Two Weeks After Tehran Attacks, Parliament Security Commander Changed

Two weeks after the attack on the Parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran, a representative announced the dismissal of the Parliament's security commander, and the prosecutor of Mahshahr also stated that an Iraqi national who was supplying "equipment" for the attackers had been arrested. According to ISNA news agency, Alireza Rahimi, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Parliament, reported that on Tuesday, June 30, the second meeting of this commission regarding the investigation of the attacks on June 17 in Tehran was held with the presence of senior representatives from responsible agencies including the Ministry of Intelligence, the Ministry of Interior, the Law Enforcement Force, and the Ansar Guard Corps. Mr. Rahimi stated that in this meeting, the new security commander of the Parliament was present along with the previous commander. According to this report, the introduction ceremony for the new commander was held on Monday. No reports about the introduction ceremony or the name of the new security commander have been published in Iranian media. Colonel Mojtaba Lavasani was appointed as the security commander of the Parliament on October 12, 2015. The Ansar al-Mahdi Guard Corps is one of the branches of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responsible for protecting officials and sensitive locations of the Islamic Republic, including the Parliament. In the attack on the Parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini, 17 people were killed and over 50 were injured. Based on footage from the incident, the attackers carried their weapons in bags to the entrance of the Parliament building and, after shooting at the security officer at the entrance and some other individuals present, entered the building. About 10 days after this incident, Masoud Pezeshkian, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, criticized the Parliament's security for their "shortcomings," stating, "It is unacceptable that three or even 30 people can easily enter this system; they should not have been able to enter the Parliament with weapons so easily, and we expected the system to stand against them." One day after the attacks in Tehran, the Ministry of Intelligence announced, along with the publication of the first names and images of the bodies of the attackers, that these individuals had entered Iran in August 2016 "under the command of Abu Aisha, a high-ranking ISIS commander" and had returned to the country after his death. Subsequently, officials from the Ministry of Intelligence and the Law Enforcement Force of Iran reported the arrest of dozens of members of the Islamic State group or individuals "suspected" of collaborating with them in the provinces of Alborz, West Azerbaijan, Kermanshah, and Kurdistan. Meanwhile, Alireza Aghajeri, the public and revolutionary prosecutor of Mahshahr, stated on Tuesday that an Iraqi national who was supplying "equipment and necessary tools" for the attackers had been arrested. According to Mr. Aghajeri, this individual had entered Iran through Iraqi fuel tankers and had traveled to the country several times. The prosecutor of Mahshahr also mentioned that an individual with "Salafi and Takfiri thoughts" who had set fire to mosques and Hosseiniyahs in the Talaghani neighborhood in 2014 had been arrested and sentenced to death. Mr. Aghajeri claimed that this individual had "connections with the intelligence services of foreign countries." The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks in Tehran, but several officials and military commanders in Iran have implicitly or explicitly mentioned Saudi Arabia's role in these attacks. Saudi Arabia has denied these accusations. In this context, a "military unit" for the protection of Islamic Republic officials reported the killing of two members of a "terrorist group" and the arrest of five individuals. Broujerdi: The Parliament had warned about the possibility of an ISIS attack on the IRGC. The IRGC reported the destruction of an armed group in Sistan and Baluchestan. "IRGC missile attack on the Deir ez-Zor region in Syria" in retaliation for the Tehran attacks. The IRGC threatened ISIS with continued missile attacks. A member of Parliament: 40 ISIS members were arrested in West Azerbaijan province. Changing the battlefield of "proxy forces"; war against the people in the streets of Iran. The first paragraph; the responsibility of opponents and the possibility of radicalization in Iranian society. The death of the last Mossad representative in Tehran amid the Iran crisis. 1300 hours of internet outages; Witkoff: A horrific massacre occurred during the protests in Iran.