Iran Digest Week of August 9- August 16
/AIC’s Iran digest project covers the latest developments and news stories published in Iranian and international media outlets. This weekly digest is compiled by associate Samuel Howell. Please note that the news and views expressed in the articles below do not necessarily reflect those of AIC.
US-Iran Relations
OpenAI Busts Iran-Linked Disinformation Campaign After Microsoft, Google Identified Similar Operations
OpenAI removed Iran-linked accounts using ChatGPT to allegedly create bogus social media profiles and fake news articles that attempted to stoke political division in the U.S. online, according to a Friday blog post, marking the latest technology company to identify an Iranian influence operation following similar reports from Microsoft and Google this month.
OpenAI said it removed a “cluster” of ChatGPT accounts used to create politically divisive content published on Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter, and on fake liberal and conservative news outlets, the latter of which featured fabricated stories about Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
The accounts on X posed as liberals and conservatives, making posts generated by ChatGPT after it was asked to rewrite comments posted by other users on social media.
(Forbes)
Nuclear Program
ran planning to resume testing nuclear bomb detonators
Iran is intensifying efforts on its secretive nuclear weapons program, bringing the country closer than ever to developing a nuclear bomb—a threat that has loomed for over two decades, according to exclusive information obtained by Iran International.
According to three independent sources in Iran, who have chosen to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the topic, the Islamic Republic is advancing its secret nuclear weapons program by restructuring the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), retaining Mohammad Eslami as the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and resuming tests to produce nuclear bomb detonators.
For years, US intelligence agencies consistently stated in their annual reports that Iran “isn’t currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons development activities necessary to produce a testable nuclear device". However, in the Director of National Intelligence’s 2024 report, released in July, that phrase was omitted. Instead, the report stated that Iran has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.”
(Iran International)
Women of Iran
ranian woman paralysed after being shot over hijab
A mother of two has been left paraplegic after being shot by Iranian police over an alleged violation of the country's strict hijab rules, a source with knowledge of the case has told the BBC.
"She is paralysed from the waist down, and doctors have said it will take months to determine whether she will be permanently paraplegic or not."
Arezoo Badri, 31, was driving home with her sister in the northern city of Noor on 22 July when police attempted to pull her over to confiscate her car.
(BBC)
Iranian Nobel Laureate Badly Beaten in Prison, Her Lawyer and Family Say
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi was violently beaten by prison guards last week after leading a protest against the death penalty, and her requests for hospital care and a meeting with her lawyer were denied, her lawyer said on Thursday.
The lawyer, Mostafa Nili, told Iranian news media about the violence against Ms. Mohammadi, raising concerns about the state of her health and well-being. He said that her cellmates had communicated her situation.
“My client says that she was beaten and has bruises on her body,” Mr. Nili was quoted as saying in the reformist-leaning Emtedad news outlet. “Despite the prison doctor’s orders, and considering my client’s heart condition,” he said, “she has not been sent to the hospital.”
Economy
Hemmati’s Economic Plans Under Question as He Seeks Role as Iran’s Economy Minister
The nominated Minister of Economy and Finance in Masoud Pezeshkian's administration is Abdolnaser Hemmati, a figure who has become one of the most vocal critics of the Central Bank and the Ministry of Economy under Ebrahim Raisi's administration.
Hemmati has outlined his primary goals as controlling inflation, fostering economic stability, and safeguarding the people's livelihoods. During his appearance before the Plan and Budget Committee of the parliament, he presented detailed plans addressing inflation, liquidity, and banking imbalances.
In his program, Hemmati emphasized several key areas: managing the country's treasury, overseeing macroeconomic policies, providing economic technical assistance, managing state-owned enterprises, regulating insurance and the stock market, and creating a favorable environment for foreign investment.
Environment
Iran’s Extreme Heatwave Underscores Urgent Need For Climate Action
A severe heatwave has struck several Iranian provinces, forcing authorities to close offices and reduce operating hours to manage energy demand and rising heat-related hospitalization.
In the southwest and southeast, temperatures have exceeded 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) this summer, making cities some of the hottest on the planet.
Residents of Khuzestan, Sistan and Baluchestan, and Kerman have endured days of relentless heat topping 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit), preventing many from working and earning a livelihood.
(Forbes)
Inside Iran
Why Iran persists in electricity exports despite shortages?
Earlier this year, amid growing warnings of a significant electricity shortage, Iran announced that its power lines had been connected through Turkey to Greece and Bulgaria, paving the way for electricity exports to Europe.
Meanwhile, after enduring a month of severe summer electricity shortages, Iran limited its electricity exports to Iraq in late July. However, it is unclear whether the level of Iran’s electricity exports to its western neighbor has increased since then.
Iran also exports electricity to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Regional Politics
Tehran appears to be allowing mediators time to pursue cease-fire talks, according to multiple officials.
Iran is expected to delay planned reprisals against Israel for the assassination of a top Hamas leader in Tehran to allow mediators time to make a high-stakes push for a cease-fire to end the war in Gaza, U.S., Iranian and Israeli officials said on Friday.
Top American, Israeli, Egyptian, and Qatari officials met in Doha, the Qatari capital, for a second day of talks on Friday in an attempt to resolve remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas. As those talks concluded, a joint statement from the United States, Egypt and Qatar said a “bridging proposal” had been presented to both parties. Senior officials from those three governments are expected to reconvene in Cairo before the end of next week.
It was not immediately clear if this timeline would change Iran’s assessments.
Iran’s electronic confrontation with Israel
ZIV HOSPITAL is nestled at the bottom of Safed, the highest city in Israel, not far from the border with Syria and Lebanon. In November the hospital acknowledged that hackers had penetrated its computer systems. An Iran-backed hacking group would later claim to have gained access to 500 gigabytes of patient data, including 100,000 medical records linked to Israeli soldiers. That is hardly unusual. Hackers regularly target and breach hospitals, usually to extort ransoms.
The digital assault on Ziv, however, embodied the cyberwar raging between Israel and its enemies in the aftermath of Hamas’s massacre of Israelis on October 7th. The attack was novel in several respects, says Gaby Portnoy, the head of the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD), the country’s defensive cyber-agency, in an interview with The Economist. For one thing, it was a joint operation conducted by Iran and its ally Hizbullah, the militia and political party that dominates Lebanon. “They didn’t work so well together until October 7th,” he says. “We now see them…exchanging targets, exchanging capabilities. They are almost the same.”
The choice of target also broke with the past. Iran and Hizbullah had not previously attacked Israeli hospitals, says Mr Portnoy, a retired brigadier-general. After October 7th Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, ordered cyber-operations against Israel to be expanded, he says, citing Israeli intelligence. The result has been a barrage both more intense and more refined.
Analysis
New Iranian president appoints crisis cabinet
By: Jason M. Brodsky
Masoud Pezeshkian assumed office as Iran’s president during a period of crisis. The evening after his inauguration, Israel killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who cheered on the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, in a Tehran guesthouse. Whereas some Western media outlets hailed Pezeshkian’s arrival by dubbing him as a “liberalizer” whose administration foreign actors are trying to spoil, his choices for cabinet and executive positions reflect the limitations of the power of the presidency.
The individuals Pezeshkian nominated are mostly recycled members of the Islamic Republic’s political elite. His choices include fewer internationally sanctioned individuals than President Ebrahim Raisi’s cabinet ministers, perhaps because more pragmatic presidential administrations routinely put forward nominees who tend to hide the system’s abuses better than conservative presidencies. Several prospective ministerial officers have a history of service as deputies to ministers, ministries, and state entities that are under sanctions by the United States and Europe. This can be seen in the nominees for the ministries of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Defense, Information and Communications Technology, and Oil. Some are sanctioned themselves like industry minister-designate Mohammad Atabak, who was designated by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for having been a board member of Kaveh Pars Mining Industries Development Company, a holding company for the Mostazafan Foundation that has enriched regime insiders.
Additionally, Pezeshkian’s cabinet will not have the degree of educational pedigrees from Imam Sadegh University, a hardline ideological training ground for the regime, that Raisi’s administration did, which served as a de facto alumni club for the university. Some of Pezeshkian’s deputies are even Western educated. Nevertheless, the number of holdovers from Raisi’s administration that Pezeshkian decided to keep on, coupled with the violation of his own selection criteria, is already causing consternation among his supporters.
