Riot Police Attack Esfahan Water Protesters, Burn Tents

The newspaper of the state broadcaster quoted “an informed source” saying a cyber intrusion had disrupted the monitoring of water levels and general conditions in dams over the past two weeks.

The source said that employees exchanging data about dams had lost Internet-based communication, including applications like WhatsApp. The source dismissed denials issued by information network officials.

A security official at Iran’s ministry of energy also denied the claim, telling the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) that authorities had restricted certain employees’ access to the information system.

Iran has been the target of many cyberattacks and other sabotage since mid-2020, frequently attributed to Israel. Nuclear, military and industrial targets have all been hit with disruption, including explosions and fires.

In October motorists faced disruption at gas stations across the country when the payment system for cheaper, rationed gasoline broke down. It took nearly a week to fully restore the service. Iran’s railroad network was hacked in July, apparently as part of a wider strategy to target infrastructure.

Some cyberattacks have been claimed by unknown dissident groups, including the hacking and release in July of troves of security-camera footage and documents from Tehran’s Evin prison, including guards beating prisoners and confidential letters from and to the prison. The chief of Iran’s prisons was replaced in November, in a decision at least partly related to the hacking.

On Wednesday, the website of Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, Friday prayer leader in Mashhad and father-in-law of President Ebrahim Raisi (Raeesi), was hacked, according to the cleric’s communications chief. Alamolhoda is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative in Khorasan-Razavi, one of Iran’s largest and most important provinces.

Shargh newspaper in Tehran reported that the websites of the Assembly of Experts, a constitutional body tasked with choosing the Supreme Leader, was disrupted Wednesday by a cyberattack. The reformist newspaper also reported that the website of Tehran province courts had been disrupted, although it was not clear this was due to a cyberattack.

The rare visit comes as Abu Dhabi moves to reduce tensions with rival Tehran.

WAM said Bagheri Kani met with the diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, Anwar Gargash, and Emirati minister of state for foreign affairs Khalifa Shaheen Almarar.

The discussions stressed the importance of strengthening relations "on the basis of good neighborliness and mutual respect", working for greater regional stability and prosperity and developing bilateral economic and commercial ties, WAM said.

The visit comes ahead of the expected resumption of talks between global powers and Iran in Vienna on Monday to try to revive a 2015 nuclear pact, which Gulf states have criticized for not addressing Tehran's ballistic missile program and regional proxies.

Gargash earlier this month said that the UAE was taking steps to de-escalate tensions with Iran.

Senior Iranian and Gulf officials told Reuters last week that a top UAE delegation would visit Tehran soon.

Gulf states, uncertain of the Biden administration's role in the region and seeking to avoid a return to heightened tensions of 2019 that saw attacks on tankers in Gulf waters and Saudi energy infrastructure, have moved to engage with Iran.

Sunni Muslim power Saudi Arabia also launched direct talks with Iran in April. Riyadh has described the talks as "cordial" but said they remained largely exploratory.

Report by Reuters

Shahr-e Kord is provincial capital of Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari, a traditionally water-rich region in the Zagros mountains, has seen its water resources decline in recent years due to both drought and projects that shift water to arid regions.

Protests began November 20, following demonstrations against lack of water in the city of Esfahan, where thousands of residents demanded water be supplied to the Zayandeh Roud river, which has been dry for most of the last ten years.

As the government promised solutions to people in Esfahan, residents in neighboring Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari took to the streets in fear their water would be diverted. Drought across the Middle East in recent years has encouraged conflict and tension between nations and between communities over access to water.

The Iranian government has encouraged water-intensive industries to be built in Yazd, east of Esfahan, diverting Zayandeh-Roud water, leaving tens of thousands of farmers with inadequate irrigation.

Days ago, the government appointed a Revolutionary Guards general as governor of Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari, following similar appointments in recent weeks elsewhere. Some protesters Wednesday attacked the new provincial governor as a servant of central authorities.

The currency, rial, dropped to 290,000 against the US dollar in Tehran’s exchange market, raising fears of more inflation in the near future. Iran already suffers from more than 60 percent rise in food prices in the past one year, as a cash-strapped government prints money, inflating liquidity.

The rial has dropped more than ninefold since early 2018, when former US president Donald Trump signaled his intention to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, known as JCPOA. Trump carried out his threat in May 2018 and imposed crippling sanctions on Tehran’s oil exports and international banking.

Indirect nuclear talks with the United States are scheduled to resume next week in Vienna, but a tougher position adopted by the new hardline government in Tehran has led to pessimism over chances of a successful outcome.

In the past four years, the deepening economic crisis has led to large protests in which security forces killed hundreds of protesters. With a parallel water shortage and pollution, rising prices pose a serious risk of renewed unrest against the government.

Investigative reports in the media and posts on social media have shown what Iranian’s call “astronomical salaries” that politically appointed managers earn in loss-making state industries.

It is still not known if these are genuine investigative reports or if journalists and social media influencers have been tipped by rival factions and clans within the Iranian government.

On November 23, the IRGC-linked daily newspaper Javan ran a front-page report that said monthly salaries higher than 2.15 billion rials paid to some government managers is an outcome of lack of transparency in government operations. The amount mentioned would equal roughly to $51,000 based on the government’s preferential exchange rate and $9,000 based on the free market rate. But even at the lower dollar equivalency, it is an astronomical amount by Iran’s standards.

Ordinary wage earners make about $100 a month and office workers and teachers less than $200.

Meanwhile in a separate story, Javan quoted Majles Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf as saying that "first the parliament and then the rest of government institutions in Iran are going to make their operations transparent." The Iranian Parliament (Majles) has been under immense pressure from the media and the public to reveal the voting record of lawmakers. However, hardline clerics at the Majles have so far strongly resisted transparency and argue that "enemies" might benefit from the information.

Scores of social media accounts on Telegram and Twitter have revealed high salaries are being paid to some government managers. The proreform Telegram channel @Maktubat, which has over 24,000 subscribers, on November 22 posted the payslip of one of the managers of the government-owned Amir Kabir Petrochemical Plant, showing that was receiving 2.15 billion rials per month. The channel said this was equal to an ordinary government workers’ wage for four years.

Meanwhile, hardline commentator Hassan Rahimpour Azqadi posted three payslips from the same company on his Twitter account and showed the company's CEO received 2.15 billion rials, its HR Chief received 1.25 billion and the company's Security Chief received 840 million rials per month.

In another post, hardline journalist Mehdi Khalili published some more documents comparing salaries and cost of living in Iran and addressed President Ebrahim Raisi saying, "Look at the payslips and compare them with what teachers and other workers living under the poverty line earn. Where are you Mr. Raisi. You have been in office as Iran's President for more than 100 days and still, there is such an injustice done your employees."

In an elaborate attempt to distance Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei from government mismanagement and financial corruption, Javan has concluded in its report that after years of complaints by the people and warnings by the Supreme Leader, apparently the only solution for financial corruption appears to be transparency. Meanwhile, the daily warned that false transparency will only make matters worse.

User comments about the matter on social media were interesting particularly on Telegram where they feel safer and at times come up with radical comments. One Telegram user responded to the vast difference between income of government employees, "This is no longer a class difference. This shows a wide gap between classes." Another user said, "Soon we will be seeing a revolt by the poor."

On Twitter, one user who responded to Azqadi's call for an explanation by the President, wrote: "They will not offer any explanations, but you are going to see a lot of justifications." And another user reminded that the company security chief who receives 840 million rials per month will turn a blind eye to whatever corruption that takes place in the company.