regime change in Iran: Experts
- Iran’s leadership will define victory as being its ‘survival’: Middle East Institute senior fellow
- Ex-US Navy commander: ‘It’s a long shot that they’ll come to the (negotiating) table in the near future’
CHICAGO: Israel’s military assault against Iran could continue for weeks, with the possible goal of regime change, a panel of experts hosted by the Middle East Institute said on Saturday.
Panelists included retired Gen. Joseph L. Votel, former commander of US Central Command; retired Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, former commander of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet; and Alex Vatanka, MEI senior fellow and Iran specialist who also teaches at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
Vatanka said it is too early to determine if Israel’s main goal besides crippling Iran’s nuclear program is regime change, but “we might be going in (that) direction.”
He added: “That’s certainly what I think a majority of Iranian officials think that Israel wants. The big unknown in all of this is whether the Israelis somehow can get (US President Donald) Trump to buy into it the way he bought into the initial attack on Iran.”
Israel has launched attacks against an array of Iranian targets, including its military leadership and nuclear program. Tehran has responded by launching missiles and drones at Israel.
The panelists were in agreement in their belief that the conflict would not expand to include other countries.
Iran’s leadership will define victory as being its “survival,” Vatanka said, adding that while Israel has the backing of the US and “most of Europe,” Tehran “isn’t getting any help from anyone.”
He said: “I don’t think they’re getting help from what’s left of the axis of resistance … I question what the axis of resistance members can actually do at this point.”
Its members include Hamas and Hezbollah, which have been severely weakened by Israel’s military, and the Houthis in Yemen. It included Syria until the fall of President Bashar Assad in December.
Donegan said: “I think the question is, does Iran think they’ve done enough in terms of lashing back that they can throw an olive branch to get some talks going again? I think it’s a long shot, to be honest, that they’ll come to the table in the near future.”
Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz, but “the problem with closing Hormuz is they then don’t get the economic benefit of flowing their oil out,” he added.
The end game will be defined by how far Israel intends to go with its war, the panelists said.
“The Americans are playing the good cop here. President Trump has kept the door for diplomacy open,” Vatanka said.
“The Israelis are playing the bad cop, saying, ‘If you don’t give Trump what he wants then we’ll come after you.’”
Iran FM accuses UN Security Council of ‘indifference’ over Israel attacks
- Abbas Araghchi: Tehran has evidence to show US forces supported the intense bombardment campaign
TEHRAN: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi slammed the United Nations Security Council on Sunday, accusing it of “indifference” over Israel’s deadly attacks on the Islamic republic.
In a meeting with foreign diplomats broadcast on state TV, Araghchi said the Israeli attack “is being met with indifference at the Security Council,” adding that Western governments have “condemned Iran instead of Israel despite it being the side that was violated.”
Araghchi also said Tehran had evidence to show US forces supported the intense bombardment campaign Israel launched against the Islamis republic this week.
“We have solid proof of the support of the American forces and American bases in the region for the attacks of the Zionist regime military forces,” Araghchi said.
