Iran Digest Week of June 23- June 30
/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
Biden’s Iran Envoy Is Placed on Leave Amid Security Clearance Review
The State Department placed President Biden’s envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, on unpaid leave on Thursday amid a review of his security clearance.
“I have been informed that my security clearance is under review,” Mr. Malley said in an email. “I have not been provided any further information, but I expect the investigation to be resolved favorably and soon. In the meantime, I am on leave.”
The State Department confirmed that Mr. Malley was on leave, but did not provide additional details. Axios and CNN had earlier reported that Mr. Malley’s security clearance was being evaluated.
Nuclear Accord
Interim Iran nuclear talks set back by disagreements over US prisoners
Efforts to reach an interim nuclear deal between Iran and the United States have faced a setback, with factions in the Iranian ruling establishment disagreeing over US demands on prisoner releases, Iranian sources close to the talks told Middle East Eye.
Earlier this month, Tehran and Washington appeared to be making good progress in negotiations over a temporary agreement that would see some limited sanctions relief in return for curbing nuclear enrichment.
The two sides had reached an impasse in talks to revive the JCPOA 2015 nuclear agreement. But direct talks between the US envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, and the Iranian ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeed Iravani, in New York over a less formal interim deal were promising.
Women of Iran
Iran protests: Mother of Nika Shakarami tells of anguish
The mother of a 16-year-old girl allegedly beaten to death by security forces during protests in Iran has spoken of her continuing heartache.
In an exclusive interview that appears in a BBC documentary, Nasrin Shakarami says she "cannot forget for a second" what happened to her daughter Nika.
Nasrin was speaking to actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who fled Iran in 2008.
(BBC)
Health
Iran Faces Medicine Shortage Due To Lack Of Dollars For Imports
Shortages have hit Iran’s pharmaceutical industry which heavily relies on the cash-strapped government for hard currency to import raw materials.
The shortage of imported ingredients has disrupted production of medicines, pharmaceutical companies say and according to local media, around 200 different types of common medicines and drugs used by hospitals are scarce or unavailable now.
The situation was predictable and all government bodies including the ministry of health were aware that a shortage of medicine was to occur in the third and fourth months of the Iranian year which started March 21, Mohammad Abdzadeh, chairman of pharmaceutical companies’ union told the semi-official Mehr news agency Sunday.
Economy
Latest Company Involved In Iran’s Drone Program Revealed
Iran International has obtained information about an IRGC-affiliated company active in supplying drones and missiles for Russia and Lebanese group Hezbollah.
An Iranian hacktivist group, called 'Lab-Dookhtegan' or Read My Lips, shared with Iran International exclusive information about the activities of the company, identified as ‘Tik’, sharing the photos and identities of several senior members of the company.
According to the group, the company has provided training on missile and drone production and their control systems to Hezbollah and Russian forces on several occasions this year.
Inside Iran
Inside the Iranian Uprising review – an unforgettable memorial to teens who died for freedom
Inside the Iranian Uprising hides a question in its title. How can it be possible to get inside a totalitarian regime, amid a brutal crackdown on protesters, activists and journalists, to tell the story of what has happened over the past nine months in Iran?
It opens with a powerful montage of the sorts of clips that are posted to social media all the time, around the world, of teenagers on a beach, at a wedding, blowing bubbles in the kitchen, swimming, singing, dancing. All of these young people are dead. As the BBC has been banned from working inside Iran, it has instead gathered footage shot mostly by young Iranians on their smartphones and worked with activists and exiles to verify more than 100 hours of clips. In this way, it attempts to piece together what happened after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody, which led to mass protests across the country.
In September 2022, Amini was accused of not wearing her hijab properly and arrested. The police claimed that she died following a heart attack while in custody; most believe she was beaten to death. Protests against the “morality police” and the regime began outside the hospital when she was in a coma and quickly spread across the country, with young women, in particular, taking to the streets to chant “women, life, freedom” and burn their hijabs.
Regional Politics
Israeli secret service says it captured plot leader in Iran, foiling attack
Israel said on Thursday its Mossad intelligence service carried out an operation in Iran to capture the suspected leader of an Iranian plot to attack Israeli businesspeople in Cyprus and thwart the attack.
"In a unique operation on Iranian soil, the Mossad captured the head of the cell, who, during an investigation, gave a detailed confession that led to the exposure and dismantlement of the terrorist cell behind the Cyprus attack," the Mossad said in a statement.
Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment.
(Reuters)
Global Relations
Exclusive: Europeans plan to keep ballistic missile sanctions on Iran
European diplomats have told Iran they plan to retain European Union ballistic missile sanctions set to expire in October under the defunct 2015 Iran nuclear deal, four sources said, a step that could provoke Iranian retaliation.
The sources cited three reasons for keeping the sanctions: Russia's use of Iranian drones against Ukraine; the possibility Iran might transfer ballistic missiles to Russia; and depriving Iran of the nuclear deal's benefits given Tehran has violated the accord, albeit only after the United States did so first.
Keeping the EU sanctions would reflect Western efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them despite the collapse of the 2015 deal, which then-U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018.
(Reuters)
Canada and allies taking Iran to ICJ over downed PS752 flight
Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom have said they intend to refer Iran to the United Nations’s top court for the 2020 downing of a Ukrainian International Airlines flight over Tehran that killed all 176 people on board.
In a joint statement, the four countries said on Thursday that the decision to go to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) came after “no agreement on the organization of arbitration was reached” with Iran.
Citizens and permanent residents of Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the UK were killed in the crash, and the countries formed the so-called “International Coordination and Response Group for the victims of Flight PS752” to seek accountability.
Analysis
Could the IRGC pull a Wagner Group move in Iran? That’s what some Iranians are hoping for.
By: Holly Dagres
“Military forces staged a coup against the regime… It was Russia,” said a meme depicting a smiling, then disappointed former Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. When Wagner Group mercenaries, led by Yevgeniy Prigozhin, advanced toward Moscow—reaching within 125 miles of the capital within twenty-four hours—to take down Russia’s military command on June 23-24, it was not just Ukrainians watching with schadenfreude and hope. Many Iranians—both inside Iran and in the diaspora—wondered what it meant for the Islamic Republic’s future if Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of the clerical establishment’s top allies, was taken down.
Upon news of the Prigozhin-led rebellion, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Telegram channels quickly covered the breaking story. One viral screenshot of the IRGC’s main channel reposted a tweet by a pro-regime journalist emphasizing, “If necessary, just as we prevented the fall of [Bashar al-]Assad, we will prevent the fall of #Putin.”
The upper echelons of the Islamic Republic were quick to respond to the events. “The Islamic Republic of Iran supports the rule of law in the Russian Federation,” noted the Foreign Ministry spokesman on June 24 without any mention of Putin, adding that the mutiny was a “domestic affair.” Russian media reported that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi spoke with Putin on the same day, but didn’t provide any details on what was discussed. Meanwhile, the Iranian foreign minister spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov regarding “developments related to the situation in some regions of Russia”—a reference to the events in Bakhmut, where the rebellion came to a head. Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that Moscow would “pass this phase” and warned against “foreign interference.”
