Iran Condemns Latest US Sanctions Imposed On Petro Exports

The state-run television (IRIB) on Sundayaired the so-called ‘confessions’ of Sepideh Rashno, a 28-year-old artist, writer and editor, who was arrested on July 16, after a video of her quarrel with a woman enforcing hijab rules – identified as Rayeheh Rabi’i -- went viral.

In the video Rabi’i, who was fully covered by a long, black ‘chador’ – which is typical of the supporters of the Islamic Republic – is seen shouting at Rashno who had unveiled in a city bus. The quarrel became so frantic that other passengers intervened and kicked the hijab enforcer out of the bus.

Iran’s state media and media outlets affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) have been publishing videos of forced confessions from women who are arrested over their participation in an ongoing anti-hijab campaign.

In the forced confession under detention shown by the IRIB Sunday, Rashno says she regrets her confrontation with the hijab enforcer and posting her video on social media and that she “begged” US-based anti-hijab activist Masih Alinejad to remove the video of the encounter from social media.

Rashno has reportedly been in detention at the IRGC ward of Tehran’s Evin Prison since her arrest without any contact with her family or access to a lawyer.

In a tweet Sunday, Alinejad alleged that Rashno was tortured and forced to denounce herself and speak against her. “She’s a hero fighting for freedom for all women, for our dignity. I call on the international community to support Sepideh Reshnou,” Alinejad wrote.

While all these were taking place, a man was arrested outside Alinejad's home in Brooklyn, NY with a loaded AK-47 assault rifle, after being seen loitering for two days and trying to get into her home.

Social media users have pointed out that in the video aired Sunday Rashnou appears to be wearing a heavy layer of makeup to cover up bruises on her face, particularly above her right eye, and looks very tired and worn out resulting from possible physical and psychological torture.

Armin Soleimani, journalist, in a tweet Sunday said by torturing Rashno and airing her ‘confession’ on the state television, authorities aimed at intimidating anti-hijab activists and protesters.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei claimed last week that the anti-hijab movement is nothing but a Western plot against the Islamic Republic, adding that in his view the Islamic Republic does not need to defend itself about issues related to women including the hijab but should rather be aggressive and attack the West for turning women into a “commodity”.

Rights activists allege that the Islamic Republic systematically uses torture and broadcasts torture-tainted ‘confessions’ of activists, politicians, and even ordinary criminals against themselves and others on state television to intimidate their peers and the public.

“Such confessions may have worked in the early days of the revolution but fortunately has lost its [desired] impact now due to being repeatedly used for all sorts of things and have even made the incompetent security organs the butt of jokes,” Maziar (Mazyar) Ebrahimi, a businessman who was tortured to ‘confess’ that he had been spying for Israel and was involved in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists in 2012 tweeted about the airing of Rashno’s confessions.

On July 12, following a call by women’s rights activists for civil disobedience with the hashtag of ‘No2Hijab’ social media exploded with dozens of videos and photos of women unveiling in public.

Iran’s government which is now fully controlled by hardliners has adopted a harsher than usual approach in enforcing hijab in the streets and government affiliated institutions, amid economic crisis and hardship for tens of millions. Government and military officials have warned the population against disobeying hijab rules and the morality police hijab enforcement patrols have detained many women, sometimes violently, on the streets.

In a ministerial statement released for the Tenth NPT Review Conference on Monday, the countries said the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has reduced the risk of a devastating nuclear war, and further reduction of that risk must be a priority for all NPT states parties and for this Review Conference.  

Reiterating that Iran must never develop a nuclear weapon, the statement read, “We are committed to addressing regional proliferation crises wherever they arise.”

They expressed regret that, despite intense diplomatic efforts, Iran has yet to seize the opportunity to restore full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), urging Tehran “to return to full implementation of the JCPOA and UNSCR 2231 and to cooperate on an urgent basis with the IAEA in resolving questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran as required under its NPT-required safeguards agreement.”

“Nuclear weapons, for as long as they exist, should serve defensive purposes, deter aggression, and prevent war. We condemn those who would use or threaten to use nuclear weapons for military coercion, intimidation, and blackmail. Such actions are profoundly dangerous and contrary to the purposes of the NPT and the UN Charter.”

All NPT Parties, nuclear-weapon States or non-nuclear-weapon States, have a duty both to demonstrate and to promote responsible behavior and restraint to advance all three pillars of the treaty: disarmament, nonproliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy, science, and technology, they said.

The action – under Executive Order (EO) 13846, signed by President Donald Trump in August 2018 – was followed later Monday by Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, announcing Tehran’s latest steps beyond the limits of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

Kamalvandi said Iran was feeding fuel into “hundreds” more IR-1 & IR-6 centrifuges – devices used to enrich uranium – as part of a plan for a capacity of at least 190,000 SWU (separative work units), a measurement of efficiency in enrichment. Under the JCPOA Iran was allowed only 6,104 of the less advanced 6,104 and no IR-6s.

The US petrochemical designations came the same day as President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said they remained committed to restoring the JCPOA. It is unclear whether the Biden administration is trying to increase pressure on Tehran to make concessions in nuclear talks, appeasing domestic critics of the talks, or is moving towards a ‘Plan B’ should it deem the talks over.

‘Tens of millions of dollars’ worth’

The Treasury designations target companies over dealings with Iran’s Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Commercial Company (PGPICC), “one of the nation’s largest petrochemical brokers, to facilitate the sale of tens of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products from Iran to East Asia.”

The companies were Blue Cactus Heavy Equipment and Machinery Spare Parts Trading, based in the United Arab Emirates; Farwell Canyon, and PZFNR Trading, both Hong-Kong based; Golden Warrior Shipping, and Shekufei, both based in China; and Singapore-based Pioneer Shipmanagement.

Any assets held by the companies in the US may now be impounded, while persons or entities dealing with them worldwide may be subject to US penalties.

Monday’s action follows criticism of the Biden administration – which it disputes – for allegedly not being assertive against those trading with Iran. Many US ‘secondary sanctions,’ including under EO 13846, give discretionary rather than obligatory powers to the administration.

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the US was pondering designating a British-Iraqi man over the sale of Iranian disguised as Iraqi oil, while the US last month designated companies from China, the UAE, and Vietnam allegedly linked to Iranian petrochemicals.

Iran’s petrochemical exports have held up under US ‘maximum pressure,’ although figures of $12 billion exports in the year ending March 2022 are questioned. Monday’s Treasury statement linked Blue Cactus to Triliance, which it said despite being designated under EO 13946 in January 2020 “remains one of Iran’s most important petrochemical brokers, brokering the sale of Iranian petrochemicals to foreign purchasers.”

Biden – ‘lead by example’

Biden Monday released a statement, ahead of the Tenth Review Conference of signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, saying the US as part of a commitment to “lead by the power of our example” had “developed a proposal to secure a mutual return to full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to ensure that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon.”

Blinken said during discussions at the New York conference that the US regarded reviving the JCPOA as “the best outcome for the United States, Iran and the world.” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman earlier in the day said overcoming differences in long-running talks to revive the JCPOA, which the US left in 2018, depended on Washington.

The US blames Iran for failure to bridge differences, which center on which US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions violate the 2015 agreement and what steps Iran need to take to return its nuclear program, expanded since 2019, to JCPOA limits.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch (R-Idaho) described the continued Iranian harassment of Alinejad as “outrageous,” referring to the man armed with a loaded AK-47 who was arrested outside her Brooklyn home on Thursday. 

Praising Alinejad’s unrelenting fight for the rights of Iranian women, he said, “Her steadfast commitment to fighting the Iranian regime and standing up for human rights should be an inspiration to us all.” 

“I was honored to meet her last year after the Iranians attempted to kidnap her,” he added, referring to an international kidnapping plot orchestrated by Iran’s intelligence network last year.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby also condemned the apparent attempt to harm the rights activist, saying that this is an open criminal investigation and “while we wait to see the results of this investigation, we want to reaffirm it is the first priority for President Joe Biden to counter threats posed by Iran.”

Echoing similar sentiments, former State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said on Sunday that “The Iranian regime is threatening to assassinate our leaders. Now their radical followers are stalking Iranian dissidents and trying to kill them here too." 

Calling for travel restrictions against Iranian delegations’ visit to UN headquarters in New York and also for closure of Iran’s Interests Section in Pakistan's Embassy in DC, she said “There's no reason for this arrangement while the regime increases its assassination attempts on our soil.” “We need to kick all Iranian operatives and 'diplomats' out of America now.”

NetBlocks, which monitors cybersecurity and the governance of the internet, said on Monday, “A significant internet outage has been registered in Iran affecting cellular and fixed-line services including Irancell and the TIC gateway; real-time network data show national connectivity at 79% of ordinary levels; incident ongoing.”

Iran’s Telecommunication Company announced that the widespread disruption was caused by a fire in one of the infrastructure facilities. A few days ago, the ministry of information and communications technology had blamed power fluctuations and out-of-date infrastructure at the country’s Electricity Distribution Company for the issue, a claim that the power company denied. 

It is not clear what happened in Iran's internet distribution center that the authorities are perhaps trying to hide, but one of the Islamic Republic’s policies to cover up sabotages is obfuscation through conflicting statements that cannot be confirmed or denied. 

Iran has been heavily censoring access to the Internet for the past 20 years to restrict citizens’ access to information. Many foreign and Iranian websites, including news media websites, are already blocked in Iran although controls are readily sidestepped by VPNs (virtual private networks) and anti-filtering software.

Since a few months ago, hardliners in the parliament are pushing to ratify a bill to further restrict internet and social media access, and reportedly launch a domestic intranet, whose content can be supervised. 

Late in July, Iranians were outraged by a government move to forcibly activate Safe Search on Google for all citizens.