US Designates Three More Iran Officials For Crackdown On Protests

Iranian media reported that the international domains of "Abr Arvan" company has been unavailable since Sunday morning.

This happened six days after the European Union imposed sanctions against the company. Arvan Cloud or Abr Arvan is an Iranian IT company supporting the Iranian government’s efforts to control access to the Internet in Iran.

The EU sanctioned the company on November 14 for its role in denying Internet access to pave the ground for the regime to crack down on current protests. Reports from Iran this week indicated an improvement in connectivity after the EU sanctions, because Abr Arvan lost some server facilities it had in Europe.

Checking the status of this company's ‘.com’ domain on the "ICANN" website, which is the main body overseeing Internet domains, shows that this domain is in HOLD mode.

According to ICANN, this usually occurs in case of legal problems, non-payment, or when the domain is being removed.

Without mentioning the sanctions, Abr Arvan has claimed this happened simply due to “disruption of the international registrar.”

In addition to the ‘.com’ domain, the company's ‘.net’ domain, which was used for some technical infrastructure, has also been taken down.

Abr Arvan domains were registered by GoDaddy company. GoDaddy is a well-known company in the field of Internet hosting services, based in New Jersey.

The unavailability of Abr Arvan’s main domains, in addition to technical problems, has caused the company's website and user dashboard to be accessible only through its Iranian domain.

The US Treasury announced the actions against companies based in various jurisdictions, including the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong. It said they had brokered the sale in ‘East Asia’ of “hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian petrochemicals and petroleum products.”

The Treasury statement said the companies had worked on behalf of the Indian company Triliance, which Washington sanctioned in 2020, or Iranian brokers Persian Gulf Petrochemical Commercial Company (PCC), sanctioned in 2019.

This was the fifth round of designations targeting Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical exports since June, the Treasury said, and was done largely under presidential executive orders introduced by former president Donald Trump after he withdrew the US in 2018 from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ led to a drastic fall in Iran’s oil exports from around 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) as third parties mainly ended sales in fear of US punitive action. Tehran countered by exporting oil, petrochemicals and other goods through concealing shipments from US eyes.

While President Joe Biden came to office committed to restoring the JCPOA, failure of multilateral and bilateral talks over how to do this has now seen the Biden administration extend the use of Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ executive orders and of earlier sanctions measures. PCC was designated under a 2005 executive order under President George W Bush.

While many countries and companies cut back or ended purchases from Iran during the Trump presidency, in some cases freezing billions of dollars owed to Tehran, they criticize the US sanctioning third parties. Among the companies sanctioned Thursday, Access Technology, Sum Five, Asian Zone Trading, and Monch Trading are all based in Dubai. Highline Logistic, Torgan, Barza, and Aeonian are Hong Kong companies.

‘All sanctions still available’

Under the terms of the executive orders, any property held by the listed companies in the US may be seized, while US citizens and residents are barred from dealings with them. “In addition,” the Treasury statement said, “persons that engage in certain transactions with the individuals and entities designated today may themselves be exposed to sanctions or subject to an enforcement action.”

Biden’s special Iran envoy Rob Malley claimed this week the US had lost focus on the JCPOA due to Russia using Iranian drones in Ukraine and Tehran’s use of force against domestic protests. Support for extending sanctions came Wednesday in a statement from 14 Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee demanding greater “pressure on the [Iranian] regime” and “justice and accountability for the brave Iranians who already lost their lives at the hands of state authorities…”

Among the signatories were Joaquin Castro, Ted Lieu, Ilhan Omar, Brad Schneider, and Susan Wild. Lieu, who opposed the JCPOA in 2015, said the US should “impose immediately all sanctions that are still available on Iran.”

The motion was ratified by a recorded vote of 80 in favor to 28 against, with 68 abstentions on Wednesday [Nov. 16]. The committee, which deals with human rights, humanitarian affairs and social matters, meets every year in early October and aims to finish its work by the end of November. 

The United Nations General Assembly Third Committee -- also known as the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee or C3 – also approved four other resolutions on Myanmar, Syria, North Korea, Crimea and one about the refugees and displaced persons in Africa. 

In the resolution on Iran, the committee urged the Islamic Republic to cease the use of excessive force against protesters, who have been holding daily rallies across the country since Mahsa Amini’s arbitrary arrest and subsequent death while in ‘morality’ police custody.

According to Canada’s representative, despite “deplorable actions by Iranian authorities against protesters, mass peaceful protests continue into their eighth week,” noting that the killing of Mahsa Amini is just one instance of human rights atrocities in Iran. He added that “violent implementation of the hijab and chastity laws undermine the human rights of women and girls.”

Calling for accountability, he expressed deep concern over the authorities’ use of force, as well as the increasing use of the death penalty. He pointed to the systemic prosecution of minorities, alarming restrictions on the Internet and mobile data, and the generalized use of arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances.

The Australian representative also condemned the disproportionate use of force against protesters and called on the Islamic Republic to establish a moratorium on all executions and to cease its long-standing oppression of the LGBTI community and its discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities. “Sovereignty is not a shield” for human rights violations, she added.

The UK representative described the death of Mahsa Amini “a shocking reminder of the oppression faced by women in Iran,” condemning the enforcement of the hijab and chastity laws by the so-called morality police. He also voiced concern over the situation of 14,000 arrested protestors and the death sentences. Expressing support for the UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur’s work on Iran’s oppression of minority groups and media freedom, he said “the Iranian people have suffered enough.”

The US envoy highlighted the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran since last year and recalled listening to experts tell of egregious violations during a recent Security Council meeting. Detailing the torture of activists and protestors as well as recent death sentences, she said that Iran obscures its acts by limiting access to the Internet, intimidation and refusing access to the Special Rapporteur. She described the resolution as a message of support to the Iranian people and welcomed the specific language on the death of Mahsa Amini.

Rejecting the draft, the Islamic Republic’s delegate denounced the co-sponsors -- including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and Germany. She claimed that women and girls in Iran are fully aware of their rights and how to interact with the government, adding that there is no need for Western countries to advocate for them. She made the remarks while around 350 Iranian protesters have been killed in the current wave of protests and about over 14,000 have been detained with the judiciary sentencing several of them to death in sham trials.

The UN Human Rights Council will also adopt a resolution aimed at holding the Islamic Republic accountable on November 24. 

The designation came under Executive Order 13846, made by then President Donald Trump in 2018 after he withdrew the US from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. Amid measures targeting Iran’s financial and energy sectors, EO 13846 empowered government departments to sanction entities implicated in “censorship or other activities with respect to Iran on or after June 12, 2009, that prohibit, limit, or penalize the exercise of freedom of expression…or that limit access to print or broadcast media.”

The US first designated IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) in 2013, and in 2018 reimposed the move in what then Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said was a part of “the maximum pressure exerted by the United States” after withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement.

The six employees named Wednesday by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) were, its announcement said, involved in “airing forced confessions in the style of documentaries,” had “worked directly with the IRGC [Iran’s Revolutionary Guards] to create false narratives for publication,” or simply had “acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, IRIB.”

The announcement said IRIB and its subsidiaries “act not as objective media outlets but rather as a critical tool in the Iranian government’s mass suppression and censorship campaign against its own people.” The statement said IRIB had since 2009, the year of protests over a disputed Iranian presidential election, “broadcast hundreds of forced confessions as well as defamatory content against hundreds more [people].” The Treasury statement took particular umbrage at broadcasts of forced ‘confessions’ of “dual nationals and foreigners.”

‘Interrogator-journalists’

Among the six cited Wednesday, Ali Rezvani and Ameneh Sadat Zabihpour were described as “interrogator-journalists” who had cooperated with Iranian intelligence organizations. Zabihpour, the Treasury statement said, had a “long history of direct involvement in…coerced confessions” including a 2017 broadcast implicating Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman released in March after the United Kingdom paid a 40-year £400-million debt to Iran.

Peyman Jebelli was named as having “worked directly with the IRGC to create false narratives for publication,” including “many forced confessions of political prisoners.” Mohsen Bormahani, IRIB deputy director, had “replaced a number of directors of IRIB channels, reportedly with members of an ultraconservative political party.” Ahmad Noroozi was listed simply as head of the IRIB World Service, and Yousef Pouranvari as its director of programs and scheduling.

‘Change in behavior’

Under the designations, any property held by the six in the US can be impounded. Any dealings with them by anyone in the US are forbidden, with those ignoring this prohibition themselves liable to punitive action. “The ultimate goal of sanctions is not to punish,” the statement said, “but to bring about a positive change in behavior.”

United States special envoy Rob Malley met Tuesday with European ministers to discuss Iran policy after Malley said Monday there was “no magic in which we will find a new formula.” Malley has recently argued the US had no focus on reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement given Iran’s supply of drone to Russia and treatment of domestic protests. Iran has since 2019, the second year of ‘maximum pressure,’ expanded its nuclear program beyond limits set by the 2015 agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

Canada, in its fifth package of Iran sanctions this year, also announced new measures Wednesday, designating six individuals allegedly involved in human rights abuses and two companies – Shahed Aviation and Qods Aviation – that Ottawa said have supplied military drones to Russia.

Iranian website Digiato announced on Wednesday that the applications are Snap, TAPSI, Soroush, Bale, and iGap, and their accounts have been removed from Google Play.

Digiato claimed that based on its inquiries it has found out the applications are removed because of the sanctions on Iran.

The removal of Iranian applications from Apple and Google Store platforms is not a new thing and dates to 2017. Due to US sanctions against the authoritarian regime, Apple widely removed Iranian applications from the Apple Store.

Iranian regime has shut down two popular applications WhatsApp and Instagram since the beginning of popular antigovernment protests in September to restrict the free circulation of information about events taking place around the country.

Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube are also banned by the Iranian government while the top officials of the country have access to these platforms to spread their propaganda.

The clerical rulers say people are only entitled to use home-grown application like Soroush, iGap, and Bale which are now banned by Google.

Recently, social activists have launched a campaign to put pressure on Twitter to remove the account of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who is ultimately responsible for human rights violations and the of killing the protesters.