New Chinese Consulate Looks To Expand Foothold In Iran’s South

The clashes took place on Saturday in Korin district of Sistan-Baluchestan province, which has been the scene of clashes between the IRGC and a local armed group in recent weeks.

According to a statement, five members of the armed group were also killed and some injured during the skirmishes.

The Basij is a paramilitary force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and mainly consists of young Iranians who volunteer, to receive benefits. Its members usually go through limited training to serve as an auxiliary force in local security activities and enforcing state control over society.

On December 25, two Revolutionary Guards were also killed in the country's restive southeastern region.

In recent years, Sistan-Baluchestan has been the scene of frequent clashes between Iranian security forces and drug smugglers and Sunni Baluch militant groups, which are designated as terrorist organizations by the Islamic Republic.

In February, a series of protests broke out in the province after over 20 Baluch fuel traders were killed by the IRGC at the Iran-Pakistan border.

Iran accuses the United States and its regional allies of providing support for armed groups that are active in the region.

Soleimani who was Iran’s top military and intelligence operative in the Middle East was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad two years ago.

Ali Akbar Salehi, who was Iran’s foreign minister under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said in interviews published on Saturday that Soleimani was directly involved in the ministry’s activities during the so-called Arab Spring.

He said he had weekly meetings with Soleimani to coordinate policies of the foreign ministry and the Qods (Quds) in regional issues, particularly regarding Syria and Iraq.

He mentioned the appointments of Peyman Jebeli, the current head of Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB, as ambassador to Tunisia and Hossein Akbari to Libya.

He also talked about Iran’s support for the revolutionaries in Libya, saying Soleimani made it possible for injured protesters to receive treatment via Iran’s Red Crescent Society.

Salehi said that he had asked Soleimani for help in his secret negotiations with the United States in early 2013 in Oman. Salehi, then the foreign minister, added that he wanted Soleimani’s support to stop “friends at home” from derailing the talks.

A US drone strike on January 3, 2020 killed General Qasem Soleimani, who was the head of Iran’s elite Qods (Quds) Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.

Supporters of Shiite factions aligned to Iran were bused in from across Iraq so that they could take part in the rally.

“We will not let you stay after today in the land of the martyrs,” some of the placards read. American and Israeli flags were strewn on the ground, with people trampling on them.

The killing of Soleimani and al-Muhandis pushed Iran and the United States perilously close to all-out conflict and sparked outrage among Iran’s supporters in Iraq, leading parliament to call for the expulsion of all foreign troops from Iraq.

The US-led coalition formally ended its combat mission to support Iraqi forces in their fight against the Islamic State group at the end of December.

Some 2,500 troops will remain for the foreseeable future, however, to continue supporting Iraqi forces in an advisory role.

Some militia leaders have insisted on the departure of all US troops.

Report by AP

According to reports, the fire broke out Friday night in one of the transmission pipelines of phase 16 of the gas field, shutting down the platform.

Pars Oil and Gas Company said in a statement on Saturday that the production unit went out of operation although there was no fire on the platform itself and the accident had no human casualties.

It added that planning for repair work began as soon as the fire in the nearby pipeline was contained. Repairing such a pipeline may take several weeks.

The statement said lightning was the cause of the fire, noting that it ignited gas, which was leaking from the underwater pipeline. "The gas emitted to the water level was ignited by lightning 15 kilometers from the platform," the operating company stated.

An expert speaking to Iran International commented that the leak must have been a significant one to have caused a fire and the pipeline should be considered out of actions for a long time. Apparently, Iran used domestically produced pipes for laying the line in 2015, which would not meet industry standards, he said.

A source has told the semiofficial Mehr news agency that the 100-kilometer pipeline had many technical problems, and 70 kilometers of it had been replaced, but the remaining 30-kilometer segment was under repair. He added that the accident happened after 15 million cubic meters of methane-rich gas was injected into the pipeline.

After a video footage began circulating on social media, the state broadcaster moved to react and said the damage was not large.

The frequency of accidents in Iran’s energy facilities is increasing with some blaming lack of proper maintenance of the aging infrastructures and some suspecting sabotage by other countries, presumably Israel.

Production at the South Pars gas field has been dropping gradually in recent years as Iran is unable to make the necessary investments and improve its technology due to various sanctions. Last year, the field produced 70 percent of Iran’s daily 690 million cubic meters of natural gas output.

Meanwhile, with the world’s second largest gas reserves, Iran is unable to keep up with growing domestic demands, leading to frequent power cuts, although dirty fuels are substituted at power stations.

The incident must have reduced at least 15 million cubic meters of daily production, which can put further pressure on domestic gas supplies amid cold winter months.

Last winter, Iran experienced large power cuts in major cities. Protests broke out on a few occasions. When authorities started burning mazut, a dirty unrefined fuel to generate electricity, it led to heavy pollution in cities adding to the popular anger.

With Iranians traditionally suspicious of both Russia and Great Britain, which held influence in the country from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, frequent tweets from

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s lead negotiator in Vienna, have offered fuel for controversy.

Ulyanov, who has also spoken to journalists starved of news about the talks, said this week that Russia and China had persuaded Iran to moderate some of its demands, including an insistence that talks focus on sanctions rather than the nuclear issue.

Ulyanov also said Iran had agreed to negotiate on a draft under discussion when talks were suspended in June at the tail end of the government of President Hassan Rouhani. Officials in the new administration of President Ebrahim Raisi (Raeesi) have instead emphasized written proposals submitted by Iran at the beginning of December.

In comments to the media on December 30, Ulyanov suggested that the first half of February was a realistic target for achieving agreement on how to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

This remark was seized on by a commentary by the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) Saturday as consistent with warnings from both the United States and the three European JCPOA signatories – France, Germany and the United Kingdom – that it would soon be too late to revive the 2015 agreement. "These remarks were made by the Russian envoy despite the Iranian side's insistence that there would be no deadline,” INLA noted.

Moscow’s consistent position sincethe US left the JCPOA in 2018 and Iran began in 2019 to expand its nuclear program beyond JCPOA limits is that both should respect their commitments under the agreement.

Photos tweeted by Ulyanov of his meetings with Rob Malley, the United States official leading the US delegation in Vienna, and his December 29 reference to“close consultations and coordination”with Malleyhave spurred more controversy. Many on social media took the photo as a sign that Russia is negotiating on Iran’s behalf face to face with the United States, while Tehran refuses to have direct talks with Washington. “Isn’t this a sign of how weak the regime is?”, a post said.

Farmer in remote village

In its commentary, ILNA noted that talks between Malley and Ulyanov had “worried” Iranians who had “become sensitive in recent days about Russian moves … that Moscow is playing the Iran card against Washington.” Such Iranians, INLA continued, saw these meeting as “their country's dignity being peddled at the negotiation table.”

In an editorial Saturday headlined "Honesty, Pillar of Good Governance,” Masih Mohajeri, editor of the conservative Jomhouri Eslami (Islamic Republic) newspaper, wrote that Iranians “should not hear the news, decisions, and plans of their country from foreigners.” While Jomhouri Eslami has a small circulation, many Iranian news websites on Saturday reprinted the editorial in full.

Mohajeri recounted a conversation with a "farmer in a remote village" who had asked him why Iran’s leaders were not admitting that they had decided to agree to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement soon. "His expectation from the authorities is to be honest with the people," Mohajeri wrote.

Another commentary in Jomhouri Eslami Saturday, written by Hossein Alaei, former commander of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) navy, offered advice over the 20-year Iran-Russia pact due to be signed during Raisi's upcoming visit to Moscow."We should be vigilant so that new pacts increase the two countries' trade and be mutually beneficial rather than solving Russia's long-term problems," Alaei wrote.