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Iran said it had a court order to seize the Chevron tanker its naval forces approached and allegedly attempted to capture early Wednesday morning. 

The Maritime Search and Rescue Center of Iran’s Hormozgan Province told the country’s state-run news agency the Iranian navy had an order to seize the Bahamian-flagged Richmond Voyager oil tanker, Reuters reported. 

The tanker was traveling in international waters near Muscat, Oman, en route to the Arabian Sea when it issued a distress call, the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet said. An Iranian vessel came within a mile of the Richmond Voyager, ordered it to stop and fired at it. 

The American guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul arrived on the scene and turned the Iranian vessel away. An Iranian vessel had earlier approached another oil tanker with a Marshall Islands flag in international waters, but the USS McFaul deterred it, according to the U.S. Navy.

Iran said the Richmond Voyager, which it said had collided with an Iranian vessel, did not stop after the incident, leading to the owner of the Iranian ship requesting that it be seized. Iran said the collision injured five people. 

Chevron has said its crew members were safe, and the vessel was operating normally, according to Reuters. 

The U.S. Navy has said no one on the Richmond Voyager was injured in the incident, but bullets hit the ship’s hull near the living quarters. 

Iran successfully seized two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz in the spring. The Navy said Iran has harassed, attacked or seized about 20 internationally flagged merchant vessels since 2021.

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Iran says it had court order to seize Chevron tanker - The Hill

Trkiyes presidential elections were arguably one of the regions most closely watched political events in 2023. Following his victory in the May 28 runoff election, President Recep Tayyip Erdoan has secured another five years in office.

Trkiyes recent foreign policy has been characterized by reconciliation and normalization efforts on multiple fronts. These have included renewed relations with Egypt, with a symbolic handshake between Erdoan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, as well a presidential visit to the United Arab Emirates and a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman for the first time since murder of Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul. It is likely that these diplomatic efforts will continue as Erdoans new term begins; indeed, the presence of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at Erdoans inauguration ceremony and Sisis congratulatory message, along with the official elevation of Egyptian-Turkish diplomatic relations, are the first signs of this ongoing trend.

Following his election victory, Erdoan also received congratulations from Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who emphasized that ongoing Turkish-Iranian collaboration would create even more favorable conditions for regional peace and stability. Despite key foreign policy disagreementsincluding their divergent positions on Russias invasion of Ukraine and the future of Syrias leadershiprelations between Iran and Trkiye under Erdoan have remained close. During Erdoan's visit to Tehran last year, for example, eight agreements were signed between the two countries in the areas of trade, security, science, and sports.

Although it is expected that Trkiye will continue to work with Iran going forward, the relationship will largely depend on a Turkish-Syrian rapprochement.

While Trkiye severed its ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2011 and has consistently backed Syrian opposition groups, Trkiye will likely eventually resume full relations with the ruling Syrian regime. This is, in part, due to domestic pressures: the future of 3.4 million Syrian refugees in Trkiye was one of the key issues in the recent elections, and over the past year, Erdoan has pushed for their repatriation. So too do Trkiyes military operations to prevent a Kurdish-led state in the north of Syria require collaboration with the Assad regime. Therefore, we might see shuttle diplomacy between Ankara and Damascus, with Hakan Fidan, the former Turkish director of national intelligence and the new foreign minister, playing a key role.

Growing normalization between Trkiye and Syria was also evident before the recent elections. Moscow hosted a meeting between the defense ministers of Russia, Iran, Syria and Trkiye on April 25, as well as the first official meeting of foreign ministers on May 10. There, according to former Turkish foreign minister Mevlt avuolu, the ministers discussed the importance of collaborating to combat terrorism, facilitate the safe return of refugees, and safeguard Syrias territorial integrity.

Recent diplomatic developments in the Middle East, including Syrias readmission into the Arab League and growing rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, might help to promote reconciliation between Trkiye and Syria at the highest levels. However, the Assad regime has emphasized that any reconciliation will depend on the full departure of Turkish troops from Syrian territory.

In the event that Trkiye and Syria resume diplomatic relations, Iran, which is exerting a significant amount of effort to ensure that Assad remains in power, will not want to be excluded from the negotiations. These would help to determine the favorable conditions for a partnership between Ankara and Tehran, because the benefits of such a Turkish-Syrian rapprochement would be wide-ranging. Trkiye could take necessary steps to decrease the international isolation towards Syria, for example, and help to revive economic and security relations across the region.

Undoubtedly, if Raisi pays his first official visit to Trkiye, the future of Turkish policy towards Syria would be one of the first points of discussion. In an era of reconciliation between longstanding enemies across the Middle East, it would not be surprising to see Trkiye normalize ties with Syriaa major geopolitical shift with positive implications for bilateral Iran-Trkiye relations.

Ahmet Furkan Ozyakar holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Exeter. His work focuses on Irans foreign policy and public diplomacy. Follow him on Twitter @ahmetozyakar.

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Erdoan's Reelection and Regional Reconciliation: Are Iran and ... - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

The Justice Department today announced the filing of a forfeiture complaint against over 9,000 rifles, 284 machine guns, approximately 194 rocket launchers, over 70 anti-tank guided missiles and over 700,000 rounds of ammunition that the U.S. Navy seized in transit from Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to militant groups in Yemen.

The government of Iran, through its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, remains bent on smuggling weapons of war to militant groups in violation of U.S. sanctions and international law, said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Departments National Security Division. As this seizure demonstrates, the Department of Justice will work in lockstep with our U.S. Government partners to deny the Iranian regime the means to undermine our nations interest and threaten the security of our people.

The U.S. Attorneys Office has again taken action to prevent Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from spreading violence and bloodshed across the world and threatening the security of our nation and allies, said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia. As proven before, where we have jurisdiction, this office will use all the tools available in our power to prevent criminals and terrorists from threatening global stability.

It is paramount this significant amount of seized weapons and ammunition aimed to cause global devastation never reach its intended destination, said Special Agent in Charge Derek W. Gordon of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C. HSI Washington D.C., with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) and the assistance from U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, will continue to identify, disrupt and dismantle Irans illicit flow of weapons at every level. Offenders who violate U.S. export laws will be brought to justice, as we are committed to protecting our nation worldwide.

According to court documents, the noted weapons came from four interdictions of stateless dhow vessels: two from 2021 and two from 2023. These interdictions led to the discovery and seizure of four large caches of conventional weapons, including long arms and anti-tank missiles, and related munitions all of which were determined to be primarily of either Iranian, Chinese or Russian origin.

This action follows the governments March 2023 forfeiture action against over one million rounds of ammunition enroute from Iran to Yemen. The network for both actions was involved in the illicit trafficking of advanced conventional weapons systems and components by sanctioned Iranian entities that directly support military action by the Houthi movement in Yemen and the Iranian regimes campaign of terrorist activities throughout the region. The forfeiture complaint alleges a sophisticated scheme by the IRGC to clandestinely ship weapons to entities that pose grave threats to U.S. national security.

This forfeiture action is a product of the U.S. governments coordinated effort to enforce U.S. sanctions against the IRGC and the Iranian regime and are merely allegations.

The HSI Washington Field Office and the DCIS Mid-Atlantic Field Office are leading the larger investigation of the Iranian weapons-smuggling network, with substantial assistance from the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in conducting the seizure. This team was also responsible for the March 2023 forfeiture action, which remains pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stuart D. Allen, Brian P. Hudak, Rajbir S. Datta and Anna D. Walker for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorneys S. Derek Shugert and Joshua Champagne of the National Security Division are litigating the case, with support from Paralegal Specialists Brian Rickers and Angela De Falco.

The burden to prove forfeitability in a forfeiture proceeding is upon the government.

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United States Files Forfeiture Action Against Over Nine Thousand ... - Department of Justice

Mahsa Amini peers out from a mural by Rodrigo Pradel that covers an entire building side in a Washington, D.C. alley. Amini's death in police custody in Iran last year led to protests and a revolutionary movement. Rodrigo Pradel hide caption

Mahsa Amini peers out from a mural by Rodrigo Pradel that covers an entire building side in a Washington, D.C. alley. Amini's death in police custody in Iran last year led to protests and a revolutionary movement.

Mahsa Amini peers out from a mural that covers an entire building side in a Washington, D.C. alley, her head and shoulders floating over the words "Woman, Freedom, Life," and a lion and lioness flanking her.

The mural's painter is Rodrigo Pradel, a Chilean immigrant. He had no links to Iran or the large protests that erupted there when Amini, a young Kurdish woman, died in police custody last year. But it was his friend, Yasi Farazad, who inspired him to bring the movement half a world away to the streets of D.C., after seeing a similar piece in Los Angeles.

The project was a challenge. Unable to participate in the city's official mural program, Farazad had to seek out a site on her own, and finally found one with the help of a friend in a building that was owned by an Iranian American man. Pradel painted the mural in under 20 hours.

The mural shows Amini in the center with the colors of the Iranian flag. The lioness is a symbol of strong women in Persian culture.

"Mahsa is in the middle of it but she's not the only one who needs protection," Farazad told NPR. "I wanted this painting to represent all of us protecting women and men."

Rodrigo Pradel and Yasi Farazad stand in front of the mural Pradel painted in Washington, D.C. during the unveiling event of the mural on Jan. 15. Yasi Farazad hide caption

Rodrigo Pradel and Yasi Farazad stand in front of the mural Pradel painted in Washington, D.C. during the unveiling event of the mural on Jan. 15.

Before Pradel spray-painted the wall, a craft he has employed since the 90s, Farazad explained the history and context of revolutionary movements and protests in Iran to him.

"I felt honored to paint among many great muralists in D.C. but also be the extended paintbrush for all people who support life and liberty in Iran," he said.

Pradel then met local Iranian artists in the D.C. area and learned about their street art.

Many artists are fueled right now by the protests, working out their thoughts and emotions in bold, colorful pieces and trying to keep the fight of Iranian women from fading from view.

Amini was detained in Tehran on Sept. 16 by Iran's "morality police" for allegedly violating the country's dress rules. She died three days later in police custody. Her birth name was Jna, which means 'life' in Kurdish.

Protesters flocked into the streets, often shouting the slogan "woman, freedom, life," and men and women all across the world expressed their support. The #MahsaAmini hashtag was one of the most popular in Twitter history.

In the United States, artists were among the first to demonstrate their support in both traditional and innovative ways.

Art in major cities and globally "has awakened people about the struggle in Iran and kept them engaged with the ongoing fight of the Iranian people even when it stopped making headlines and the U.S. media largely stopped covering it," said Persis Karim, director of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies at San Francisco State University.

It has become an important vehicle to show what people in Iran are enduring, said Karim. She believes social media, particularly Instagram, has made Iranian art more accessible online. She highlighted MOZAIK's digital exhibitions as a significant example of collaboration between the diaspora around the world and local artists in Iran.

"It's not a revolution," she said. "It's a revolutionary movement, and it's not over yet."

The wall at 14th and U Streets in what is known as D.C.'s Harlem has already been vandalized twice, and Pradel is planning to repaint it.

For Farazad, who was born in Iran and had to leave when she was just 15 months old, everything about this wall is deeply personal.

Like the current revolution in Iran, this art has brought people together in ways she had never seen before, she said.

"There were two times in my life when I was really proud of myself," she said. "One was when my daughter was born. The second time was that evening when we finished painting the wall."

Since her family left Iran in 1979, Farazad has never been able to return.

"This wall is like my dream," she said. "I want to be able to go to Iran one day, not in shackles, not caged. I am raising a little girl to be a strong woman. I want all those little girls to have the same opportunities as my daughter does in America. And they don't."

Art supporting the protests in Iran has moved to the streets, affixed here on bikeshares in Washington, D.C. Hesam Mostafavi/Mina M. Jafari hide caption

Art supporting the protests in Iran has moved to the streets, affixed here on bikeshares in Washington, D.C.

Iranians have always used art to protest and communicate their ideas, said Mina M. Jafari, a Washington, D.C.- born Iranian American artist.

Since the protests last year, Jafari has noticed that Iranian art is moving out of the galleries and museums and onto the streets.

In Iran many artists don't have the luxury of exhibiting their work privately and they are constantly policed and censored, she said. So now they produce visual and performing art pieces literally in the street and at small community events.

"In Iran, art is many things. Sometimes it's a performance, sometimes it's a dream, sometimes it's anger and desperation, but it's always a way to live freely," she said.

Jafari quit her job working on Iranian-American issues at a progressive think tank because she thought Iranian voices, especially those of women, were being "ignored and excluded," she said. She and her Iranian husband now own an art studio called "Kucheh," which means "alley" in Farsi, less than three miles from Pradel's mural.

Jafari says her work is more nuanced than "hijab or removing the hijab."

In a bold, graphical piece called "Woman, Life, Freedom!" Jafari used black, white and red to relay a deeper meaning of the current revolution.

Two minarets of a masjid, or mosque, are formed by large hands, with a woman's face taking the place of the masjid's dome. A middle finger rises at the top of each minaret and flames flow from the mouth. The flames say "woman, life, freedom," in Persian, and Amini's name appears among the stars.

The face's unibrow represents all Iranian women, including queer Iranians, without eurocentric and gendered beauty standards, said Jafari.

Artist Mina M. Jafari uses a female head and arms to represent a masjid, or mosque, in this piece. Mina M. Jafari hide caption

Artist Mina M. Jafari uses a female head and arms to represent a masjid, or mosque, in this piece.

"My intention with this piece was to show that religion belongs to people," she said. "We deserve to take back our religion from those who use and abuse it for power."

The revolution begun less than a year ago is fizzling out, some scholars and observers say, not because the people have reached their aspirations but because of their economic struggles.

Many Iranians simply can't afford to sustain protests or strikes, said Assal Rad, author of State of Resistance: Politics, Culture & Identity in Modern Iran.

There are many pressures: U.S. sanctions, a record-high inflation rate of almost 50%, soaring youth unemployment. Over half of Iranians are now living in poverty, according to data from Iran's Statistics Center. On top of that, many Iranian artists who move to the U.S. say it is almost impossible to sell their work or send money home to their families' bank accounts.

In comparison to all past revolutions in Iran, this one was "leaderless," primarily spearheaded by young women, said Alex Shams, editor-in-chief of Ajam Media Collective, a platform focused on culture and society in Iran as well as Central and South Asia.

That fluidity has made the roles of artists even more important, he said.

"The artist movement outside of Iran can echo the voices inside of Iran and eventually create these connections across borders that both the Iranian government and the U.S. government have done a lot to prevent," he said.

Back to Jafari's painting of the woman and the mosque. At the time it was painted, an anonymous Iranian artist was dyeing fountains in Tehran blood-red. Jafari said, though, she also designed the flame coming out of the mouth of the woman to depict an Iranian symbol of rebirth.

"My art is not about destruction, but about bringing new life and leaving room for something else to grow," she said, adding that the women's revolution embodies that idea.

"It's infinite because it planted new seeds in us. Those who have lost their lives believed in women, life and freedom. And it's something that lives inside every Iranian," she said.

The slogan of the women's revolution on shirts hanging in Kucheh Art Studio + Shop in Washington, D.C. Hesam Mostafavi/Mina M. Jafari hide caption

The slogan of the women's revolution on shirts hanging in Kucheh Art Studio + Shop in Washington, D.C.

This digital story was edited by Lisa Lambert.

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Artists in the U.S. want to keep the Iran protests from fading from view - NPR

Hackers supporting the government of Iran are targeting experts in Middle Eastern affairs and nuclear security in a new campaign that researchers said involved malware for both Apple and Microsoft products.

Cybersecurity experts from Proofpoint attributed the campaign to a group they call TA453 but also is known as Charming Kitten, Mint Sandstorm or APT42, which has previously been tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization (IRGC-IO).

They found hackers pretending to be a senior fellow with the U.K. think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) while attempting to spread malware to a nuclear security expert at a U.S.-based think tank focused on foreign affairs.

The hackers continue to adapt the tools used during their attacks, deploying novel file types and targeting new operating systems, specifically sending Mac malware to one of its recent targets, Proofpoint said.

TA453s capability and willingness to devote resources into new tooling to compromise its targets exemplifies the persistence of state-aligned cyber threats, said Joshua Miller, a senior threat researcher for the company.

The threat actors continued efforts to iterate their infection chains to bypass security controls demonstrate how important a strong community informed defense is to frustrate even the most advanced adversaries.

In a report published Thursday, Miller and other Proofpoint researchers explained that the group uses Google Scripts, Dropbox and CleverApps to disrupt the efforts of threat hunters.

The goal of the campaign is reconnaissance, with the hackers deploying several backdoors in victims systems to gather intelligence.

The hackers were forced to shift their tactics in May after Microsoft made changes last year to a popular feature in its Office suite of apps. Past campaigns analyzed by Proofpoint saw the hackers use Microsofts Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macro to deploy malware but the tech giant announced that it is now blocking the feature by default in a variety of Office apps to limit its use among hackers.

Proofpoint attributed the campaign to Iranian actors based on both direct code similarities and similarities in overall campaign tactics, techniques, and procedures. Two of the backdoors found in the campaign date back to ones seen in 2021.

The campaign began in May with an email to an expert from a hacker purporting to be a senior fellow with RUSI.

The email said the researchers were working on a project called Iran in the Global Security Context and were looking for feedback from experts. To bolster its legitimacy, the hackers said the project was being worked on by other well-known nuclear security experts. The attackers had previously sent emails masquerading as those people, too. The hackers even offered to pay the expert for their take on the document.

TA453 eventually used a variety of cloud hosting providers to deliver a novel infection chain that deploys the newly identified PowerShell backdoor GorjolEcho, the researchers said.

At one point the hackers realized that a malicious file would not run on the victims Apple computer, so they sent another email with malware that would work on Mac operating systems.

Proofpoint said the likely goal is monitoring experts who are likely playing some role in the foreign policy positions taken by governments involved in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiations, known colloquially as the Iran nuclear agreement.

Proofpoint noted that its investigation into the campaign was assisted by Dropbox and HSBC Cyber Intelligence and Threat Analysis. Dropbox removed the accounts that were associated with the campaign after being notified by Proofpoint.

In April, Charming Kitten was accused of deploying a new strain of malware named BellaCiao against several victims in the U.S., Europe, India, Turkey and other countries.

Microsoft reported earlier this year that the same Iranian hacking group spent much of 2021 and 2022 directly targeting US critical infrastructure including seaports, energy companies, transit systems, and a major US utility and gas entity.

The increased aggression of Iranian threat actors appeared to correlate with other moves by the Iranian regime under a new national security apparatus, suggesting such groups are less bounded in their operations, Microsoft explained.

Recorded Future

Intelligence Cloud.

Jonathan Greig is a Breaking News Reporter at Recorded Future News. Jonathan has worked across the globe as a journalist since 2014. Before moving back to New York City, he worked for news outlets in South Africa, Jordan and Cambodia. He previously covered cybersecurity at ZDNet and TechRepublic.

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Iran-based hackers targeting nuclear security experts through Mac ... - The Record from Recorded Future News