A year ago, Navid Afkari, a popular Iranian wrestler, was executed by the Iranian government for participating in a political protest. Now his former cellmate has died as well. Elliott Abrams writes:

As Iranian diplomats attend the United Nations General Assembly and the Biden administration seeks to get back to the nuclear negotiating table with Iran, the Iranian regime has just reminded us again of its fundamental nature.

Afkari’s cellmate Shahin Naseri, who testified that Afkari had been tortured, has now died in prison. Radio Farda, a U.S. government Fasi-language radio station, said it possessed an audio message from Naseri referring to the “medieval torture” of Afkari. Messages like that appear to have been a death sentence for Naseri.

No doubt the regime will say he committed suicide or was killed by a fellow prisoner, but it is difficult to imagine that anyone—inside Iran or outside—will believe that statement. And given the nature of the regime, there cannot be any kind of independent investigation.

So Naseri’s death is a grim reminder, days after the anniversary of Afkari’s execution, of the lawless nature of the Islamic Republic, and of its willingness to use any degree of brutality to retain its grip on power.

As we mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter, Israeli special forces carried out a daring boots-on-the-ground raid on September 8 targeting the Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) in northwestern Syria. The site was used for producing and storing missiles which are then transferred to Hizballah in Lebanon. Jonathan Spyer notes that the raid was accompanied by extensive airstrikes in Syira,and followed a few days later by extensive attacks on Hizballah in Lebanon, one of which killed Mohammad Qassem al-Shaer, a senior officer in the terrorist group’s Radwan force, an elite infantry group. And yesterday, the IDF destroyed a weapons depot, an observation post, and other Hizballah positions. Spyer puts these attacks in context:

The direct purpose of the raid, of course, was the destruction of the facilities and materials targeted. But Israel also appeared to be delivering a message to the Syrian regime that it should not imagine itself to be immune should it choose to continue its involvement with the Iran-led axis’s current campaign against Israel.

Similarly, the killing of al-Shaer indicated that Israel is no longer limiting its response to Hizballah attacks to the border area. Rather, Hizballah operatives in Israel’s crosshairs are now considered fair game wherever they may be located in Lebanon.

The SSRC raid and the killing of al-Shaer are unlikely to have been one-off events. Rather, they represent the systematic broadening of the parameters of the conflict in the north. Hizballah commenced the current round of fighting on October 8, in support of Hamas in Gaza. It has vowed to stop firing only when a ceasefire is reached in the south—a prospect which currently seems distant.