Chemical Attacks On Girls’ Schools In Iran Go Unpunished

Based on the legislation approved on Wednesday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces is allowed to export three billion euros worth of crude oil and oil products through small private refineries after the approval of the country's budget organization.

In the budget bill for the next Iranian year, starting March 21, the government had granted new permits to some departments such as the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic to sell oil on behalf of the government and earn some of the income.

According to the Note 1 of the bill – titled “Oil and its relations with the government” -- the National Iranian Oil Company is obligated to deliver “crude oil and gas condensates” to entities introduced by the executive bodies. It means that the Armed forces can give crude oil to refineries and receive products that should be exported.

Iran, which is under US oil export sanctions has used this method before to make illicit oil shipments. However, in the past this has led to large corruption cases.

According to legal experts, this method of allocating money to government entities violates the constitution.

It remains unclear who and under what conditions will export the oil amid US sanctions. Many members of Iran's hardliner dominated parliament are former members of the IRGC.

Companies from the UK, Canada and Russia are cooperating with an Iranian telecommunication company to track protesters and access the content of their calls or messages. 

In October, American non-profit news organization The Intercept leaked a series of internal documents and communications, including emails sent by representatives of the Iranian and foreign companies, providing details on what appear to be plans to develop and launch an Iranian mobile network, including subscriber management operations and services, and integration with a legal intercept solution. The system, called Integrated system to query telecom customer Information – known by its Persian acronym SIAM – allows Iran’s Communication Regulation Authority (CRA) to enforce the Iranian government’s requirements to filter Internet content through a spyware and track the data of customers.

The CRA is tasked with executing governmental powers, supervision, and executive powers of Iran’s Ministry of Information and Communication Technology. The regime’s CRA regulations state that all telecom operators in Iran must provide the CRA with direct access to their system for retrieving user information. Justified under its own broadly defined “Legal Intercept” provisions, the CRA aims to use this sophisticated system to store user information, allow or deny a user’s access to mobile services, and view historical voice, SMS, and data usage.

Ariantel is an Iran-based Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), the primary source of the emails. Telinsol is a UK-based satellite communications consultancy which appears to have conducted international business transactions with vendors on behalf of Ariantel. PROTEI is an international telecommunications systems vendor founded in Russia which was selected by Ariantel to provide core network components to the company in support of user authentication, data management and Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), SMS delivery, and mobile network signaling. And PortaOne is a Canada-based mobile business and support system vendor, which was selected to provide mobile account creation, service provisioning, billing, and customized integration with Iran’s Legal Intercept system.

Iran International’s Mojtaba Pourmohsen has contacted all the foreign-based companies but none of them provided any comments about their cooperation with Iranian firms. He went to the addresses registered for the London-based company, but they turned out to be fake or old, strengthening the speculations that these firms can be cover companies belonging to people close to Iranian authorities. The manager of the company is identified as Iranian national Nima Eskandari, who, according to the leaked emails, was in correspondence with Ariantel and the Russia-based company about their services. 

The emails and other documents revealed the level of sophistication Iranian authorities sought to conduct surveillance operations and control access to mobile information and communications. The software and services offered by the foreign-based vendors allow the CRA to integrate with mobile service provider systems inside the country, including the web service API that is called SIAM. It seems that Ariantel has deployed a fully operational mobile network in Iran, integrating with the CRA’s Legal Intercept system. 

According to our sources, representatives from Iran’s main mobile service providers are likely attending the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, the largest and most influential event for the connectivity ecosystem. While the organizing body of the MWC Barcelona confirmed in response to Iran International's email that no delegation from Iran has been invited to this conference, exclusive information shows that four high-ranking managers of Iran's biggest service provider are participating in the event, being held from late February until March 2. 

An informed source told Iran International that they applied for a visa through France to attend the Barcelona conference as independent individuals. The four Iranians are close to the company’s CEO Mehdi Akhavan Bahabadi, who is himself among the close circle of one of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s sons. 

Iran’s biggest mobile companies, namely Mobile Telecommunication Company of Iran (Hamrah Avval) and MTN Irancell, are mainly owned directly or through intermediaries by Revolutionary Guards – or the IRGC – that is the Islamic Republic’s main force in quashing the ongoing protests across the country. 

Masoud Setayeshi, the Judiciary Spokesman, said the sentence was “fair”, alleging he was "one of the most [dangerous] terrorists and anti-human elements whose hands are stained with the blood of dozens of people". He is one of dozens of dual nationals held hostage in Iran, subjected to unfair trial and paraded on the world stage.

Sharmahd was kidnapped by agents of the Islamic Republic during a trip to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in August 2019.

He is accused by Tehran of heading a pro-monarchist group blamed by the government for a deadly 2008 bombing and of planning other attacks in the country.

Following last week's announcement of the death sentence, Berlin has since declared two diplomats at the Iranian embassy 'personae non gratae' and ordered them to leave the country. Nasser Kanaani, the Spokesman of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wednesday announced that Tehran has also expelled two German diplomats.

Kanaani claimed that the German ambassador in Tehran has been summoned to reassure him that "the Islamic Republic will act decisively” on the matter. He also threatened that if Western powers "ignore the fundamental standards and Iran’s national sovereignty", the Islamic Republic will use "alternative options".

According to the secretary of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, the death sentence issued to Sharmahd "could be appealed".

Speaking to Shafaqna, conservative lawmaker Mostafa Hosseini Ghotbabadi said that while Iran publicly claims to have a “neither East nor West” approach to foreign policy, it is going too far towards relying on the East at the expense of total alienation from the West.

He said Russia’s war against Ukraine and conflicts between China and Taiwan are calculated games engineered by the world’s biggest powers over securing their share of the world’s resources, luring Iran and its neighbors into the game and distracting Iran from its priorities.

He claimed that big powers use Iran to scare the Persian Gulf states and sell weapons to them and plunder their resources.

Iran, ruled by Ali Khamenei, a staunch anti-West cleric has drawn closer to Russia in recent months, supplying drones and possibly other weapons for Moscow's war against Ukraine. It has also been trying to expand economic ties with China, but Beijing has been cautious in the light of American economic sanctions on Iran.

Foreign policy expert, Diako Hosseini, writing in reformist daily Shargh, said “Iran should not fall victim to the rivalry between China and the United States”, the world in “a transitional period marked by instability … [which is] shaping a new international order”. The revival of Russia after the collapse of Communism and China’s economic success, he says, has jeopardized the United States’ vision to become a singular world power.

“The United States is not merely concerned about China’s growth, it is also worried about China’s expanding ties with the world,” he said, including its ties with Iran, which has a key strategic location between East and West.

Putting restrictions on Iran also helps curb China's rise, Hosseini believes, the United States doing its best to prevent Iran from becoming part of the Russia-China axis. He said: “America’s current plan is to weaken Iran from within and isolate it in the international community. This can be part of a plan to once again create a unipolar world order.”

The new alliance of China and Iran could ultimately backfire, he warned, as it has for Russia. In the long run, Iran will not get concessions from America while its relations warm up with China and Russia and Iran must keep the doors of diplomacy with the West open.

Recently, prominent reformist figure Mostafa Hashemi-Taba, also writing in Shargh about Raisi’s visit to China, claimed that Iran is not capable of implementing an economic cooperation agreement with China as it does not have the administrative structure and manpower.

He also pointed out that the joint statement by China and Iran which was issued at the end of Raisi’s visit is indicative of Iran’s de facto recognition of Israel as for the first time in an official document Iran has used the word Israel rather than its usual jargon “the Zionist regime”.

Hashemi-Taba also pointed out that Iran’s dependency on China has the sole aim of attracting Chinese investment, given the dire economic crisis resulting from sanctions and the impasse on the JCPOA.

Meanwhile, In the United States, the Biden administration and European powers have also expressed deep concern over Iran’s growing military ties with Russia. They have said that a resumption of nuclear talks with Tehran is contingent on its change of policy in supplying weapons to Moscow.

The ministry also cited uranium enrichment in Fordow and the brutal repression of Iran's own population as other reasons for concern and said Germany was in close dialogue with partners in the region and within Europe as well as the United States on these developments.

Iran is increasing its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 percent and in February news emerged that UN inspectors had found particles enriched to 84 percent.

Tehran has also delivered hundreds of kamikaze drones to Moscow to target Ukrainian infrastructure. The United States and European powers have warned the Islamic Republic to cease its intervention in Ukrainian war, as they have frozen nuclear talks with Tehran.

Iran designated two German diplomats as personae non gratae and is expelling them, foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Wednesday.

"The two German diplomats are being expelled due to their country's irresponsible interference in Iran's internal and judicial affairs," Kanaani said.

The US and its European allies have harshly criticized Tehran’s deadly crackdown on antigovernment protesters that killed 500 civilians and sent tens of thousands to jail.

The German foreign ministry said the expulsion was expected but "is arbitrary and unjustified.”

"They have done nothing wrong," the ministry added.

The move came after Germany expelled two employees of the Iranian embassy in Berlin last week in response to Iran sentencing a German national to death.