US Report Says Iran Harbors Al Qaeda Leaders, Sponsors Terrorism

Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and Britain on Thursday said they could consider new steps in line with international law against Iran if it failed to respond by January 5 to demands for reparations.

Most of the 176 people killed when Iran shot down a Ukrainian jet on January 8, 2020, were citizens from those four countries, which created a coordination group that seeks to hold Tehran to account.

"The Coordination Group's patience is wearing thin," it said in a statement, adding that the group had pressed Tehran to open talks on reparations and to deliver justice but said Iran had shown it was reluctant to respond in a timely manner.

It said Iran should respond by January 5 or the group would "have to seriously consider other actions to resolve this matter within the framework of international law" but gave no details.

Tehran claims Revolutionary Guards accidentally shot down the Boeing 737 jet and blamed a misaligned radar and an error by the air defense operator at a time when tensions were high between Tehran and the United States. The plane was taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini international airport.

Iran, which tried to hide the nature of the plane’s crash for three days, did not allow an independent investigation of the incident and delayed the reading of the flight recorders for months.

Ukraine has repeatedly protested lac\k of cooperation by Tehran and its failure to conduct an open investigation and legal pursuit of those responsible.

Critics and victim families have highlighted that the incident took place hours after Iran fired missiles at US bases in Iraq and failed to close the civilian airspace while being on alert for possible US retaliation.

Critics also point out that it would be almost impossible to mistaken a civilian plane taking off from an airport for an enemy cruise missile, as Iranian officials have suggested. In addition, two missiles were fired at the plane, 30 seconds apart, which puts doubt into the accidental firing theory.

With reporting by Reuters

The base, known as Tanf, is in a strategic area near Syria's border crossing with Iraq and Jordan and houses a small number of US troops.

Britain's defense ministry said a Typhoon warplane shot down a "small hostile drone" that was a threat to coalition forces. It said this was the first air-to-air engagement for a Royal Air Force Typhoon.

US Central Command spokesman, Navy Captain Bill Urban, said two drones entered the Tanf garrison "deconfliction" zone on Tuesday and one was shot down as it moved closer to the base. He said there were no casualties or damage to facilities.

It was not immediately clear who owned the drone.

Iranian-backed forces have in the past attacked US troops with drones and rockets in eastern Syria and Iraq. In October, a number of drones were used against the base, although there were no casualties.

US officials have said Iranian-backed militia could increase attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria in coming weeks, in part to mark the anniversary of the killing of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis killed by a US drone strike in Iraq on Jan. 2, 2020.

Report by Reuters

President Ebrahim Raisi’s first vice president speaking at a meeting of Iranian envoys in neighboring countries said, “In a money transfer attempt to a foreign country a trace of an operation related to vaccines was discovered and we imported the equipment as the household goods of our ambassador.”

He quickly remarked that he should not have said that, but added that “We have solutions to any problems in the country.”

Before becoming vice president Mokhber headed an effort to develop and produce a homegrown vaccine, after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei banned the purchase of American and British vaccines in January.

Mokhber who repeatedly promised to produce 50 million doses by August has reportedly delivered only nine million doses to the health ministry. Reports and criticism in local media have spoken of hundreds of million of dollars of state funds given to local vaccine producers who failed to come up with enough doses to inoculate people until August.

A wave of new infections that hit Iran in June killed around 40,000 people until foreign vaccines were finally imported in sufficient quantities in August and September.

A statement issued by the Department said the End-User Review Committee (ERC), composed of representatives of the Departments of Commerce (Chair), State, Defense, Energy and, the Treasury makes determination if a company has inappropriately diverted US technology for purposes that are harmful to US interests.

A senior administration official had said earlier in the day the Commerce Department and Treasury Departments would announce a series of actions on Thursday targeting Chinese companies that Washington says use biotechnology and surveillance to abuse human rights.

Aside from China, the Commerce Department also took action against entities from Georgia, Malaysia, and Turkey for allegedly "diverting or attempting to divert U.S. items to Iran’s military programs."

A document released said several companies are being designated “for actions contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. Specifically, these companies have supplied or attempted to supply U.S.-origin items that could provide material support to Iran’s advanced conventional weapons and missile programs...”

Teachers have been holding protests and demanding the implementation of a previous legislation, which would bring salaries and pensions in line with of other civil servants, and would benefit around 750,000 educators.

Parliament voted to appropriate a little over one trillion rials a month to finance new pay scales for teachers, but Mohammad Habibi, spokesperson of the teacher’s union said after the vote that “What was approved today in parliament was an improvisation,” not the enactment of a real pay scale.

The money approved by parliament would be added to salaries immediately, but calculated in US dollars, on average each teacher will receive just $11 dollars a month in extra pay, which would not help much in dealing with the current annual inflation rate of 45 percent. The poverty line in Iran is now around $400 a month income for a family of 3.3 people, and most teachers are getting much less than that. Even with the extra pay, around 80 percent would earn less than the minimum salary needed.

Food prices have risen by more than 60 percent this year, on top of high inflation in the previous three years. Government figures released in recent days showed that prices for 83 percent of basic food staples have reached a critical level. People living on salaries have cut back on consumption of nutritious food, such as meat, fruits and dairy products.

What seems to have prompted parliament to act quickly was a nationwide protest of tens of thousands of teachers on Monday [Dec. 13]. With rising pieces and growing poverty, the government is sensitive to new protests, concerned that any economic grievance can trigger general nationwide unrest, similar to bloody protests in November 2019, when security forces killed hundreds of unarmed people.

Tehran is also engaged in nuclear talks with world powers in Vienna and any large protests might weaken its position in the negotiations, that from Iran’s perspective is aimed at removing US economic sanctions that have battered its economy since 2018, when former president Donald Trump withdrew from the Obama-era nuclear agreement known as JCPOA.

On Thursday, hundreds of teachers demonstrated in the western city of Hamedan, rejecting parliament’s decision. They also demand the release of union activists arrested over the years and charged with a variety of security offenses. They are practically political prisoners, like many journalists and civil society activists, who do not receive a fair trial and are accused of trying to overthrow the regime.