Al Tanf is in the news again, as the U.S. inspects a Mahan Air plane that apparently overflew (on purpose?) the U.S. military base, which is located inside Syria on the road between Baghdad and Damascus and intended to block overland weapons and missile deliveries from Iran to Syria and Hezbollah.  I’m guessing the U.S. has communicated beforehand that the regular flights from Tehran should not fly over Al Tanf (for surveillance purposes or to act as a suicide plane), and that on this particular flight the IRGC decided to send the U.S. a message.  Maybe pilot error.  So the U.S. sent the F-15 for a  look-over.  Most media are not covering the Al Tanf basis for the entire story, and are only reporting that the U.S. intercepted an Iranian commercial plane, came within 100 feet (the video doesn’t support that), and that a drop in altitude resulted in several injuries on board to persons not seat belted.  See  “US admits to intercepting Iranian passenger plane,” DW, July 23, 2020.   See also, “Iran says passenger plane ‘harassed’ over Syria by US jet,” Amir Vahdat, AP, July 23, 2020.

Al Tanf is in the news again, as the U.S. inspects a Mahan Air plane that apparently overflew (on purpose) the U.S. military base, which is located on the road between Baghdad and Damascus and intended to block overland weapons and missile deliveries.  I’m guessing the U.S. has communicated beforehand that the regular Tehran to Beirut flight should not fly over Al Tanf (for surveillance purposes or to act as a suicide plane), and that this particular flight decided to send the U.S. a message.  So the U.S. sent a message back with the F-15 look-over.  See  “US admits to intercepting Iranian passenger plane,” DW, July 23, 2020.

President Hassan Rouhani’s recent announcement that 25 million Iranians may have been infected with the coronavirus, a figure drastically higher than the country’s official tally, has left many perplexed and fearful.  “Confusion And Fear as Iran Says Millions May Have Virus,” Amir Havasi, Bourse & Bazaar, July 23, 2020.

“Iran Parliament Decision To Distribute $600 Million ‘Free Asphalt’ Ticket To Corruption,” Radio Farda, July 23, 2020.  “Critics say providing free asphalt to road construction contractors to help the development of rural roads only benefits the contractors and claim that contractors often use less asphalt in building roads than is actually required and sell the extra in the open market or illegally export it.”

Good detective reporting.  And notice where the advertising eventually ended up.  “Spain’s El Mundo on Thursday reported that the Economic and Fiscal Crime Division of the Spanish Police (UDEF) has announced that between 2012 and 2015 the media company belonging to Pablo Iglesias, the leader of the leftist, anti-corruption Podemos Party, received more than nine million euros from Iran through other companies. El Mondo said evidence gathered by the Police and anti-money laundering committee indicates that the 16 companies suspected of money laundering injected a total of 9.3 million euro of illicit Iranian money into the leftist politician’s company. … Hispan TV is run by Iranian citizen Mahmoud Alizadeh Azimi and its programs mainly target Latin American states such as Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Nicaragua and Mexico.”  See “Spanish Officials Say Anti-Corruption Party Received Money From Iran,” Radio Farda, July 23, 2020.

221 died on Wednesday, reported on Thursday, July 23.  “25 of Iran’s 31 provinces on coronavirus watch list,” Al Monitor, July 23, 2020.

Environmental protection has never been a priority of the Regime.  “According to the Statistics Center of Iran, the area of Iran’s forests in 1900 was about 19 million hectares, but this figure decreased to 14.4 million hectares by 2012, and in 2015 Iran’s forest areas shrunk to 10.7 million hectares and were destroyed by 43%.  …  The head of the Iranian Forestry Association says we predict that you may not see any forests in the north of the country in the next 30 years.”  See “Experts Warn That Iran’s Environment Is Moving Towards a Point of No Return,” Jubin Katiraie, Iran Focus, July 23, 2020.