Iran Focus
London, 14 Sep – The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Thursday that the missile strike they launched at the meeting of a Kurdish independence group in Iraq last week was as a warning to “arrogant foreign powers”.
The IRGC fired seven medium-range ballistic missiles at the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran’s (KDPI) headquarters in Koysinjaq, Iraqi Kurdistan, killing at least 11 people and wounding 50 more, in what the Iranian security force called a precision strike.
Iran Focus
London, 14 Sep – An exiled member of a minority religious order in Iran accused Iran of violating its own prison regulations by allowing seven women of the Dervish religion to suffer “appalling” conditions in jail.
Alireza Roshan, a Dervish activist, said: “The Dervish women are weak physically after having been beaten before and after their transfer to the prison. But prison officials are not allowing them to receive needed medical treatment.”
This is consistent with systematic abuse of prisoners, particularly prisoners of conscience, in Iranian prisons, particularly under the rule of Asghar Jahangir, director of Iran’s Prisons Organization, and the US should place sanctions against Iranian prisons for their well-documented history of repression.
Iran Focus
London, 13 Sep – Tensions are growing in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar as US sanctions, a failing economy, and a heaving devalued Iranian rial push merchants and shoppers alike to the breaking point.
Shopkeepers are trying to leave the country and angrily cursing the government’s corruption for the current economic crises, while buyers have lost their purchasing power and are now struggling to make ends meet. These are not isolated individuals, but representative of the Iranian people’s growing demand for regime change, which is the only way to solve the crisis.
Iran Focus
London, 13 Sep – Cyber security firm Check Point has recently uncovered an extensive attack that has been targeting Iranians citizens and Kurdish residents since 2016.
The hackers are creating malicious applications – an ANF Kurdistan news agency app and a fake version of the messaging app, Vidogram – infected with spyware to collect sensitive data, that unwitting victims download onto their mobile phones.
Information collected includes: contact lists, call records, clipboard content, application list, SMS messages, browser history, bookmarks, geo-location, photos, surrounding voice recordings and more. It is believed that the information will be leveraged at a later point for the hackers to take further action against them.
Iran Focus
London, 12 Sep – Iran may be turning towards China for support as US sanctions put pressure on the Gulf nation, because Chinese businesses are eager to build relationships with Iran, as Western businesses leave, and China is one of the biggest importers of Iranian oil, something that will come under U.S. sanctions in November.
A. Tabatabai, an associate political scientist. who recently co-authored a book exploring Iran’s ties with China and Russia, said: “[Iran] has had to rely on China to offset the Western-induced isolation, predominantly championed by the United States. I think that what we’re going to see is the return of a quasi-monopoly of key sectors of the Iranian economy by the Chinese.”
Iran Focus
London, 12 Sep – Earlier this year, the head of Iran’s Petroleum Engineering and Development Company spoke about the country’s plans to relocate the nation’s main oil export tunnel from Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf to Bandar-e-Jask in the Oman Sea. He said that the Bandar-e-Jask port will be ready during the course of 2021 and that it would have the capacity to hold around 30 million barrels of crude oil. The CEO of the company also said that it would be able to export one million barrels per day (bpd) from there.
Iran Focus
London, 12 Sep – The United States has issued a new safety warning to airlines about operating in Iranian airspace, citing concerns over military activity following the interception of an unnamed US passenger aircraft by Iranian fighter jets in December 2017.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued its updated guidance to US airlines on Sunday, as the previous year’s advisory expired, and warned about the need for airlines to use caution when travelling in Iranian airspace. They also said that the conflict in Syria could put commercial flights to, from, and through Iran’s airspace in danger of military action.
Iran Focus
London, 12 Sep – Oil prices soared on Tuesday as US sanctions put increased pressure on Iranian crude exports, which restricted global supply despite the US’s efforts to get other oil-producing countries to increase their output.
This resulted in Brent crude oil rising to $77.88 a barrel (up 51 cents) and US light crude rising to $67.71 a barrel (up 16 cents).
Tamas Varga, an analyst at London brokerage PVM Oil said: “The impact of the U.S. sanctions on Iran is firmly being felt.”
Iran Focus
London, 11 Sep – Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad advocated for an ambitious housing project that has become a problem for Rouhani and his cabinet. In fact, Rouhani had singled out Mehr Housing project as being a major hurdle to Iran’s already faltering economy, in a televised speech that marked his first 100 days in office.
On Sunday, the deputy minister of Roads and Urban Development said that there are still 200,000 half-built Mehr Housing units across the country, with no buyers for at least 100,000 units. Ahmad Asghari Mehrabadi said that government hopes to encourage people to buy the units by removing any conditions or hurdles to applying for the ownership of the units.
Iran Focus
London, 11 Sep – Iran’s meddling in Iraq is making the Iraqi people extremely angry. The people have been protesting against Iran’s interference for months and it was reported last week that Iraqi protesters had set the Iranian consulate in Basra on fire.
The protesters in the Shia Muslim-majority city called on their government to get rid of the Iranian influence from their government and they made their anger heard loud and clear. They are angry about the lack of safe drinking water, the lack of jobs and the lack of electricity, amongst other things. Tens of thousands of people in the city have been hospitalised after drinking contaminated water.
