Security Consequences of the Attack on Israel in Iran: Prosecutor's Office Files Charges Against Etemad Newspaper and Abbas Abdi

On Sunday, April 15, the Islamic Republic's judiciary news agency reported that the Tehran Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office has filed charges against the Etemad newspaper and reformist political analyst Abbas Abdi, citing the judiciary's "legal duty to confront disruptors of the psychological security of society." According to the "Mizan" news agency, both Etemad and Abbas Abdi were summoned to the Tehran Prosecutor's Office for what was termed "providing explanations." In another report, the "Entekhab" website noted that Yashar Soltani, the manager of the "Iskan News" channel, has also been summoned. He had recently made headlines by exposing a land-grabbing case involving Kazem Sediqi, the temporary Friday prayer leader of Tehran, and his sons. The details of the summons were not mentioned in the reports from Mizan and Entekhab, but Abbas Abdi had written in a note in the Sunday edition of Etemad: "Deterrence through conventional weapons against a country whose existence is not recognized or is sought to be destroyed is meaningless and impractical." In this note, which was supposed to be published on Saturday, April 14, he stated, "Therefore, sooner or later we will reach a stage that we have apparently avoided until now" and asked, "What is the solution? Other than changing regional macro-policies, no other way will prevent potential conflict." In recent months, several analysts and even some former officials and ambassadors of the Islamic Republic have called for changes in Tehran's foreign policy. In part of his note for Etemad, Abbas Abdi wrote: "The existing tension will sooner or later lead to conflict, and the dangers of this situation are, at least for Iran, even worse than military confrontation between the two sides." A large number of political and civil figures, independent labor and professional organizations in Iran, as well as some opposition parties and organizations, have warned about the dangers of the Iranian government's adventurism before and after the missile and drone attacks on Israel. The Islamic Republic launched over 300 missiles and drones towards Israel in these attacks, which began late on Saturday and continued until early Sunday. Israeli and U.S. officials say only a few of these missiles and drones penetrated the defense shield. Abbas Abdi also clarified regarding the attack attributed to Israel two weeks ago on the Islamic Republic's consulate in Damascus, Syria's capital: "Contrary to popular belief, I believe that the Israeli attack was essentially a reaction and does not require a response from Iran." In the April 2 attack on a building next to the Islamic Republic's embassy, several senior commanders and members of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed, after which the leader and officials of the Islamic Republic threatened a "retaliatory attack" on Israel. Meanwhile, Mohsen Barahani, a lawyer in Iran, described the Tehran Prosecutor's charges under titles such as "disrupting the psychological security of society" and "disturbing the economic atmosphere of the country" as "very strange" and wrote, "Such criminal titles do not exist in the country's existing laws. Any report sent by agents should not be the basis for initiating prosecution." Before the new summonses, the Tehran Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office had announced on Sunday that it had filed charges against the "Jahan Sanat" newspaper and an economic journalist following what it termed a "successful and pride-inducing operation last night." According to the state news agency IRNA, the Tehran Prosecutor's Office accused the Jahan Sanat newspaper and an economic journalist of "disrupting the psychological security of society and disturbing the economic atmosphere of the country" after the Islamic Republic's missile and drone attack on Israel. The report indicated that, without naming the journalist, it stated that for "the protection of the psychological security of society," in addition to "filing charges" against the Jahan Sanat newspaper, a "legal case has been formed" for that journalist, and they were "summoned to provide explanations to the Tehran Prosecutor's Office." The charges against this newspaper and the formation of a case for a journalist came after the publication of the headline "Hard Revenge or Major Concession" in the Jahan Sanat newspaper, and the Tehran Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office claimed that the publication of this article disrupted "the psychological security of society" and caused "turbulence" in Iran's economic atmosphere following the Islamic Republic's "successful and pride-inducing" operation against Israel. After the Islamic Republic's direct military attack on Israel, the prices of gold and foreign currencies in the Iranian market surged, with the price of one U.S. dollar reaching 70,000 tomans. While the Tehran Prosecutor's Office referred to these attacks as "successful and pride-inducing," Reuters reported, citing two Western intelligence sources, that most of the drones flying over Syrian airspace during the Islamic Republic's nighttime attacks were shot down by Israeli and American jets before reaching their targets in Israel.