In Tit For Tat, Iran Levels Serious Charge Against A Swede

Ali Salajegheh stated Wednesday "It is not unlikely that Iran's drought on a small scale is the result of hostile actions, but research in this area has not yet been conducted," a typical charge made by the government on matters for which it has no justifications.

Recent years have seen a number of Iranian environmentalists convicted of espionage for the US and UK governments and sentenced to prison.

The latest claim comes four months after Iranians protested in Tabriz against the mismanagement that led to the disappearance of Lake Urmia. The lake, once the largest in the Middle East, has significantly shrunk over the years due to water mismanagement and climate change.

Reports indicate that a quarter of Iran's farmers have lost their jobs in the past seven years, mainly due to water scarcity. Droughts and water shortages have also led to soil erosion, desertification, and hazardous dust storms affecting approximately half of Iran's population, according to the country's health ministry.

In recent years, scientists and activists have criticized the Iranian regime for its mismanagement of the country's environment, particularly concerning water resources.

Sabzian-Fard, married at the age of 15, faced the implementation of her death sentence for killing her husband four years after their marriage in 2013, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR).

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the Director of IHR, branded her execution as a “stark reflection of an inefficient and corrupt government resorting to violence and intimidation to sustain itself.” The IHR has called on the international community to hold Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other officials of the Islamic Republic accountable for such actions.

Sabzian-Fard's story is emblematic of women in Iran who, at a young age, are forced into marriage and subsequently become victims of marital issues. The latest report from the Iranian Statistical Center reveals a distressing statistic: at least 27,448 girls under the age of 15 in Iran married in 2022 alone.

Simultaneously, there has been an intensification of policies encouraging marriage in the country, as emphasized by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. In recent years, targeted efforts have been made to reduce the age of marriage for girls and encourage families to facilitate the marriage of their daughters. One in five marriages involves minors, girls allowed to marry as young as 13. 

The regime's efforts have been championed by some members of the parliament, government officials, and various cultural and educational institutions.

Iran is the world's leading executor of women, with a minimum of 16 reported executions in 2022 and a total of at least 17 women executed in the country so far this year. This grim reality is exacerbated by Iranian laws that prevent women from seeking divorce, even in cases of domestic violence.

Centrist Aftab News website in Tehran wrote in a commentary on Monday that the money in question, which could be more than $3 billion, is 15 times more than the funds needed to implement the long-awaited pension adjustment to make life easier for retirees. An annual inflation rate of around 50 percent has impoverished retirees and wage earners.

The website also argued that the amount was enough for establishing up to nine major petrochemical plants.

However, calculations like that will be meaningful only if one could assume that the embezzled money was going to be spent in the interest of the public and was not going to be spent on the wars in the region.

A retired government employee told Aftab News that if the money was allocated to pensioners, not only they would climb out of poverty, but the government’s bankrupt Pension Fund could also reach a surplus to spend on the retiree healthcare.

One of the recurrent slogans chanted by unpaid pensioners during their recurrent protests is: "Our problems will be solved if there was only one less embezzlement case."

Massoud Pezeshkian, a lawmaker from Tabriz told reporters, "The underlying reason for all these corruption, land grabbing and bribery cases is that Iran does not have a transparent data system. Unless we have such a system, everyone will point fingers at others and the problem will remain unsolved.

Meanwhile, other reports about the case have unearthed a letter that the managing director of the implicated Debsh Tea Company, Akbar Rahimi, wrote to President Ebrahim Raisi more than a month before the scandal became news.

The publication of the letter by the press on Monday revealed that the Raisi Administration showed no tangible reaction to the revelation. In the letter, the company's head had warned that it might have to stop all of its activities within a few days and that all of more than 6,000 of its employees might lose their jobs.

In the letter, Rahimi spoke about limitations imposed on the activities of the company. He possibly meant that the Judiciary had started investigations about the company. Rahimi named the Intelligence office of Karaj, the capital of Alborz Province near Tehran as one of the offices that created problems for the tea company. He further complained that the limitations were imposed on the company's activity without any prior notice.

In another development, Expediency Council member Ahmad Tavakoli wrote in a letter to President Raisi that there is possibly another corruption case under way as the government has given a concession to a hitherto unknown company to import 13 million tons of essential commodities under strict secrecy and without meeting legal formalities. 

Tavakoli said that giving such a big concession to a new company is unprecedented. He added that the profit of the importing operation is supposed to be divided on a fifty-fifty basis between the company and those who granted the concession to it.

The politician added that the company is supposed to import 13 million tons of essential commodities, including as rice, meat, and poultry feed while it has never imported even one ton of such goods. These are goods that the slightest irregularity or delay in their import could cause havoc in the country.

Tavakoli further warned that the confidential nature of the concession makes this deal dangerously non-transparent. He revealed that in May 2022, the Minister of Agriculture ordered the Central bank to pay 735 million euros (around $800m) to a foreign company before any goods arrived in Iran.

The consecutive revelations of corruption cases not only badly damages the image of hardliners running the government, but it also reflects badly on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has been ruling Iran for 34 years.

The meeting serves as a precursor to Haniyeh's forthcoming trip to Egypt for negotiations aimed at bringing an end to the ongoing conflict with Israel.

Amir-Abdollahian traveled to Doha on Tuesday for bilateral talks with Qatari officials, focusing on regional developments, particularly the situation in Gaza. A French news agency, citing a source close to Hamas, revealed that Haniyeh is leading a "high-level delegation" to Egypt in a bid to negotiate with Egypt's intelligence chief and other officials with the goal of "ending the war and reaching an agreement on the release of prisoners", referring to the Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the head of Mossad, Israel's intelligence and special operations organization, has embarked on trips to two countries for negotiations concerning a potential agreement with Hamas for the release of the more than 130 hostages still held by the terror group.

In tandem with the developments, Israeli sources shared with Axios on Tuesday that Israel proposed a one-week ceasefire in the Gaza conflict as part of a new agreement to secure the release of hostages. The proposal represents Israel's first initiative since the resumption of hostilities following a one-week ceasefire.

The Iranian Foreign Minister’s trip to Doha is the fourth since the Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7—a move that swiftly implicated Iran in the regional conflict. The Islamic Republic terms Hamas and its proxy groups as "resistance forces," while the UK, Europe and the United States officially designate Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Through a complex network of intermediary and front companies, those sanctioned would purchase drone components from the US (or other foreign countries) and deliver to the IRGC for its Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) program.

"We remain focused on disrupting the efforts of Iran and its agents to circumvent US sanctions in support of Iran's weapons programs, including its drone program, which have been used to support and supply terrorist organizations and other foreign adversaries –such as Russia– around the globe,” the United States Attorney Matthew Graves said in a statement.

In recent years, drones have become a major element of Iran’s military and strategic approach, put to use mainly by the regime’s allies and proxies.

Iran-made drones have been used widely –and fatally–by Russia in Ukraine. Russia has fired hundreds of Iranian kamikaze drones at Ukraine's civilian targets. Militant groups in Syria and Iraq have deployed them against US bases. And Yemen Houthis are using them to attack commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

Since the beginning of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, Iran has published videos that it claims show its drones “looking over” US warships in the region, boasting about its capabilities.

"Iran is taking advantage of what is a very very difficult situation right now. It's not surprising," US Senator Michael Bennet told Iran International's Arash Aalaei on the Iran-backed Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, warning that there will be "serious" economic consequences "if the shipping lanes are shut down".

Existing sanctions prohibit export of dual-use or sensitive technology to Iran. And that is exactly what the sanctioned individuals are accused of doing.

Hossein Hatefi Ardakani and Gary Lam (also known as Lin Jinghe) are accused of conspiring to illegally purchase and export US-made dual-use microelectronics to Iran.

"Ardakani and his co-conspirators crafted a sophisticated web of front companies to obscure the illicit acquisition of US and foreign technology to procure components for deadly UAVs," special agent Michael Krol said. "These very components have been found in use by Iran's allies in current conflicts, including in Ukraine."

The targeted individuals and entities are based in Iran, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia, according to the US Treasury Department. They would use foreign companies to evade US controls, and in this way, managed to procure “hundreds of thousands of dollars” worth of drone components for the IRGC.

"Iran's illicit production and proliferation of its deadly UAVs… continues to exacerbate tensions and prolong conflicts, undermining stability,” Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement.

Some Republican lawmakers have blamed President Biden for the current crisis in the Middle East, saying that he has chosen to look away when it comes to enforcing sanctions on Iran –in effect, rewarding the regime with tens of billions of dollars more in oil revenue that helps fund a range of malign activities in the region.

“We must continue to respond to any attempt by Iran to avoid sanctions,” Congressman Colin Allread said Tuesday, “that's why I lead a bipartisan effort urging the Treasury to expand its work to prevent Iran from using illicit and deceptive shipping practices to evade US sanctions on oil exports.”