Don’t Ignore Iran Terror Plot

Hoshang Amiri
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Don’t Ignore Iran Terror Plot
Four Iranian terrorists were arrested in Europe in June 2018 on the charge of attempting to bomb the Free Iran rally in Villepinte, a suburb of Paris. Two of them – Nasimeh Na’ami and Amir Saadouni – were arrested in Belgium carrying 500 grams of the high-explosive TATP, shortly after their handler Assadollah Assadi, a diplomat at the embassy in Austria, had handed it off to them. The two would-be bombers were instructed to place it as close as possible to opposition leader Maryam Rajavi, who was sat amongst many dignitaries from around the world. If successful, the loss of life would have been horrific because there were a total of 100,000 in attendance.
Proof Iran Is Responsible for 2018 Bomb Plot
Assadollah Assadi was arrested in Germany with two notebooks, one containing details of the plot and one that is possibly linked to a Europe-wide terror network. After two years of investigations, Assadollah Assadi and his three co-conspirators went to trial in November and a verdict is due Thursday, with the expectation that Assadollah Assadi will be found guilty and given 20 years in jail. The prosecutors said that he was not working on his own volition though, rather he was taking orders from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani. Therefore, why would the Iranian government do this? Well, to put it simply, the threat posed by the Iranian Resistance was large enough that the government was willing to risk whatever might come their way. In December 2017, the Resistance organized a major protest with people calling for regime change and it shook the ayatollahs’ establishment to its core. Of course, the protest was soon quashed by oppressive forces, including the State Security Forces (SSF), the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) with dozens killed in the streets and thousands arrested.
Iran Diplomat on Trial for Terrorism
However, Maryam Rajavi called for a “year full of uprisings,” and Iran’s theocracy saw her as so much of a threat to their continued rule that they wanted to kill her and hundreds more to strike a blow at the heart of the Resistance. “In light of the high political price the regime had to pay for this terrorist act, it stands to reason that the regime was willing to pay this price to destroy or exert a blow to the Iranian resistance and the MEK. This, in itself, is indicative of the significance of Iranian resistance, and the MEK and its existential threat to the regime,” the Iranian Resistance wrote. They cautioned the EU against ignoring the Iranian government’s role in this as that will only embolden the ayatollahs and called for the ayatollahs’ ruling system to face the consequences.
Iran Media Warns of Protests Over Crises

Iran Executes Eight Prisoners in One Week

Sia Rajabi
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Iran Executes Eight Prisoners in One Week
Authorities in Iran executed a 31-year-old Iranian Baluch political prisoner on Saturday in Zahedan central prison. The execution of Javid Dehghan Khold was the eighth in just one week, suggesting that Iran’s human rights situation is deteriorating fast. Dehghan Khold was arrested in 2015 and tortured into confessing to the charges lodged against him, including the pulling out of fingernails and being flogged with a cable. Many human rights activists and groups urged the Iranian regime to spare his life. “[Iran should] immediately halt the execution of Javid Dehghan, a member of Iran’s disadvantaged Baluchi ethnic minority… Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception. The death penalty is a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment,” Amnesty International wrote on Thursday, January 28. Prior to Dehghan Khald’s execution, the Iranian government executed seven more people, including:
  • Iranian-Arab prisoner Ali Motayeri was executed in Sheiban Prison, Ahvaz, on Thursday, for the internationally vague crimes of waging war against God and corruption on earth. He was also tortured into confessing.
  • Iranian wrestler Mehdi Ali Hosseini was executed on Monday, despite an international campaign to save his life, who was the second wrestler to be killed since September. The first being national hero Navid Afkari sentenced for taking part in the 2018 Iran protests.
Iran Executes Another Athlete
Iran is continuing to execute more people, having killed almost 40 in the last few months, mainly in an attempt to intimidate the public with the goal of preventing further protests against the Iranian establishment. “We strongly condemn the series of executions—at least 28—since mid-December, including of people from minority groups. We urge the authorities to halt the imminent execution of Javid Dehghan, to review his and other death penalty cases in line with human rights law,” the United Nations Human Rights Office stated. The fact that the international community has not responded to these executions, including that of French resident Ruhollah Zam, in any real way—in fact, just postponing a business forum with Iran—means that Tehran feels emboldened to continue.
Iran’s Human Rights Abuses in 2020
The international community must do whatever is in their power to end human rights abuses in Iran, perhaps even through the use of the European Union’s new global sanctions regime. “This regime cannot last even for a day without torture and execution… This regime is a disgrace to contemporary humanity and must be isolated by the international community,” said Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

Iran Ranked 95 Among 98 Countries in Coronavirus Response

Jubin Katiraie
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Iran Ranked 95 Among 98 Countries in Coronavirus Response
The Lowy Institute released a Covid performance index on January 27. In its index, the institute sorted countries by regions, political systems, population size, and economic development to provide a real view of states’ performance to counter the novel coronavirus. Based on the availability of data across the six indicators used to construct the index, the Lowy Institute ranked 98 countries compared to the average performance over the time in managing the Covid-19 pandemic in the 36 weeks following their hundredth confirmed case of the virus. In this context, New Zealand showed the best performance with a 94.4 score while Brazil stood at the end of the table with only 4.3 points. Iran was ranked as the 95th country in managing the pandemic before Colombia and Mexico. The Lowy Institute, of course, used official figures for ranking countries. This is while not only have the people and opposition rejected the statistics provided by the Iranian Health Ministry but also health officials have strongly challenged official figures. For instance, in late April 2020, as the government officially declared that 5,877 people had lost their lives to the coronavirus, Mohammad Reza Mahboub-Far, member of the National Covid-19 Task Force, admitted that the health ministry’s stats were fabricated. “The current stats of the coronavirus illness are 20 times higher than what is being announced by the Health Ministry. This has resulted in the people not taking this lethal illness seriously,” Vatan-e Emrouz daily quoted Mahboub-Far as saying on April 28, 2020. At the time, the Iranian opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI) had announced that more than 36,600 people—nearly seven times the health ministry’s stats—have died of the Covid-19 as of Tuesday, April 28, 2020. The MEK said the number provided via reports tallied from 301 cities across all of Iran’s 31 provinces. According to the MEK, the death toll surpassed 209,700 cases in 480 cities as of February 1, while the officials claim the death toll has stood at 58,038—around a third of the actual figure—until the same date. Due to the government’s mismanagement and particularly Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s recent Fatwa, which banned the government from purchasing U.S., UK, and French Covid-19 vaccines, coronavirus victims would increase even more.
Khamenei Bans Importing COVID Vaccines, Leading Iran to More Deaths
Notably, based on the official death toll, Iran has the second-highest rate of Covid-19 death per capita. “We had the second-highest rate of death today after Mexico. Well, this is very scary. Yes, we now have the average coronavirus death in our country, which is about what happened today, something about 17 times, 17 percent of the world average. While we have 1.1 percent of the world population,” said Hamid Souri, member of the National Covid-19 Task Force, in an interview with TV Channel Five on August 19, 2020. Also, Iran is the worst coronavirus-hit country in the Middle East by a large margin. On the other hand, the air pollution in Tehran and major cities, as well as power outages, have exacerbated the conditions in recent weeks. Nonetheless, the government’s disastrous performance in containing the virus is the main element for the rare death rate in this zone of the world. Dissidents reckoned that Iran’s autocrats intentionally drive the country to more fatalities to quell any objection and disappoint citizens about their legal grievances. They remember the government’s ‘human waves’ tactics during the eight-year war with Iraq to remove minefields. Furthermore, Khamenei described the coronavirus disease as a ‘blessing’ on March 3, 2020. That description, his recent decision for depriving citizens of credible Covid-19 vaccines, and non-transparent statistics about the real scope of this health crisis are in line with the opposition’s assertion.
Iran: Covid-19 Vaccine and Ayatollahs’ Dirty Business

Iran’s Provocative Actions Must Stop and Until They Do, Pure Diplomacy Must Wait

Shahin Mahmoudi
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Iran’s Provocative Actions Must Stop and Until They Do, Pure Diplomacy Must Wait
French Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian recently spoke to the media about longstanding conflicts over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and said, “This has to stop because Iran and – I say this clearly – is in the process of acquiring nuclear [weapons] capacity.”  To Le Drian’s credit, the quotation reflects his frequent willingness to be more up-front than many of his colleagues about the nature and extent of Iran’s malign activities. But that quality is undermined by the larger context of his remarks and what he was referring to when he said, “This has to stop.”  One might assume that the pronoun in that sentence refers simply to Iran’s violations of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which include the resumption of 20 percent uranium enrichment and the start of work on production of uranium metal, which is a key component in the core of a nuclear weapon. Iran has even lately teased the possibility of kicking international inspectors out of the country, though some officials have insisted they will be allowed to stay but will have their access to suspicious sites scaled down even further from a level that was already deemed inadequate by many of the JCPOA’s critics.  Of course, Le Drian does want Iran to cease these provocative gestures and to reverse the ones it has already undertaken. But that wasn’t what he was referring to when he said “this has to stop.” Instead, he offered that phrase as a follow up to his latest condemnation of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure strategy,” which he characterized as having “only increased the risk and the threat.”  In other words, the French foreign minister recognizes the seriousness of Iran’s provocative gestures and the likelihood of more JCPOA violations in the near future, yet he places the blame for those violations on an entity other than the Iranian regime. For all his willingness to speak more plainly about Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, its ballistic missile development, and its regional interventionism, Le Drian’s comments on the future of the nuclear deal make him almost indistinguishable from the many colleagues who seem happy to give into the pressure those activities are intended to exert.  On the whole, European policymakers continue to promote the idea that it is better to provide Iran with additional concessions in order to preserve the JCPOA than it is to counter Iran’s pressure tactics with more of the same. But this is a foolish position to take, because it ignore the obvious fact that by giving into that pressure when Iran has comparatively little leverage, Western powers would only be emboldening the Iranian regime to capitalize on a stronger position sometime later, and continue exerting more pressure in pursuit of more concessions.  With that in mind, the common wisdom must not be allowed to stand. But unfortunately, the transition from one US president to another has raised serious questions about who might be in a position to challenge the predominant European policy. With Trump’s maximum pressure strategy now relegated to history, it still remains to be seen what President Joe Biden with replace it with. In advance of his inauguration, he had signaled willingness to return to the existing nuclear deal, which his predecessor pulled out of in 2018. But he also said Iran would have to resume compliance first, and his foreign policy team has only cast further doubt on the notion of a speedy return to the status quo. 
Europe Condemns Iran’s Nuclear Moves but Further Action Is Needed
  Still, there is ample grounds for concern that Biden might largely reverse the preexisting policies and demonstrate to Iran that he is prepared to reopen something resembling normal diplomatic relations. This is not to say that the US under Biden might allow Iran to reopen an embassy in Washington; but by simply treating the Islamic Republic as a good-faith negotiating partner, the Biden administration could help to legitimize the conciliatory policies that hold so much appeal for European allies despite Iran’s ongoing efforts to exploit them.  Making matters worse, the administration risks delivering a message of support for the status quo precisely at the time when a small handful of European entities are actually beginning to challenge it. Next week, a Belgian federal court is expected to return a verdict in the terrorism case against Assadollah Assadi, the first Iranian diplomat to ever face such charges. It is a watershed moment in the history of European relations with the Islamic Republic, and it promises to help expose the underlying danger of Iran’s overlapping diplomatic and terrorist networks.  However, that promise could easily be undermined if the US contradicts Belgium’s progress by disavowing maximum pressure and insisting upon pure diplomacy despite Iran’s well-recognized preference for threats and ultimatums. On the other hand, by continuing to publicly acknowledge the progress that maximum pressure has made, the US could give a much-needed push to those, like Le Drian – who remain on the fence between calling out Iran for its misbehavior and appeasing that behavior in hopes of securing small, temporary concessions.  Make no mistake: there has been progress from maximum pressure. It has brought the Iranian economy to the brink of collapse. The escalating violations of the nuclear deal only confirm that the regime is desperate for relief. The Assadi case, being related to a 2018 terror plot against pro-democracy activists in Iranian expatriate communities, signifies that that desperation was already setting in more than two years ago. Of course those two years have been fraught, but this is no time to return to the way things were, and to declare that all that strife was for nothing.  Under Trump, the US made Iran’s theocratic dictatorship historically vulnerable all on its own. Under Biden, the US could amplify that vulnerability greatly by convincing wary European government to sign onto a policy that recognizes genuine diplomacy as a goal rather than a means to an end in dealing with Iran.  That diplomacy will only be mutually beneficial when Iran has first been compelled to stop escalating its nuclear activities and levying other threats against Arab and Western lives and interests. Those activities are a problem, and it has to stop. US-led sanctions, diplomatic isolation, and other pressures are a response to that problem, not the other way around. This is the way it should stay. Iran’s impulse toward malign behaviors must be the focus of Western policy, and until that impulse is truly gone, there must be no illusion that Western policies caused it. 

Car Import and Assembly Mafia in Iran

Pooya Stone
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Car Import and Assembly Mafia in Iran
The automotive industry in Iran is the second largest industry in the country after the oil industry; but the position of the Iranian car industry among its peers in the world is not very admirable and so far, it has not even been able to win the title of a second-class car manufacturer. Inside the country, several names came up and went and carried the name of ‘national car,’ but it did not work. Peykan, Renault, Pride, Samand, Dena, Rana, Tiba and Saina are different names of an assembly industry, some of which have reached the end of their lifespan. ‘Most of the automotive industry in Iran has been assembling products of larger global companies during its years of activity. Even now, most assembled cars are made in China. It can be said that the history of cars in Iran has never been able to be as fruitful as it should be and has always failed to compete with other countries for internal or external reasons.” (State-run website Divar, August 19, 2020). The Iranian government in the administration of the assembled automobile industry has always faced the fluctuation of life and death of factories that make a living from the pockets of the people or the treasury of the country with the intention of making exclusive profits for its owners and managers. The cooperation of the Iranian regime with the two French companies Peugeot and Renault has been done in the form of these assemblies. But all sorts of unplanned programs, a lack of foreign exchange resources, breaches of contracts due to political issues, international sanctions and, most importantly, a lack of independent and internal car design, have forced the regime to build parts that has become an unsolvable in this industry. This cycle of part import and forced internalization has been repeated several times in the last four decades.
IRGC Tries to Steal From Iran’s Car Industry
  ‘According to car industry experts, after 40 years, the car industry is still an assembler, because it cannot have a car design, and even sanctioning the production of a car like the Pride with the least technology and the cheapest car faced many challenges. This shortage of parts is not only related to ‘high-tech’ parts, and some simple parts are also imported from abroad as domestic production.’ (State-run daily SMTnewspaper, January 30, 2021). ‘We do not have much to say about the achievements of this industry,’ said Fazlullah Jamalo, an expert in the automotive industry of this government. The reason was the constant preference for importing ready-made parts (CKD). Of course, there is no technology transfer in this regard. In addition to assessing the managers of automotive companies as mundane and careless in the field of work, he considers wasting millions of dollars for assembly work as an irreparable damage to the industry: ‘It is very important how much currency has been taken out of the country to import parts and cars. Millions of dollars were spent in collaboration with Peugeot, Renault, Mazda and other foreign brands; But without having a coherent and clear strategy.’ (State-run website Asr-Khodro, January 30, 2021) This car expert considers one of the problems of this industry as the mafia and preventing their internalization and says: “The car mafia, with its power and leverage, did not allow the deepening of domestic production to take place in previous years, because imports were in their favor. There were so many behind the scenes that imports were more profitable for them than to strengthen the parts industry.” (SMTnewspaper) The story does not end with the confrontation of the mafia importers of cars and ready-made parts with domestic parts manufacturers. But in the parts manufacturing industry, flawed and monopolistic structures have been formed so that there is no way to save the automotive industry. The automotive industry expert said: “Unfortunately, many component makers also played on foreign soil. Recent trends in the piece industry have been indicative of this. The component importers import the products from China and selling them in the market as domestically manufactured parts. In this industry, a clone is formed that usually does not allow small companies to enter the supply chain. There are people in the parts industry association who have been sitting on the chair of this center for many years. (SMTnewspaper) Reza Hashemi, another activist in the parts manufacturing industry, compares the Iranian auto industry in the last 40 years with countries such as Turkey and South Korea and said: “The fact is that we are far behind global progress. We lagged behind the neighboring countries in terms of industry, because inefficient people took over the management of it, who did not come from the heart of the industry. If we move forward in the same way, with the state of progress that science has, in less than five years, other countries will make many times more progress than Iran, and Iran will have to assemble, even few decades later.” (SMTnewspaper) Siamak Hojjat, CEO of the automotive industry, also said: “Our country does not have an automobile industry, and it is better to say that we have an assembly industry, especially in the last two or three decades, we have been 100% an assembler, and unfortunately we have seen a decline in car quality and high cost in this industry.” (ISNA, December 14, 2020)

Drug Smuggling Funds Iran’s Ayatollahs

Hoshang Amiri
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Drug Smuggling Funds Iran’s Ayatollahs
Last month, Mohammad Baghar Zolghadr, a commander at the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – Quds Force’s Ramazan military base and deputy of the judiciary, told the state-run Tasnim News agency that former IRGC-QF commander Qassem Soleimani was always able to find the money for the group’s malign actions, even when the government has trouble finding the cash, but Zolghadr refused to go into detail. But why? If he wanted to talk about Soleimani’s ingenuity, why not show how he did it? Well, the answer may lie in some news articles over the past year concerning drugs trafficked into Europe and the Middle East.
Smuggling Gang Received $36Bn & 80 Tons of Gold by Presidential Order: Iranian MP
On August 5, 2020, the National World Website wrote that “85 million narcotic pills” were confiscated in Italy, having been smuggled into Europe by the Syrian dictatorship and the Hezbollah group, both of which are backed by Iran. The drugs, which would have made 1 billion euros in profit if they’d been sold, constituted the largest narcotics shipment ever seized. Shortly after, Orient TV affiliated with the Syrian Opposition reported on September 3, 2020, that Rumania confiscated a shipment of over 2250 kilograms in narcotics, worth an estimated $71 million, that had been shipped from Syria’s Lazeghiyah port, which is controlled by the Syrian and Iran. While in December, Al Arabia TV reported that six Iranian sailors were arrested in Al Muhreh province, eastern Yemen, for smuggling a massive shipment of narcotics, including Heroin, Crystal Meth, and Marijuana, worth 5 billion Yamani Rails [$20.243 million]. Not that this is the first year that this happened. In 2019, German Newspaper Spiegel reported that Hezbollah secretly operates in Germany, raising money through various illicit actions, including drug smuggling, car thefts, and money laundering. “The truth is that the institutions set up by Qassem Soleimani and Quds Terrorist force, have made huge profits by smuggling narcotics and only a small portion of it has been revealed to the press,” iranprobe.com wrote on January 26. “Of course, the main brunt of financing expensive terrorist activities of the regime and the Quds force in the region is felt by the Iranian people, in a way that poverty and paucity, has hit all levels of the society. For instance, paying for the daily bread in parts has become part of the culture in the country,” the website added. For Iran, preservation is done at any cost, including domestic suppression, terrorism export, and warmongering. The ayatollahs steal from Iranians and use criminal activity to fund other illicit actions, all to save the government. But they want to keep this secret.
60 Million Iranians Below the Poverty Line

Iran Executes Another Athlete

Staff Writer
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Iran Executes Another Athlete
The Iranian government executed wrestler Mehdi Ali Hosseini on Monday, January 25, in spite of condemnations from the international community, showcasing the ayatollahs’ disregard of human rights and its insecurity over protests. This echoes the case of champion wrestler Navid Afkari who was executed in September, despite an international campaign to save his life. Afkari was arrested during protests in August 2018, alongside his brothers. Recently, government-linked individuals destroyed his tombstone and arrested his coach.
Iran Acts with Impunity in Executing Navid Afkari
Shortly before his execution, 48 famous Iranian athletes, including wrestler Moslem Eskandar Filabi, wrote to the International Olympic Committee to highlight Iran’s use of violence against athletes. “Execution of Athletes, Champions and Olympians in Iran by the ruling regime is not new. Many Athletes have been executed to date only because they had responded to the voices of their conscience and their Athletic duties when it comes to the oppression of people by the regime. The regime in Iran cannot tolerate popular figures in Iran,” the letter read. As the letter explains, the Islamic Republic has executed dozens of athletes over the past 41 years for their political beliefs.
Iranian Athletes who were executed for supporting the MEK/PMOI in the 1980s—from Left: Houshang Montazer ol-Zohour - Habib Khabiri - Foruzan Abdi - Mahshid Razzaghi
Iranian Athletes who were executed for supporting the MEK/PMOI in the 1980s—from Left: Houshang Montazer ol-Zohour – Habib Khabiri – Foruzan Abdi – Mahshid Razzaghi
In 1981, the government executed national heavyweight wrestler Houshang Montazer-ol Zohour and the captain of Iran’s football team, Habib Khabiri, for their support of the opposition group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI). Many more were killed during the 1988 massacre, including a member of the women’s national volleyball team, Forouzan Abdi, and a member of Iran’s national soccer team, Mahshid Razzaghi. This is the massacre that UN human rights experts recently said could be called “crimes against humanity.” It shouldn’t be surprising that executions in Iran are increasing, especially when you consider that two of the main perpetrators are the current Justice Minister and Judiciary Chief and when you understand that Iran has faced no consequences for their actions. “The regime faces a restive society, which has shown its desire for regime change during recent uprisings. Thus, the ayatollahs will continue their human rights abuses and execute national figures to intimidate the public,” wrote the Iranian Resistance. Iranian dissidents called on the international community to take action to hold the government to account, which they said is the only way that the ayatollahs will stop the executions and the massacre of protesters, i.e., 1500 killed by State Security Forces (SSF) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the 2019 protests. They advised that the EU’s new global sanctions regime to punish human rights abusers should be used against the ayatollahs by placing sanctions on Tehran’s leaders and making relations with Iran conditional on an end to human rights violations. Then, the EU could lead an international investigation into the 1988 massacre.
It’s Time EU Act on Iran’s Human Rights Violations, Iran’s Opposition Calls for It

Iranian Officials Have to Opt Between Bad and Worst

Mehdi Hosseini
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Iranian Officials Have to Opt Between Bad and Worst
During his visit to the controversial Fordow nuclear site, Iranian Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf expressed his contentment over the 20-percent uranium enrichment. “Today, we came to the Fordow site according to our field survey and regarding the strategic law for removing sanctions, passed by the Majlis, and the deadline for implementing 20-percent uranium enrichment,” Tasnim news agency quoted Ghalibaf saying on January 28. Notably, the Tasnim news agency is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force. Furthermore, Ghalibaf claimed that the government managed to enrich more than 17kg of uranium by 20 percent at the Fordow facilities in less than one month, according to Tasnim. In his visit, Ghalibaf was accompanied by Behrouz Kamalvandi, Spokesperson of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), who carries the AEOI deputy chief’s title. “We will install 1,000 IR2M centrifuges in less than three months. We are simultaneously producing and installing these machines,” Kamalvandi told Fars news agency affiliated with the IRGC. “Would we withdraw from the Nuclear Proliferation Treatment (NPT) as scheduled if the sanctions had not been lifted?” Fars’s reporter asked Kamalvandi. “We will implement the law exactly. The Majlis and the government will decide in this regard. We are ready in this respect,”  Kamalvandi said in response.
Tehran Jeopardizes Global and Regional Peace with Unlawful Enrichment

Regional Concerns Over Tehran’s Attempts for Nuclear Weapons

Also, on January 26, Israel’s top general said that its military was refreshing operational plans against Iran and that any U.S. return to the 2015 nuclear accord with Tehran would be “wrong.” “A return to the 2015 nuclear agreement, or even if it is a similar accord with several improvements, is bad and wrong from an operational and strategic point of view,” Lieutenant-General Aviv Kohavi said in an address to Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies. “In the face of [enemies in Iran, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip], we will respond with an extremely significant counterattack that will include targeting rockets, missiles, and weapons, whether in open areas or adjacent to and inside buildings.” In response, Mahmoud Vaezi, Chief of Staff of the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, hastily reacted to Israeli top official’s remarks. “Israel pursues psychological warfare, and the new U.S. administration has its independence,” Iran Press news agency cited Vaezi as saying on January 27. “Both our nation and people across the region are familiar with the literature of Zionist regime officials. They talk more and follow psychological warfare… These [remarks] are because both the Zionist regime and various Arab countries in the region, those who are our enemies like Saudi Arabia, severely oppose the U.S. rejoining the Iran 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and lifting sanctions. They go the distance in their measures and lobbying in Washington D.C. to prevent this,” Vaezi said.
Tehran Is Concerned About a New “JCPOA Plus”

JCPOA Signatories Say, ‘We Are Determined to Make A Stronger Deal’

Notably, on January 26, in his first press conference as the secretary of state, Antony Blinken confirmed that the U.S. was “a long way” from deciding whether to rejoin the deal, and it would need to see what Iran actually did to resume complying with the pact, according to Reuters. Earlier, on January 16, French Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian expressed his concerns over Tehran’s nuclear activities, including uranium enrichment up to 20 percent purity and the illegal stockpile of them. “This has to stop because Iran and – I say this clearly – is in the process of acquiring nuclear (weapons) capacity,” France’s top diplomat told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas blamed Tehran for its nuclear extortion. “Tehran’s reckless behavior in the past weeks served as a reminder why we must stop the country from ever acquiring a nuclear weapon,” said Maas in his speech at the Institute for National Security Studies’ 14th annual international conference on January 27. Both Le Drian and Maas emphasized that the new accord must address the Iranian government’s malign behavior in the region and provocative ballistic missile programs. “Tough discussions will be needed over ballistic proliferation and Iran’s destabilization of its neighbors in the region,” Le Drian said. “Iran’s missile program and ‘aggressive’ activities across the Middle East must be addressed,” Maas declared. Also, in his first talk with Blinken on January 27, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab discussed the need to tackle Iran’s destabilizing behavior, according to a British Foreign Ministry spokesperson. Therefore, not only did not Tehran’s recent disputed nuclear activities provide a good position for Iranian officials, but they have now admitted to more concessions, particularly in line with their ‘regional power,’ to receive economic reliefs.
Le Drian Should Get Tougher on Iran

Iranian Officials Stuck as Power Slips Away

Staff Writer
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Iranian Officials Stuck as Power Slips Away
For over 40 years, Iran’s clerical government has maintained its grip on power through domestic repression and foreign terrorism, and warmongering, none of which is in line with modern countries. Of course, it is the illicit actions abroad that have raised concerns amongst those in the EU and US, so Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani know that even if further negotiations take place to prop up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), it will focus on far more than the nuclear deal. Khamenei defended Iran’s regional actions and missile program on January 8, saying that Iran had a “duty” to do this because it “strengthens” their alliances across the Middle East, reiterating that ayatollahs will not give up its missiles or regional influence.
Khamenei Bans Importing COVID Vaccines, Leading Iran to More Deaths
But German Foreign Minister Haiku Moss said on behalf of the EU that any new deal with Iran must contain increased nuclear restrictions, an end to ballistic missile testing, and limits on Iran’s regional power. So, the international community is clearly targeting one of the two branches of Iran’s power. The other, domestic repression, is being targeted by the people. Over the past few months, protesters in Iran have attacked hundreds of centers controlled by the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Basij, and the Intelligence and Security Ministry (MOIS), while also burning countless posters of Iran’s leaders. The intention of these activists, often guided by the Resistance Units of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), is to overthrow the ruling system in Iran and the institution of democracy. Their actions are on the rise and many, including in Iran’s state-run media, are predicting that a popular protest will happen in 2021, based on previous protests in 2019 and 2017.
IRGC Rushes for Iran’s 2021 Presidential Election
Why are they so certain? Well, these nationwide protests, which rocked the clerical government to its core and ended in a bloody crackdown that left thousands of protesters dead, began over economic concerns and these have only worsened since because of the ayatollahs’ mishandling of the pandemic. Khamenei is stuck in an unwinnable situation. To try and ease the economic crisis and prevent protests, he must negotiate with the West so that sanctions on Iranian oil sales can be eased. But if he does this, he will look weak, which is dangerous for him ahead of the election in June. Thus, he is closing ranks, which included purging the parliament of people he suspected would not support him and changing the rules for presidential candidates to favor his allies, like parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. The idea being that if he can ensure total, unyielding control over the system, he can negotiate. But will the rest of the world want to negotiate? It’s looking less likely by the day.
Iran’s Presidential Election and Intensification of Crises

Iran Has Tanker Seized by Indonesia Just Weeks after Seizing One from South Korea

Edward Carney
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Iran Has Tanker Seized by Indonesia Just Weeks after Seizing One from South Korea
On Sunday, January 24, the government of Indonesia announced that its coast guard had seized two tankers within its territorial waters, one of which was sailing under the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Tehran responded the following day by demanding answers and contradicting Jakarta’s explanation of the incident, and it did so without any apparent acknowledgment of the irony. Earlier in the month, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had seized a South Korea-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, leading to numerous questions about the Iranian regime’s intentions and the credibility of its initial explanation.
Iran’s New Piracy and Blackmail
The IRGC’s action came just ahead of a pre-planned visit from a South Korean delegation that was expected to discuss the possible release of seven billion dollars in Iranian earnings from oil sales, which remained frozen in accordance with U.S. sanctions. Many observers quickly assumed that the ship’s seizure was intended to provide Tehran with added leverage in this discussion. And although the Islamic Republic officially denied this at first by stating that the tanker had violated the law by polluting the waterway, the cover-story was soon abandoned by some officials and state media outlets. The regime’s false claims, in that case, may have further damaged its credibility regarding the more recent case. But that has not stopped Tehran from trying to promote its own narrative. However, that narrative has been comparatively vague, with Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Saied Khatibzadeh saying only that the seizure of the Iranian ship was a “technical issue” and that it would be quickly resolved. “Our Ports Organization and the shipowner company are looking to find the cause of the issue and resolve it,” he said in a televised news conference on Monday even those Jakarta had already explained that the tanker was “caught red-handed” illegally transferring oil from one ship to another.
Iran’s Oil Smuggling Problem
Ironically, the incident near Indonesia proved to be reminiscent of Tehran’s apparently false allegation of pollution by the South Korean ship. Indonesian coast guard spokesman Wisnu Pramandita explained that the nature of the rendezvous between the Iranian-flagged ship and its Panamanian-flagged counterpart was immediately obvious because there was oil spilling into the waters around them. These sorts of ship-to-ship transfers are a common feature of Iran’s strategy for evading U.S. sanctions, steadily ramped up throughout the latter half of the Trump administration and caused Iran’s oil exports to decline from more than two million barrels per day to merely a few hundred thousand. The precise number has been difficult to pin down, largely because of the uncertain volume and effectiveness of the ship-to-ship transfers, which allow middlemen to purchase Iranian oil at a discount and then sell it to customers who may or may not be aware of its origin and the associated risk of penalties from the U.S. Treasury. Unresolved questions about these smuggling operations are arguably beneficial to Iran in terms of state propaganda. Since the international community is aware that illicit transfers are taking place, the Iranian regime enjoys some degree of credibility when claiming that it has effectively weathered the sanctions and kept itself in a position to defy Western demands for some time to come. Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh made precisely this claim last week when he said that the Islamic Republic had achieved record highs specifically in the sale of refined petroleum products, which can be sold off piecemeal to small industries and private buyers.
Disaster of Oil-Presell to the People by Iran’s Government
Zanganeh went on to say that by keeping its head above water in this fashion, the Iranian oil industry was preparing to “return to the market stronger than before” in the event that sanctions are removed. By portraying the U.S. sanctions as ineffective, he and other officials are evidently hoping to convince the new White House to take a different tack and remove sanctions as a stepping stone toward negotiations. But although President Joe Biden has indicated that he is open to returning to the nuclear deal that his predecessor pulled out of before restoring and expanding sanctions, he has also ruled out the possibility of the U.S. taking the first step toward restoring the former status quo.
The Ayatollahs Hope U.S. Elections Will Save Them from Public Outrage
If Zanganeh’s claims about Iranian impervious had any chances of changing Biden’s mind on this point, those chances most likely diminished in the wake of both maritime incidents. Both can easily be interpreted as signs of Iran’s economic weakness and mounting desperation for cash infusions that will help the regime to stave off both compromise and collapse for a little while longer. In the first place, Tehran took on the considerable risk of international blowback by seizing a South Korean tanker and providing a highly questionable explanation for it. And it did so in exchange for a comparatively little promise of reward. So far, South Korea has shown no sign of being willing to release Iran’s seven billion dollars or risk U.S. sanctions enforcement in order to secure the release of its ship or sailors. Indonesia’s seizure of the Iranian-flagged vessel does not reveal anything new about the Islamic Republic, but it does serve as a reminder of the lengths to which the regime must go in order to circumvent Iranian sanctions. As more information reaches the international press about the illegal activity that was interrupted, the incident may also reveal the extent of Iran’s financial losses from these sorts of dealings. That in turn may reinforce perceptions of an Iranian economy on the brink of collapse, with the U.S. and its allies holding most of the leverage in future talks over matters including but not limited to the Iranian nuclear program.
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