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As Iran Votes for President, New Report Exposes How Regime ‘Rigs’ Elections Through Shadowy Group
Iranian presidential candidate Saeed Jalili votes at a polling station in a snap presidential election to choose a successor to Ebrahim Raisi following his death in a helicopter crash, in Tehran, Iran, June 28, 2024. Photo: Stringer/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
As Iranians headed to the polls on Friday to vote for a new president, an explosive new report exposed how the regime in Tehran has used a “shadowy arm” of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an internationally designated terrorist organization, to routinely “rig” Iran’s elections.
Using insider documents from the IRGC, the report by the advocacy organization United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) detailed how Iran’s so-called “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, established a new entity known as the Baqiatallah Headquarters to ensure election outcomes — including for the presidency — that match his Islamist, authoritarian agenda of removing any traces of Western influence from Iranian society.
Khamenei tasked the hardline former commander of the IRGC, Mohammad Ali Jafari, to lead the little-known department at the center of the regime’s “election engineering” and broader efforts to usher in a messianic “new Islamic civilization.” Before overseeing the Baqiatallah Headquarters, Jafari was responsible for expanding the IRGC’s “security and military capabilities, consolidating the IRGC’s asymmetric warfare capabilities to deter the likelihood of US military strikes, and brutally suppressing anti-regime protests,” according to the report.
The IRGC’s Baqiatallah Headquarters is so valued by Khamenei, the authors note, that it reports directly to him and “has the authority to demand the full use of other agencies’ capacities and resources.”
More importantly, however, according to the report, is the office’s “unique overarching strategy,” known as the “Middle Ring” strategy, of selecting and organizing members of the Iranian youth into local small groups tasked with executing “political and cultural operations” on behalf of the regime’s elite. Members of these small groups receive unparalleled access to the “upper echelons of power” in Iran such as the Office of the Supreme Leader.
“In essence, this entire [Middle Ring] strategy seeks to organize, mobilize, and empower the small but radical support base of the regime across Iran to control the masses,” at the local level and without involvement from the clunky Iranian bureaucracy, the report warns.
The Baqiatallah Headquarters has two primary objectives according to UANI’s report: “Islamizing culture to create an Islamic society, and assisting the regime to create Khamenei’s ideal Islamic government.” Electioneering became a central initiative in order to push this agenda.
“We will try to use the capacity of the Middle Rings [to interfere in elections] all over the country,” the report quoted Abdullah Moradi, director general of the Political Affairs Office of the Ministry of Interior, as saying last year.
During elections, the Baqiatallah Headquarters deploys its local Middle Ring networks to “manipulate political campaigns” and “help vet prospective candidates,” primarily through means of intimidation. Middle Ring groups also play a central role in engineering local elections, according to the report, essentially having a veto role for any candidate who does not meet their draconian Islamic standards.
Middle Ring groups, the UANI experts explain, also ensure that local Iranians vote in line with Khamenei’s wishes through a process of “intimidation and co-optation of voters; coordinated mobilization of networks; in person ballot manipulation, and voter rigging.”
The expected corruption of local groups, tasked by the Baqiatallah Headquarters, could be crucial in deciding Iran’s next president.
Iran held a snap presidential election on Friday after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian died unexpectedly in a helicopter crash in northwestern Iran last month. While the supreme leader is the country’s top decision-maker and has final say on important matters of state, it is likely that the next president will be closely involved in the eventual process of choosing a successor to Khamenei, who is 85.
Khamenei has ensured candidates sharing his hardline views dominate the presidential contest. Iran’s powerful Guardian Council, a 12-member vetting body of clerics and jurists aligned to Khamenei, formally approves candidates for Iranian elections and only allowed six to run out of dozens who applied.
Two of the candidates dropped out of the race just one day before the election after a poor showing in the latest poll, leaving four candidates.
Despite a strong public push by Khamenei encouraging Iranians to vote as a sign of support for the regime, voter turnout was reportedly low this year. According to Iranian opposition and dissident groups, many polling stations remained largely empty throughout Friday.
UANI is not the only voice to argue that Iran’s elections are corrupt. Narges Mohammadi, the imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said in a message from Tehran’s Ervin prison that Friday’s vote would be a “sham” election.
The results of Iran’s presidential election were not finalized by press time.
The post As Iran Votes for President, New Report Exposes How Regime ‘Rigs’ Elections Through Shadowy Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Merz Says Criticism of Israel in Germany Has Become Pretext for Hatred of Jews
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends celebrations of the newly completed renovation of Reichenbach Strasse synagogue in Munich, Germany, Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Angelika Warmuth
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday that criticism of Israel was increasingly being used in Germany as a pretext for stoking hatred against Jews.
Speaking at an event to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Central Council of Jews, Merz said that antisemitism had “become louder, more open, more brazen, more violent almost every day” since the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, that ignited the Gaza war.
“‘Criticism of Israel‘ and the crudest perpetrator-victim reversal is increasingly a pretext under which the poison of antisemitism is spread,” he said.
Germany is Israel‘s second biggest weapons supplier after the US, and has long been one of its staunchest supporters, in part because of historical guilt for the Nazi Holocaust – a policy known as the “Staatsraison.”
Last month, however, Germany suspended exports of weaponry that could be used in the Gaza Strip because of Israel‘s plan to expand its operations there – the first time united Germany had acknowledged denying military support to its long-time ally.
The decision followed mounting pressure from the public and his junior coalition partner over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
In his speech in Berlin on Wednesday, Merz mentioned his about-turn, saying that criticism of the Israeli government “must be possible,” but added: “Our country suffers damage to its own soul when this criticism becomes a pretext for hatred of Jews, or if it even leads to the demand that Germany should turn its back on Israel.”
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Israeli Anti-Missile Laser System ‘Iron Beam’ Ready for Military Use This Year
Iron Beam laser defense system. Photo: X/Twitter screenshot
A low-cost, high-power laser-based system aimed at destroying incoming missiles has successfully completed testing and will be ready for operational use by the military later this year, Israel’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
Co-developed by Elbit Systems and Rafael Advance Defense Systems, “Iron Beam” will complement Israel’s Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow anti–missile systems, which have been used to intercept thousands of rockets fired by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, by Hezbollah from Lebanon, and by the Houthis in Yemen.
Current rocket interceptors cost at least $50,000 each while the cost is negligible for lasers, which focus primarily on smaller missiles and drones. “Now that the Iron Beam’s performance has been proven, we anticipate a significant leap in air defense capabilities through the deployment of these long-range laser weapon systems,” the ministry said.
After years in development, the ministry said it tested Iron Beam for several weeks in southern Israel and proved its effectiveness in a “complete operational configuration by intercepting rockets, mortars, aircraft, and UAVs across a comprehensive range of operational scenarios.”
The first systems are set to be integrated into the military‘s air defenses by year-end, it said.
Shorter-range and less powerful laser systems are already in use.
Iron Beam is a ground-based, high-power laser air defense system designed to counter aerial threats, including rockets, mortars, and UAVs.
“This is the first time in the world that a high-power laser interception system has reached full operational maturity,” said defense ministry Director-General Amir Baram.
Rafael Chairman Yuval Steinitz said that Iron Beam, which is built with the company’s adaptive optics technology, “will undoubtedly be a game-changing system with unprecedented impact on modern warfare.”
For its part, Elbit was working on the development of high-power lasers for other military applications, “first and foremost an airborne laser that holds the potential for a strategic change in air defense capabilities,” CEO Bezhalel Machlis said.
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Iran and European Ministers Make Little Progress as Renewed UN Sanctions Loom, Diplomats Say
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks during a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran, Iran, July 12, 2025. Photo: Hamid Forootan/Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian and European ministers made little progress in talks on Wednesday aimed at preventing international sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program being reimposed at the end of this month, two European diplomats and one Iranian diplomat said.
Britain, France, and Germany, the so-called E3, launched a 30-day process at the end of August to reimpose UN sanctions. They set conditions for Tehran to meet during September to convince them to delay the “snapback mechanism.”
The offer by the E3 to put off the snapback for up to six months to enable serious negotiations is conditional on Iran restoring access for UN nuclear inspectors – who would also seek to account for Iran‘s large stock of enriched uranium – and engaging in talks with the US.
The status of Iran‘s enriched uranium stocks has been unknown since Israel and the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June.
TALKS WITH EUROPEANS FOLLOWED ACCORD WITH IAEA
Wednesday’s phone call between the E3 foreign ministers, the European Union foreign policy chief, and their Iranian counterpart followed an agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency last week on resuming cooperation, including, in principle, the inspection of nuclear sites.
Several Western diplomats have said, however, that the accord is not detailed enough, sets no timeframe and leaves the door open for Iran to continue stonewalling.
There has also been no indication of a willingness from Iran to resume talks with Washington.
Iran says it is still refining how it will work with the IAEA.
In the call, Iran‘s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi expressed willingness to reach a “fair and balanced” solution, according to a statement on Iranian state media.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has entered into dialogue with the International Atomic Energy Agency with a responsible approach … on how Iran will fulfil its safeguards obligations in the new situation … It is now the turn of the opposing parties to use this opportunity to continue the diplomatic path and prevent an avoidable crisis,” Araqchi said.
GERMANY SAYS IRAN HAS NOT MET CONDITIONS
Germany’s foreign ministry said on X that the E3 had “underscored that Iran has yet to take the reasonable and precise actions necessary to reach an extension of Resolution 2231,” adding that sanctions would be reimposed unless there were “concrete actions in the coming days.”
The sanctions would hit Iran‘s financial, banking, hydrocarbons, and defense sectors.
Four European diplomats and an Iranian official said before the call that the most likely scenario would be the E3 going ahead with a reimposition of sanctions.
An Iranian diplomat said Tehran had reiterated that it would retaliate if the decision to restore UN sanctions was made.
“The understanding in Tehran is that the UN sanctions will be reimposed. That is why Tehran refuses to give concessions,” an Iranian official said.
The West says the advancement of Iran‘s nuclear program goes beyond civilian needs, while Tehran says it wants nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes.