Iran Digest Week of July 29 - August 5
/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
U.S. targets Chinese, UAE firms in new Iran oil sanctions
The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on Chinese and other firms it said helped to sell tens of millions of dollars' in Iranian oil and petrochemical products to East Asia as it seeks to raise pressure on Tehran to curb its nuclear programme.
The U.S. Treasury and the U.S. State Departments imposed sanctions on a total of six companies, four based in Hong Kong, one in Singapore, and one in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in actions that were announced in separate statements.
The Treasury accused Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Commercial Co. (PGPICC), one of Iran's largest petrochemical brokers, of using the firms to facilitate the sale of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products to East Asia.
(Reuters)
Nuclear Accord
Iran deploys more centrifuges as it proposes new round of talks
Iran has begun the process of feeding gas into cascades of new centrifuges as its top diplomat proposed a new round of negotiations in Vienna to restore the country’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI), told state television Monday night that an order was given to begin feeding gas into “hundreds” of both first-generation IR-1 and advanced IR-6 machines.
He said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was informed of the move, which according to Kamalvandi is in line with a December 2020 parliament law that demanded increased uranium enrichment using advanced machines until such a time that unilateral United States sanctions are lifted.
(AlJazeera)
Iran to resume nuclear talks with discussion over EU proposals
Iran is set to resume nuclear talks with world powers in Vienna this week as diplomats make another push to revive floundering efforts to save the 2015 accord and rein in the Islamic republic’s atomic activities.
Iran’s negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani and US envoy Rob Malley were both heading to the Austrian capital on Wednesday where they will discuss fresh proposals put forward by the EU intended to get a deal over the line.
Representatives of other signatories to the accord, including Russia and China, were also expected to attend, making it the first time all the parties to the deal have held talks in Vienna since March.
Economy
A year on, Iran's Raisi faces economy in trouble
A year after Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi took power, his government has curbed the Covid pandemic but faces a sharp downturn of the sanctions-hit economy as nuclear talks remain stalled.
Having pledged to help especially the poor, the ultraconservative cleric now faces runaway consumer prices that have sparked protests.
Raisi was elected in June last year in a ballot for which less than half of voters turned up, after his major rivals had been disqualified by electoral bodies.
He was inaugurated on August 3 by the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and sworn in two days later as head of government in the Islamic republic.
(France24)
Environment
Iran Abstained From UN Vote To Declare Clean Environment As Human Right
Iran was among the few countries that abstained from a vote on a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly that declared everyone on the planet has a right to a healthy environment.
In a resolution passed Thursday morning at UN headquarters in New York City, the General Assembly described climate change and environmental degradation as some of the most pressing threats to humanity’s future, calling on states to step up efforts to ensure their people have access to a “clean, healthy and sustainable environment.”
Some 161 countries voted for the resolution and only eight countries abstained, including Iran, Russia, and China.
Women of Iran
As Iranian women are arrested for protesting against hijabs, some make 'forced confessions,' activist says
When Sepideh Rashno appeared last month on Iranian state television to apologize to another woman for refusing to wear a hijab in public, longtime observers of Iran's government viewed her actions as a “forced confession.”
A viral video posted days earlier appeared to show Rashno in public without a hijab, which Iranian women have been required by law since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Rashno appeared to be arguing with a woman who wore a hijab, saying she would send the video of their altercation "to the world."
Rashno was later arrested and her apology to the other woman was aired on state television. The apology program was continued later in another special report showing her “confessing.”
(ABC)
Inside Iran
Iran's atomic energy chief says country could build a bomb but has no plan to
Iran's atomic energy chief says the country has the ability to build a nuclear weapon but has no plan to, an Iranian news agency reports.
Mohammad Eslami's comments echo a similar recent statement by a senior adviser to Iran's supreme leader.
Such public claims by top officials are rare and are likely to intensify concerns over the nature of Iran's nuclear programme.
It has advanced its nuclear activities since a deal limiting them faltered.
(BBC)
Regional Politics
Border fight between Iran and Taliban kills one: Afghan official
A border fight between the forces of Iran and Afghanistan’s Taliban has left one dead, according to a local Afghan official.
Mawlawi Mohammad Ebrahim Hewad, the Islamic Emirate’s border commander in the province of Nimroz, was quoted by Afghanistan’s TOLOnews as saying that one Taliban soldier has died and another has been wounded on Sunday.
He claimed Iranian forces began the fighting that he said took place in the Kong district in Nimroz.
The Reuters news agency also quoted a police official in Nimroz as saying a member if the Taliban forces had died.
U.S. approves massive arms sale to Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates to counter Iran
The Biden administration on Tuesday approved two massive arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to help them defend against Iran.
The more than $5 billion in missile defense and related sales follow President Joe Biden’s visit to the Middle East last month, during which he met with numerous regional leaders in Saudi Arabia. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been hit in recent months with rocket attacks from the Iran-backed Houthi rebel movement in Yemen.
Although Tuesday’s approvals are for defensive weapons, they may be questioned by lawmakers who had supported Biden’s decision last year to cut Saudi Arabia and the UAE off from major purchases of offensive U.S. arms because of their involvement in the war in Yemen.
Analysis
Are US sanctions against Iran & Russia backfiring in dangerous ways?
By: Ariel Petrovics and Ryan White
Washington has increasingly turned to economic sanctions to address its security concerns with both Russia and Iran, but these separate efforts have interacted in ways that risks backfiring, rather than boost U.S. and regional security.
In Iran, U.S. sanctions have successfully hobbled Tehran’s economy but have inadvertently generated domestic resistance to ongoing negotiations and hindered diplomatic efforts to curtail its contested nuclear program.
Similarly, sanctions against Russia that followed its invasion of Ukraine initially slashed its GDP but have since incentivized Moscow to find new allies and markets, thereby reducing sanctions’ coercive power and increasing the Kremlin’s ties with partners willing to undermine Western efforts to isolate it.
