On June 3, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), part of Iran's state media, reported that Colonel Ali Esmailzadeh, an officer of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force, died during an unspecified incident at his home in the Iranian city of Karaj. The IRNA denied that Esmailzadeh was assassinated. Esmailzadeh's death followed the assassination a month earlier of Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, another Qods Force officer whose death Iran blamed on Israel and the United States.
News Briefs
May 30, 2022
On May 30, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran had accumulated 43.3 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity, the approximate amount necessary to build a nuclear weapon if enriched further to 90 percent. The IAEA also said that Iran had failed to provide credible responses to questions from IAEA investigators about traces of uranium found at undeclared sites within Iran. Iranian officials want the IAEA to end its investigation in June and have threatened that a failure to do so could affect ongoing negotiations over its nuclear program. According to the IAEA, Iran also continues to produce advanced centrifuges.
-- The Wall Street Journal
May 28, 2022
On May 28, Iranian state media reported that Iran's regular army maintains a drone base several hundred meters underground in the Zagros Mountains in the vicinity of Kermanshah. The 100 drones reportedly kept there include the Ababil-5 model armed with Qaem-9 air-to-surface missiles, Iranian-designed replicas of U.S.-made Hellfire missiles.
-- Reuters
May 27, 2022
According to three Iranian sources, quadcopter suicide drones deployed from within Iran on May 25 launched an attack on the country's Parchin military facility. The attack targeted a site used by the Iranian Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) for drone development and resulted in the death of a MODAFL engineer. A MODAFL statement suggested that Iran saw the episode as an attack rather than an accident, as had been previously reported. An unnamed U.S. official confirmed that drones had attacked Parchin.
-- The New York Times
May 27, 2022
On May 27, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy detained two Greek-flagged oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, the Delta Poseidon and the Prudent Warrior, after accusing the ships of unspecified "violations." The IRGC also detained the tankers' crews, including two Greek citizens. According to the Greek foreign ministry, the vessel was seized in international waters. In April, Greece impounded the Pegas, an Iranian-flagged tanker with a Russian crew, under the authority of European Union sanctions. Greek authorities then allowed the United States to seize the vessel's oil. While Greece later released the Pegas, a news agency affiliated with Iran's security forces suggested that Iran would retaliate with "punitive action."
-- Reuters
May 26, 2022
One engineer died and another was injured in an incident at the Parchin military base in Iran on May 25, according to Iran's defense ministry. The ministry said that the accident had occurred at one of the facility's research units. Parchin was suspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to have been the location of nuclear detonation tests in the early 2000s.
-- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
May 25, 2022
Documents acquired by Israeli intelligence in 2018 and recently shown to The Wall Street Journal show that Iranian military and nuclear officials obtained confidential International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports between 2004 and 2006. The Iranian officials annotated the IAEA reports and discussed how to respond to Agency investigations, including by falsifying corporate records and sanitizing sites before inspectors arrived. In the documents, Iranian officials credited “intelligence methods” for procuring the confidential reports.
-- The Wall Street Journal
May 25, 2022
According to an unnamed intelligence official, Israel has informed U.S. officials that Israel was behind the assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei in Tehran on May 22. Iran has accused Israel of orchestrating the attack, but the Israeli government has not publicly accepted responsibility. According to the intelligence official, the assassination was meant to deter Iran from continuing to operate Unit 840, allegedly a secret IRGC Qods Force unit that targets foreigners, including Israelis, for abductions and assassinations. Khodaei was allegedly its deputy commander.
-- The New York Times
May 25, 2022
The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Greece’s top diplomat in Tehran over the Greek government's alleged seizeure of cargo from an Iran-flagged ship in Greek waters. Greece is holding the ship in its coastal waters, according to Iranian state media. Iranian media said that the vessel had to make an unplanned stop in Greece's territorial waters due to bad weather and technical issues, and accused Greece of capitulating to U.S. pressure to seize the cargo.
-- Associated Press
May 22, 2022
Two unidentified gunmen killed IRGC Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei outside his Tehran home on May 22. Khodaei's role within the IRGC is unclear, but state-affiliated media called him a "defender of the shrine," language that usually refers to Qods Force units that fight against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. The IRGC said "global arrogance," a term used often in Iran to refer to the United States and Israel, was behind the killing. The IRGC separately announced that it had uncovered an Israeli spy cell operating in the country.
-- Associated Press