July 21 – The UK’s Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, said Britain had experienced a high level of aggression from the Iranian regime, at a security forum in Colorado this week.
The foreign minister said Britain’s security services had foiled at least 15 kidnapping attempts by Iranian agents inside the UK.
Cleverly also said that the UK would support its allies in the Middle East to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
A lawmaker in Iran suggested that Tehran and Washington were using a secret phone line to hold discussions amid failed attempts at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.
The agreement, which places restrictions on Iran’s ability to develop its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief, was disrupted after former US President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal.
Reformist politician Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, said the hotline was helping to ease tensions between the two states, which have reached a critical point.
And a prominent Iranian actress, Afsaneh Bayegan, was charged in court with failing to wear the compulsory hijab headscarf in public.
Bayegan was given a suspended two-year sentence and ordered to attend a psychological center to treat what the court said was a “mental disorder” stemming from an “anti-family personality.”
The sentence follows the reinstatement of Iran’s morality police, who are tasked with enforcing mandatory hijab laws and penalizing women who fail to follow the dress code.
