EU Preparing Further Punitive Measures Against Islamic Republic

In an interview with former State Department advisor Aaron David Miller Monday, Malley said media had failed to reflect the approach of the Biden administration, which had been “much broader” than its 18-month efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

Malley repeated his previous apology for a tweet October 23, which he noted had been attacked by some Iranians in the US as “diminishing the demands of the protestors.” The special envoy also referred to “some attacks against Iranian Americans…particularly against women…[that had been] been borderline threats, harassment, sometimes in a very sexualized way.”

Malley who has many opponents in the American Iranian community for his perceived weakness toward the clerical regime, praised the protesters and condemned the “gut-wrenching violence” violence against women and girls by the government.

An online petition launched by activist Masih Alinejad last week asking President Joe Biden to replace him has received more than 117,000 signatures.

Malley said that he understands the community’s emotions at this sensitive moment, seeing the struggle by the people in Iran and government’s violent response.

Defending the Biden administration’s handling of JCPOA talks,on hold since September, Malley said there was “no long-term sustainable solution other than a diplomatic one” to block Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, an aim Tehran denies.

But the White House envoy insisted that while engaged in the nuclear talks, the US had also been “pushing back” against Iran’s “proliferation of drones, missiles, its interference in other countries, its attacks against some of its neighbors…” This had been both through US sanctions, Malley said, and through other actions including military strikes “on at least two occasions against Iranian-affiliated militia in Syria.”

In one attack in August, the US reportedly killed six militants from a militia group it said had launched drones targeting the al-Tanf American garrison in the south-east of the country. Such actions had taken place “regardless of whether the nuclear negotiations are succeeding or not,” Malley said, “…regardless of whether there is a JCPOA or not…”

Malley insisted that US policy towards Iran was within a worldwide dimension: “The president made this clear, not just about Iran, but about our global policy, which is to put human rights and the defense of human rights back at the center of our foreign policy.”

Malley was pressed by the interviewer Miller over the limits to “transformative uses of American power.” Miller cited as lacking “much success” the US role in the ‘Arab Spring,’ the largely failed Middle East uprisings of 2010-12, Washington’s military interventions including Iraq, and its support to the “Sunni opposition” – against President Bashar al-Assad – in Syria.

“Our policy [with Iran] is not one of intervening to try to foment regime change,” Malley replied, arguing the US role had to be “very realistic” as well as “very ambitious.” He cited Washington’ removal of the threat of punitive action under US sanctions against technology and Internet companies dealing with Iran. He said there would be “more sanctions” against Iran and that the US would initiate “more steps in international forums.”

According to reports, Farhoud was arrested by the security forces at his home Sunday morning, and there has been no information about where and why he was taken. 

The renowned scientist had earlier criticized the Islamic Republic for its violation of women's rights.

Earlier this year, Farhoud criticized the regime’s plans to ban pre-natal screening and legal abortions, describing them as violations of human rights. He called them a backward move to 200 years ago. 

The government's population and family planning policies include a ban on contraceptives, vasectomy and tubectomy, and prenatal screening for genetic abnormalities and congenital diseases.

Moreover, the parliament has passed legislation to outlaw tubectomy, vasectomy, and the free dispensation of contraceptives other than where pregnancy would threaten a woman's health. The health ministry has advised women over 35 to wait only a year before becoming pregnant again and under-35s to wait six months.

Medical experts have warned that the new legislation would also increase sexually transmitted diseases by restricting access to condoms.

Earlier in the year, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said efforts to increase the country's population are among the most urgent duties and essential policies of the Islamic Republic.

Foreign ministry spokesman Naser Kanaani in his weekly briefing on Monday said that the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) is an official military organization of the Islamic Republic and sanctioning it would be “a totally illegal act.”

“Statements by German officials about sanctioning the IRGC, following unconstructive and irresponsible actions by this country, emanates from their wrong approach toward the government and people of Iran,” Kanaani claimed. He added, Iran “hopes that Germany and other countries who have a plan in this regard, will pay attention to their unconstructive actions and not sacrifice their bilateral relations to passing political issues and emotional decisions.”

Iran’s security forces have killed at least 270 citizens since protests broke out in mid-September when a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini was killed in ‘morality police’ custody. The government has deployed tens of thousands of regular IRGC troops, its Basij militia and plainclothes agents to attack protesters. Thousands have been arrested and more than 1,000 already indicted for participating in demonstrations.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Sunday that her country and the European Union were examining whether to classify Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization for its use of violence in the protests.

"I made it clear last week that we will launch another package of sanctions, that we will examine how we can also list the Revolutionary Guards [IRGC] as a terrorist organization," Baerbock said in an interview with ARD broadcaster on Sunday.

The IRGC is already listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and Tehran tried hard during the long nuclear negotiations in 2021 and 2022 to have Washington lift the designation. The Biden Administration called such demands extraneous to the nuclear talks.

The negotiations have paused since August over Iran’s demands, which are unacceptable for the United States. When Tehran adopted its position in response to an EU draft proposal, protests had not started and now it finds itself in more international isolation than two months ago.

US and Albania have also proposed an informal UN Security Council meeting to discuss the situation in Iran. The format of the meeting is called the “Arria formula”, after its originator, Diego Arria, a Venezuelan ambassador who in 1992 initiated the first informal meeting of the Council to discuss the crisis in former Yugoslavia. The meetings take place in a non-rigid setup where member states can hear comments by individuals and non-state actors.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman on Monday dismissed the significance of the meeting and claimed that the aim of the meeting is to put “political pressure on the Islamic Republic,” and is the continuation of a clear policy of interference by the American government in Iran’s internal developments.”

Kanaani criticized the US for planning to ask Iranian expatriate activists to testify during the informal Security Council meeting, calling such individuals “known elements” with Iranian identity, who in the past never raised their voice against US sanctions.

The spokesman again repeated Iranian denials about supplying military drones to Russia used against civilian targets in Ukraine. Kanaani said that Tehran has never supplied weapons to the warring sides. The denials come as the United States and others have raised strong objections to the deployment of mostly suicide drones and Ukraine has produced evidence obtained from downed UAVs.

The amount of capital withdrawal from the stock market and the fall of the total index has been accelerating in the past few weeks as protests and strikes have been intensifying especially after mid-September, when a 22-year-old woman was killed in police custody.

The withdrawn money may seem meager compared with international stock exchanges, but TSE is the most important and biggest Iranian stock exchange market, and considering the currency rate, it amounts to a huge sum in rials. 

TEDPIX, the main index of Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), lost 69,000 points in the previous Iranian calendar week, which ended on Friday, October 28. 

Since mid-May, the index has been in constant decline due to political uncertainties, with a few small insignificant peaks when the hopes for reviving Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal were high momentarily. 

The future of Iran’s exchange market will depend on political stability, structural reforms and restoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), all of which seem improbable as the current wave of protects shows no sign of abating and more and more countries are intensifying their punitive measures against the regime and its officials. 

On October 18, United States’ officials reiterated their support for the ongoing protests in Iran with Special Envoy Robert Malley saying that the talks to revive the nuclear deal are no longer on the agenda.

By Iranian law, military and law enforcement forces are banned from entering university grounds or making arrests inside campuses, but in the past few days plainclothes agents have attacked student gatherings and dormitories in several universities arresting several hundred people often using great violence.

University security guards responsible for protection of students often looked the other way or cooperated with the plainclothes agents, students say. Protests, however, have grown even bigger after the attacks and arrests.

“Please help! They are murdering us here! We need the world to hear our voice,” a student from Sadaf dorm of Jondishapour University in Ahvaz told me in a chat in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Minutes earlier security forces had raided Sadaf dorm. A video students shared on Twitter showed several plainclothesmen dragging a student, Mohammad Safaei, on the floor while he cried for help from fellow students.

Students besieged by IRGC Basij forces inside a section of Mashhad University

“They cut off the power in the dormitory and forced their way into the building … The [plainclothes] IRGC and Basij people and intelligence ministry agents have stationed themselves in front of the entrance and are preventing students from coming and going,” the student said, adding that the assailants threatened to shoot other students to stop them from helping Safaei. “They abducted four of us.”

Mobile internet was completely shut off and wi-fi was intermittent, my student contact said on the night of the raid. “It takes me so much effort to connect to the wi-fi, it’s exhausting to post anything.”

On the same night they arrested three other students for writing antigovernment slogans on the walls of their campus and protesting peacefully. “If a hair is lost [on the head of a student], a thousand will rise,” students who gathered on the campus grounds afterward the arrests chanted.

Similar raids have been made on several other campuses including Noshirvani University of Technology in the northern city of Babol in Mazandaran Province where at least 25 students were arrested Wednesday. Plainclothesmen fired bullets and tear gas inside the dormitory compound during the incident.

“They are shooting at us inside the university, it's not birdshot it's real live ammunition,” one of the students trapped at Sanandaj University tweeted Sunday morning while a Twitter post by a relative of a student abducted in Kermanshah, Mahshid Moshashaei, begged everyone for information on her whereabouts. Moshashaei was taken, apparently by intelligence ministry agents, from her dormitory on Saturday.

In Mashhad, Iran’s second most populous city, plainclothesmen barricaded the gate of Azad University for hours Saturday night and trapped the students inside. Parents and worried citizens who had gathered in front of the university were attacked by plainclothesmen, too. Students say around 10 of them were arrested during the standoff.

In a statement released on social media Sunday, said they would go on indefinite strike in protest to the violence by university security and plainclothesmen.

Students have posted a video showing a young woman, probably a student, being forced into a car by plainclothes agents early Saturday morning in front of the same university. Witnesses said on Twitter that those who tried to prevent the abduction were tasered by one of the plainclothes agents.

Plainclothesmen’s violence against students has risen to such levels that students belonging to the regime’s Basij militia have found it indefensible and even repugnant.

In a video posted on Twitter, the Basiji student recording a standoff between protesting students and the agents at Esfahan University Saturday says, “They are not Basijis, [pro-government] revolutionary students are on this side. These guys who are wielding chains [to hit students] are hooligans who are from outside [the university].”