Protesters on a street in Tehran on 9 January  Getty Images

 

"[We witnessed] young people whose brains were smashed with live bullets, and a mom who was shot in the neck,her two small children were crying in the car, a child whose bladder, hip and rectum was crushed with a bullet."

"What I witnessed will forever haunt me. I feel guilty that I'm alive."

Isfahan MD

 

"Our statistics are based on the documentation standards of human rights organizations. They must either be confirmed by two independent sources, or our organization must have direct access to a very reliable source."

"Some of these statistics [Iran Human Rights estimates that there have been more than 25,000 deaths] include direct reports from victims as well as information from the medical field and reliable sources known to us." 

Norway-based Iran Human Rights director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam 

 

"[Around 7,000 serious eye injuries had been recorded in a specialized eye hospital in Tehran alone by January 16]."

"There are medical protocols in Iranian hospitals, and medical staff generally refrain from reporting cases that could later be used for criminal prosecution."

"We already observed this during the Mahsa movement. Fortunately, medical staff are siding with the protesters." 

Amir Mobarez Parasta, Iranian-German eye surgeon, head, Munich eye center

Tehran protests   Yalda Moaiery, Le Monde

 

Security forces in Tehran were known to have opened fire from the roof of a police station at protesters, firing live rounds into a crowded protest march, one person shot in the head. The protests, small in number at first when they began in late December, by early January the revolt by ordinary Iranians had become bloated with people, and then security forces began their deadly force. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, by January 9 ordered the Supreme National Security Council to crush the protests using any means at their disposal. 

 

Videos that were slipped out to Western news sources despite the regime shutting down the internet and phone service show security forces firing on protesters in cities across the country in early January. Photos went into circulation of hundreds of victims of the violence taken to hospitals or to morgues. The official death toll is in the low thousands. Iran Human Rights, a group based in Norway monitoring the situation in Iran confirmed 3,400 have been killed, while the Human Rights Activists News Agency out of Washington identifies the death toll at 5,200. Both these groups warn the number could eventually rise two or three times higher. 

 

According to Iran's own National Security Council, 3,117 people have died, listing among them 427 of its security forces. Ayatollah Khamenei and other officials of his government place the blame on terrorist cells allied with Israel and the United States, both as vectors of the uprising and the violence that ensued. Gunmen and security forces are shown on videos riding in pairs on motorbikes, using firearms, batons and tear gas. This would be the feared and hated Basij, a volunteer militia linked to the Islamic Republican Guard Corps.

 

 

 

One video filmed in Tehran shows protesters sheltering from gunfire, and a voice is heard to say: "Put your phone down, they'll shoot your hand off. There's a sniper among them." One video filmed in Haft Howz Square, Tehran shows people running, and the sound of gunfire. Some of the protesters have leg wounds, leaving trails of blood as they flee, limping off. A video filming security forces firing from a rooftop in the Tehran Pars neighbourhood shows rifle muzzle blasts and the sound of hundreds of gunshots and automatic fire.

 

Hospitals across the country, swamped by thousands of injured people in Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan and Zanjan, led doctors and nurses to share what they witnessed, describing chaos, medical staff attempting frantically to save lives while their hospital whites became drenched in blood. Patients on benches and chairs and bare floors in the emergency rooms. Hospitals short of blood, searching for trauma and vascular surgeons. Their hospitals resembling a war zone. At the sprawling government medical facility of Shohada Tajrish Hospital, medical staff saw about 70 gunshot-wounded protesters every hour on January 9 and 10, the two days of peak violence. 

 

In scenes he described as 'terrifying' one doctor in Mashhad spoke of security forces appearing, and demanding access to patients so they could arrest them. Doctors resorted to setting up an ad hoc triage unit outside of the city for patients fearful of going to a hospital with their wounds. Most victims were shot in the upper torso, head and neck, and hundreds arrived dead or so terribly injured they succumbed to their wounds. 

 

Morgues were overwhelmed with bodies in black plastic bags. Corpses stacked in refrigerators, placed on floors with scattered row-on-row of bodies in parking lots and courtyards where family members searching for their loved ones would unzip bags hoping to recognize the familiar features of a son, a father, a daughter known to have been killed, so they could be buried with honour. "It's a line. A line of people, so they can pick up their deceased. The young people. Their apple of their eyes", one man said.

 

By January 12 the protests dwindled, people stayed in their homes as security forces prowled the streets.  

 

The killings that swept Iran last month revived memories of 1988, when the Islamic Republic erased thousands of political prisoners in silence   Lawdan Bazargan, Iran Insight

 

"Who chose Hamas? The majority chose Hamas."

"I said to myself, 'how can it be? On one side he [his grandfather] invites them [Jewish neighbours] for food and drink, and on the other he says to kill them'. From a young age I understood something is wrong."

"But I knew the [IDF] soldiers, and they'd given me candy sometimes. They don't have one eye in the forehead -- they aren't like that. The Jews who came to the market in Khan Younis to give us food aid didn't have one eye in the forehead. The Jews who came to the weddings of our neighbours didn't have three legs or one eye in the forehead."

Ayman Abu Soobuch, Arab Muslim from Khan Younis/Dor Shacher, Israeli Jewish convert

“I wanted to be a Jew because I chose life, I chose love and not hatred,” says Dor Shachar, who was born Ayman Abu Soobuch, a Muslim in Gaza. Photo by Dave Gordon

 

 Ayman Abu Soobuch was born in 1977 in Khan Younis, Gaza. As a boy an episode that he found incomprehensibly puzzling led him to question the prevailing attitudes he was exposed to with respect to the neighbours of the Palestinians in the adjoining state of Israel. His grandfather after cordially inviting Jews to his home to share his Palestinian hospitality, would then turn around and urge his grandson to eventually "free the land" by killing Jews. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is known to expose Palestinian children to school curricula, children's  television programs and social media to the glories of martyrdom, to aspire to jihad. 

 

Among the young boy's neighbours in Khan Younis were those who were to go on to distinguish themselves as fearsome terrorists dedicated to the extermination of the Jewish state and the murder of Jews, instilling the fear of  terrorism among a population they despised and as a death cult, conspired to murder. These were now-well-recognizable names like Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Yahya Ayyash the bombmaker. "I knew them well (as) community faces" as well as others comprising Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and the PLO. 

 

He was aware that among his neighbours were those who killed; among them his own brothers taking the call to jihad seriously.  There was one occasion in the open market when he witnessed Sinwar decapitating a Palestinian man whom he had accused of collaborating with Israel, as a crowd looked on and cheered. On one occasion when he was with his mother at the market they came across a head lying in the street. "They said he was suspected of co-operating with Israel". Bystanders took no note of the grotesque scene, walking by unperturbed. 

 

In reminiscing about his early growing years in Khan Younis he recalled television programs for children urging them to "go and kill the Jews". Sheikhs in mosques shouting that the killing of Jews represented "the greatest commandment" as "Allah's will". UNRWA (the UN's United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) schools had very similar curricula informing students that Jews were "pigs dogs and infidels", undeserving of life, as monstrosities with three legs and a single eye in their forehead.  

"Every child learned how to throw stones at Jews because they teach it. The teacher would tell us to go out and throw stones, then come back and open books as though we were studying. When the soldiers came, they saw little children studying. After the soldiers left, the teachers laughed -- 'these pigs, these dogs, these betrayers, these Jews, we will slaughter theme like Hitler did."  

As for children's plays -- dressed as Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, young students would act out killing of Jews. In his teens he left Khan Younis and Gaza to live in Israel, serving as a security informant for Israel, warning when terrorist events were to take place. Still Israeli Jews suspected his motives and distrusted him, despite that one Jewish Israeli decided to mentor him. Suspicions led to arbitrary arrests and the bureaucracy's unwillingness to allow him to convert to Judaism.  

"Yes, it would have been easier not to be Jewish."

"Sometimes you feel hungry and you want to eat or you are thirsty and you feel thirsty and you want to drink -- it's what yo feel. That I am different: I am connected to the Jewish people."

"I wanted to be a Jew because I chose life. I chose love and not hatred. I chose love, not darkness." 

In making the decision to leave Islam and embrace Judaism knowing the cost -- that he would be viewed as a traitor and worse by his family from whom he had distanced himself; from his community, which he had rejected; from the culture in which he had been raised, which he found inhumane and rejected; he was alone, an apostate. He was also living illegally in Israel and in dire poverty. When authorities in Israel discovered his presence, he was returned to Gaza.

 

There he spent months in a Gaza prison, beaten, electric-shocked, psychologically abused, and starved. He eventually escaped Gaza through Egypt, went on to Turkey and finally re-entered Israel on a Palestinian Authority passport. At the time of the Oslo Accords -- now Dor Shachar, an Israeli Jewish convert taking on an Israeli name -- he expressed his belief that Oslo constituted "Israel's greatest mistake", convinced that the compromise evinced by the Palestinians had metastasized to Jihad. And indeed, one Intifada followed another and with them terror attacks.

 

When Israel took the unilateral step of leaving Gaza, uprooting thousands of Israelis, to leave the Strip in Palestinian hands, he was dismayed, forecasting what would occur, and what in fact, did happen, with Hamas taking over the Gaza Strip from the PA in a wave of murderous assaults. His warnings to senior Israeli officials were ignored. When in 2006 Hamas was elected in a victory campaign and took up governance of Gaza he watched as cement  and iron meant for construction were waved through the border by Israeli guards, enabling an extensive tunnel network for weapons storage and terrorist-operatives haven. 

"Between Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Qassam Brigades, and any other terror group, and most Palestinians in Gaza, they share the same ideas about Jews."

"And they say, Hamas will raise our head, and they will rebuild Gaza again'."

"I will tell you what will happen in the West: the worst. Look what's happening in Europe. It will happen in Canada and America. You'll see chaos."

"In Canada, you can cry out in the streets -- and say to the prime minister, 'they go, or you go!"

"I walked in my truth in order to raise our children in shalom -- in peace -- to live."

Dor Shachar, Israeli-Arab Jew  

After the October 7, 2023 atrocities, as he saw Palestinian civilians joining the rampage of 6,000 terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the PLFP and Fatah overrun the kibbutzim in southern Israel, his misgivings went even deeper. His message too the West is that 'Allahu akbar' honours Islam. "The West doesn't want to believe it's a war of faith. People in the West are afraid, and they're nice about it, because they are afraid, or they don't want to accept reality. The Israeli army must control Gaza [to prevent additional October 7s.]" 

"It's clear that such military leaders and high-ranking specialists are at risk during wartime. It's not the Kremlin's job to figure out how to ensure their safety."

"That’s a matter for the intelligence services."  

"[The intelligence services were investigating the attack and would report any findings to Russian President Vladimir Putin]. We wish the general survival and recovery."      

Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman

 

"The attack against Lieutenant General Alekseyev confirmed the Zelensky regime's intention to disrupt the negotiations [taking place in Abu Dhabi between American and Russian negotiators to end the war between Russia and Ukraine]."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov  

Still from video, Sky News  An unknown assailant fired several shots at ​Lieutenant ​General Vladimir ‍Alexeyev in a residential building on the Volokolamskoye Highway.

 

Three senior military officials were assassinated in the past several years in Russia when explosions took place near their homes; Fanil Sarvarov, head of the General Staff's Operational Training Department; Haroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the General Staff's Operational Department; and Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia's nuclear, biological and chemical defence forces...a bomb hidden in an electric scooter exploded outside his apartment building as he walked by it. Now a fourth assassination attempt failed to achieve its goal when it targeted the deputy head of the GRU, Russia's foreign military intelligence agency.

 

Shot and severely wounded on Friday at his Moscow home, he was taken to hospital and survived surgery. "An unidentified individual fired several shots" at Lt.-Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev inside a north-west Moscow residential building, said investigators. The blame for the incident was immediately pointed by the Kremlin at Ukraine.  No evidence was provided, while there was speculation by some Russian commentators that Alekseyev had Russian enemies. 

 

Alekseyev's superior at the GRU, Adm. Igor Kostyukov was present in Abu Dhabi for meetings between Washington and Moscow, engaged in discussions over concluding the Russian war with Ukraine. The Russian delegation consisted of military and intelligence officials, hence the head of the GRU's appearance. According to some Western security officials, reasons exist to question whether Ukraine was behind the Alekseyev shooting.

 

Simply put, targeting him at the very time that his GRU chief Kostyukov was involved in U.S.-led negotiations to end the war might risk derailing the  talks while infuriating the Trump administration. A former senior U.S. intelligence official explained the logic, that while Ukraine's security services "have done these hits in the past it would be pretty crazy of them to do it now".  The very involvement of Kyrylo Budanov, former head of Ukraine's military intelligence directorate, now chief of staff for Zelenskyy, raised the stakes for Kyiv should Budanov's former agency be proven linked to the attempted assassination. "We are not stupid, believe me", a former senior Ukraine security official stated.

 

It was "much more likely", said the former official who had worked closely with Budanov, that the attempt on Alekseyev would be in relation to a "domestic issue", likely the general's part in quelling the 2023 Wagner Group uprising which Alekseyev was directly involved in putting down. He had appeared on video footage meeting with Wagner leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin before his death in a plane crash suspected of having been orchestrated by Russia's intelligence services.

 

"Let's be honest, the negotiations are already going without any visible results; there's clearly nothing to disrupt", one Russian Telegram channel called Provisional Governor 2 posted. As a senior GRU official, Alekseyev's tenure included notorious operations abroad including hacking Democratic National Committee computers prior to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and the poisoning of Russian defector Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England, not to mention GRU operations in Syria.  

 

Police officers walk past a high-rise residential building, the scene of the shooting of Russian Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev, in Moscow on Friday.  Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images

 

Criminal Extortion, Shooting Threats, Arson in Surrey, B.C.

"Three suspects arrested in connection with a recent extortion-related crime are waiting another week for a full appearance in Provincial Court in Surrey. Harjot Singh, Taranveer Singh and Dayajeet Singh Billing, all between the ages of 19 and 21, appeared in court briefly Thursday morning. The full hearing has now been pushed back a week at the request of the accused’s lawyer."

"The three men were arrested by anti-extortion control Sunday after bullets were fired at a home. They have been in custody since. Each has been charged with one count of discharging a firearm."

"The latest incident shines light on the 46 extortion cases Surrey Police say they are investigating so far this year. The British Columbia Extortion Task Force says there were 32 active files across the Lower Mainland as of last month."

"Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke was in Ottawa this week to seek more help from the feds on extortion-related crimes in her community. She says she is behind efforts to amend Canada’s laws to stop people charged with extortion-related crimes from seeking asylum."

"The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said in December that 15 foreigners facing extortion charges had applied for refugee status in Canada. CBSA said it is unclear under what pretenses the three men charged Sunday are in the country, but that it has started an investigation into their status."

Vancouver City News, February 5, 2026 

Harjot Singh, Taranveer Singh and Dayajeet Billing have been identified as the three foreign national men charged after an alleged extortion-related shooting in Surrey, B.C., on Sunday. (Surrey Police Service)

 

An extortion czar was appointed this week by British Columbia Premier David Eby to address the problem of violent extortion wracking the Surrey suburb of Vancouver. The appointee is a former RCMP officer, Paul Dadwal, now in charge of a new community advisory committee to "close any gap between community members and police" in addressing frequent episodes of businesses in the province shaken down for protection money from gangsters. 

 

The federal government back in September placed the Lawrence Bishnoi gang -- an organized criminal group from India linked to many of the extortions -- on Canada's terrorist list. Canada's Public Safety Ministry advanced two RCMP helicopters in an effort to assist in combating the crisis. That crisis inspired Surrey City Council to place their community under  a state of emergency as foreign criminals exploit an overwhelmed Canadian immigration system.

 

Judging from the age of the three arrested criminals above, they entered Canada on student visas from India. It is a well known fact that thousands of young people from India obtain student visas to study at Canadian academic institutions, but never show up for classes and authorities have no idea where they end up. With an estimated 30% of the Surrey population originally from India, this is a demographic that has been relentlessly preyed upon by unscrupulous criminals entering Canada from India through Canada's well-known porous immigration system.

 

Around two dozen people turned out for the protest. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

 

The fearful embattled Indian-Canadian population in Surrey has called out for active and meaningful protection against these gangs. Plagued by threats, shootings and arsons, the criminals predominantly target the South Asian community. Crudely worded messages are sent to people and businesses, demanding cash from homes or businesses. Violence is the penalty for money not received. This menace to society's security in Surrey began in 2023.

 

Back then, the RCMP in British Columbia circulated an example of a typical extortion letter: a sheet of paper with 'WARNING' headlining the note below. "we are Indian gang members, we want our share from your business like protection money. we have links all over do not ignore us, it will efect you realy bad." What the illiterate message lacks in authority it more than makes up for in follow-up violence.

 

Small business enterprises such as auto shops were the first to be targeted, and since then local media have also become targets. A shooting attack hit the studios of Surrey's Swift 1200 AM last September. With the New Year, attacks accelerated. There are instances where businesses have been peppered with gunshots at night. On a daily basis Surrey Police announce a new shooting, threat or arson attack perpetrated by extortionists. January alone saw 36 separate extortion attacks tracked by police. 

 

Losing faith in authorities addressing the problem of criminality that has affected their lives, members of the target community have occasionally attempted to take responsibility for their own safety, reportedly shooting back. Surrey Police last month announced that homeowners were believed to have fired at alleged extortionists causing an investigation to be launched for 'vigilantism'.

 

An inefficient justice system and lax immigration have produced a double-pronged advantage for these criminal elements, who easily slip by immigration through Canada's well-known inefficiency in putting a stop to false refugee claims, and its penchant for handing out visas without due background checks, alongside a justice system that seems to favour allowing bail  to criminals who simply turn around and continue their criminal activities.

In what may be an extortion related shooting, bullet holes are visible on a window of the Big Bazaar Indian grocery store at 8112 120th Street in Surrey on Wednesday morning Photo by Jason Payne /PNG

 

In December, as an example, all 15 Indian nationals that police had arrested in Surrey suspected of extortion-related crimes immediately resorted to claiming refugee status, knowingly exploiting Canada's asylum system. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada had promised that asylum claims would not shield criminals from punishment, yet found that due to the "system" in place, removal procedures for accused criminals remain hampered.

 

Suspects are known to have entered the country on student visas leading to a surge of temporary migration that immigration officials cannot keep up with, neglecting even the most basic screening. In 2022 study permit holders soared to 807,000 in number. Some Bishnoi Gang extortionists have been among the hundreds of thousands to enter Canada on student visas. In Guelph, Ontario an accused double murderer killed a couple in a robbery less than a month after his arrival as a student.

 

Two hitmen accused of carrying out a 2023 assassination of a Sikh nationalist in Surrey, had also entered Canada on student visas, which they had boasted of having "obtained in a few days". And when criminal activity results in the charging and arrest of criminal suspects, Canada's justice system doesn't hesitate to give them bail. "The fear in our community is because [perpetrators[ are not getting punished", explained Surrey protest organizer Rasinder Kaur. 

 

Three men have been charged after the shooting in Surrey's Crescent Beach neighbourhood early Sunday morning. (Shane MacKichan)

"I believe that in the geopolitical circumstances I was taking office ... the threats to the North were actually quite serious."

"I think I've been borne out in that regard, I didn't anticipate that being our southern neighbour."

"I think the reality is, the federal government manages this country right, puts the stress on unity and not on ideological tangents, and there's no reason why we can't pull the country together at this moment."

Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper 

 

"During his tenure as prime minister, Mr. Harper emphasized the importance of Arctic sovereignty to Canada, foreshadowing recent geopolitical developments in that region."

"His government oversaw the creation of Canada's first urban national park in the Rouge Valley, protected Sable Island as a national park reserve, expanded Nahanni National Park and created Naats'ihch'oh National Park in the Northwest Territories."

Royal Canadian Geographic Society press release 

Former prime ministers Jean Chrétien, left, and Stephen Harper, centre, take part in a discussion of Canadian unity moderated by RCGS CEO John Geiger. (Photo: Charlie Woolf/Can Geo)

 

When Stephen Harper was Canada's Conservative prime minister in three governments; a minority and two majorities, he focused on the Canadian Arctic and the need to protect it. At that time it was primarily Russia (and China) who contested Canada's boundaries in the Canadian Arctic. Russia began the militarization of the Russian Arctic, restoring old Siberian military bases, expanding and stationing Russian military operatives there. It claims the Lomonosov Ridge gives Russia entitlement over areas of the seabed allocated to Canada and Denmark.

 

Suddenly, it appears that although Russian claims while not diminished, have been pushed back somewhat in light of the Trump administration's claims that for security purposes against the malign intentions of Russia and China make it imperative for the United States to claim Denmark's Greenland as a protectorate of the U.S., to give it sole authority over the island, while casting the same type of ownership claims over the Canadian Arctic.

 

Mr. Harper, speaking on a panel at the Royal Canadian Geographic Society described his concerns over the necessity to reinforce Canada's Northern sovereignty. At the time he could never have envisioned that a threat to Canada's sovereignty in the North would emanate from the United States. Yet, there it is: U.S. President Trump argues for greater U.S. military presence in the Arctic, and where Greenland was involved, went so far as to suggest military action to achieve his goal. That threat of expansionism is interpreted by many,  to include Canada's northern territories.

 

As sea ice recedes, routes through the North West Passage presage a new era of shipping in routes from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Mercantile trade worldwide will be affected, and Northern nations stand to benefit from the potential easing of maritime routes in trade opportunities, which is precisely what has lured China to stake its own claim as a 'near-Arctic' (laughable as it is) stakeholder. Russia is prepared to begin mining for the natural resources known to entice interests from natural gas to minerals.

 

A view of Canadian-owned Helsinki Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland, on Jan. 28, 2026. Photo by Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP via Getty Images

 

Canada now is alert to a changing world order, and Mr. Harper exhorted the need to defend the nation's land, airspace and waterways, on its own, no longer depending on its neighbour to the south to respect its territorial integrity. He had ordered Arctic icebreakers to be built for Canada. The occasion of Mr. Harper's speech was linked to the Geographical Society's honouring the former prime minister with a gold medal to celebrate his outstanding public service on the 20-year anniversary of his first of three election wins that brought him to the prime ministership.

 

A few days later another event took place on Parliament Hill, the hanging of the former prime minister's official portrait. At that event he urged political parties to recognize the need for unity at this critical time in Canada's history; to work against "external forces that threaten our independence and against domestic policies that threaten our unity. We must preserve Canada, this country handed down to us by providence, preserved by our ancestors, and held in trust for our descendants." 

"He served as prime minister of Canada for nearly a decade -- the sixth-longest tenure in our history -- leaving an extensive record of policy and legislative accomplishments."

"In a political climate increasingly buffeted by noise, he brought composure, intellect and decisiveness to public life."

Liberal Prime Minister Marc Carney 

Former prime minister Stephen Harper, right, at the unveiling of his official portrait during a ceremony in Ottawa, on Tuesday, Feb 3, 2026. Photo by HYUNGCHEOL PARK/Postmedia

"What they're doing is setting the theatre to provide an expanded set of offensive options should the president direct military strikes."

"[This time the administration does not appear to have such a] discrete objective [as was witnessed before strikes against the nuclear program in Iran last year]." 

Dana Stroul, former deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Middle East 

 

"[While Iran has the right to] operate professionally in international airspace and waters ... any unsafe and unprofessional behaviour near U.S. forces, regional partners or commercial vessels increases risks of collision, escalation, and destabilization."

U.S. Central Command

 

"[If the U.S. brings in more F-35s, that would suggest that it plans on] operating inside Iranian airspace in a more considerable way."

"[These movements -- of the U.S. fleet in the Red Sea and eastern Mediterranean -- indicate that] both the U.S. and Israel are very concerned about an Iranian retaliation against Israel, even if Israel is not directly involved."

Gregory Brew, senior Iran analyst, Eurasia Group

    The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Roosevelt (DDG 80) transits the Arabian Gulf while operating in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility.

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Indra Beaufort

 

Dozens of aircraft have been deployed by the U.S. military to bases near Iran, while some dozen warships have been assembled in or near the Middle East in the past month, according to satellite imagery, tracking data and U.S. defence officials. The stage certainly appears to be set for a potential U.S. strike against the Islamic Republic of Iran within a few weeks, as tensions continue to rise. Prior to strikes last year against the Iranian nuclear program, there was an even greater buildup of military might than on this occasion, lending an air of real uncertainty as to the outcome of what is currently a standoff between the abrasively defiant regime and the challenge of the powerful United States.

 

Not all experts on the Middle East and Iran are convinced that this show of force will culminate in an actual invasion to remove the Ayatollah-led, IRGC-fortified regime. The death toll from Iran's violent crackdown on protests is still rising, with activists and human rights groups claiming over 6,000 Iranians have been killed through the government crackdown, though some insist the death toll reaches even higher -- in the tens of thousands.  

 

President Trump speaks of his 'armada' whose purpose he hints, is to place pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program. Iran, he stated, is "talking to us, and we'll see if we can do something, otherwise, we'll see what happens".  For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has stated "Just as (Iran) is ready for negotiations, it is also ready for war."  While "Structural arrangements for #negotiations are progressing", senior Iranian security official Ali Larijani stated on social media. 

 

The USS Roosevelt (DDG-80) is armed with powerful Aegis systems, featuring Mk 41 Vertical Launching Systems (VLS) for Standard missiles, Tomahawks, and ASROC; a 5-inch Mk 45 gun; Phalanx CIWS/SeaRAM; 25mm machine guns; and Mk 32 torpedo tubes for lightweight torpedoes

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Indra Beaufort

 

Accompanied by three guided missile destroyers, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln entered Central Command's area of responsibility and is now in the north Arabian Sea. Air defences and dozens of missiles are carried by each destroyer, including Tomahawks, a type of munition U.S. forces used back in June when they struck Iranian nuclear targets. While historically the U.S. has maintained an aircraft carrier in the Middle East there had been none in the region, when the Lincoln was redirected from the South China Sea.

 

According to defence officials, at least eight other warships are now positioned in the area, including at least two guided-missile destroyers, the USS McFaul and USS Mitscher, near the Strait of Hormuz. In this same area in recent days, Iran deployed drones. Analysts identified an Iranian drone carrier from satellite imagery, the Shahid Bagheri. Over three dozen U.S. aircraft, among them fighter jets, drones and planes used for refuelling reconnaissance  and transport have been forwarded to U.S. bases.

 

F-15 aircraft from the squadron that fought the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June have been deployed now, along with nine A-10C Thunderbolt IIs, used to protect groups on the ground from enemy forces, stationed at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. America's ME allies like Jordan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia and Qatar have alerted Washington that they will not allow the U.S. to use the bases on their soil to attack Iran. Which is where the USS Lincoln steps into the picture since assaults can be launched directly from its position at sea.

 

EA-19G Growlers, electronic warfare aircraft that jam radars and disrupt communications which are on board the USS Lincoln, would be useful should the U.S. intend to enter Iranian airspace to hit targets in the interior. The USS Delbert D. Black visited Israel and left port from there on Sunday, moving further into the Red Sea. Additionally, two more destroyers are in the eastern Mediterranean, the USS Bulkeley and the USS Roosevelt, according to American defence officials. 

 

USS Abraham Lincoln, The War Zone

  

Recognizing Iran for Its Terrorist Credentials

"We need to name and shame the perpetrators."

"It stands out that the architect of all of this repression, Ayatollah Khamenei, is not on Canada's sanctions list."

Brandon Silver, director, policy and projects, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights 

 

"It is very frustrating for Iranians to be walking the streets [of Canada] and [to] see our oppressors alongside with us and having no real tools to put them behind bars, even though we've reported many of them."

"We see them at our local gyms, we see their sons and daughters spending millions of dollars in expensive  houses, cars, living lavish life-styles, while our people back home can't afford even a loaf of bread."

Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay

 

"This is a moment, perhaps as significant as the Berlin Wall falling itself."

"Can you imagine for a moment what a world of peace might look like if we listen to the call of the Iranian people, of whom tens of thousands have now been brutally massacred?"

Conservative MP Shuvaloy Majumdar 

Protesters burn pictures of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as they march in support of regime change in Iran during a protest in Toronto, on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. Photo by Sammy Kogan /THE CANADIAN PRESS

 

In 2012, the-then Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper took the step of responding to the Islamic Republic of Iran's interference in Canadian affairs, its operatives' presence in Canada and the harassment of Iranian-Canadians, by closing the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa and obliging Iranian diplomats to leave. Some Iranian government assets were frozen. And Iran took steps to counter the situation by expelling Canada's diplomatic staff and closing the Canadian mission in Tehran.

 

When Justin Trudeau took over the helm of Canada's government in 2015 he mused for a while about restoring diplomatic relations with Iran. It became impossible to overlook the Iranian government's support of terrorism, the implications of its interference in Canada, including money laundering, so the diplomatic fissure remained. Eventually Canada outlawed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, placing them alongside Hezbollah and Hamas, its proxies, on Canada's terror list.

 

That occurred in the wake of the 2020 targeting of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 where 55 Canadian citizens were killed as the plane exploded in mid-air. The IRGC shot missiles at the airliner as it left the Iranian capital during a period of high tension, but Tehran denied the event until it no longer could, given the damning evidence. The al Quds branch of the IRGC has been involved in terrorist plots abroad targeting enemies of the regime, most notably from among the Jewish and Israeli eeecommunity.

 

Demonstrators in Iran (MAHSA/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images)

 

The regime is known to have tasked Canadian expatriate Iranians to launch assassinations in the United States. Similarly assassination plots meant to take place in Canada were foiled by the RCMP; former federal Solicitor General Irwin Cotler was one of those on the Iranian assassination list, as a high-profile human rights campaigner. After the October 7 Iran-inspired-and-enabled Hamas atrocity in southern Israel, pro-Hamas protests on Canadian university campuses were promoted by Iran.

 

Iranian government agents as well as those belonging to the IRGC have notoriously moved about freely in Canada, both for personal relaxation in a country where their presence is not opposed by the government, and to pursue the Iranian objective of money laundering through Canadian real estate. Some 20 senior members of the regime have bypassed Canada's immigration system while others are under active investigation.  

 

Having done so, the government took no action on removing IRGC operatives from Canadian soil. Now, members of Parliament and human rights activists have joined in a move to press Canada's Liberal government to place pressure on Iran; the official sanctioning of its supreme leader and and focusing on an increased criminal investigation into regime perpetrators, would represent a good start for a government that has scarcely moved itself to mobilize condemnation against the regime that has been using military means to stifle a popular uprising demanding the end of the Iranian Republic dominating their lives.

 

Conservative MP Shuvaloy Majumdar, Liberal MP Miville-Dechene and Iranian Canadian human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay joined other morally-principled activists in calling on Canada to make overtures to allies to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as the terrorist entity it is. An energetic commitment to advance investigation  into human rights violations perpetrators and crimes committed in Iran in response to mass protests that struck against the regime across the country is called for.

 

Brandon Silver of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre urged that such an "structural investigation" is required, to have the RCMP launch a thorough investigation for the purpose of assembling evidence implicating Canadian residents who have been involved in war crimes and atrocities. "We must go beyond issuing statements, we must act. This means supporting independent international investigations and treating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization in practice, not just in name", stated Afshin-Jam MacKay.

 

A timely call to action in the wake of thousands of Iranians killed by the Iranian regime's crackdown against widespread anti-government protests in January. While the European Union foreign ministers agreed to list the IRGC as a terrorist group last week, the United Kingdom has made no such commitment. 210 Iranian individuals and 254 Iranian entities have been sanctioned by Canada under the criminal code. Yet only one such IRGC designation has resulted in deportation. 

 

The IRGC is a major military, political and economic force in Iran   EPA