Iran Digest Week of May 13 - May 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 associates Tony Liu and Cynthia Markarian.. Please note that the news and views expressed in the articles below do not necessarily reflect those of AIC.
US-Iran Relations
U.N. envoy says U.S. sanctions on Iran worsen humanitarian situation
Sweeping U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran have badly impacted the country’s economy and worsened the humanitarian situation in the Persian Gulf nation, a United Nations special envoy said Wednesday.
This has led to inflation and growing poverty, and depleted state resources for dealing with the basic needs of people with low income and other vulnerable groups, Douhan told reporters during a press conference in Tehran. She singled out those suffering from “severe diseases, disabled people, Afghan refugees, women-led households and children” as being badly affected by the measures.
Douhan, a Belarusian who was appointed in 2020 and reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council, also said that the “sanctions have been substantially exacerbating the humanitarian situation in Iran.” She urged countries that imposed unilateral sanctions against Iran, especially the United States, to remove them.
(PBS News Hour)
U.S. charges Venezuelan doctor with selling ransomware used by Iranian group
A Venezuelan cardiologist who taught himself computer programming sold software that was used by an Iranian hacking group to attack Israeli companies, U.S. prosecutors said on Monday in bringing criminal charges against him.
Moises Zagala, 55, licensed his software to cybercriminals who deployed it to extort victims for money, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.
Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said in a statement that Zagala bragged about successful attacks using his programs, "including by malicious actors associated with the government of Iran."
Zagala faces two counts of attempted computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit computer intrusions. He lives in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, and has not been arrested by U.S. authorities. A message Reuters sent to an Instagram account for Zagala's clinic in Ciudad Bolivar was not immediately returned.
(Reuters)
Economy
More Russian oil going east squeezes Iranian crude sales to China
Iran’s crude exports to China have fallen sharply since the start of the Ukraine war as Beijing favoured heavily discounted Russian barrels, leaving almost 40 million barrels of Iranian oil stored on tankers at sea in Asia and seeking buyers.US and European sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 have pushed more Russian crude east, where China has snapped it up, cutting demand for oil from Iran and Venezuela, which are also both under Western sanctions.
The Kpler data and analytics company said it estimated the amount of Iranian oil in floating storage near Singapore rose to 37 million barrels in mid-May from 22 million barrels in early April
Iran’s exports to China were estimated at 700,000 to 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) in March, according to data and consultancy firm calculations.But in April those exports were estimated to have dropped by between 200,000 and 250,000 bpd, according to Iman Nasseri, managing director for the Middle East with FGE consultancy, suggesting a drop of roughly a quarter or a third.
(Al Jazeera)
Environment
Second endangered cheetah cub dies in Iran: state media
The second of three Asiatic cheetah cubs born in captivity in Iran has died in a blow to conservation efforts for the critically endangered subspecies, state media reported Wednesday.
The announcement came just two weeks after a first cub from the litter died.
The cause of death was established as congenital malformation of the left lung, an environment department statement said.
The cubs were born in the Touran Wildlife Refuge by caesarean section on May 1, in what the department said was the first birth of an Asiatic cheetah in captivity.
(France24)
Inside Iran
Iran's security forces clash with anti-government protesters in several provinces
Iranian security forces fired live rounds and tear gas to disperse anti-government protesters in several provinces on Thursday, according to posts on social media, as protests triggered by rising food prices continued to spread.
Iranians took to the streets last week after a cut in food subsidies caused prices to soar by as much as 300% for some flour-based staples. The protests quickly turned political, with crowds calling for an end to the Islamic Republic, echoing unrest in 2019 which began over fuel prices hike.
On Thursday footage posted on social media showed intense clashes in cities including Farsan in central Iran, where riot police fired live rounds at demonstrators. In Shahr-e Kord and Hafshejan, security forces used teargas and clubs to disperse the protesters.
(Reuters)
Iran says it’s reviewing request to delay Swedish doctor’s execution
Iran this week said it was reviewing a request to delay the execution of an Iranian-born Swedish academic convicted of espionage.
The case of Ahmadreza Jalali, a disaster medicine doctor, has drawn widespread international condemnation and put a spotlight on Iran’s pattern of arresting dual nationals on spurious charges, often for political leverage.
Jalali’s death sentence is “final,” a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Monday, adding that the judiciary was considering an appeal by his lawyers to delay the execution scheduled for May 21.
Iranian authorities arrested Jalali, 50, when he traveled to Tehran for a conference in 2016. Officials accused him of spying for Israel’s Mossad, including leaking details that led to the killings of two Iranian nuclear scientists in 2010.
(The Washington Post)
Regional Politics
Iran inaugurates new drone production line in Tajikistan
Iran said Tuesday it inaugurated a production line for manufacturing a new military drone in Tajikistan, a first for both nations.
The move is seen as an effort by Iran to address the balance of power in the region: Afghanistan under its Sunni Muslim Taliban rulers poses a threat to its two neighbors, predominantly Shiite Iran and secular Tajikistan.
The report said the drone is dubbed the Ababil-2 after a bird in the Quran. It is capable of carrying out attacks as well as surveillance missions from a range of 200 kilometers (124 miles) with 1 1/2 hours of flight time, the report said. It did not reveal other details such as the capacity of the production line.
The announcement marks first time that Iran has launched a military production line abroad.
(Associated Press)
Iran says no development in Tehran-Riyadh talks, MP says top envoys to meet
Iran's foreign ministry said on Tuesday there has been "no new development" since April in talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported, shortly after a lawmaker said top diplomats of the rival countries will meet soon.
Earlier, an Iranian lawmaker told the semi-official Fars news agency that Iran's Hossein Amirabdollahian will soon meet his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan in Iraq to discuss issues such as the reopening of embassies and the Yemen crisis.
When asked about the meeting, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said: "No new developments have taken place since the last round of talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia in Iraq".
Predominantly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran, locked in proxy conflicts across the Middle East, started direct talks last year to try to ease tensions between the regional foes.
(Reuters)
Boris Johnson accepted officials’ advice on £400m Iran debt, ex-minister says
Boris Johnson appeared to accept advice while foreign secretary that payment of the £400m debt to Iran must not be linked to the release of the British-Iranian dual nationals, according to evidence given to MPs by his Middle East minister.
Alistair Burt also told the foreign affairs select committee that he wrote to Johnson in May 2018 urging him to ask the then prime minister, Theresa May, to overrule objections to payment of the debt being made by the Ministry of Defence. Burt said he asked Johnson to break the logjam after conversations with the then defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, about the MoD’s objections.
Burt had been given to understand that the department would accept a ruling from No 10. It is understood that he does not know if Johnson acted on his advice by asking the prime minister to intervene.
The revelations have the potential to damage the prime minister since they suggest Johnson might have misjudged the link between the failure to pay the debt and the continued detention of the British Iranian dual nationals Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori.
(The Guardian)
Analysis
Opinion:All eyes are on Ukraine, but another crisis is brewing in Iran
By: Carl Bildt and Javier Solana
Even as the Ukraine war rages in the heart of Europe, we should not forget about another flash point threatening Western security: Iran and its expanding nuclear program. Unless we can get the 2015 nuclear deal back on track, we are headed to a new conflict with Tehran. President Biden and European leaders have acted swiftly and decisively on Ukraine; now they must take steps to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear threshold state.
To this end, Enrique Mora, the European Union’s coordinator for Iran nuclear deal negotiations, recently visited Iran to help salvage a deal stuck in the political quicksand in both Washington and Tehran. Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate, including members of Biden’s Democratic Party, passed a measure asking that a deal with Iran should also cover non-nuclear-related issues — an almost-certain dealbreaker. Meanwhile in Tehran, appetite for an agreement is dwindling as hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi boasts about doubling oil sales since he took office last August, despite U.S. sanctions.
Though negotiations on the essence of the deal are effectively concluded, the Europeans are trying to break a deadlock on the issue that continues to snarl the works: the U.S. designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization. This designation is a largely symbolic measure with little or no relation to the dispute over the nuclear program. Washington and Tehran would be foolish to allow domestic ideological positions to sabotage a nuclear deal that managed — against heavy odds — to survive the presidency of Donald Trump.
(Read More Here)
