Iran Digest Week of March 17- March 24
/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
A Four-Decade Secret: One Man’s Story of Sabotaging Carter’s Re-election
It has been more than four decades, but Ben Barnes said he remembers it vividly. His longtime political mentor invited him on a mission to the Middle East. What Mr. Barnes said he did not realize until later was the real purpose of the mission: to sabotage the re-election campaign of the president of the United States.
It was 1980 and Jimmy Carter was in the White House, bedeviled by a hostage crisis in Iran that had paralyzed his presidency and hampered his effort to win a second term. Mr. Carter’s best chance for victory was to free the 52 Americans held captive before Election Day. That was something that Mr. Barnes said his mentor was determined to prevent.
His mentor was John B. Connally Jr., a titan of American politics and former Texas governor who had served three presidents and just lost his own bid for the White House. A former Democrat, Mr. Connally had sought the Republican nomination in 1980 only to be swamped by former Gov. Ronald Reagan of California. Now Mr. Connally resolved to help Mr. Reagan beat Mr. Carter and in the process, Mr. Barnes said, make his own case for becoming secretary of state or defense in a new administration.
Yellen: Iran's actions not impacted by sanctions to the extent US would like
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday the United States was looking at ways to strengthen its sanctions against Iran, but acknowledged the sanctions had not resulted in the behavioral or policy changes Washington desires from Tehran.
"Our sanctions on Iran have created real economic crisis in the country, and Iran is greatly suffering economically because of the sanctions ... Has that forced a change in behavior? The answer is much less than we would ideally like," Yellen told lawmakers in a hearing on Thursday.
Yellen did not specify what behavioral change Washington was expecting from Tehran. However, Washington has previously raised concerns over Iran's nuclear program, human rights record and relations with Russia amid its war with Ukraine.
(Reuters)
Economy
Iran Claims Oil Exports Surpass 1.3 Million Barrels Per day
Despite US sanctions Iran has reached its highest level of oil exports in at least two years surpassing 1.3 million barrels per day, the finance minister says.
Ehsan Khandouzi stated in an interview with The Financial Times that non-oil exports of $53bn were also 12 per cent higher in the first 11 months of the past Iranian year than the same period the last year.
Iran keeps its oil export destinations and revenues a secret because of US third-party sanctions on buyers
US imposes fresh sanctions on Iran’s drone procurement network
The U.S. said Tuesday it is imposing a new round of sanctions on Iranian firms and people accused of procuring equipment used for drone manufacturing.
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control coordinated with the FBI to designate four firms and three people in Iran and Turkey for allegedly buying equipment, including European-made engines, to be used for Iran’s drone and weapons programs.
Those targeted for sanctions include the Iran-based Defense Technology and Science Research Center, its procurement firm Farazan Industrial Engineering Inc. and two other firms along with purchasing agents from the companies.
(C4ISRNET)
Inside Iran
Iran officials hold secret talks with West without Raisi’s knowledge
Secret talks between representatives of the Iranian ruling establishment and western officials over reviving the 2015 nuclear deal and freeing US prisoners have been held in recent weeks, two sources told Middle East Eye.
According to the Iranian sources, who are close to the talks, the government of President Ebrahim Raisi was not informed of the dialogue, part of a growing trend that has seen figures close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei take the lead on foreign policy.
The sources added that Abbas Araghchi, former deputy foreign minister under Hassan Rouhani, led the talks, which were held in Europe.
(Middle East Eye)
Three Arrested At Khamenei’s Office For Suspected Leak
The intelligence protection unit Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s offices has reportedly arrested and interrogated three people on suspicion of disclosing secret documents.
The arrests come after Iran International and others published secret documents of a meeting of IRGC commanders with Khamenei in which the top officials expressed serious concerns about loss of loyalty among the ranks of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) amid the recent protests.
Reports by Vaght-e Azadi Telegram channel say security agents in other intelligence agencies are also looking for people who played a role in leaking the document.
Regional Politics
After Iran, Saudi Arabia to re-establish ties with Syria, sources say
Syria and Saudi Arabia have agreed to reopen their embassies after cutting diplomatic ties more than a decade ago, three sources with knowledge of the matter said, a step that would mark a leap forward in Damascus's return to the Arab fold.
Contacts between Riyadh and Damascus had gathered momentum following a landmark agreement to re-establish ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, a key ally of President Bashar al-Assad, a regional source aligned with Damascus said.
The re-establishment of ties between Riyadh and Damascus would mark the most significant development yet in moves by Arab states to normalize ties with Assad, who was shunned by many Western and Arab states after Syria's civil war began in 2011.
(Reuters)
Global Relations
Iran flexes military muscle after joint naval drills with Russia, China
Iran's military forces wrapped up naval drills jointly conducted with two top allies, China and Russia, in the Gulf of Oman in what Tehran has projected as a major show of military might to its Western foes.
The four-day drills that were concluded last Sunday saw Chinese and Russian ships parading behind Iran's top destroyer, Jamaran, a Moudge-class frigate that joined the country's fleet in 2010. China’s South Sea Fleet warship, the Nanning, took part in the exercises, as well as Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov, armed with hypersonic missiles. China's Nanning is a type 052D destroyer and bears similarities with the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyers.
China's CCTV reported that the drills included live-fire suppression and strike practice with nighttime communication exercises.
US, Albania on 'Hunt' for Iranian Cyber Actors
The decision to launch a series of cyberattacks that crippled Albanian government websites and temporarily shut down government services may be backfiring on the alleged perpetrator.
Albania blamed the attacks in July and September of last year on Iran, claiming the evidence pointing to Tehran was “irrefutable,” and ordered all Iranian officials out of the country.
Now, a U.S. cyber team sent to Albania to help the country recover and “hunt” for more dangers says the efforts have turned up “new data and information about the tools, techniques, and procedures of malicious cyber actors, attempting to disrupt government networks and systems.”
(VOA News)
Analysis
The Scorched-Earth Tactics of Iran’s Cyber Army
By: Arian Khameneh
IN THE EARLY hours of January 5, a popular anonymous Iranian dissident account called Jupiter announced on Twitter that his friends had killed Abolqasem Salavati, a maligned magistrate nicknamed the “Judge of Death.” The tweet went viral, and thousands of jubilant people poured into the account’s Twitter Space to thank them for assassinating the man responsible for sentencing hundreds of political prisoners to die.
Soon, however, a few attendees voiced doubts over the veracity of the claim. They were cursed at and kicked out of the room, as the host insisted, “Tonight is about celebration!” while repeatedly encouraging viewers to make the Space go viral. The next day, activists on the ground and Iranian media confirmed that Salavati was, in fact, alive. Several experts suspect Jupiter to have been an Islamic Republic of Iran cyber operation aimed at distracting people, while the Iranian government executed two protesters the same night as the Twitter Space.
