Iran Nuclear Negotiator Fires Off Tweets, Confusing Readers

Raisi said on Friday that he is “surprised by the Americans who send messages for negotiation and agreement and add to their list of sanctions,” noting that “The world should give us the right not to trust the United States because it breaks its pacts”

He responded to Washington’s move on Thursday to sanction firms and individuals for violating US sanctions by exporting petrochemicals. 

The Vienna talks aimed at reviving the 2015 nucellar deal between Tehran and world powers have stalled since March mainly because of Iran’s demand for the US to remove the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) from its terrorism list (FTO) and the recent missile attacks have shed more doubts on whether President Joe Biden’s administration would take such a step.

In a clear move to pressure Iran on stalled nuclear negotiations, the Biden administration sanctioned Chinese, Emirati and Iranian companies engaged in illicit export of Iranian petrochemicals.

Iranian crude exports declined in May because of Russian competition, as it offers cheaper oil to China. Iran’s income from oil products and petrochemicals was $23 billion from March 2021 to March 2022 and it aimed to boost it to $27 billion.

Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Gharaei Ashtiani made the remarks during his trip to the southern province of Hormozgan, where he visited the Ministry of Defense's naval projects in Bandar Abbas and other cities.

“Our message to the region and the world is a message of peace and tranquility,” he said, adding that “we believe that peace and stability in the region can be achieved with the presence and participation of all countries in the region.”

Iran often uses foreign forces in the region” to refer to the military presence of the United States in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.

Having been briefed on the projects to build destroyers as well as surface and submarine vessels, Ashtiani said, "Increasing Iran’s military might in all aspects of defense, including land and air, and especially sea, is one of the priorities of the country's defense programs."

Highlighting that Iran's geopolitical position in the Persian Gulf is of strategic importance to the country, he said that the Defense Ministry will update and equip the Navy “in accordance with the regional threats in all its territorial waters.”

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister intensified pressure on Iran by calling for a military front with US leadership in the Middle East ahead of a visit to the region by President Joe Biden, saying that Israel and Arab countries that share its worries about Iran should build up their military capabilities under Washington's aegis.

Describing Iran as the most destabilizing force in the Middle East, the new CENTCOM commander in May called for coordinated efforts to confront Iran.

The embassy released a statement on Thursday, saying that the Boeing 747 registered as a Venezuelan cargo plane was used by the Iranian company Mahan Air and transported “a group of Iranian officials, including a senior executive of the airline Qeshm Fars Air.” It was referring to Gholamreza Ghasemi, who apparently was the pilot and is a member of the IRGC and a former board member of Fars Air Qeshm accused of transporting weapons for Hezbollah during the civil war in Syria. 

“The State of Israel is particularly concerned about the activity of the Iranian airlines Mahan Air and Qeshm Fars Air in Latin America, companies dedicated to arms trafficking and the transfer of people and equipment that operate for the Quds Force,” the statement read. 

The embassy referred to an assassination attempt on Israeli citizens in the city of Bogotá by “criminals who worked for the Quds Force in Colombia,” adding that such events revealed that IRGC’s Quds force tries to consolidate its influence in South America. 

Argentina said on June 15 no member of IRGC Quds Force was among the crew, and Ghasemi just shared a name with a Quds Force member. 

Ghasemi is also reportedly a relative of current Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, whose appointment by President Ebrahim Raisi triggered condemnation from Argentina given his suspected role in the 1994 AMIA bombing that killed 85 people and injured over 300.

Iran has denied that the Boeing 747 belongs to Iran’s Mahan Airlines, sanctioned by the US in 2008 for links to the Quds (Qods) Force.

Iran International asked State Department spokesperson, Ned Price, during his press briefing on Thursday about the reaction of the United States to the UN experts’ concerns about violations by Iran.

"This is why we condemned the use of violence against these peaceful protesters. We made the point that we support the right of these protesters to peacefully exercise their fundamental freedoms," Price responded.

A group of UN human rights experts expressed serious concerns about the violent crackdown against civil society in Iran, especially against members of workers’ unions and teachers on June 15.

"We will continue to hold Iran accountable for human rights abuses that take place inside of Iran and every strain of nefarious activity that it undertakes," Price added when asked if the Biden administration's hope for returning to JCPOA would prevent it from imposing human rights sanctions on Iran.

After year-long negotiations to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement failed to reach a successful conclusion, the US imposed fresh sanctions Thursday on several companies and individuals accused of violating current sanctions on Iran’s oil industry.

The teachers held a gathering in Karaj, near the capital Tehran on Thursday and chanted slogans against the government, and called for the release of their colleagues arrested in previous rounds of protests. 

More than 20 people were reportedly arrested on the eve of the protests in Kurdish majority provinces in western Iran.

In Tehran, sporadic protest rallies were reported but security forces and special units were present in front of the parliament building in large numbers to prevent the demonstrations. 

The situation was the same in Mashhad in northeastern Iran, where security forces cordoned off the areas where a gathering were planned.

Numerous pictures of teachers' gatherings in the cities of Sari, Zanjan, Shahrekord, Ardabil, Khorramabad, Malayer, Marivan, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, Andimeshk, Hamedan, Kashmar, and Bandar Abbas have been published in social media.

Teachers have been holding frequent protests for nearly a year, but the political situation in Iran has worsened in recent months, with rising food prices and a growing perception of government inefficiency and corruption.

Four years of deep economic crisis in Iran following the introduction of United States ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions in 2018 has led to a sharp increase in living costs and labor unrest.

People from different walks of life, including nurses, firefighters, and even judiciary department employees and prison guards, have held protest rallies or strikes to demand higher salaries.