Who Is The Mysterious Man Who Accompanies Iran's Negotiators?

All carbon fuels are produced and distributed by the government in Iran with extremely low prices. The lowest price is 6 US cents per liter or 22.7 cents a gallon. Each car receives monthly 60 liters of gasoline at the lower price and beyond that, drivers must pay 12 cents a liter.

The new plan is to give subsidized gasoline not to each vehicle but to each citizen, reducing the volume to 15 liters per month. People who have cars and need more gasoline than their allotment have to pay 60 cents a liter ($2.27 per gallon), which is the gasoline bulk rate in the Persian Gulf region.

People who have no cars but receive their coupon for the 15 liters of 6-cent gas from the government can sell it to others on a mutually agreed price.

Now, let us see how the government will make a minimum of $5.5 billion profit by changing the gasoline pricing system.

Currently, 85 million liters of gasoline is consumed per day in Iran. Around 60 million liters is sold for the discounted price of 6 cents and the rest for 12 cents a liter. The government’s income from this is $7.8 million a day or $2.84 billion a year.

In the new system, each one of the 83 million citizens will receive half a liter of gasoline per day for 6 cents a liter, or about 41 million liters. The rest of the daily 85-million-liter consumption will be sold for 60 cents per liter, or ten times more than the discounted price. This will boost government revenue from gasoline 3.7 times to $29 million per day, or $8.32 billion annually. This means the minimum additional revenue will reach $5.5 billion a year.

Reforming the huge fuel subsidy system, which has been a drag on the economy might be a good idea, but amid an economic crisis it will contribute to inflation, as business and transportation costs will rise.

The fuel subsidy is not just for gasoline. Price for one liter of diesel will remain at one cent a liter or 4 cents a gallon, compared to almost $6 in Europe or $3.60 in the United States. The same huge difference applies to natural gas and electricity, bringing the total fuel subsidy to near $60 billion annually, or more than Iran’s oil exports if there were no sanctions.

The $5.5 billion-dollar additional profit is a minimum estimate. In fact, millions of Iranians have left the country and will never use the 6-cent gasoline and many others who are in the country who have no cars or access to internet will not be able to exchange their 15-liter monthly allotment for money. Therefore, the government will sell much more gasoline for 60 cents a liter, making up for some the oil revenues it has lost because of US sanctions.

The appointment of Waheed Mubarak Sayyar, reported by Bahrain's state news agency BNA, is part of a diplomatic shift in the Middle East as a growing number of Arab countries revive ties with President Bashar al-Assad.

Gulf Arab states downgraded or shut missions in Damascus after the Syrian government used force against the 2011 protests that developed into war. Bahrain has said its embassy, and the Syrian diplomatic mission in Manama, have remained operational.

Last month, the United Arab Emirates, which re-opened its mission to Damascus in late 2018, sent its foreign minister to Damascus where he met Assad. It has called for Syria to be readmitted to the Arab League.

Abu Dhabi began to re-engage with Damascus after decisive gains by pro-government forces, hoping to increase Arab clout in Syria at the expense of non-Arab Turkey and Iran, which supports Assad.

The UAE was one of several regional states to back rebel groups in Syria, though its role was less prominent than those of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which have not re-established ties with Damascus.

Oman last year became the first Gulf state to reinstate an ambassador to Syria.

Report by Reuters

The report published in an Iranian daily on Thursday says over 70 percent of the wagons active in Tehran-Karaj metro line are too old for operation, adding that about 45 percent of them should be stopped for major repairs.

According to the report, Tehran’s municipality hasn’t allocated enough budget for timely maintenance. Although money was available, the authorities opted for the expansion of lines instead of overhauling the existing fleet, the report said.

The Tehran metro network, with seven active lines stretching over 250 kilometers of railways and more than a thousand wagons,carrying over two million passengers a day.

Iran’s government faces a cash-crunch due to United States oil sanctions since 2018, and procurement problems because of international banking restrictions.

On Wednesday, a freight train traveling from Tehran to Mazandaran province derailed, causing material damage to over a dozen wagons. This was the second such accident in about a week.

More than 20 people were injured last week when two metro trains collided on the Line 5 of the Tehran metro on the Karaj-Golshahr railway.

“Iran is racing forward while Bennett remains silent and buckles before it, “Netanyahu wrote in a Hebrew tweet Thursday.“The Bennett government is dangerous for Israel.”

Bennett said on Tuesday that Israel would not automatically oppose any agreement reached between Iran and world powers in Vienna. “We are not automatic naysayers. We’re taking a practical approach… Unlike others, we’re not looking to fight for the sake of fighting; rather, we’re trying to bring a result.”

The commitment by the United States administration of President Joe Biden to work to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal wrong-footed Israel, which opposed the agreement and is widely held responsible for cyber and military attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites. Bennett, who replaced Netanyahu in June, has reportedly felt a cold shoulder from Biden.

In December Bennett urged world powers to take a far harder line against Tehran in Vienna, telling the Israeli cabinet that Iran “cannot enrich uranium and negotiate at the same time” and “must begin to pay a price for its violations.”

Ahmed Hosseini, a defense ministry spokesman, said the ‘Simorgh’ satellite-carrier rocket had set the three devices at 470 kilometers (290 miles) altitude. "The intended research objectives of this launch were achieved," he said, in comments broadcast on state television. "This was done as a preliminary launch ... God willing, we will have an operational launch soon."

Iran, which has one of the widest missile programs in the Middle East, has suffered several failed satellite launches in recent years due to technical issues.

The launch came with negotiations continuing in Vienna to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). Some foreign observers and governments have argued that Iran's space program is a cover for testing of ballistic missiles.

Israel and the United States have said it contravenes United Nations Security Council resolution 2231, which in endorsing the JCPOA banned Iran from “any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.” Washington left the JCPOA in 2018, imposing ‘maximum pressure sanctions’ on Iran.

Similar previous launches were criticized by the US. There has been speculation that Thursday’s launch might be a message, for audiences foreign and domestic, that Iran is negotiating from strength in Vienna and will not accept demands that it unliterally scale back its missile program. Iranian strategists believe missile defense is needed to counterbalance the threat of advanced mainly US-supplied strike aircraft held by Israel and the Arab Gulf states.

Simorgh − named after a mythical bird, similar to the phoenix, that was the emblem of the Sassanian dynasty (224-642AD) and remains a national symbol − is a larger orbital launcher than previous models but all are expendable small-capacity orbital space launch vehicles.

Simorgh is also called Safir-2, following the Safir launcher that in February 2009 placed the Omid satellite into an orbit with a 245.2km apogee. In April 2020 Qassed lifted Iran's first military satellite, dubbed Noor, into orbit, with its initial stage propelled by a Ghadr medium-range ballistic missile.

In mid-December, Issa Zarepour, Iran’s communication minister promised “good news” over launching a satellite in March, after reports of preparations at a launch site following a series of setbacks with failed launches.

Zarepour said Iran’s space program had been put on the backburner during President Hassan Rouhani’s eight-year administration (2013-21), but was now to have its budget enhanced. The draft budget of President Ebrahim Raisi for fiscal year 2022-23, which is still to be approved by parliament, would increase the allocation for Iran’s space program by a factor of 12.

The Centre for Strategic and International Studies argued in a 2018 report that “neither the Arab states nor Iran provide anything resembling credible reporting on their military expenditures and arms transfers.”