Workers at Iran's Ahvaz National Steel Group continued to strike for the second consecutive day on Wednesday over the suspension of several dissenting colleagues and the incomplete implementation of the job classification plan.
Managers of the industrial group suspended dozens of protesting workers, fueling discontent among the workforce. In September, 17 workers were sentenced to flogging, imprisonment, and fines, highlighting the authorities' crackdown on dissent, after taking part in protests.
Despite promises from management, the correct implementation of the job classification plan, pledged to be reflected in December salaries, has yet to materialize, further exacerbating tensions.
This round of strikes is not the first for the steel workers who have repeatedly taken strike action to express their grievances over recent months.
The Iranian National Steel Industrial Group, previously under the control of Amir Mansour Aria's investment firm, has transitioned to private ownership following legal proceedings and Aria's execution for embezzlement.
Workers across various industries, activists from different guilds, and retirees have been participating in numerous protests in recent months, seeking improvements in their working conditions.
Iranian authorities have taken new measures involving the passport and immigration authority to prevent the ever-increasing emigration of experts from the country as the country’s brightest minds flee the regime.
Salman Seyed Afghahi, the deputy head of the National Elites Foundation told the semi-official Mehr news agency Monday that the foundation has made arrangements to report the entry and exit of all high level professional migrants to the police-run authority as many seek better work in areas such as teaching and medicine.
Afghahi alleged that emigration facilitation businesses were charging too little, between $1,000 or $2,000 for services that should normally cost $10,000 and claimed that “there is definitely a system that funds them”.
The foundation is an organization under the presidency formed to identify and support experts, innovators, and gifted students including those in religious seminaries.
In a statement Tuesday, the foundation responded to the media uproar about involving the authorities, which fall under police control, claiming that this was a service “to prevent the profit-seekers’ abuse and protect the intellectual and material rights of the elites” and to “facilitate entry and exit” of the elite and their visa issues as ordered by the President.
Denying any crisis as suggested by some medical officials, Afghahi also claimed that the rate of emigration of medical professionals from Iran has been falling and is lower than many developed countries such as Germany. However, just this month, the secretary-general of the Iranian Medical Society, Mohammed-Reza Zafarqandi, warned the medical sector was heading for a deep crisis.
He is not alone. Saeid Moidfar, chairman of the Iranian Sociological Association, recently warned that Iran is on the threshold of a very intense wave of emigration, Iranians feeling there is no future in the country with economic and social conditions only worsening and corruption and crime on the rise.
Echoing his sentiments, Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi, secretary general of the non-profit Iran Medical Council, has repeatedly warned about the high interest in emigration among medical students and professionals.
He said last week that around 80 percent of medical students were thinking of leaving the country. According to Zafarghandi, medical professionals’ application to the Council for good standing certificates, required by many employers abroad, has grown by several fold compared to before.
Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's former top nuclear official, claimed a few weeks ago that every elite’s emigration costs the country $5m in human capital. According to Salehi, 60,000 elite Iranians left the country in 2019 and the emigration of the elite in a one-year period between 2014-2015 cost the country over $38b in human capital.
In September, Dr. Saeid Moidfar, chairman of the Iranian Sociological Association, told the reformist Jamaran news website that in the wake of the Women, Life, Freedom movement, Iranians feel the future is bleak. State crackdowns on dissent, on women’s rights and an ever deepening financial depression have left many Iranians living in fear and poverty.
“You reach the point where you think this is no longer a good place to live, and you should leave as soon as you can when you feel you are in a country where you are not involved in the decision making system, the country is not being run based on sound principles, your overall economic misery is increasing by the day, and social values are being sullied,” Moidfar said in a bold stand against the government.
Iran’s economy has suffered years of mismanagement and international sanctions, which emanated from its foreign policy and ongoing nuclear program. Iran’s currency has fallen 12-fold since 2018 and more than 6000-fold since the 1979 revolution. In 1978, one US dollar would buy 70 rials and now the exchange rate is close to 500,000.
“Since 2017 the country has been in deep crisis. All prospects of change have been lost and there is no hope for the future of this country any longer,” he added.
As Iran continues to work to evade global sanctions, one of the country's leading figures has admitted the regime is deliberately concealing its maritime activities to avoid scrutiny.
Jalil Eslami, Deputy Head of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization (IPMO), emphasized the need for discretion regarding the ports where Iran faces traffic restrictions, saying, "Considering the current conditions, Iranian ships face restrictions on traffic in some ports, but it is not a good move to announce the names of those ports."
Eslami's statement follows the recent ban on Iranian ships at India's Mundra port due to sanctions measures and in the wake of earlier disclosures by Iranian transportation officials regarding maritime challenges globally.
While India has historically maintained friendly relations with Iran and has been a significant trading partner, it has also adhered to international sanctions regimes, particularly those imposed by the United Nations. The recent ban will have major economic consequences.
Masoud Daneshmand, a member of the board of directors at the Center of Transport Institutions, echoed the government's concerns, emphasizing the significant impact of sanctions on Iranian shipping assets.
In March, the United States imposed new sanctions targeting entities associated with Iran's shipping and petrochemical sectors, aligning with previous measures aimed at Iran's oil, banking, and transportation industries. Additionally, a cautionary advisory issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control in 2019 warned global entities involved in shipping petroleum from Iran about potential repercussions.
Iran's Oil Minister Javad Owji has blamed Israel for last week's attack on Iranian gas pipelines amid an ongoing shadow war between the two nations.
The attack, initially labeled by Owji as a "terrorist act of sabotage," targeted Iran's primary south-north gas pipeline network and resulted in two explosions on February 14.
Owji disclosed, "The enemy intended to disrupt households' gas supplies... but within two hours our colleagues worked to counter the Israeli plot which only damaged several pipes."
Israel's track record of targeting Iran's military and nuclear installations, including cyberattacks on the oil ministry's servers, has long been highlighted. However, the attack on a segment of Iran's energy infrastructure, crucial to industries and factories, is perceived as an escalation in the clandestine conflict, according to officials and analysts. The office of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has not commented.
Western officials say the gas pipeline attacks attributed to Israel necessitated a profound understanding of Iran’s infrastructure and meticulous coordination, especially since two pipelines were struck across multiple locations simultaneously.
Despite Iran's denial of direct involvement in attacks against Israel and the United States, the nation's support for and arming of proxy militias actively engaged in conflicts involving both countries, such as the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and militants in Iraq and Syria, has been underscored. Iran has also been implicated in supporting Hamas and other Palestinian factions.
In December, a hacking group, alleged by Iran to be affiliated with Israel, claimed accountability for a cyber assault that crippled almost 70% of Iran's fuel stations.
Iran's nuclear chief on Wednesday dismissed a suggestion that the head of the UN nuclear watchdog Rafael Grossi would visit next month but instead invited Grossi to a conference in Tehran in May.
Grossi said this week Iran was continuing to enrich uranium well beyond the needs for commercial nuclear use and said he planned to visit Tehran next month to tackle "drifting apart" relations between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Islamic Republic.
But Mohammad Eslami said a visit next month was unlikely due to a "busy schedule" without giving further clarification. "Iran's interactions with the IAEA continue as normal and discussions are held to resolve ambiguities and develop cooperation," he said at a weekly press conference in Tehran.
Eslami said Grossi had been invited to attend Iran's first international nuclear energy conference in May.
Speaking to Reuters on Monday, Grossi said while the pace of uranium enrichment had slowed slightly since the end of last year, Iran was still enriching at an elevated rate of around 7 kg of uranium per month to 60-percent purity.
Enrichment to 60 percent brings uranium close to weapons grade and is not necessary for commercial use in nuclear power production. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons, but no other state has enriched to that level without producing them.
Under the defunct 2015 JCPOA agreement with world powers, Iran can enrich uranium only to 3.67 percent. After then-President Donald Trump pulled the US out of that deal in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, Iran breached and moved well beyond the deal's nuclear restrictions.
The UN nuclear watchdog said the 2015 nuclear deal "is all but disintegrated."
Top secret intelligence documentation obtained by a hacktivist group reveals Tehran targeted dozens of Iran International TV staff with financial bans and threats to their families amid protests in 2019.
The network was aware of the intimidation tactics at the time, but the documents, obtained by Edalat-e Ali (Ali's Justice) hackers, offer indisputable proof that Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and judicial officials were coordinating the harassment efforts.
In November 2019, a sudden hike in gasoline prices led to nationwide street protests that were met with overwhelming brute force by the Islamic Republic’s security and paramilitary forces. In a matter of days, around 1,500 people were killed by these forces, Reuters reported at the time.
Amid official denials, misrepresenting protesters as organized mobs attacking public property, Iran International deployed its full resources to report about the real situation.
The government shut down the internet and Iran International and other foreign-based Persian broadcasters were the only window for the people to know what was unfolding in the country.
In the leaked Intelligence Ministry letter dated November 30, 2019, a top counter-intelligence officer wrote to Ali Alghasi, Tehran Prosecutor General, revealing the tactics employed by the Islamic Republic as dissenting voices became ever harder to quash.
The document, written as protests were quashed, revealed that 15 family members of Iran International employees across the country were summoned by the Intelligence Ministry.
“Some 71 behind the scenes key players were barred from being able to carry out financial transactions,” according to the letter marked as top secret.
While Iran’s pressure on Iran International and other Persian broadcasters has been publicized before, the document offered an insight into the motivations behind such actions.
“These measures had a psychological impact on the employees resulting in mental disorder and confusion and their sense of security,” the counter-intelligence officer added.
Revealing the psychological warfare employed by the regime, the unnamed author of the letter expressed that the intention of the Intelligence Ministry’s actions was to deliberately "disrupt the mental peace" of those daring to voice opposition to the regime.
However, in spite of the attempts to silence the channel, he noted the regime's failure. “It must be mentioned here that following these measures, the network is almost back to its original format and part of their schedule is dedicated to the legal and intelligence agencies actions involving the network’s employees and their families.”
During the 2019 uprising, the government imposed a week-long internet ban in an attempt to further suppress dissent. Describing the work of Iran International to the prosecutor, the letter said: “This network broadcasts interviews with various people opposed to the establishment, e.g. Monarchists, Mojahedin and …… to call on people to rebellion and destruction of public property, destruction and burning of the state property.”
He accused the station of disseminating “false news to encourage the villains and vandals, inviting people to gather in streets and public places, mobilizing the Iranians living abroad to support the rioters” and "subverting the position of the supreme leader of the country by highlighting his support for the [petrol price increase] plan”.
Iran International has been subjected to a state-backed campaign for years, resulting in a significant escalation in threats against its staff in terms of frequency and severity.
In February 2023, the channel had to temporarily relocate its offices in London to Washington after the UK’s security forces determined it could no longer keep the staff safe following assassination attempts by Iran’s IRGC. However, the network reopened in September from a new location amid tightened security measures.
It was also revealed last year that key commanders from Unit 840 of the IRGC’s Qods Force had offered a human trafficker $200,000 in October 2022 to assassinate Fardad Farahzad, a presenter at Iran International, and former presenter Sima Sabet. In February 2023, a Chechen-born Austrian national, Magomed Dovtaev, was arrested close to the network’s headquarters in London on suspicion of conducting hostile reconnaissance. He was subsequently convicted last December for providing information to be used in a terror plot.
The letter reveals that even ordinary citizens who tried to contact Iran International and share their experiences and visual materials faced pressure from the government.
"In respect of the need to counter the actions of the foreigners and the broadcasting satellite networks, those making contacts with them within Iran were identified and phone numbers of the broadcasting companies were blocked,” the counter-intelligence officer wrote.
The leak also revealed the harassment not only of journalists, but also of their parents and family members, threatening them that should their children continue working with “opposition” media, “deemed to disturb the peace and security of the country … they will be dealt with according to the law”.
A UK representative of Reporters Without Borders condemned the harassment of Iran International Journalists. “Iran’s targeting of journalists’ families shows the shocking lengths to which it will go to silence a free press. It is intended not only to disrupt family life, but also to heap yet more psychological pressure on journalists in exile who are also contending with direct threats. RSF stands in solidarity with all Iranian journalists who continue to report in the face of such harassment and calls on the Iranian authorities to immediately stop their relentless efforts to intimidate them.”
The 2023 annual report from Freedom House, noted that “Iranian authorities have intimidated journalists working for Persian-language media outside the country, in part by summoning and threatening their families in Iran”, as its policy of threats continues in the face of mass discontent.
It stated that amid the nationwide protests that began in September 2022, in the wake of Mahsa Amini’s death in morality-police custody, authorities arrested dozens of journalists, and at least 62 were jailed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
“Authorities also attempted to suppress coverage of the protest movement by imposing severe restrictions on internet services, including curbs on access to the social media platforms Instagram and WhatsApp,” it stated, as internet shutdowns continue today.
Last month, the US and UK announced a sanctions package against a network involved in assassination plots targeting dissidents, including Iran International journalists, on British soil. At least 15 plots have been foiled in the UK since 2022.
UK Home Secretary James Cleverly said: “The Iranian regime has tried to undermine our democracy through repression … We cannot allow foreign regimes to collaborate with criminals to threaten us. Sanctioning these criminal networks working for the Iranian regime will remind them that we will fight back. My priority is to protect our people and to defend our way of life, and the UK will not tolerate threats from the Iranian regime.”