Russian-Iranian Talks In Moscow Cover Regional, Nuclear Issues

The London-based news site cited an “Iraqi diplomatic source” and “Iranian sources.” The latter, said Arabic Post, claimed Saudi Arabia had sent a team to Iran to renovate and update security and technical systems in its Tehran embassy and Mashhad consulate, and that Iran had sent a security delegation to prepare its Riyadh embassy and Jeddah consulate to for re-opening.

Arabic Post also claimed its Iranian sources had confirmed that managing talks with Saudi Arabia had been transferred from the foreign ministry to the Supreme National Security Council and its secretary, Ali Shamkhani.

Riyadh closed its embassy and cut diplomatic ties with Iran in 2016 after protestors stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran in protest at the Saudis executing 47 dissidents including leading Shi'ite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh declined to confirm Monday that a Saudi delegation would be visiting Tehran to prepare the embassy.

4th round of talks

Saudi Arabia announced Sunday it had held September 21 its direct talks with the new government of President Ebrahim Raisi (Raeesi). This was the fourth round of Iraqi-brokered talks that began in Baghdad in April as Iran also opened talks with world powers in Vienna over reviving its 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) from which the US withdrew in 2018.

In a press conference in Riyadh with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell October, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud said discussions were at an exploratory stage: “We hope they will provide a basis to address unresolved issues between the two sides and we will strive and work to realize that.”

Prince Faisal reiterated Saudi concerns over Iran’s "transgressions" in its nuclear program. Iran in turn called for Riyadh to open its nuclear sites to full inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Iran has not commented specifically on the latest round of meetings, although the spokesman Khatibzadeh described talks with Saudi Arabia as "optimal" Monday and said neither side had set preconditions.

Raisi priority

Raisi and his foreign policy team have several times emphasized a priority in improving relations with regional countries. The challenge with Saudi Arabia lies in overcoming rivalries in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, where Riyadh and Tehran are allied with rival or warring parties. Official of both countries have recently cautiously expressed optimism over normalizing diplomatic relations.

Several world powers have welcomed Saudi-Iran talks. Riyadh this year became a dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which Tehran is now joining as a full member. While allied with Iran in supporting Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, Russia has recently reached a military agreement with Saudi Arabia, while China is a major oil customer of both Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley tweeted Monday welcoming Saudi Arabia’s “announcement of direct talks” with Iran, expressing hope that dialogue would “contribute to de-escalation of tensions & address long-standing regional concerns,” and suggesting “full, mutual return [of Iran and the US] to JCPOA would support these regional efforts.”

The British Ambassador to Iraq, Mark Bryson, in a meeting with Iraqi National Security Adviser Qassem al-Araji Tuesday said London welcomed the dialogue and expressed hope it would expand to include all regional countries.

The man was arrested in the Cypriot capital Nicosia on Sept. 27. Police say that when he was intercepted a pistol with a silencer were found in his rental vehicle.

Israel said it was a "terrorist incident directed by Iran" against Israelis on the island, a charge dismissed as "baseless" by the Iranian embassy in Nicosia.

Police have been tight-lipped about the incident. The suspect was taken to a district court in Nicosia on Wednesday, where the order remanding him in custody was extended until Monday.

The suspect has not been charged and officials have not identified him, beyond describing him as an ethnic Azeri with a Russian passport.

"Investigations are proceeding at a rapid pace," police spokesman Christos Andreou told state TV. He declined to comment on the Israeli claims, citing the ongoing investigation.

Cyprus's authoritative Phileleftheros daily said the suspect, thought to have arrived in Cyprus 20 days prior to his arrest, was not cooperating with police.

On Tuesday the suspect indicated to police where he had rented two cars, from the resort town of Ayia Napa in the south-east of the island.

Police have not traced where the suspect was staying prior to his arrest, the newspaper said. Authorities believe he may have been staying in the Turkish-held north of the ethnically split island, it said.

Report by Reuters

Armenia and Azerbaijan are technically at war with an agreed ceasefire in place along their border. The Armenian civil aviation committee has so far been silent about the news. Without Armenia’s permission, Azerbaijani overflights can become a new source of tensions.

The Azerbaijani national carrier AZAL said in a statement on Wednesday, “From now on, AZAL can use all available air corridors, including those passing through the territories of Armenia and Iran, in carrying out this flight.”

Tensions between Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan have spiked in recent weeks, as Baku arrested two Iranian truck drivers travelling to Armenia in a segment of territory under its control. Iran announced Tuesday that it will not allow Azerbaijani flights carrying military provisions to use its airspace to reach Nakhchevan. The enclave is surrounded by Iran and Armenia.

It is not clear why the civilian airliner wants to divert all its flights.

Land transit from Azerbaijan Republic through Iran to Nachchevan has not been restricted.

Ali Salehababdi is now another younger member of Raisi’s team. He was during the revolution in Iran, which overthrew the monarchy and established the Islamic Republic.

Although Iran’s central bank does not have the independence that many other central banks around the world enjoy, its chairman can still have an input in economic decisions such as the extent of the money supply and interest rates.

Salehabadi, who was appointed as the first chairman of Iran’s securities and exchange commission when he was 28, has a PhD from Tehran University in “financial management” according to local media. He also held other positions in the quasi-governmental financial system, such as chairman of the state-owned Export Development Bank of Iran (EBDI) since 2014.

The bank was sanctioned by the United States in 2008, for violating United Nations sanctions in “providing or attempting to provide financial services to Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL).”

Salehabadi is yet another member of president Raisi’s team, along with several others, who have been either sanctioned in person or associated with sanctioned entities. Raisi, himself, has been sanctioned by the Trump administration.

Local media in Tehran said there are expectations that Salehabadi would lower interest rates and boost the Tehran stock market, which has a checkered history of government manipulation. In 2020, the market index grew to 2 million units encouraged by the government and then fell by 50 percent, wiping out the savings of many small investors, who had flocked to the exchange to protect their capitals from depreciation of the local currency against the dollar.

Iran has been printing money to finance government operations since the United States imposed sanctions in 2018, banning crude oil exports. This led to a huge growth in liquidity and a 50-percent inflation rate.

The only economic salvation for Iran would be an agreement with the United States over its nuclear program and other issues and lifting of economic sanctions.

The award that was announced in September was officially presented in a gala with the attendance of 800 guests representing New York’s cultural elite.

The three writers received more than a 15 years of prison sentences together in May 2019 for “crimes against national security”, a typical charge the Islamic Republic routinely makes against activists, writers and journalists to stifle criticism.

Reza Khandan Mahabadi, Baktash Abtin and Kayvan Bajan, were convicted of "propaganda against the state" and "acting against national security”, each receiving a more than five-year sentence. The three are members of the Iranian Writers Association, which has been banned and its members persecuted by threats and jail sentences.

At the time the Writers Association issued a statement saying, "This trial is not just the condemnation of three writers. This was not a trial against the Writers Association alone. It’s a condemnation of all writers and others who want to enjoy the right to free expression.”

PEN America, a non-profit defending freedom of expression and human rights, held its 2020 annual event virtually due to Covid-19, but this year resumed its traditional gala, where the award for the Iranian writers was the most prominent event.

"They are writers who are called not only to offer prose and ideas on a page, but to live fearlessly—and sacrifice immensely in service of the liberties that underpin free thought, art, culture, and creativity," PEN CEO Suzanne Nossel said in a press release before the event.

PEN America followed the case of the three writers from the very beginning of their arrest and trial. In May 2019, the organization expressed its concern.

"PEN International is alarmed about the large number of writers and activists in Iran who have been detained or imprisoned solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression," the group said.