Aug. 22 – The Islamic Republic of Iran said it would use more advanced missiles if Israel launched further military attacks, after a 12-day war in June between the countries.
The Islamic Republic’s defense minister said the weapons used during the conflict had been manufactured “a few years ago” and that its current arsenal had “far greater capabilities than previous missiles.”
Israel’s offensive, which targeted several nuclear sites in Iran and involved the assassination of key military officials and nuclear scientists, revealed critical weaknesses in the regime’s defense systems.
Comments made by the South African army chief General Rudzani Maphwanya in which he expressed support for the Islamic Republic, have been criticized by South Africa’s government as political and a form of “reckless grandstanding.”
Maphwanya told Iranian officials during a trip to Iran intended to strengthen military cooperation between the states, that the two countries had common aims, and stood “alongside the oppressed and defenseless people of the world.”
South Africa’s government called the comments “unfortunate” and said they did not “represent the government’s official foreign policy stance.”
And the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence for the labor activist Sharifeh Mohammadi, despite an earlier ruling overturning the sentence following due process concerns.
Mohammadi was arrested in July 2024 on several charges including “armed rebellion against the state” and membership to a banned Kurdish separatist group based in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
Vida Mohammadi, a cousin of the activist, has claimed the judge overseeing the current hearings is the son of the judge who issued the initial death sentence in 2024.
