Iran Digest Week of March 24- March 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
UN Court Rejects Iranian Bid To Unfreeze Funds But Faults U.S. For Seizing Other Assets
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has rejected Iran's bid to unblock nearly $2 billion in assets belonging to its central bank that were frozen by the United States over alleged terrorist attacks.
The Hague-based court said on March 30 it did not have jurisdiction over $1.75 billion in bonds, plus accumulated interest, that are held in a Citibank account in New York.
But the court simultaneously found that the United States had "violated" the rights of some Iranians and companies whose assets were also frozen. The ruling ordered the United States to pay compensation, but said the amount should be determined through negotiation.
US Forces Suffer Traumatic Brain Injuries in Deadly Iran-Backed Attacks in Syria
The four attacks on U.S. forces in Syria by Iranian-backed militants last week, including one attack that killed a U.S. contractor, resulted in at least six traumatic brain injuries in service members, Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder told reporters on Thursday.
In the first attack, last Thursday at a base near Hasakah, a suicide drone of Iranian origin killed a U.S. military contractor, wounded five U.S. service members and one other contractor, and caused four traumatic brain injuries in service members, according to the U.S. military.
One U.S. military source, speaking to VOA on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak to reporters, said the drone used in the attack was an Iranian-made Qasef-1.
(VOA)
Nuclear Accord
Iran may set deadline for nuclear talks, says FM Amir-Abdollahian
Iran may set a legal deadline for deadlocked talks aimed at restoring its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, the country’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has suggested to Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview.
The move could happen through the parliament as some politicians in Tehran are growing increasingly impatient with the unending talks, Amir-Abdollahian.
“In the parliament, there is this idea that the government should not perennially be in a path of negotiations to bring all parties back to the JCPOA,” he said referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the accord that the United States unilaterally abandoned in 2018.
Women of Iran
The Farda Briefing: Iran's Hard-Liners Propose Tougher Measures To Enforce Hijab Law
Hard-line lawmakers in Iran have proposed new tougher measures to enforce the country's hijab law.
The proposed measures would impose fines of up to $60,000 on women who violate the law as well as the confiscation of their passports and driver's licenses, according to lawmaker Hossein Jalali.
Another member of parliament, Bijan Nobaveh, said the proposed measures also include using surveillance cameras to monitor if women in public are wearing the compulsory hijab. As punishment, offenders would be denied mobile phone and Internet services, he said.
Economy
Group: Oil tanker tied to US-traded firm receiving Iran oil
An oil tanker owned by a major U.S.-traded transportation company appears to be taking on Iranian crude oil in a key Asian maritime strait in violation of American sanctions, an advocacy group alleges. The firm allegedly involved, Euronav, said Wednesday it will “take appropriate action when necessary.”
Satellite photos and maritime tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press put the Belgian-flagged crude oil tanker Oceania just next to the Vietnamese-flagged tanker Abyss for a possible ship-to-ship transfer. The group United Against Nuclear Iran has warned the Oceania’s owner, the Antwerp-based Euronav, that it believes the Abyss took on Iranian crude oil in late February.
The suspicion comes as Iran remains able to trade its crude oil at sea despite American sanctions snapping back into place after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. Now, nearly five years later, Iran enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels while continuing to sell its oil and supplying bomb-carrying drones to Russia to fuel Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
(AP News)
Regional Politica
Israeli strikes near Syrian capital kill Iranian adviser
Israeli airstrikes hit the suburbs of Syria's capital city early Friday for the second day in a row, killing an Iranian adviser, the state media of Syria and Iran reported.
Loud explosions were heard over Damascus shortly after midnight Thursday, according to residents in the capital and the state news agency SANA. The airstrikes came after similar attacks early Thursday.
SANA said Syrian air defenses confronted "hostile targets,” adding that the strike caused material damage. SANA said some of the Israeli missiles were shot down by air defenses.
(ABC News)
Global Relations
Azerbaijan Decries 'Vile' Remarks By Top Iranian Commander
Azerbaijan has denounced what it called "slanderous" comments by a senior Iranian military commander, the latest sign of fractious ties between the oil-rich Caspian Sea Neighbours.
Baku made the remarks on Thursday a day after Azeri security services said they were investigating "a terror attack" after a lawmaker with strong anti-Iranian views was shot and wounded at his home.
The Azeri defense ministry said Kioumars Heydari, the head of Iran's traditional army ground forces, had stated that members of the Islamic State militant group had fought for Azerbaijan and were still based in the country.
Iran-Russia military relations take spotlight following FMs Moscow meeting
Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was in Moscow on Wednesday for a visit he said covered military cooperation among a host of other bilateral and regional issues.
"Obviously, defense cooperation is one of the subjects topping the joint agenda of Iran and Russia," he declared when leaving for Moscow, where he stood next to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov at a joint presser.
In an interview with Russian state TV, Amir-Abdollahian was asked about a report by The Wall Street Journal this week that cited American officials as saying that Moscow is giving Tehran "cyberwarfare" and "surveillance software" in exchange for Iranian drones.
Video Sheds Light On Iran’s Plot To Set Up Spy Cell In Tanzania
Iran International has obtained a video clip showing an agent of the Islamic Republic confessing to the regime’s plans to set up a network of spies in Tanzania.
In the video, which seems like an interrogation, or a confession session, an officer of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry’s 853 unit named Hamidreza Abraheh reveals the Islamic Republic’s efforts to recruit agents for a clandestine network from Africa's Baluch minority for terrorist operations.
Abraheh, who worked under the alias Hamid Salari, said that the Islamic Republic is trying to infiltrate the African country under the cover of economic cooperation. He stated that this is the new strategy of the regime’s intelligence operations in many other countries.
Analysis
Centrist DC think tank: US should threaten war, regime change in Iran
By: Daniel Larison
The Iran policy debate in Washington suffers from a poverty of ideas. Despite the trail of failures left behind by policies based on coercion and threats over the last two decades, the debate over Iran’s nuclear program usually comes back to some combination of backfiring sanctions and reckless proposals for war and regime change.
A new report by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) is just the most recent example of this. The report describes the findings of exercises that the think tank conducted, and it concludes by recommending that the U.S. broaden its threats of military action to include targeting the Iranian political and military leadership as well as their nuclear facilities. Nothing could be worse for the cause of nonproliferation or for U.S. interests than to seek regime change again.
It seems incredible that anyone in Washington still floats the options of war and regime change 20 years after the invasion of Iraq showed how disastrous these policies are, but there has been no real learning from the crime of the Iraq war. One of the main reasons why Washington hasn’t learned from the Iraq war is that there was never any accountability for any of its architects and cheerleaders, and the incentives in our debates still tend to favor aggressive and militarized policies. Instead of repudiating wars for regime change, many people in Washington have no problem using the same fatally flawed policies against other countries.
