Iran Digest Week of January 13- January 20
/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
Iranian-American Prisoner in Tehran Starts Hunger Strike
The longest-held American prisoner in Iran began what he said would be a weeklong hunger strike on Monday to demand his immediate release, appealing directly to President Biden to negotiate freedom for him and other prisoners with dual citizenship.
Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman, made his appeal in a letter written from Iran’s notorious Evin Prison in the capital, Tehran, where he has been held for more than seven years.
“Day after day I ignore the intense pain that I always carry with me and do my best to fight this grave injustice,” Mr. Namazi wrote in the letter, which was shared by his lawyer, Jared Genser. “All I want, sir, is one minute of your day’s time for the next seven days devoted to thinking about the tribulations of the U.S. hostages in Iran.”
Women of Iran
Zar Amir Ebrahimi on fleeing Iran and her Cannes comeback: ‘If you lose everything, it’s easier to rise up’
ourteen years before she was named best actress at Cannes, Zar Amir Ebrahimi sat alone in her flat in Tehran, contemplating the wreckage of her life and wondering if she had the strength to keep going. An intimate video of the actor and her boyfriend had been stolen by a man she once considered a friend, and was being sold on streets across the country. Iranian authorities were drawing up a criminal case. Sex outside marriage is illegal in Iran, and she faced lashes and years in jail if convicted. Ebrahimi was only 26, and even if she was spared prison, she knew she would never be allowed to act again inside the country.
She drew on that shattering experience for her award-winning performance in Ali Abbasi’s thriller Holy Spider, as the journalist Arezoo Rahimi, who hunts down a serial killer in the north-east Iranian city of Mashhad. The cops have been largely ignoring the murderous spree on their patch, because the attacker targets only sex workers and claims to be “cleansing” the area around Iran’s most sacred shrine. Meanwhile, Rahimi’s own career in Tehran has been derailed by misogyny, after her editor sexually harassed her, and office gossips turn the assault into an “affair”. She channels this fury into a reckless search for justice for the women of this dusty pilgrimage city.
Economy
EU Parliament calls for more sanctions against Iranian regime
European lawmakers adopted a resolution on Thursday calling for more sanctions against all Iranian individuals and entities responsible for human right violations and also voted for the Revolutionary Guard Corps to be designated as a terrorist entity.
"Iranian authorities must end crackdown on their own citizens (...) Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi should be added to the sanctions list," the European Parliament said in a statement.
Anti-government demonstrations erupted in Iran in September after the death in custody of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who had been detained by morality police enforcing the Islamic Republic's mandatory dress code for women.
(Reuters)
Fuel, Energy Shortages Continue In Strike-Hit Iran
Amid catastrophic energy shortages across Iran, kilometer-long queues of cars have been formed at gas stations in several cities while more oil industry workers stage strikes.
According to videos on social media, truckers in some cities such as Tabriz in northwestern Iran and Zahedan in southeastern are stranded around gas stations apparently due to a lack of diesel fuel and compressed natural gas (CNG).
Gas supplies to homes, which the government tried to protect during past cold season crunches, have also been interrupted in some regions. While offices and schools in Iran have been closed for days due to a serious natural gas shortage, long lines have also been formed in the cities where people use gas in capsules for their daily needs.
(Iran International)
Inside Iran
Iran protests: 15 minutes to defend yourself against the death penalty
Four young men have been executed in connection with the nationwide protests that erupted in Iran four months ago, while 18 other people have been sentenced to death. Human rights groups have said they were convicted after grossly unfair sham trials.
Mohammad Mehdi Karami, a 22-year-old karate champion, was hanged on 7 January, just 65 days after his arrest.
Sources have told BBC Persian that he had less than 15 minutes to defend himself in court.
(BBC)
Iran's Baluch Region In Poverty And Under Siege
Ali Khamenei’s representative in Sistan-Baluchestan Province has strongly blamed the Raisi government for the shortcomings in the impoverished and restive region.
Video footage from the December 29 inauguration ceremony of the new governor of the southeastern province, IRGC Brigadier General Mohammad Karami, contains parts of a speech by Supreme Leader’s representative Mostafa Mahami, and some lawmakers.
Mahami who also serves as the Shiite Friday Imam in the Sunni majority province capital, Zahedan, is seen in the video criticizing the government of President Ebrahim Raisi for economic hardships resulting from high inflation.
Regional Politics
Iran and its Arab neighbours are divided over a name
Its waters are beguilingly calm. But a tempest is brewing over their name. Iran insists that the waterway that divides the country from its Arab neighbours should be known as the Persian Gulf. Most Western cartographers agree. But across the sea, Arabs are angling for it to be called the Arabian Gulf. (Google Earth hedges its bets by using both names.) A natural barrier for centuries of Arab-Persian rivalry, the waters reflect increasingly troubled relations.
The latest catalyst is a football tournament. For the first time in decades Iraq has been hosting the Arabian Gulf Cup, which involves all the states bordering the waterway, bar Iran. It has been keen to show where its loyalties lie. “Today we’re part of the Arab system and we’re eager to maintain our relations with the states of the Arabian Gulf,” said Iraq’s prime minister, Muhammad al-Sudani, ahead of the opening ceremony in Basra, the host city, which is near the border with Iran. Other Iraqi politicians have chimed in. “Welcome to the states of the Arabian Gulf,” tweeted Muqtada al-Sadr, a cleric who heads Iraq’s biggest group in parliament.
(The Economist)
Global Relations
Tech Workers Fight for Iran Protesters as Big Tech Plays It Safe
AT A COMPANY-WIDE meeting in October, Google CEO Sundar Pichai expressed concern and heartbreak over Iran’s deadly crackdown on human rights protests. “To our Iranian Googlers, know that you have our full support,” Pichai said, answering a question submitted by a staffer about the swelling revolt. The query had been upvoted by thousands of workers, according to four employees.
Google by then had spun up a cross-company task force to focus on Iran, just as it had after Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the arrival of the pandemic, and other major events. Teams were endeavoring to keep services like Maps and Meet video chats accessible through government throttling in Iran. Demand for the company’s Outline virtual private network was growing to millions of Iranians seeking uncensored internet access. And security staffers reviewed and suspended a few popular Android apps in Iran that violated policies meant to keep users safe. On Google’s internal chat boards, workers celebrated Pichai’s acknowledgement and the company’s efforts.
(WIRED)
South Korea, Iran summon each other's envoys as spat over Yoon remarks deepens
Iran and South Korea summoned each other's envoys in a deepening spat over comments by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol that described the Islamic republic as the enemy of the United Arab Emirates.
Yoon, speaking to South Korean troops stationed in Abu Dhabi earlier this week, said South Korea and the UAE are under "very similar" circumstances, each facing North Korea and Iran as "the enemy, biggest threat."
Relations between Seoul and Tehran had already been testy over frozen Iranian funds in South Korea and suspected arms dealings between Iran and North Korea.
(Reuters)
Analysis
Netanyahu’s Iran policy is expected to fail—again
By: Danny Citrinowicz
Immediately upon Benjamin Netanyahu’s entry into the prime minister’s office for the sixth time in history, his government declared that their goal was to focus on every aspect of the Iranian threat, with its nuclear program at the top of the list.
From Netanyahu’s statements and actions—such as sending Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer to Washington on January 9—it is clear that the prime minister has not changed his ways regarding the Iran file. Netanyahu intends to continue to oppose any nuclear agreement with Tehran and also continues to emphasize that Israel will not hesitate to thwart Iran’s plans to build a nuclear arsenal.
In this context, Netanyahu seems to mainly focus on strengthening Israel’s ties with the United States, thereby mobilizing world and regional powers to increase political and economic pressure on Tehran. However, what was a difficult task for Netanyahu a few years ago is becoming an almost impossible one in the current international climate due to a host of reasons.
