“Iran’s incoming president shoots down Biden plan to expand nuclear deal to missile program,” Joel Gehrke, Yahoo, June 22, 2021.

“According to eyewitnesses in various Iranian cities, most polling stations were completely deserted, indicating widespread boycotts of the election by the majority of the population. In spite of this reality, however, as it has been common practice by Khamenei to legitimize the elections and his regime, he claimed that more than 28 million people, or nearly 50% of eligible voters had cast their ballots, quintupling the actual number of vote casters. While according to reports, and numerous clips that are made by witnesses in various polling stations in different cities of Iran and published in cyberspace, the turnout in this election show was less than 10% of eligible voters.”  See “The End Of Iran’s Sham Elections,” Cyrus Yaqubi, op-ed, Eurasia Review, June 22, 2021.

“Analysis: Iran vote points to hardline goal of long-term power – analysts,” John Irish and Parisa Hafezi, Reuters, June 22, 2021.

“Iranian Nuclear Weapons Development Sites Requiring IAEA Inspections – Analysis,” Joshua Block, Eurasia Review, Hudson Institute, June 22, 2021.

“Iran, Russia, and Turkey: A Eurasionist Model of Foreign Relations,” Emil Avdaliani, BESA, June 22, 2021.

So much that is incorrect in this article, but I’ll post it to show the propaganda.  “Iran stands tall against COVID-19 ‘vaccine apartheid’,” Faranak Bakhtiari, Tehran Times, June 22, 2021.

Appeasement.  “Biden Wants a Deal With the Khobar Towers Killers,” Mike Pompeo, op-ed, Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2021.

So here are some numbers—maybe the turnout nation-wide was 20%?  “Official turnout in the June 18 election was 48.8 percent, the lowest ever registered in the Islamic republic, which was established in 1979. In the capital, Tehran, only 26 percent of registered voters decided to participate. By comparison, the turnout in the last two presidential elections — in 2013 and 2017 — was about 73 percent, while in 2009 nearly 85 percent of voters cast their ballots, according to official Interior Ministry statistics. The number of spoiled ballots in last week’s presidential vote was 3.7 million — or about 12 percent of the total. That suggests that many people cast protest votes despite a fatwa by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banning blank votes “if they result in the weakening of the Islamic establishment.” In previous elections, an average of about 2 percent of the votes were invalid.”  See “Voters Send A Message To Iran’s Leaders After Dismal Turnout For Presidential Election,” Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL, June 22, 2021.

“U.S. Seizes Websites Used by Iran-Backed Terror Orgs,” Sara Marcus, Hamodia, June 22, 2021.

“Pentagon tracked failed Iranian satellite launch and new images reveal Tehran is set to try again,” Zachary Cohen and Oren Lieberman, CNN, June 22, 2021.

“U.S. blocks websites linked to Iranian disinformation,” Reuters, June 22, 2021.

“DOJ seizes 36 U.S. website domains for Iranian government disinformation,” Rebecca Falconer, Axios, June 22, 2021.

“The failed launch attempt is the fourth consecutive failure of the Simorgh launcher,” said Lewis [Jeffrey Lewis is a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies], author of an upcoming book on Iran’s space program. “Iran seems to be struggling with this specific system.”  See “Pentagon tracked failed Iranian satellite launch and new images reveal Tehran is set to try again,” Zachary Cohen and Oren Liebermann, CNN, June 22, 2021.

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