Iran Crisis Update, October 23


The Iran Crisis Updates are produced by the Critical Threats Project (CTP) on the American Enterprise Institute with assist from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). To obtain Iran Crisis Updates by way of e-mail, please subscribe here. 

Iranian college and highschool college students are sustaining the momentum of the continued anti-regime protest motion, main the demonstrations into their 37th consecutive day. Iranian college students led 15 of 16 documented protests on October 23.[i] Some college students are difficult regime rules inside educational areas. Sharif University college students reportedly repelled Iranian safety forces attempting to implement gender segregation on campus on October 23, for example.[ii] The surge in pupil protest exercise on October 23 in comparison with latest days means that college students stay able to efficiently coordinating countrywide demonstrations regardless of intensifying regime censorship and disruptions to telecommunications.

Some Iranian academics are publicly supporting pupil protesters. Iranian academics in at the least 9 cities in 5 provinces participated in strikes condemning the regime’s detention of and violence towards highschool protesters on October 23.[iii] The Iranian Educators Trade Union Organization known as for extra countrywide strikes on October 24.[iv]

Iranian officers are more and more framing academic establishments because the nuclei of anti-regime sentiment and the continued unrest. An Iranian parliamentarian said that Iran’s enemies are utilizing Iranian colleges to foment unrest on October 23, echoing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s handle on October 19.[v] Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Commander Major General Hossein Salami equally framed Iranian colleges as an ideological battlefield on October 16.[vi]

A senior Iranian Sunni cleric—Maulvi Abdol Hamid—could emerge as a neighborhood protest chief in Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchistan Province. Abdol Hamid is a traditionally vocal regime critic and the Sunni non secular chief in Zahedan. Abdol Hamid and regime officers have rhetorically clashed in latest days over the regime’s brutal protest crackdown in Zahedan on September 30.[vii] Abdol Hamid criticized Khamenei throughout a Friday sermon on October 21 after which tons of of protesters took to the streets in Zahedan.[viii] The IRGC and Interior Ministry individually accused Abdol Hamid of instigating the protests throughout his sermon.[ix] Abdol Hamid responded to the IRGC and Interior Ministry on October 23, reaffirming his assist for the protesters and calling for the arrest of the people answerable for the crackdown.[x] Abdol Hamid additionally criticized President Ebrahim Raisi for ignoring the folks’s calls for and refusing to sympathize.[xi] Abdol Hamid may instigate future anti-regime demonstrations and sentiment in Zahedan because the countrywide protest wave continues.

Key Takeaways

  • Iranian college and highschool college students are sustaining the momentum of the continued protest motion, main the demonstrations into their 37th consecutive day.
  • A senior Iranian Sunni cleric—Maulvi Abdol Hamid—could emerge as a neighborhood protest chief in Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchistan Province.
  • Anti-regime protests occurred in at the least 16 cities in 13 provinces.
  • Iranian state media and proxy Telegram channels reported that unidentified militants launched 4 rockets on the al Omar oilfield, which homes US forces, in jap Syria.

Anti-Regime Protests

Anti-regime protests occurred in at the least 16 cities in 13 provinces on October 23. CTP assesses with reasonable to excessive confidence that protests occurred within the following places:

  • Karaj, Alborz Province (Over 100 Azad Alborz University college students chanting “assist [us], assist [us]”)[xii]
  • Esfahan City, Esfahan Province (Esfahan University Arts, Architecture and Urban Planning college students holding palms and stomping ft. Dozens of highschool college students chanting anti-regime slogans on campus)[xiii]
  • Khomeinishahr, Esfahan Province (Over 100 Azad Khomeinishahr University college students chanting “shameless, shameless”)[xiv]
  • Sepahan Shahr, Esfahan Province (Roughly 50 Ashrafi Esfahani college students protested on campus)[xv]
  • Jahrom, Fars Province (Dozens of Jahrom University college students)[xvi]
  • Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan Province (Undetermined variety of Azad Bandar Abbas University college students chanting “assist [us], assist [us]”)[xvii]
  • Kermanshah City, Kermanshah Province (Undetermined variety of Razi University pupil protesters. Kermanshah highschool pupil protesting on campus)[xviii]
  • Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi Province (dozens of Ferdowsi University protesters)[xix]
  • Dezfoul, Khuzestan Province (Over 100 Azad Dezful University college students chanting “assist [us], assist [us]”)[xx]
  • Divandarreh, Kurdistan Province (unspecified variety of protesters gathered on avenue)[xxi]
  • Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province (Iranian safety forces shot at pupil protesters to disperse demonstrations on the road)[xxii]
  • Tehran City, Tehran Province (Over 100 Sharif University college students protested and broke gender segregation guidelines on campus, reportedly efficiently repelling safety forces. Over 100 Allameh Tabatabaei college students clashed with pro-regime protesters. Undetermined variety of Tehran University Social Science college students and Amir Kabir University college students protested on their respective campuses)[xxiii]
  • Mahabad, West Azerbaijan Province (Dozens of pupil protesters on metropolis streets)[xxiv]
  • Yazd City, Yazd Province (Over 50 Yazd University Art and Architecture college students protesting on campus. Footage may very well be from 22 October.)[xxv]
  • Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchistan Province (Roughly 50 Zahedan University Medical Sciences college students chanting “our cash is in Lebanon, our youth in jail” on campus)(*23*)

CTP assesses with low confidence that protests occurred within the following location:

  • Yasouj, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer and Ahmad Province (Reports of Yasouj University pupil protests, no footage accessible)[xxvii]

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) confirmed on October 23 that the Black Reward group hacked the e-mail server of one of many AEOI subsidiaries.[xxviii] The AEOI is the regime entity answerable for overseeing Iran’s nuclear amenities and program.  The AEOI accused an unidentified international nation of accountability for the hack.[xxix] The AEOI was responding to Black Reward publishing 50 gigabytes of paperwork associated to the Iranian nuclear program on October 22, as CTP beforehand reported.[xxx]

The Artesh Ground Forces introduced that its 164th Mobile Assault Brigade started conducting a army train round Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan Province on October 22.[xxxi] The Artesh could use this train to sign its readiness to crackdown on protesters in northwestern Iran. The Artesh may additionally use this train as a canopy for a partial mobilization to organize for violent protest suppression. Cities and cities surrounding Piranshahr, corresponding to Boukan, Mahabad, and Saghez, skilled protests on October 22.[xxxii]

The IRGC Ground Forces introduced the loss of life of a member of its 57th Abol Fazl Independent Brigade on October 22.[xxxiii] The IRGC Ground Forces said that the person died throughout a mission in northwestern Iran however didn’t present additional particulars.[xxxiv] The IRGC member could have died in clashes with anti-regime Kurdish militants or protesters. The 57th Brigade is headquartered in Khorramabad, Lorestan Province.[xxxv] The presence of the 57th Brigade in northwestern Iran could point out that the regime deployed items there from elsewhere round Iran to suppress the continual protests among the many Kurdish communities in West Azerbaijan and Kurdistan provinces.

Axis of Resistance and Regional Developments

Iranian state media and proxy Telegram channels reported that unidentified militants launched 4 rockets on the al Omar oilfield, which homes US forces, in jap Syria on October 22.[xxxvi] CTP can not confirm this reporting. US CENTCOM has not confirmed the assault occurred. Iranian state media and proxy Telegram channels typically declare false assaults on US positions. The IRGC could have ordered its proxies to assault the oilfield if the reporting is true to retaliate for the perceived US function in stoking the protests. The IRGC could have additionally sought to retaliate for the Israeli airstrike on a possible Iranian or Iranian-backed place close to Damascus on October 21.[xxxvii] The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Israel focused an Iranian drone-assembly facility within the airstrike.[xxxviii]

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