Iran Digest Week of November 19 - November 26
/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 Communications Associate Elizabeth Kos. Please note that the news and views expressed in the articles below do not necessarily reflect those of AIC.
US-Iran Relations
Iran Condemns US Sanctions Over Bid to Meddle in 2020 Vote
Iran has condemned US sanctions against several Iranians and one Iranian group for trying to influence the 2020 US presidential election.
“Iran condemns these new US sanctions as a continuation of the failed policy of Trump’s maximum pressure that are desperate and illegitimate,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Twitter on Friday, referring to former President Donald Trump.
“Such accusations addressed by the US government, who itself has a long history of meddling in other countries’ affairs in different shapes and forms, are baseless,” said the Iranian statement.
Nuclear Accord
What to Expect as Iran Nuclear Talks Resume Next Week
Indirect negotiations between Iran and the United States to revive the nuclear deal are set to restart next week after a lengthy pause that put prospects of restoring the landmark accord in doubt.
While a breakthrough is not expected, analysts have said that the talks set to begin in Vienna on November 29 will shed light on how Tehran will approach diplomacy under conservative President Ebrahim Raisi, whose government has upped Iranian demands before a return to the deal.
“We’re going to find out how different these [Iranian] hardliners are from previous hardliners; we’re going to find out if they’re going to be a little softer,” said Negar Mortazavi, an Iranian-American journalist and analyst.
Iran Rebuffs UN Watchdog on Resuming Nuclear Inspections
In what could be an ill omen for the resumption of talks next week on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday that he had failed to convince Iran to replace key equipment needed to monitor its nuclear program.
The agency’s director-general, Rafael M. Grossi, told a quarterly meeting of its board of governors in Geneva that two days of talks in Tehran had not produced an agreement to reinstall surveillance cameras at a centrifuge-parts workshop in Karaj, Iran. The workshop was the target of apparent sabotage in June, an attack that Iran blames on Israel.
COVID-19
Iran’s COVID Vaccination Momentum Considerable: Minister
Iran’s public vaccination against COVID-19 has gained remarkable momentum over the past three months, said the health minister.
The minister said some 84 percent of Iran’s target population have received their first dose, and 67 percent the second one.
He described as favorable and under control Iran’s situation in terms of the coronavirus spread, however, voicing concerns regarding the pandemic and its possible new waves.
Nevertheless, the minister said, increasing the public vaccination’s pace and people’s huge participation in the process have helped improve the country’s conditions.
Inside Iran
In Latest Breach, Iran’s Mahan Air Hit With Cyberattack
A cyberattack on Sunday disrupted access to Iran’s privately owned Mahan Air, state TV reported, marking the latest in a series of cyberattacks on Iranian infrastructure that has put the country on edge.
Mahan Air’s website displayed an error message saying the site couldn’t be reached. The carrier said in a statement that it had “thwarted” the attack and that its flight schedule was not affected, adding it has faced similar breaches in the past.
Many customers of Mahan Air across Iran received strange text messages on Sunday. A group calling itself Hoosyarane-Vatan, or Observants of Fatherland, claimed in the mass texts to have carried out the attack, citing the airline’s cooperation with Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The self-described hacking group did not provide any evidence.
Thousands Rally in Central Iran to Protest Water Shortages
Thousands of farmers and their supporters gathered in the central Iranian city of Isfahan on Friday, state TV reported, in a major protest over water shortages in the drought-stricken region.
"Let Isfahan breathe again, revive Zayandeh Rud," chanted some of the demonstrators in a video posted on social media as crowds gathered in the dry bed of the river where protesting farmers have set up a tent city. "Our children want water to provide food for your children," read a sign carried by a woman.
Iran's energy minister apologised for the water shortages. "I apologise to all of our dear farmers, and I feel ashamed for not being able to provide the water needed for their crops. With God's help, I hope we can overcome these shortcomings in the next few months," Ali Akbar Mehrabian told state TV.
(Reuters)
Regional Politics
Yemen’s Battleground Shifts in Favor of Iran-Backed Houthis
Houthi fighters allied with Iran have gained important new ground in the yearslong war in Yemen, as Saudi Arabia is struggling to defend a strategic, oil-rich city and U.S. efforts to broker peace stagnate.
Without coordinating with United Nations peacekeepers in the area, Yemeni forces supported by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates abruptly withdrew last week from key positions near the western port city of Hodeidah. At the same time, Saudi Arabia vowed to send more forces to defend Marib, the center of an energy hub near the Saudi border where the Houthis have been methodically gaining new ground for months.
The surprising shifts in the front lines of a seven-year war have allowed the Houthis to reopen the road from Hodeidah to the capital, Sana’a, where the group recently stormed a largely abandoned U.S. Embassy complex and took Yemeni employees captive.
Iran Hearings Start Over Shooting Down of Ukrainian Airliner
An Iranian military court Sunday began a hearing over the military’s shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane in 2020 that killed 176 people, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The report said ten military personnel — suspects from” various ranks” — were present at the session. Families of victims and their lawyers also attended the session, representing 103 legal complaints over the shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines flight number PS752.
The report quoted the unidentified judge as saying he hopes the court would issue a “precise, quick and serious” verdict, based on a “reasonable, fair, transparent, clear-cut and strong” procedure.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Pledges ‘New Chapter’ in Iran-UAE Relations
Iran and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to usher in a “new chapter” in their relations, Iran's deputy foreign minister said following his trip to the Gulf country on Wednesday.
Ali Bagheri Kani, who also serves as Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, met in Dubai with UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khalifa Shaheen and Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the Emirati president.
Emirati state news agency WAM said the meeting “emphasized the importance of strengthening relations on the basis of good neighborliness and mutual respect.”
Analysis
Iran-Azerbaijan: A New Cold War?
By: Eldar Mamedov
As tensions subsided following weeks of saber-rattling and hostile rhetoric, the foreign ministers of Iran and Azerbaijan had a November 5 phone call in which they blamed “ill-wishers” for trying to exploit “recent misunderstandings between the two neighbors,” as the Iranian readout put it.
But the short-term rapprochement and blame-shifting only serves to obscure larger shifts in the relationship: While the war games and insults have abated, diverging geopolitical choices continue to pull Baku and Tehran in opposite directions, augmenting the risks of periodic eruptions in the future.
