Iran Digest Week of April 28- May 5th
/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
Iran seizes second oil tanker in a week in Gulf, US Navy says
Iran seized a second oil tanker in a week on Wednesday in Gulf waters, and the U.S. State Department called for its release, in the latest escalation in a series of seizures or attacks on commercial vessels in Gulf waters since 2019.
The Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet of the U.S. Navy said the Panama-flagged oil tanker Niovi was seized by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) at 6:20 a.m. (0220 GMT) while passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
In Iran's first response, Tehran's prosecutor announced the oil tanker was seized on a judicial order following a complaint by a plaintiff, the judiciary's Mizan news agency said. No further details were provided.
(Reuters)
Nuclear Accord
Smoldering Iran nuclear crisis risks catching fire
Even as the United States and its European allies grapple with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and rising tensions with China, the smoldering crisis over Iran's nuclear program threatens to reignite.
In a sign of European concern, Britain, France and Germany have warned Iran they would trigger a return of U.N. sanctions against Tehran if it enriched uranium to the optimal level for a nuclear weapon, three European officials said.
The threat, made last year in a previously unreported letter sent by the countries' foreign ministers, underscores Western fears that Iran could produce bomb-grade uranium of 90% purity.
(Reuters)
Women of Iran
The journalists imprisoned for reporting the death that shook Iran
Mahsa Amini's name made headlines around the world when she died in custody last September, sparking waves of protests in Iran. But not many people have heard of Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi.
The two female journalists helped break the story of Ms Amini's death and have been detained in two of Iran's most notorious prisons ever since.
On Tuesday, they and the imprisoned Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi were awarded the 2023 Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize by the United Nations' cultural agency, Unesco.
(BBC)
Businesses Caught in Cross-Fire as Iran Enforces Hijab Law
In the first days of the Iranian New Year holiday in March, the police showed up at a cafe in Tehran with orders to shut it down for two days. The cafe had run afoul of Iranian law by serving women who were not covering their hair with head scarves, they said.
Since then, the cafe’s management has been summoned repeatedly by the authorities and ordered to warn customers to wear their scarves. Mohammad, the owner, grudgingly did the bare minimum, putting a sign on the wall telling women to respect the hijab law. There is little point in doing more, he said.
Emboldened since the women-led protests that broke out last fall, which turned into nationwide demonstrations against the Islamic Republic, growing numbers of Iranian women have started going around without head scarves and wearing Western-style clothes. In Iran, Mohammad said, forcing women to wear the hijab is a lost cause.
Economy
Iranians React With Skepticism To Proposal To Sell Strategic Islands For Pension Funding
A statement by a senior Iranian Labor Ministry official suggesting that Tehran might have to sell some of Iran's strategic Persian Gulf islands to pay pensions has ignited a wave of skepticism and opposition from the Iranian public.
Sajjad Padam, director-general of social insurance at the ministry, said in an interview on May 1 with the Tehran-based 90Eghtesadi news website that the country may be forced to sell some of its southern islands, including Kish and Qeshm in the Persian Gulf, to pay pensions as the government struggles with financial difficulties amid a deepening economic crisis.
Padam said budgetary difficulties forced the government to shift funds earmarked for infrastructure projects to pension payments.
(Radio Free Europe)
Truckers Join Iran's Expanding Labor Strikes
Amid spreading strikes by tens of thousands of workers across Iran, truck owners and drivers have announced plans to hold a nationwide open-ended work stoppage.
The labor force at Pars Paper company in Hafttapeh, Khuzestan Province, and the railway maintenance workers in Kerman province were the latest to join the countrywide industrial action on Thursday, when truck drivers said they will stageastrike beginning May 22.
The Union of Truck-Owners and Truck Drivers issued a statement on Thursday, saying their complaints and short-term strikes have not resulted in any change in their situation therefore they plan a long and nationwide action.
Inside Iran
Body Of Missing Cleric Found In Iran, Amid Wave Of Attacks On Clergy
The body of a missing cleric has been found in northern Iran.
Ebrahim Fazel had gone missing on Tuesday as he had traveled from the religious city of Qom – where he was studying at the seminary – to his hometown in the northern province. His body was found from the coastal waters near the city of Jouybar
Hailing from a well-known family, he was the son of the founder of Mazandaran province’s Islamic seminary Mohammad Fazel and the grandson of one the late prominent Shia clerics in Iran,Ayatollah Mohammad Kouhestani. He was also the brother-in-law of hardliner lawmaker Mahmoud Nabavian.
Iran is diving into the disinformation wars, Microsoft says
Iran's state-backed hackers are expanding their cyber playbook to include disinformation campaigns, Microsoft warned in a report Tuesday.
Driving the news: Microsoft estimates that the Iranian government was behind 24 "cyber-enabled influence operations" throughout 2022, including 17 since mid-June.
That was more than three times as many as in 2021, when that number stood at seven.
(Axios)
Regional Politics
Iranian president in Damascus for first visit since Syrian war began
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Wednesday in the first visit by an Iranian head of state since Syria's war began in 2011, underlining close ties as Syrian relations with Arab states thaw.
With military and economic support from both Iran and Russia, Assad regained control of most of Syria from rebels that were backed by regional countries now seeking dialogue with him.
Raisi's visit comes as Iran and regional rival Saudi Arabia rebuild relations after years of tensions, and as Arab states that shunned Assad - including Riyadh - rebuild ties with his government.
(Reuters)
Analysis
Iran’s brain drain accelerates as crackdown on dissent intensifies
By: Kourosh Ziabari
Emigration from Iran is on the rise again as more and more Iranians conclude that their country has been turned into scorched earth by the Islamic Republic and seek shelter, stability, and opportunity elsewhere.
While not as dramatic as the exodus from some other nearby countries such as Afghanistan or Syria, the human flight is a simmering societal cataclysm with long-term negative implications for Iran’s prosperity and national security.
Over the past four decades, waves of emigration have deprived Iran of its most talented youth, who instead have become engines of economic growth in Europe and North America. Nepotism, failure to reward merit, shrinking civil liberties, and a lack of vision for development have dovetailed with frequent cycles of political crisis, convincing thousands of Iranians that in order to pursue their dreams, they need to leave their homeland.
