Iran Digest Week of August 19 - 26
/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.
Nuclear Accord
U.S. reacts to Iranian comments on draft nuclear deal
The U.S. and Iran are closing in on an agreement to restore the 2015 nuclear deal after almost 17 months of negotiations.
The United States relayed to the EU on Wednesday its much-awaited response to Iran’s comments on the draft proposal to restore the nuclear deal, a U.S. official familiar with the matter told POLITICO.
The spokesperson of the Iranian Foreign Ministry Nasser Kanaani confirmed that it had received the U.S. response via EU senior official Enrique Mora, who acts as a mediator and coordinator of the talks. Iran still refuses to talk directly with the U.S. “Iran has started reviewing the US comments, and after the review Tehran will submit its views to the coordinator,” Kanaani said.
(Politico)
Israelis press U.S. not to rejoin Iran nuclear deal
The Israeli government is ramping up pressure on the Biden administration to walk away from international efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal.
But the White House isn’t budging.
Israeli national security adviser Eyal Hulata visited the White House on Tuesday, where he met with his U.S. counterpart, Jake Sullivan, to raise Israel’s concerns about the latest draft roadmap to a revival of the 2015 agreement. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz is due to see Sullivan in Washington on Friday.
In a readout of the meeting sent late Tuesday, the White House said Sullivan had underscored the Biden administration’s “steadfast commitment to preserve and strengthen Israel’s capability to deter its enemies and to defend itself by itself against any threat or combination of threats, including from Iran and Iranian-backed proxies; and our commitment to ensure Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon.”
(Politico)
Health
Amid covid surge, Iran cut corners to approve yet-unproven vaccine
As Iranian regulators considered endorsing a locally developed coronavirus vaccine a year ago, a top health official issued a stern warning, saying the test results were insufficient and the vaccine’s approval could undermine efforts to contain the country’s raging epidemic.
Deputy Health Minister Farid Najafi wrote to his boss that allowing use of the vaccine by the general public before it met scientific standards “is a serious and historic decision that will determine the future of public confidence in the health system.”
But the vaccine had influential backers. It was the highly touted project of a company called Barkat, part of a sprawling corporate empire close to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Women of Iran
Iranian women allowed to attend domestic football match for first time in over 40 years
Hundreds of Iranian women attended a professional domestic football match in Tehran for the first time in over 40 years, following a ban on women attending sports stadiums.
Five hundred women were granted access into Tehran's Azadi stadium to watch a league match between Tehran-based Esteghlal FC and visiting team Sanat Mes Kerman FC, from the city of Kerman, the country's semi-official state news agency Fars said on Thursday.
Women were separated from men in the stadium and entered through a special entrance via a car park, according to the Iranian Football Federation website.
Iran's ban on women attending sports stadiums is not written into law but was put in place shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
(CNN)
Inside Iran
Iran's Army Shows Off New Drones In Underground Base
The Iranian army has unveiled an underground military base on the second day of its countrywide drone war games, featuring its latest unmanned aerial vehicles.
Vice Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi, the spokesman for the drone exercises, said Thursday that during the second day of the drills a set of mock targets modeled from “sensitive and vital” facilities were destroyed by actual weapons.
He added that Kaman, Mohajer, Ababil, Karrar, and Bavar drones used homegrown weapons, including Qa’em bombs, Almas missiles and MK-82 bombs, to target positions ranging from command-and-control centers to fuel tanks, ammunition depots, and radar and missile systems.
What Iran’s emerging demographic “tsunami” means for Tehran
Officials in the Islamic Republic of Iran have been warning about an emerging demographic “tsunami” as local and international forecasts suggest the country could have one of the five largest elderly populations by 2050. Nearly 11% of Iranians — about 5.3 million out of the current total population of 84 million — are now over 60 years old; however, this figure could significantly increase going forward. According to a forecast by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Iran’s elderly population will make up over 30% of the total by 2050, making the Islamic Republic home to the largest elderly population in the Middle East. According to the same forecasts, the elderly population in Iran’s major regional rival, Saudi Arabia, is predicted to reach 25% of the total by 2050 and just 10.6% in neighboring Iraq.
Regional Politics
‘Iran-linked’ fighters killed, US soldiers injured in Syria clash
Several United States soldiers were lightly wounded and at least two fighters described by US Central Command as “suspected Iran-backed militants” were killed in Syria, a day after the US said it had carried out raids on “Iran-linked” targets in the country.
The US military said attacks were launched on two facilities on Wednesday evening, with several rockets landing inside the perimeter of Mission Support Site Conoco in northeast Syria, quickly followed by another near Mission Support Site Green Village, both run by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed Kurdish-led group.
In response, raids by a US helicopter killed “two to three … suspected Iran-backed militants”. The statement said two US military personnel were treated following the attacks, and two others were under evaluation.
Global Politics
Russia eyes Iran as sanctions-busting backdoor for oil sales
Russia plans to use Iran as a backdoor to circumvent international sanctions over Ukraine if Tehran’s nuclear accord with world powers comes back into force, Western diplomats say.
Moscow dispatched teams of trade and finance officials as well as executives from Gazprom and other companies to Tehran in July following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with the Iranian leadership to lay the groundwork for closer cooperation between the two countries.
In recent weeks, Iran also sent two official delegations to Moscow focused on energy and finance. Among the senior officials in attendance were Iranian central bank chief Ali Saleh Abadi, Deputy Economy Minister Ali Fekri, and the head of the Iranian legislature's economy committee, Mohammad Reza Pour Ebrahimi. The Iranians spent several days meeting with their counterparts and private sector executives, according to the diplomats.
(Politico)
Analysis
What if the US took a more nuanced view of Iran?
By: Eldar Mamedov
As the talks to revive the nuclear accord known as the JCPOA are reaching the critical stage, the traditional Washington view holds Iran solely responsible for its antagonistic relationship with the United States. Carnegie Endowment research fellow Karim Sadjadpour is only the latest among the pundits who articulated that view in a recent long read in The New York Times.
That such a nuance-free view of Iran dominates the Washington discourse across the political spectrum renders any potential rapprochement with Tehran a far-fetched prospect. To break this vicious cycle of enmity, it could be more useful to recognize that since the 1979 Iranian revolution both sides have been guilty of missing opportunities to improve relations.
The Ukraine war has made Iran and Russia allies in economic isolation. Here’s how.
By: Alam Saleh and Zakiyeh Yazdanshenas
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has turned the country into a heavily-ostracized state and opened new opportunities for Iran to build closer relations with the major global power.
The United States, European Union, and the Group of Seven (G7) have imposed severe sanctions on Russia. These punitive multilateral sanctions have put Russia in a situation that is familiar to Iran, which has ample experience circumventing their damaging effects.
From the outset of the war, Iran declared the invasion a legitimate Russian response to security concerns over actions by the United States and NATO. The new administration of Ebrahim Raisi admires Russia’s action-oriented foreign policy. Iranian officials have also grown weary of exerting strategic patience and have become more assertive in light of the long-lasting animosity between Iran and the United States, coupled with the failure of the 2015 nuclear deal to reintegrate Iran into the international community.
