Iran Focus
London, 17 Sep – A high-ranking official from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has dismissed the possibility of an American attack on Iran, claiming that Iran has the “upper hand” in the region.
Brigadier General Hossein Salami said on Friday, September 14: “The United States will be the loser of any war that it might initiate against Iran due to the preparedness of the country’s armed forces and lack of international support for such military action.”
Iran Focus
London, 17 Sep – Indian oil refiners will reduce their monthly imports of crude from Iran by roughly half for the months of September and October as the country tries to obtain waivers from US sanctions targeting Iran that are due to go into place in November.
India’s oil imports from Iran will drop to less than 12 million barrels in September, and again in October, after four months of increased purchases in anticipation of the reduction.
India is Iran’s second-biggest oil importer behind China, and does not recognise the US sanctions, but will still have to obey them, if it is unsuccessful in getting a waiver, or risk being cut off from the US financial system. The waivers won’t be easy to get either.
Iran Focus
London, 15 Sep – The city of Basra endures high unemployment, failed healthcare and education systems, drug processing and smuggling, as well as thousands of landmines from past wars surrounding the city. Brackish water flows through its pipes. Militias – the armed wings of Shia political parties, who fight against ISIS – tyrannize its people. The river is filled with sewage and sickness.
The shared Shiite faith has been used by Iran to exploit Iraq’s wealth rather than build up its people. Many Iraqis are tired of Iran treating Iraq like its own backyard, which culminated in an explosion of fury in Basra this past week. Thousands of citizens took to the streets to demand their rights.
Iran Focus
London, 15 Sep – According to shipping data and industry sources, after South Korea halted imports from Iran and China’s demand dropped, two tankers carrying about 2.4 million barrels of South Pars condensate combined, have been floating off the United Arab Emirates since August.
As re-imposed sanctions loom, Iran is facing heavy pressure. Washington is attempting to bring Iranian oil exports down to zero and force Tehran to re-negotiate the nuclear deal, which the US abandoned last May.
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.
