Pipeline Explodes At Iran Gas Refinery And Shut Off

On Tuesday, several students lashed out at Raisi for his economic policies and his administration's approach to human rights, when he met them to mark Iran’s Student Day. An Islamist student harshly attacked him and the ruling elite during a public meeting in Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology.

Mohammad Hossein Bayat, the student who addressed Raisi as the leader of the Islamic Association, told him in all frankness:“You got elected in the least competitive election in the history of the Islamic Republic, with the lowest rate of voter participation.” He added, “We are speaking to you not as a president elected with the free vote of the people in a free election. We are speaking to you as a representative of the ruling system.”

Nonetheless, the press, particularly those such as the Iran Daily, owned by the Raisi administration, pretended in glamorous reports that the meeting was an opportunity for Raisi to present a report to students on his performance during the past four months.

Sara Shabani, a student whose picture appeared on the front-page of the daily while making a point during the meeting with Raisi, wrote in a December 9 tweet: "Presenting a report to students? As the person standing next to Raisi in this picture, I wish to say that he put some security-laden labels on the students in the auditorium and told them 'To repent for what they said.' Outside the auditorium, his answers to the students' questions were nothing but insults and humiliation. Do not try to fabricate beautiful pictures and headlines."

Another student tweeted about the body language in the front-page picture: "The body language is interesting, both Raisi and the chancellor of the university are looking the other way while you are talking to him. Yet another student, Meysam, said that the entire meeting was a show for the media, otherwise individuals such as Raisi never care about the students and what they say.

The Raisi administration has already proven its naivety in the area of putting up "shows" for the media. In a video circulating on social media, his media team filmed the people in overcrowded Iranian taxis reacting to a mock radio news program that says Raisi has been killed in a helicopter crash during a provincial visit.Many of those who posted this video and those who commented on it pointed out that the video has been carefully "directed" and "edited" in a way to prove that young Iranians love Raisi.

While most of what appears to be criticism of Raisi and his administration by young people are about hypocrisy and lies, some media and politicians criticize him for his inaction in foreign and economic policies, co-opting unpopular pro-Ahmadinejad politicians in his cabinet and selecting the members of his team and lower layers of government managers from among his or his aides' relatives.

In one of the latest examples of such critiques, reformist political activist Majid Mohtashami pointed out in an interview with Arman daily on Thursday that the Raisi administration is an example of a populist governmentthat promises to build four million homes in four years.

Mohtashami said that meanwhile, the national currency has fallen 25 percent during Raisi’s first 100 days in office. He added that the president had promised a non-factional administration, but most of his men come from one hardliner group, while new faces in his government were chosen based on kinship rather than merits. This has made Raisi hostage to two oligarchies one made up of relatives and another one formed by the members of pro-Ahmadinejad Paydari Party.

Hossein Shariatmadari, who is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative at the flagship conservative paper wrote the commentary after the United States this week issued a statement reiterating past seizure of Iranian arms destined to Yemen’s Houthis and oil for Venezuela in international waters.

Washington also announced new sanctions on Iranian security officials and entities for human rights violations, including killing protesters and abuse in prisons.

Shariatmadari also said that these US actions coincide with the resumption of nuclear talks in Vienna, and show “the empty-handedness of America and the West” in the negotiations. He added that the United States should know it cannot get concessions from Iran by “empty promises”.

Iran has made similar threats in the past, but the closure of the strait will also chock off Iran's trade amid its current economic crisis.

Iran’s new hardliner negotiating team is demanding all post-2018 American sanctions to be lifted all at once before Iran agrees to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA.

The United States has expressed dismay at Iran’s position and has said that if talks in Vienna do not show Tehran’s seriousness, it is ready to ramp up pressure.

The option could be exercised should diplomacy fail and if their nations' leaders request it, a senior US official has told Reuters.

The scheduled US talks with visiting Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz follow an October 25 briefing by Pentagon leaders to White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on the full set of military options available to ensure that Iran would not be able to produce a nuclear weapon, the official said on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The US-Israeli preparations, which have not been previously reported, underscore Western concern about difficult nuclear talks with Iran that President Joe Biden had hoped would revive a 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by his predecessor, Donald Trump.

No results from talks

But US and European officials have voiced dismay after talks last week at sweeping demands by Iran's new, hardline government, heightening suspicions in the West that Iran is playing for time while advancing its nuclear program.

The US official declined to offer details on the potential military exercises.

"We're in this pickle because Iran's nuclear program is advancing to a point beyond which it has any conventional rationale," the official said, while still voicing hope for discussions.

Gantz, in a post on Twitter as he departed for the United States, said: "We will discuss possible modes of action to ensure the cessation of (Iran's) attempt to enter the nuclear sphere and broaden its activity in the region." He did not elaborate.

Israeli officials have been urging the Biden Administration not to accept a “bad deal” which would leave a path for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons in the future. Any agreement now means that Washington has to drop its most effective sanctions against Iran and there would be no second chance to get concession from Tehran.

Nuclear negotiations will resume on Thursday, according to the European Union official chairing the talks, and the US special envoy for Iran plans to join them over the weekend.

Iran has been enriching uranium to 20 and 60-percent purity, with the latter having no civilian use. As the talks drag on, the West and countries in the region are concerned that Tehran is getting closer to the critical point of a nuclear break-out.

The 2015 agreement gave Iran sanctions relief but imposed strict limits on its uranium enrichment activities, extending the time it would need to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, if it chose to, to at least a year from around two to three months. Most nuclear experts say that period is now considerably shorter.

Compromised

With the deal's nuclear benefits now badly compromised, some Western officials say there is little time left before the foundation of the deal is damaged beyond repair.

Such drills by the United States and Israel could address calls by Dennis Ross, a former senior US official and Middle East expert, and others to openly signal to Iran that the United States and Israel are still serious about preventing it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

"Biden needs to disabuse Iran of the notion that Washington will not act militarily and will stop Israel from doing so," Ross wrote last month.

Ross even suggested the United States should perhaps signal a willingness to give the Israeli's the US military's bunker-busting Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a 30,000-pound bomb.

Asked about such remarks about deterrence, the senior US official said: "When President Biden says Iran will never get a nuclear weapon, I mean, he means it."

Central Intelligence Agency Director Bill Burns said on Monday that the CIA does not believe Iran's supreme leader has decided to take steps to weaponize a nuclear device but noted advances in its ability to enrich uranium, one pathway to the fissile material for a bomb.

Burns cautioned that, even if Iran decided to go ahead, it would still require a lot of work to weaponize that fissile material before attaching a nuclear weapon to a missile or other delivery system.

"But they're further along in their mastery of the nuclear fuel cycle and that's the kind of knowledge that is very difficult to sanction away or make disappear, as well," he said.

US officials have also long worried about America's ability to detect and destroy dispersed components of Iran's nuclear weaponization program once enough fissile material for a bomb were produced.

Exclusive report by Reuters

The lawmaker involved has criticized parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf for retracting his support under public pressure.

Ali-Asghar Annabestani told Rouydad24 news website Wednesday Ghalibaf (Qalibaf) had acted from his “longing for presidency. "In January 2021, Annabestani was in a melee with a conscripted soldier, Abed Akbari, who was serving as a traffic cop in Tehran and stopped Annabestani’s car in a bus lane in a busy street.

The soldier took the matter to social media immediately, garnering backing from Twitterati and others, and later sued the lawmaker for slapping him. Although there was no conclusive footage, several witnesses backed Akbari’s account.

What was notable in the incident was the public's attitude of immediately believing the cop rather than the lawmaker. Many politicians seeing an opportunity to be on the popular side of an issue, demanded accountability from the lawmaker.

Annabestani first denied any altercation, and then admitted to "shoving" the warden after Akbari had insulted him. The parliament member made a public apology, but has denied there was any more to the incident.

Police spokesperson Mehdi Hajian said a few days after the fracas that the chief of law enforcement, Brigadier General Hossein Ashtari, had ordered the police’s legal department to defend the warden's rights, but Akbari later dropped his lawsuit, feeding speculation but not explaining why.

Ghalibaf revived the controversy Tuesday when asked about the case during a question-and-answer session with university students, when he backed Annabestani’s version of events.

The speaker noted it was better not to repeat “whatever we see” on social media. “Annabestani would have committed a crime if he had slapped the warden and should then have been punished," Ghalibaf noted. "He didn't slap the warden but shoved him."

The speaker's support first drew Annabestani’s praise and gratitude. But within hours Akbari took to an Instagram live session to suggest a court had accepted his claim that he had been slapped. He accused both the judiciary and parliament of protecting Annabestani.

After hearing this, Ghalibaf noted Annabestani had found guilty of "assault without causing bodily harm" and apologized in line with his “promise of honesty” to Iranians.

Ghalibaf’s shift was “hilarious,” Annabestani responded. “He has told me several times that he watched the traffic-camera footage of the incident released by the police and it did not look like slapping and showed shoving. Now, under media pressure, he is accusing me of lying."

Putin was speaking to reporters on Wednesday after talks in Sochi with visiting Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Putin said that he discussed Iran with Mitsotakis and “I hope Iran’s president will accept my invitation” and visit Russia early next year.

President Joe Biden discussed Iran nuclear negotiations with Putin on Tuesday when they held a two-hour teleconference on tensions surrounding Russian troop concentrations on the border with Ukraine.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan later told a briefing that the two presidents has “good discussion on Iran”, and announced that both oppose a nuclear Iran.

Talks in Vienna are set to resume on Thursday, but there is little certainty about a breakthrough. Russia, a diplomatic ally of Iran, is a participant in the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, JCPOA, and takes part in the Vienna negotiations.