Experts In Iran Slam Tehran’s ‘Ideological’ Foreign Policy

Writing on Twitter on Saturday, Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said Iran "blatantly humiliates the institution of international sanctions", before calling for the destruction of Iranian weapon factories in response.

“Iran, planning to boost missile, drone supplies for Russia, blatantly humiliates the institution of international sanctions… Important to abandon nonworking sanctions, invalid UN resolutions concept, & move to more destructive tools – liquidation of plants, arrest of suppliers…,” he tweeted.

Podolyak’s statement comes days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Washington to solidify US military and economic support for his country.

It was not clear if the tough statement by the Ukrainian official meant as a suggestion for the US to undertake the destruction of Iranian drone factories, a feat that would mean a military attack on Iran and possibly a regional war in the Middle East. Israel in recent past targeted Iranian nuclear facilities in large-scale and successful sabotage acts,

Kyiv has accused Tehran of supplying 1700 Shahed-136 loitering munitions to Moscow, which it says have been used to hit targets in Ukraine since September. Iran denies the allegations.

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Kyiv has also accused Tehran of planning to supply more weapons to Russia, including missiles that Moscow needs as its stockpiles dwindle after months of relentless attacks against civilian and military targets.

Western governments have also voiced concern over possible Iranian plans to supply missiles and more weapons to Russia, as the United States and its allies have been sending weapons to Ukraine to turn the tide of the war and not allow to capture more Ukrainian territory.

Ukraine's espionage chief said in an interview released on Friday that Russia had already launched around 540 of the drones at military and energy targets in Ukraine.

The United States and its European allies, as well as the European Union have sanctioned various Iranian individuals and entities for supplying drones to Russia. As the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on Iranian entities December 13, foreign secretary James Cleverly said that the UK sanctions were “taking the wheels off the Russian war machine.” A statement issued by the foreign offcie referred to “information” released by the US December 9 - apparently a statement by White House National Security spokesman John Kirby - showing Iran had become “one of Russia’s top military backers.”

Iran has denied supplying weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, but foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian after earlier denials acknowledged in early November that Tehran had supplied drones to Moscow “months before” the Ukraine war, leaving it vague if these were used in the war.

In a second tweet, Podolyak also mentioned North Korea and Belarus as countries aiding Russia’s war effort, saying, “Iran (drones/missiles), North Korea (ammunition/weapons), Belarus (infrastructure/territory/equipment). Factually & legally confirmed allies of RF in the war of aggression, mass murders of civilians & deliberate destruction of Ukrainian cities. There will be joint accountability.”

Madani was arrested in May accused of “formation and management of anti-government groups”, “holding gathering and conspiring to commit crimes against the country’s security" and "propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

Madani − whose research interests include poverty, drug addiction, child abuse, and prostitution − belongs to the banned Nationalist-Religious Alliance, a small non-violent religious opposition groups that favors political reform and welfare economics.

He has been sentenced and imprisoned several times for membership in the group and for “propaganda against the state.” In 2016, he was exiled to the southern port city of Bandar Abbas after four years of an eight-year prison sentence served at Evin prison, Tehran.

Iran has arrested hundreds of university students, writers and cultural leaders during 100 days of anti-regime protests that began in September.

He has been associated with various opposition groups in Iran, and in response to his criticism of the government’s handling of the COVID pandemic, he was stopped by the IRGC in January this year from traveling from Tehran to take up a post at Yale University.

Madani, 61, a sociology professor at Tehran’s Allameh Tabatabai University, has published several books on social issues in Iran.

Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, an outspoken critic of the government in foreign policy, nuclear talks and energy, says predictions by Iranian officials that Europe would plunge in cold and darkness this winter and they would run back to nuclear negotiations with Iran have turned out to be "illusions."

Some Iranian officials including Mohammad Marandi, who accompanies Iranian nuclear negotiators, have been saying since last summer that "a hard winter in Europe" will force European powers to come back to the negotiating table. Marandi had predicted: "The winter is coming, and the EU will have to face a paralyzing energy crisis."

The hardliner editor of the ultraconservative Kayhan daily had also said in the summer that after "only two months" the United States and Europe will beg Iran to resume the negotiations and will surrender to Iran's terms.

The flawed argument was being used to justify Tehran’s hard position after 18 months of multilateral talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with the West, which would lift crippling sanctions imposed on Iran.

Hardline officials were making these claims while Europe needed natural gas, something Iran does not produce enough of to export and has no way of shipping it to Europe. On the contrary, Iran is suffering from a natural gas shortage this winter like every year. It shut down several cement factories this week only to save gas for homes.

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Falahatpisheh, the former head of parliament's foreign policy and national security committee also criticized Iranian officials in an interview with the moderate conservative Khabar Online website, saying that "They are selling Iran's oil at a discounted price and still take pride in it."

The former lawmaker said that Iranian officials and hardliner commentators have been taken by surprise as their misplaced predictions in foreign policy did not come true.

Falahatpisheh also noted that while Iran counts on Russia as a "strategic ally," Russia has been selling oil at a discounted price, and Iran has no solution for its oil other than offering even more discounts than Russia. He added that Iranian officials take pride in selling oil despite US sanctions and call it a "victory", while what they are doing is wasting Iran's wealth to the tune of millions of dollars a day.

Tejarat (Commerce) Daily in Tehran quoted some oil market experts as saying that Iran has been lately selling its oil at the price of $37 per barrel while the market price for oil is around $79.25 per barrel. According to estimates, the production of every barrel of oil costs Iran nearly 30 dollars due to its aging equipment after years of token investments.

On the other hand, Iran's neighbor, Saudi Arabia invested some $82 billion in infrastructure in the past ten years to preserve its supremacy in the oil market.

Falahatpisheh in his interview argued that "Iran needs a new spirit in its foreign policy. In today's world only the countries are successful that have managed to reduce tensions with other countries." He suggested that Iran's first measure should be to settle differences with other countries and take serious steps toward détente. He said: "I believe the US and EU's current policies will not last forever. These policies are mainly meant to reduce Iran's bargaining power. However, the West will return to negotiations when and if they see that Iran has resolved its internal crisis and everyone, including all Iranian officials, are behaving in a way to serve the country's national interests."

Ali-Akbar Alvandian, secretary of cement producers’ association told the website that natural gas flows to many factories have been reduced and the alternative fuel, mazut, which is a dirty variety of diesel is also hard to procure.

Iran, which has the world’s second largest natural gas reserves is unable to meet domestic demand, especially in cold and hot months when energy consumption rises to its highest levels.

Power generation stations also receive less gas and resort to burning the highly polluting mazut, which has blanketed Iranian cities in a thick layer of pollution in recent weeks. As a result, the government has restricted mazut shipments to cement and other factories.

Lack of natural gas also hurts Iran’s petrochemical industry, which is a significant source of export earnings.

Iran needs around $40 billion of investment and Western technology to boost its gas production, which has been gradually falling. At the same time due to extremely low prices for consumers, gas and electricity usage increases by around 6 percent annually.

Without resolving its disputes with Western powers, Iran would not be able to provide the investment and acquire the technology needed for revitalizing its natural gas production.

Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn spoke on the phone with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir- Abdollahian to discuss the case and speak about the situation in the country.

According to the statement from the Luxembourg Foreign Office, Minister Asselborn supports the efforts of the EU and member countries to stand up for the rights of Iranian demonstrators. Luxembourg opposes the death penalty without exception, calling it a cruel and inhuman punishment.

In the readout of the conversation issued by the Islamic Republic, there is no mention of the Luxembourger who faces execution. The Iranian foreign minister only said that he voiced Tehran’s willingness for closer relations with Luxembourg in various fields.

Protests have been raging in Iran for over three months with people seeking the fall of the clerical regime. The Islamic Republic has been cracking down on protesters while blaming foreign countries for the unrest. 

On September 30, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry announced the detention of at least nine non-Iranian citizens from Germany, Poland, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Sweden. On October 20, Fars New Agency, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, said “citizens of 14 countries, including the United States, Russia, Austria, France, the United Kingdom, and Afghanistan, have been arrested in recent riots in Iran.”

The Regime has sentenced dozens of protesters to death and has hanged two of them so far with many more facing imminent execution.