Iran Digest Week of February 24- March 2
/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
The global nuclear watchdog has found uranium particles enriched to 83.7% purity - very close to weapons grade - at Iran's underground Fordo site.
In a report seen by the BBC, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was having discussions with Iran "to clarify the matter".
Iran has said "unintended fluctuations" in enrichment levels may have occurred.
(BBC)
Women of Iran
Behind bars, women of Iran's Evin prison refuse to give in
"Listen to this! One. Two. Three!" Down the crackling phone line from the women's wing of Tehran's Evin prison, a chorus of prisoners then launch into raucous song.
It's a Persian rendition of the Italian protest song "Bella Ciao".
"All for one and one for all!" they sing, laughing in shared defiance in support of the "Woman, life, freedom" protests that have shaken Iran's clerical authorities for five months.
Environment
Last of Iran’s endangered Asiatic cheetah cubs in captivity dies
The last survivor of three critically endangered Asiatic cheetah cubs born in captivity in Iran has died in hospital from kidney failure.
Pirouz, who was admitted to the Central veterinary hospital due to kidney failure last Thursday, died after undergoing dialysis, the official IRNA news agency said.
“The loss of Pirouz and ineffectiveness of all the efforts made by the treatment team in the past few days to save the animal saddens me and all my colleagues, and we apologise to everyone that we could not keep this animal alive,” said the hospital director, Omid Moradi.
Inside Iran
Iran: Dozens of schoolgirls taken to hospital after new gas poisonings
Dozens of girls from 26 schools in Iran are reportedly being treated for poisoning at hospitals after another wave of apparent toxic gas attacks.
More than 1,000 students have been affected since November. They have suffered respiratory problems, nausea, dizziness and fatigue.
Many Iranians suspect the poisonings are a deliberate attempt to force girls' schools to close.
(BBC)
Video Games Are a New Propaganda Machine for Iran
Commander of the Resistance: Amerli Battle is a first-person shooter set in Iraq. Launched in 2022, the game pitches players against Islamic State militants laying siege to a town, based on a real-life event that took place in 2014. Its hero—the commander of the title—is a real-life figure too: Qasem Soleimani, a major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a military force under the command of Iran’s theocratic leadership.
Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in January 2020, was a powerful figure in the regime—and a controversial one, declared a terrorist by the US and accused of overseeing human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings in Iran, Iraq and Syria.
The game was produced by Monadian Media, an offshoot of the Basij Cyberspace Organization—the digital wing of the IRGC’s paramilitary group, the Basij‚ and it is part of an ongoing propaganda effort by the regime to rewrite history and mythologize its leading figures.
(Wired)
Protests have brought Iran’s ethnic minorities & Persian majority closer
Nationwide protests under the banner “women, life, freedom” continue sporadically in Iran, the most recent marking 40 days since the execution of two protestors. Among the most important achievements of the movement so far has been the degree to which it has brought various ethnic groups closer, further legitimizing demands for greater rights for the millions of Iranians living at the periphery of the state.
The protests were triggered in September 2022 by the death in police custody of Mahsa Jina Amini, a 22-year-old girl from Iran’s western Kurdish region. Ensuing demonstrations have been particularly large in the Kurdish region as well as in Sistan-Baluchistan, on the eastern border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in the ethnic Arab-populated region of Khuzestan.
It is unclear whether Amini’s ethnic background influenced the violent treatment she experienced at the hands of the so-called morality police. However, at a lecture this writer gave at the American University of Iraq in Sulaimaniyah in October 2022, students firmly believed that her ethnicity, revealed by her accent, caused the security forces to act with even more impunity and brutality.
(Stimson)
Regional Politics
Iranian Azerbaijani Rights Activist in Iran Released From Prison, Flouts Court-Ordered ‘Internal Exile’
A prominent Iranian Azerbaijani civil rights activist freed from prison last week in Iran is publicly defying his court-ordered sentence of “internal exile” in an act of civil disobedience.
Abbas Lisani served more than four years in prison after Iran's Revolutionary Court in Tabriz convicted him in 2019 of "forming groups with the purpose of disrupting national security."
The verdict cited his speeches, media interviews, and participation in protests as evidence of activities to disrupt national security. The long-time activist has spent nearly 10 years total in prison for his civil campaigns, such as taking part in cultural gatherings to mark International Mother Language Day.
(VOA)
Global Relations
Iran expels two Germany diplomats in tit-for-tat move
Iran has expelled two German diplomats in retaliation to a similar move by Berlin last week.
Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani announced in a short statement on Wednesday that two unnamed diplomats have been designated personae non gratae as a result of the German government’s recent “interventional and irresponsible measures”.
“The priority of the Islamic Republic of Iran is always to maintain cooperation in an atmosphere of respect, but if other sides want to ignore the fundamental tenets and national governance of our country, then defining new options is unavoidable,” he said, adding that the German ambassador has been notified after being summoned.
Politicians, Analysts Warn Against Iran’s Reliance On Russia And China
As Iran moves closer to Russia and China, leading Iranian lawmakers and pundits have warned the government against over-reliance on Moscow and Beijing.
Speaking to Shafaqna, conservative lawmaker Mostafa Hosseini Ghotbabadi said that while Iran publicly claims to have a “neither East nor West” approach to foreign policy, it is going too far towards relying on the East at the expense of total alienation from the West.
He said Russia’s war against Ukraine and conflicts between China and Taiwan are calculated games engineered by the world’s biggest powers over securing their share of the world’s resources, luring Iran and its neighbors into the game and distracting Iran from its priorities.
Analysis
Israel’s Dangerous Shadow War With Iran
By: Dalia Dassa Kaye
Israel has long made clear its penchant for applying military pressure to disrupt Iran’s nuclear advances and weapons exports—and, more recently, its drone technology program. In the last few months, however, Israel’s appetite for risk seems to have increased. In early January, an Israeli strike aimed at pro-Iranian militant groups inside Syria put the international airport in Damascus out of service. Later that month, reports indicated that Israel had carried out a significant drone attack on a military site in the Iranian city of Isfahan. Israel prepared for a retaliatory strike from Iran, possibly on civilian targets outside the country. Iran subsequently launched a drone attack on a commercial shipping tanker in the Arabian Sea owned by an Israeli businessman, according to U.S. officials. And just last week, a considerable Israeli strike reportedly targeted Iranian officials meeting in a residential neighborhood in Damascus.
