Iran Digest Week of January 5 - January 12
/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 oil tanker involved in U.S.-Iran dispute in Gulf of Oman
Iran seized a tanker with Iraqi crude destined for Turkey on Thursday in retaliation for the confiscation last year of the same vessel and its oil by the U.S., Iranian state media reported, a move likely to stoke regional tensions.
The seizure of the Marshall Islands-flagged St Nikolas coincides with weeks of attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militias targeting Red Sea shipping routes.
"After the theft of Iranian oil by the United States last year, St Nikolas tanker was seized by Iran's Navy this morning with a judicial order ... it is en route to Iranian ports," the semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing a statement by the Navy.
(Reuters)
Women of Iran
Iranian Woman Defiant Despite 'Medieval' Flogging For Hijab Violation
The lashes to Roya Heshmati's body have triggered renewed condemnation of Iran's harsh punishments against women for alleged crimes against "morality."
But the official reason for carrying out the flogging is also being questioned, while the 33-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman now faces the double jeopardy of having to defend herself against smears to her name.
Heshmati announced on Facebook last week that she had been lashed 74 times because of a social media post she made in April in which she could be seen without a hijab.
Environment
Iran’s Next-Door Neighbor Accused Of Stealing Rain Clouds As Severe Drought Sweeps Through The Country
It all started with a few images that went viral on social media.
Over the past two months, photos have been circulating on platforms showing contrasting weather conditions in Turkey and Iran. While Turkey exhibits cloudy skies and snow-covered mountaintops, just across the border in Iran, there appears to be nothing but empty skies and dry mountains.
What seems to be a stark difference in rainfall and snowfall patterns between two neighboring countries has since raised questions among Iranians as to why.
(Forbes)
Inside Iran
Iran identifies suspected bomb-maker behind twin blasts, arrests 35 people
Iranian authorities say they have identified the alleged ringleader who made bombs used in the twin bombings on January 3 in the southeastern city of Kerman that killed more than 90 people, state media reported.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Intelligence said the main suspect who planned the bombings was a Tajik national known by his alias Abdollah Tajiki, the IRNA news agency reported.
He had entered Iran in mid-December by crossing the southeast border, and left two days before the attack, after making the bombs, according to a statement from the ministry.
Iranian Authorities Rally Public Amid Anticipated Low Election Turnout
As concerns grow over a predicted low turnout in Iran's upcoming March parliamentary elections, authorities are ramping up their efforts to mobilize the public.
In a Thursday statement, Habibollah Ghafouri, the Supreme Leader's representative in Kermanshah, west of Iran, framed participation in the elections as "a jihad against the enemy."
Ghafouri emphasized that each vote is akin to “launching a missile towards the enemy's camp.”
Iran MP Claims Tehran Municipality Hires Children
An Iranian lawmaker said Tehran Municipality continues to work with contractors who abuse child laborers.
Mohammad-Hassan Asafari told ILNA news agency, “These contractors exploit child laborers for their own financial gain as they pay children less and do not insure them,” adding that the Iranian lawmakers have repeatedly warned municipality officials in this regard, but of no avail.
From a legal perspective, the municipality is required to sue those private contractors who violate the law by employing children for such difficult jobs as waste collection and cleaning streets, the lawmaker pointed out.
Regional Politics
US, UK launch large-scale retaliatory strikes against Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen
The U.S. military has unleashed large-scale retaliatory airstrikes against multiple Houthi targets in Yemen following months of attacks by the Iranian-backed militants on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, a U.S. official said Thursday.
The official said that the strikes involved a mix of fighter jets and Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from Navy surface ships and a U.S. Navy submarine, according to two U.S. officials.
One of the officials identified the submarine as the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Florida, which was seen entering the Red Sea via the Suez Canal on Nov. 5, a move publicized by U.S. Central Command.
(ABC News)
Blinken says path to a Palestinian state can stabilise region, isolate Iran
Offering Palestinians a path to statehood can stabilise the Middle East and isolate Iran, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said as he wrapped his latest visit to the region amid Israel’s continuing war on Gaza.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the US top diplomat said the region faced two paths, the first of which would see “Israel integrated, with security assurances and commitments from regional countries and as well from the United States, and a Palestinian state – at least a pathway to get to that state”.
“The other path is to continue to see the terrorism, the nihilism, the destruction by Hamas, by the Houthis, by Hezbollah, all backed by Iran,” he said.
Iran seeks quick resolution of issues preventing Umrah pilgrimage
Iran hopes technical problems preventing Iranian Muslims from making the Umrah pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia will soon be resolved, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Monday.
Iran initially announced in December that the first Umrah pilgrims would travel on Dec. 19 following an agreement between Tehran and Riyadh to allow the pilgrimage to take place after a pause of eight years.
However, this flight and subsequent ones were cancelled due to Riyadh failing to provide "necessary final permits" for the entry of Iranian planes into Saudi airports, the spokesman of Iran Air Hessam Qorbanali had told state TV.
(Reuters)
Analysis
Iranian Economy Buoyed By 'Dark Fleet' Oil Shipments To China
By: Michael Scollon
More than 6,000 kilometers from Tehran, in treacherous waters off the shores of Singapore, a "dark fleet" of oil tankers waits to offload the precious cargo that helps keep Iran's economy afloat -- a dependency that could also sink it.
The fleet has grown steadily over the past five years, delivering Iranian crude to China as the countries work in concert to circumvent international sanctions that target Tehran's lucrative oil exports. But while the clandestine trade has buoyed Iran's budget, it also comes at tremendous cost and risk to Tehran.
Iran gives China a hefty discount to take its banned oil, taking 12 to 15 percent off the price of each barrel to make it worthwhile for Beijing to take on the liability of skirting sanctions, according to research by the data analysis unit of RFE/RL's Radio Farda.
Additional costs add up as well: ship-to-ship operations to offload the oil, middlemen, hidden-money transfers, and rebranding the oil to mask its Iranian origin and make it appear to come from a third country, said Dalga Khatinoglu, an expert on Iranian energy issues.
