Iran Digest Week of June 10 - June 17
/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 associates Samuel Howell and Cynthia Markarian.. Please note that the news and views expressed in the articles below do not necessarily reflect those of AIC.
US-Iran Relations
U.S. pressures Iran by targeting Chinese, UAE companies
The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday on Chinese and Emirati companies and on a network of Iranian firms that help export Iran's petrochemicals, a step that may raise pressure on Tehran to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The U.S. Treasury department said it had imposed penalties on two companies based in Hong Kong, three in Iran, and four in the United Arab Emirates, as well as on Chinese citizen Jinfeng Gao and Indian national Mohammed Shaheed Ruknooddin Bhore.
"The United States is pursuing the path of meaningful diplomacy to achieve a mutual return to compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action," Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement, referring to the 2015 nuclear agreement.
Under the pact, Iran limited its nuclear program to make it harder for Tehran to obtain a nuclear weapon in exchange for relief from U.S., European Union and United Nations sanctions that had choked Iran's oil-dependent economy.
(Reuters)
Nuclear Accord
Iran sanctions could tighten if nuclear talks fade, Biden admin officials tell senators
Biden administration officials assured senators at a Wednesday classified briefing that the U.S. would ramp up sanctions on Iran if needed as hopes dim for a diplomatic pathway on Tehran’s nuclear program, according to attendees.
The assurances came as lawmakers in both parties press the Biden administration to articulate a backup plan that could prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. U.S. officials had worked for months to revive the Obama-era denuclearization agreement with Tehran that Donald Trump ripped up in 2018, but the last of those discussions happened in March, one top lawmaker said.
Senators who attended Wednesday’s briefing described a range of possible next steps for U.S. policy toward Iran, from continuing to search for a diplomatic solution to imposing new sanctions and huddling with partners in the region. President Joe Biden is scheduled to travel next month to two of those partner countries, Saudi Arabia and Israel, for talks on a wide range of issues, including Iran and global energy prices.
(Politico)
Covid-19
Investigation of maternal and perinatal outcome in a population of Iranian pregnant women infected with COVID-19
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as the result of infection with the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been rapidly disseminated throughout the world.
Pregnant women are vulnerable to respiratory pathogens and pneumonia because of the immunosuppressive situation and adaptive alterations existing during pregnancy. Physiological changes such as elevation of the diaphragm, elevation of oxygen consumption, and presence of edema in the respiratory tract mucosa make pregnant women intolerant to hypoxia7. Therefore, respiratory infections might cause a challenge to women or fetuses.
Based on the inconsistency between the results of previous studies and the lack of data about the possible vertical transmission of SARS-CoV2, we designed the present study to investigate the maternal and perinatal outcomes in a population of Iranian pregnant women infected with COVID-19, in a timeframe before availability of population vaccination.
(Nature)
Economy
Iran, Venezuela sign 20-year cooperation plan during Maduro visit
Iran and Venezuela signed a 20-year “cooperation road map” during a state visit by President Nicolas Maduro to Tehran as the two oil-rich countries reeling under US sanctions pledged to boost bilateral ties.
The Venezuelan president met his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday at the Saadabad Palace in Tehran, a day after arriving in the Iranian capital with a high-level political and economic delegation on a two-day trip.
In a joint conference following their meeting, the two hailed raising bilateral relations to the “strategic” level and agreed both countries can boost ties in trade in addition to the energy, science and technology, agriculture and tourism sectors.
The cooperation roadmap, the exact details of which have been kept under wraps, was signed by the foreign ministers of the two nations in the presence of their respective presidents.
(AlJazeera)
Environmental
Iran, France confer on environment, SDSs
The two officials stressed the need to pay attention to the environment in the global context, noting that the issue of the environment is a global issue, which should be prioritized for all countries.
The issue of the environment in our country is subject to oppressive sanctions imposed by the U.S., and we call on the French government, as the current chair of the European Union, to cooperate in establishing interaction between other countries and Iran on the environmental issues, Salajegheh stated.
He called for the lifting of sanctions and the creation of the necessary conditions for receiving international financial assistance for the implementation of environmental projects in Iran.
Dust storms and the impact of this environmental problem on the European Union have doubled the need for international and regional cooperation, and all countries must play a constructive role in this regard.
(Tehran Times)
Inside Iran
Two Iranian aerospace staff ‘martyred’: State media
Two men working in Iran’s aerospace industry have died in separate incidents while on active duty, according to Iranian state media.
The elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp’s (IRGC) branch in Markazi province announced in a statement carried by Iranian media late on Sunday that Ali Kamani, a member of the IRGC’s aerospace division working in Khomein, some 320km (200 miles) south of the capital Tehran, was killed in a “driving accident” while on an unspecified mission.
Then, early on Monday, the semi-official Fars news website, affiliated with the IRGC, reported that another aerospace worker, a 33-year-old called Mohammad Abdous, had also died while on mission.
(AlJazeera)
Iran is now a transit transportation hub for neighboring countries. Here’s how it happened.
A little more than six months ago, a pair of trucks from the northernmost United Arab Emirates (UAE) princedom of Ras al Khaimah made their way south to the port at Sharjah. The drivers eased them onto a specialized “roll-on, roll-off” ferry that crossed the Persian Gulf to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, where they disembarked at the Shahid Bahonar terminal and made a beeline for Iran’s relatively good multi-lane highways.
They headed northwest across the expanse of Iran to the mountainous frontier with Turkey. Then, upon crossing the Bazargan-Gürbulak border, the drivers headed southwest to the Turkish Mediterranean Sea port of Mersin.
The Iran route makes a lot of sense. In all, the trip from the Arabian Peninsula to the Mediterranean took a mere six days, according to the World Road Transport Organization (IRU), the international truck and transport lobby. That’s a fraction of the twenty-one days or so it would take to get a shipment from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea through the bottleneck at the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean Sea.
(Atlantic Council)
Regional Politics
Israel tells its citizens to avoid Istanbul, warns Iran not to harm them
Israel raised its Istanbul travel advisory to the highest level on Monday because of what it said was a threat of Iranian attempts to kill or abduct Israelis vacationing in Turkey.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said a "huge effort" by Israel's security forces had saved "Israeli lives in recent weeks", and thanked the Turkish government for its contribution.
He did not give further details. An Israeli security official told Reuters Turkey had arrested several suspected "operatives" of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
(Reuters)
Pahlavi address highlights growing disillusionment with Iran’s leadership and the search for alternatives
The June 3 address by Reza Pahlavi, son of the last shah, to the people of Iran was bad news for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In his live televised address and press conference, Reza Pahlavi made several accusations against the current leadership of Iran. Calling the regime “helpless,” he denounced its inability to provide the people with the basic necessities for survival. Reza Pahlavi went on to blame the regime’s “impotence” for the recent collapse of the Metropol building in Abadan, which corrupt local authorities had allowed to open despite several prior warnings about safety violations. So far, 41 victims have been identified from the Metropol disaster. Reza Pahlavi warned regime officials who order attacks against Iranian protesters — “the oppressors of the people,” as he dubbed them — that “every single one of their crimes will be addressed.”
Reza Pahlavi also made a series of recommendations to those wishing to join the movement against the current ruling regime. First, he called for unity among the opposition. Second, he emphasized that the torch of opposition had passed from Iranians abroad to “Iranians inside Iran.” Third, he urged the security forces to “join the people [of Iran], because the current regime is on its way out.”
(The Middle East Institute)
Analysis
Israel’s policy toward Iran is failing by ‘a thousand cuts.’ Here’s why.
By: Danny Citrinowicz
Israel has reportedly escalated its attacks on Iran in recent weeks. Unlike the previous government strategy, which focused on sabotaging the country’s nuclear program and assassinating its nuclear scientists, it now appears to have been extended to target other scientists and officers in charge of missile programs and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), as well as members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force.
True to his promise to implement “death by a thousand cuts,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has apparently approved these attacks (among them, the May 22 assassination of senior IRGC Quds Force officer, Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei).
This incident adds to other recent assassinations and sabotages attributed to Israel, including cyber-attacks, an attack on a secret UAV warehouse on February 14, the suspicious death of an engineer at a major military site for missile development on May 24, and the deaths of two uranium enrichment and UAV developers reported on June 4.
(Read More Here)
