July 14 – A lawmaker in Iran’s parliament accused Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi of lying about addressing the country’s economic crisis, in a series of tweets this week.
Jalal Mahmoudzadeh cited crippling inflation, long queues for food and rising prices for staple goods, as examples of the government’s failure to tackle acute poverty in the country.
The lawmaker also challenged the government’s stance that much of Iran’s economic woes had been caused by foreign states, and that the government’s decision to restrict social networks had led to the loss of 9 million jobs.
A legislative bill was passed in the UK, giving the British government greater powers to stop Iran’s regime from launching physical and cyber attacks against UK individuals and businesses.
The National Security Act provides intelligence agencies with tools to prevent foreign states from carrying out espionage, political interference and threats to life.
The Act also includes a Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, which makes it a criminal offense for an individual to work covertly for a state deemed to be a threat to national security.
And Iran’s security forces were accused of launching a violent crackdown on Iraq-Iran war veterans protesting about their standard of living.
The men were demonstrating in front of a government office in Tehran, responsible for the welfare of veterans. Videos posted on social media appeared to show security forces using tear gas, leaving some veterans in critical condition after inhaling the chemical.
The government’s poor treatment of Iran’s veterans has been criticized in recent years, which includes an estimated 500,000 disabled veterans many of whom were victims of Iraq’s chemical weapon attacks on Iran.
