China Adds Officially Imported Iranian Oil To National Reserves

According to South Korean government sources on Thursday, Tehran and Seoul seek to capitalize on the assets to handle the issue of the UN dues, which have deprived Iran of its voting rights.

"Our government is in consultations with the Iranian government in that regard and is in related consultations with the US and the UN as well," sources told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity.

After the Islamic Republic lost the right to vote at the UN, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Tehran is trying to find a secure channelto pay its membership fee and end its suspension.

According to the UN charter, a member loses the right to vote when its debts equal or exceed the amount of dues it should have paid over the previous two years.

Last year, Iran managed to pay $16 million of its $65 million arrears to recover its vote after Tehran was granted an exemption from the sanctions and was allowed to access money blocked by the US Treasury. This time the minimum amount Iran must pay is over $18 million.

Two South Korea banks hold $7-9 billion of Iranian money, owed for oil imports.

In a press conference, Biden spoke two sentences about the Iran negotiations, but what he said was that it is not time to stop the nuclear talks, which are making “some progress.”

US officials have been saying for weeks that the multilateral negotiations in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement, JCPOA, cannot go on forever and should reach a resolution in a matter of “weeks, not months.” But the Biden Administration has not put a clear deadline on when it would decide if the talks were productive.

Iran continues to enrich uranium at 60-percent purity and most analysts agree that it is shortening the time to having enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb. The US and its European allies have warned that with the kind of progress Iran is making the Vienna talks can become meaningless if they drag on.

“It’s not time to give up. There is some progress being made. The P5+1 is on the same page. But it remains to be seen,” was all Biden said during the press conference.

While the US President was saying that the P5, meaning permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, “is on the same page”, data released by China showed for the first time in a year that Beijing is officially importing Iranian oil in violation of US sanctions.

Reuters reported that China imported 260,312 tons of Iranian crude oil in December, according to data from the General Administration of Chinese Customs, which last recorded Iranian oil inflows in December 2020 at 520,000 tons.

Energy monitoring firms were reporting throughout 2021 that China was importing large quantities of Iranian oil indirectly, through third countries without registering the cargos as having originated in Iran. But now Beijing is officially disclosing its imports. The question is if the Biden Administration will respond in some way or prefer to have China’s support in the nuclear talks.

On the other hand, Iran has been boasting lately that it is defeating the sanctions, selling much more oil than in 2019-2020, implying that it does need to make concession at the Vienna talks. So China’s increased volume imports of Iranian oil and its official admission in customs data provides diplomatic leverage to Tehran.

Estimates are that oil exports have topped 600,000 barrels per day in 2021 compared with around 200,000 in 2019 and the first nine months of 2020. Imports from Iran have accounted for about 6% of China's crude oil imports, according to shipping data and trader estimates.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday argued that the Administration cannot provide guarantees to Tehran that the United States will never pull out of the nuclear deal, like former president Donald trump did in 2018.

“In our system you can’t give that kind of quick and serious guarantee. President Biden can certainly say what he will or won’t do as president as long as Iran remains committed to the deal, but we can’t bind future presidents. And that’s one of the things we’re talking about,” he said referring to the Vienna negotiations.

The clashes in the Wednesday session were the second time in less than a month that angry shareholders show outburst and attack officials following months of uncertainty and losses in the Iranian stock market, hyped by the government which lured thousands of investors.

In late December, violent clashes were reported when one of the shareholders wanted to disrupt a general assembly session of the stock exchange market in the city of Kerman.

Shareholders have held a number of protestsand also announced plans to hold more demonstrations outside the Securities and Exchange Organization in Tehran to denounce the decline in stock prices and devaluation of their capital.

Earlier on Saturday, TEDPIX, the main index of Tehran Stock Exchange, lost 11,630 points to reach 1.322 million as 4.728 billion securities worth 27.68 trillion rials (about $93 million) were traded.

The drop continued in the following days while many people and analysts attribute the decline to uncertainties about the fate of current nuclear talks between Iran and world powers in Vienna.

Firefighters gathered in front of Tehran city hall on Wednesday in protest to the indifference of authorities to their problems.

They also urged the resignation of Tehran’s Fire Department chief and vowed to continue similar rallies until their demands are met.

Last week, thousands of teachers held their fourth round of nationwide protests in more than 50 Iranian cities to demand better salaries and the release of their colleagues detained in earlier demonstrations.

Authorities, who have shown little interest in raising salaries, arrested Mohammad Taghi Fallahi, the head of Iran’s teachers’ union to serve his six-month sentence for organizing the protests.

Workers and employees from various economic sectors are holding regular protest rallies or strikes to demand better work conditions and salaries.

Last week, hundreds of staff members from Iran’s hardliner judiciary department took to the streets in several cities, in what was an unprecedented development.

Food prices have risen by more than 60 percent in recent months, on top of high inflation in the previous three years. Government figures show that prices for 83 percent of basic food staples have reached a critical level. People living on salaries have cut back on nutritious food, such as meat, fruits and dairy products.

According to reports, the southern regions of the country -- in Sistan-Baluchistan, Kerman, Fars and Hormozgan provinces -- are the worst hit by heavy rains, with higher number of casualties and villages that are left without power and surrounded with water.

Heavy snow, unprecedented in recent years, have chocked off mountain passes. Some areas are blanketed with six feet of snow.

Local authorities said on Wednesday that four people, including three children, were killed in floods in Kerman and Hormozgan provinces, dozens of villages were evacuated and access to more than 300 other villages was cut off.

There is no exact number for the casualties as many people are still missing and communication systems are lost in many of the flood-stricken areas, while relief operations are slow and insufficient. ()

Kerman Governor Ali Zeinivand said at a meeting of the province's crisis management taskforce on Wednesday that the situation in many towns and villages was critical as they are besieged by water, and unless precipitation decreases, flooding cannot be controlled.

Officials from different ministries and organizations, including President Ebrahim Raisi and several military commanders, have been paying visits to the people who are living in temporary housings.