And the Supreme Leader “said that Iran would maintain its close alliances with militia groups in the region that it uses as proxies,” so it won’t negotiate, and will increase its nuclear program. It sound like Iran is not yet withdrawing from using bad acts (even if reduced in funding in Syria). The Revolution continues. “Iran Will Expand Nuclear Program and Won’t Talk to U.S., Ayatollah Says,” Farnaz Fassihim New York Times, August 1, 2020.
This story is a little bit of a mystery. We will learn more in following days. “Iran says it has arrested the head of a United States-based “terrorist group” accused of bombing a mosque in 2008 that killed 14 people and wounded more than 200 others in the southern city of Shiraz. The group’s “Jamshid Sharmahd, who was leading armed and sabotage operations inside Iran, is now in the powerful hands” of Iran’s security forces, state television said in a report on Saturday, citing a statement from the intelligence ministry. The statement did not elaborate on where or when the leader of the opposition royalist group known as the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, known in Farsi as Anjoman-e Padeshahi-e Iran, or Tondar (Farsi for thunder), was arrested. The group seeks to restore Iran’s monarchy.” See “Iran says it has arrested head of US-based ‘terrorist group’,” Al Jazeera, August 1, 2020. See also “Who is Jamshid Sharmahd and what is the alleged US terror group ‘Thunder’?,” Seth Frantzman, Jerusalem Post, August 1, 2020.