“Iran executes nearly 20 Kurdish prisoners in two weeks: Watchdog,” Rudaw, 1-14-24.  “According to an Amnesty International report, Iran became the nation with the second-highest rate of known executions in 2022, having executed 576 people across the country, which was a staggering increase from 314 the year before. The surge of executions did not lose pace in 2023. In July, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported that at least 354 people, including six women, were executed in the first six months of 2023 and Iranian authorities reported only 43 of the recorded executions, which make up just 12 percent of the total. … Many of those who are executed in Iran are convicted based on confessions condemned by rights groups as often obtained under duress.”

“Iranian Official Faces Health Speculation Following Viral Video,” Iran International, 1-14-24.  Sanctioned by the U.S., and a key foreign adviser in Iran’s controversial and deadly foreign policy, Ali Akbar Velayati is now very ill (see the video).  FYI, Argentina is one of six persons with an arrest warrants for the 1994 BA Jewish Center (AMIA) bombing that killed scores.  He is on the Wanted list of Interpol.

First, check Webster’s for “defeated.”  Second, Pres. Raisi must be advocating for Military Darwinism when he says, “the Palestinians, on their own initiative, upgraded the war from a war with stones to a war with missiles and drones.”  Impressive, in such a short time frame!  See “Iran’s Raisi declares victory of Islamic world over ‘defeated Zionist regime’,” Times of Israel, 1-14-24.

“Oct. 7 was the opening attack in Iran’s ‘ring of fire’ war against Israel,” The Hill, 1-14-24.