Dec. 22 – The Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had launched an expanded naval fleet with more than 33,000 ships equipped with rockets and manned by over 55,000 men.
The announcement comes amid rising tensions in the Red Sea, which has seen the Iran regime-funded Houthi militant group attack vessels in the region in an escalation of the Israel-Hamas war.
The US has also launched a multinational operation to counter attacks in the Red Sea.
The IRGC was accused of plotting to kill two news presenters at a media outlet in London critical of the regime’s activities, according to an investigation by British news channel ITV.
The plot, which involved two presenters at Iran International, failed after the people-smuggler hired to carry out the killings contacted ITV with alleged details about the plan.
The smuggler told ITV that Iranian spies had offered him more than £150, 000 to assassinate the reporters, to show opponents of the regime that they “could do harm to them at any time.”
And Iran government documents appearing to suggest a fresh round of measures to enforce the regime’s compulsory hijab law was allegedly leaked to BBC Persia this week.
The documents outline the creation of pop-up courts in public spaces such as shopping malls, as well as prison sentences for celebrities who flout the law.
An Iranian news outlet which had previously shared an extract from one of the documents was charged with publishing classified documents. Iran’s government has been heavily criticized by the United Nations over its forced hijab legislation, calling it a form of gender apartheid.
