Iran Oil Minister Says Technology Needed To Boost Falling Output

Earlier, some media outlets reported that anti-aircraft fire was heard around Iran’s sole nuclear power plant at Bushehr, on the Persian Gulf.

State media later reported that the sounds were related to an air defense exercise as part of the larger drills, while warning Tehran would give a "crushing response" to any Israeli attack.

"This air defense exercise took place at 5 a.m. local time (0130 GMT) with full preparation and coordination with the armed forces," Bushehr's deputy governor Mohammadtaghi Irani told Iranian state media.

Iran has accused Israel of several attacks on facilities linked to its nuclear program and killing its nuclear scientists over the past years. Israel has neither denied nor confirmed the allegations.

Israel has long threatened military action against Iran, and recently reportedly allocated $1.5 billion for an attack if Iran gets dangerously close to obtaining a nuclear weapon.

The escalation comes as world powers have been discussing the revival of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal limiting Iran’s nuclear program, which Israel has opposed.

Iran has warned of a "crushing" response to any Israeli move against the Islamic Republic.

"If Israel carries out attacks against Iran, our armed forces will immediately attack all centers, bases, routes, and spaces used to carry out the aggression," Iranian commander Gholamali Rashid said, according to Nournews.

The spokesman of the joint drills, codenamed The Great Prophet 17, said on Monday that the five-day military maneuvers will be conducted by IRGC’s ground forces, air force, and navy in cooperation with the cyber electronic wing of the IRGC along the coastal regions of three southern provinces of Hormozgan, Bushehr, and Khuzestan.

General Abbas Nilforoushan added that the maneuver is simulated based on a hybrid warfare model to display the country's military might.

About a fifth of oil that is consumed globally passes through the strategic Strait of Hormuz Strait in the Persian Gulf, where periodic confrontations have taken place between Iran’s military and the US Navy.

Indirect talks between Iran and the United States to reinstate the nuclear pact have made little discernible progress since they resumed last month for the first time since Iran's hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, was elected in June.

The 2015 deal lifted sanctions against Tehran in return for restrictions on Iran's nuclear activities aimed at extending the time Tehran would need to obtain enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb if it chose to - so-called breakout time - to at least a year from roughly two to three months.

In response to Trump's "maximum pressure" policy, Iran in 2019 started breaching the deal's nuclear restrictions and pressing ahead further with its atomic activities. Iran has enriched more than 200 kilograms of uranium to 20 and 60 percent purity, substantially reducing the time needed to produce a bomb.

Tehran says its nuclear steps are reversible if all sanctions are lifted in a verifiable process.

With reporting by Reuters, Iran media

Addressing the 17th Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that the collective interests of the entire region depends on security and stability in Afghanistan.

Contributions by neighboring countries along with their humanitarian assistance are among the most urgent requirements for supporting the Afghan people, he added.

Tehran’s chief diplomat criticized the international community's “indifference” toward the situation of Afghan refugees in Iran, saying that Iran has tried to keep its borders open. Amir-Abdollahian noted, "During the past 40 years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been hosting millions of Afghan refugees and immigrants" while it “has not received any international aid for this particular purpose so far.”

Despite Amir-Abdollahian’s claim, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency has been aiding Afghan refugees in Iran, including health insurance for 120,000 people. Many governments, such as South Korea, Germany and Italy have also made contributions. Seoul so far has donated $30 million dollars through the United Nations.

Elsewhere during his speech, Amir-Abdollahian also called on foreign banks to release billions of dollars of Afghanistan’s assets that were frozen after Taliban took over the country.

In October the US Treasury announced that it is holding firm on its freeze of Afghan central bank reserves to deny access to the Taliban. Since August, the Taliban have been trying hard to get hold of almost $10 billion worth of assets, which are largely kept in the US.

Iran’s top diplomat stated that sustainable calm in Afghanistan is only possible through an inclusive and effective government in which all ethnic and religious groups would be present. Pointing to Afghanistan’s empty seat in the conference, he also expressed hope that the country will be able to send its representatives to the next OIC summit.

On the sidelines of the conference, Amir-Abdollahian held a meeting with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, in which he stressed the necessity of sending humanitarian aid to Afghanistan as soon as possible.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran supports dispatch of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan regardless of political issues… To this end, while keeping its borders open, the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to cooperate with all countries to get aid to people of Afghanistan,” he said during the meeting.

Envoys from 57 Muslim nations as well as representatives from the United Nations and international financial institutions, plus the United States, the European Union and Japan attended the two-day summit aimed at relieving the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Tehran insists that despite an economic crisis due to US sanctions, it has accepted more than 300,000 Afghan refugees following the collapse of the government in Kabul.

However, the International Organization for Migration said in November that Iranian and Pakistani authorities have sent back more than one million Afghan refugees this year, including more than 28,000 people only in the last week of October. “The majority were deported, returning to Afghanistan often broke and broken, in need of health support, food and rest,” said an IOM statement.

The United Nations refugee agency’s appeal to support Afghans fleeing to neighboring countries has called for nearly $300 million to help up to 515,000 people that may flee before the end of the year. About $136 million of the total appeal funding is needed to support Afghans in Iran.

According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, 4,000 to 5,000 Afghans flee across the border to Iran every day. It says some 3.6 million Afghans reside in Iran, although only 780,000 are recognized as refugees. Most other Afghans are considered economic migrants who have been an important workforce in Iran.

The government’s plan is to slash in half the amount of money from oil sales which is supposed to be saved in the NDF and spend it on its operations.

According to the charter of the National Development Fund, 40 percent of oil revenues next year should be saved by the government in the fund for investment on productive economic activities that would guarantee the welfare of future generations. NFD is a sovereign wealth fund.

Now, the budget bill presented to parliament on December 12, proposes to save only 20 percent of oil revenues and transfer the other 20 percent to the government.

At the time of its establishment, the fund's share from oil revenues was 20 percent to be increased by 3 percent annually until the end of the Fifth [five-year] Socio-Economic Plan in 2016. The fund's share from oil revenues increased to 30 percent with a 2 percent annual increase during of the Sixth [Five-year] Socio-Economic Plan.

"What has happened in reality, however, is [various] administrations' request to pay less into the fund and to take hold of the rest [of the money destined for the fund] as [US] sanctions grew stronger and oil revenues fell," the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) wrote Sunday.

Another problem with this scheme is that Iran might not be able to repatriate all the oil revenues because of US banking sanctions, which means the NDF money the government wants to spend will not enter the country as hard currency. Economists say that in such a case, borrowing from the fund would mean printing Iranian rials and spending it in the country, further fuelling inflation, which now stands at the annual rate of 45 percent.

Since its establishment in 2000 as a currency reserve fund, all administrations have borrowed from the fund for various purposes, including 2 billion euros in 2019 to increase the military's budget. The administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad borrowed heavily from the fundwhich had been handed over to him with over $24b, including $2.7b to pay New Year cash handouts to all Iranians in 2013.

In 2008 the government of President Ahmadinejad classified information about the fund. In 2013, the newly elected President Hassan Rouhani said the fund had completely been drained by his predecessor's government. There is currently no concrete information on the fund's assets, but it is clear billion were withdrawn since 2018 when the United States abandoned the 2015 nuclear agreement and imposed sanctions.

The amount that the Raisi administration intends to borrow, half of the fund's share, will be the largest percentage ever drawn from the fund.

Withdrawing, or borrowing, from the fund requires the approval of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

In 2020, Khamenei did not approve the Rouhani administration's request to slash NDF’s share from oil revenues and add it to its budget revenues.

The data is based on payment information across the government between March and November 2021.

Meanwhile, a conservative daily in Tehran, the Jomhouri Eslami newspaper, wrote on Sunday, December 19that the gap between minimum wage and hefty salaries for certain managers can lead to a catastrophe.

The leaked data, published by the conservative news website Alefindicates that minimum wages across the Executive, Judiciary and Legislative bodies, as well as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's office, and other government institutions is fixed at a flat 32,550,000 rial rate, or a little over $100 a month. The purchasing power of $100 is a little bit more in Iran than in Western countries, but still a family of 3 cannot afford the bare necessities with that amount of money.

However, the highest earning personnel at those entities receive salaries at different levels. The monthly salary of the highest paid government employee in Iran at the executive branch is 2.84 billion rials, or around $10,000. This is followed by 1.84 billion rials at the judiciary branch and 830 million rials in the legislative branch, and 485 million rials at Khamenei's office.

These salaries include workers and managers at state-owned industries, which are mostly money-losing enterprises.

Alef quoted Vice President Meysam Latifi as saying that high earners receive up to 62 times more salary than the low earning government personnel, although the difference is closer to 100 times.

Jomhouri Eslami wrote that the highest salaries at the executive and judiciary branches should no longer be called "astronomical salaries," as these are "super astronomical figures."

The official poverty line in Iran is drawn just under 100 million rials per month. However, most low-paid workers earn around or less than 40 million rials per month and manage to survive in a mysterious way.

Iranian media have been reporting that meet, fruits and dairy products are now consumed regularly only by a minority and consumption of these food staples have decreased up to 50 percent.

According to Jomhouri Eslami, a maximum of 10 percent of the employees receive the highest payments in the range while the other 90 percent fall below the official poverty line. Meanwhile, the high earners are those who receive separate allowances for housing and transportation while low earners have to have another job after their first work to make ends meet and most of them are tenants.

The high paid employees are usually well-connected individuals who have access to extra legitimate or illicit incomes if they are part of the financial corruption network in the country.

Jomhouri Eslami wrote that the existence of shanty towns next to luxurious buildings in most parts of Iran is indicative of a vast class difference which is getting wider by the day, while the government seems to have no plan to bridge the gap in any way.

The daily wrote, "Although the society looks calm on the surface, there are alarming signs hiding under the skin. There is a limit to the people's patience and if it ends, the gathering storm will eventually arrive to trigger explosive changes that will sweep aside everything and everyone. This means if there is going to be a revolution, it is likely to be one by the barefoot people against an aristocracy that earns astronomical salaries and has access to the cash coming out of corruption."

The daily warned: "This is something that is most certainly likely to happen if the current situation continues."

In addition to his many national titles, Arsalan has earned four gold medals and two bronzes in Asian tournaments during his career. He has not commented on reasons for his defection.

Arsalan, who left U23 World Wrestling Championships in Romania emptyhanded in 2018, is set to be competing as a member of the Serbian national team in the 72-kilogram category.

The news of Arsalan’s defection comes only days after a member of the Iranian women’s handball team, Shaqayeq Bapiri, confirmed after a tournament in Spain that she broke away from the team and would not return due to forced hijab rules in Iran and other restrictions. Last year, Iran's only female Olympic medalist Kimia Alizadeh changed her nationality.

Around 30 Iranian athletes have defected in recent years, seeking asylum in other countries. Some took part in this year’s Olympics in Tokyo as non-state athletes.

In addition to dress code restrictions, another issue forcing Iranian athletes to defect is Tehran’s policy of not allowing them to compete against Israelis, as was the case for Iranian judoka Olympian, and 2018 world champion Saeid Mollaei.