Iran Turns ‘Red’ As Omicron Spreads

Citing intelligence sources during an anti-drugs conference in Colombia's Caribbean city of Cartagena on Thursday, Defense Minister Diego Molano said that the troop movements took place near Colombia's Arauca province, which is the scene of violent drug war between guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and FARC dissidents.

Molano called the deployment "foreign interference", saying, "We know that men and units of the FANB (the Spanish acronym for National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela) have been mobilized towards the border with technical assistance from Russia...and Iran”.

Colombia's human rights ombudsman has reported that clashes between the armed groups for control of the drugs trade in Arauca has left 66 dead and 1,200 displaced in January alone.

The Colombian government says Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is sheltering both FARC dissidents and the ELN, an accusation that has been repeatedly denied.

Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez called the allegation by his counterpart "inappropriate statement".

He described Colombia as the country which “Bogota's oligarchy has converted into an appendix of the (United States) South Command in our America, into a location of US military bases”.

Iran and Venezuela have strengthened their cooperation in recent years and continue exchanging oil products despite US sanctions on both countries, without any visible action by Washington, which tries to engage with both.

The rial rose to 275,000 against the US dollar in Tehran’s unofficial currency exchange market on Friday, after falling to 310,000 in the closing weeks of 2021.

Nuclear talks that started last April in Vienna have yet to result in an agreement, but some progress has been reported. Negotiators have returned to their capitals in what diplomats have said is the decisive stage of making tough decisions.

Iran’s currency began to fall in late 2017 as it became apparent that former US president Donald Trump wanted to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran and impose sanctions. It continued to lose value as Washington began imposing sanctions in mid-2018 and so far, the rial has fallen eightfold against major currencies.

As the cash-strapped government printed more money the currency became weaker and annual inflation reached to more than 40 percent.

Although there is no definitive outcome in the nuclear talks, the rial began rising in January. One reason could be Iran’s higher oil exports despite US sanctions. By all indications, Tehran has been shipping more crude in the past months, although it is not clear how much foreign currency returns to its coffers.

CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie told the Middle East Instituteon Thursday that “Iran relies on proxies to do its dirty work funneling them arms and other resources with the expressed purpose of sowing discord and endangering human life”.

McKenzie said following the US strike that killed the IRGC’s Qods (Quds) commander Qasem Soleimani, “Iran largely confined itself to activities beneath what it perceives as the threshold of our forbearance, yet in so doing it has inflicted unnecessary suffering on its own citizens and those of its neighbors, all at the cost of innocent life and the risk of a devastating broader conflict.”

However, the Iran-aligned militia are more reckless now because the new Qods commander “does not exercise the same degree of control over them that Soleimani enjoyed”, increasing rogue and violent actions.

Following parliamentary elections in Iraq last October when Iran-backed politicians did not perform well, their militia supporters used violence to influence the formation of a new government, McKenzie argued.

He added that the conflict in Yemen has lasted so long only because of Iran’s support for the Houthis, noting that “the Houthis are less interested than Iran in waging a limited war.” Rather they recklessly use whatever the Iranians put at their disposal in pursuit of victory regardless of the risk to human life.

The Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) reported Thursday that 17 people were executed in Iranian prisons on drug-related charges and 21 for murder.The grounds were unclear in the remaining eight cases.

The number jumped from 27 the same month in 2021, 33 in 2020, and 36 in 2019. Fifteen of the 46 were Baluchi, a minority people living in Iran’s south east bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The rights group said that only six executions were reported by Iranian media and officials, but that it had verified the other 40.

IHRNGO Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said “the international community” should “not turn a blind eye” to the wave of executions as talks continued in Vienna to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

“We reiterate that the international community must prioritize human rights, especially the death penalty, in any negotiations with the Islamic Republic,” Amiry-Moghaddam said. “Sustainable peace and stability are impossible without upholding human rights.”

Iran this week executed two gay men convicted on charges of sodomy who had spent six years on death row. A total of 299 people were executed in 2021, including four juvenile offenders, a 26-percent increase on 2020.

Lotfollah Siyahkali told Khabar Online that while agreements with China covering various aspects of the economy required parliamentary ratification, there would “probably” be agreement in “information and communication technology” (ICT).

An ad hoc parliamentary committee, called the Joint Siyanat Committee, is reviewing a draft bill on cyberspace regulation proposed to parliament in June, to further restrict access to various apps and websites.

Some of the bill’s supporters argue Iran should emulate China's in creating a national intranet. "The Chinese have unique and innovative experience in this field, which we can put to use," lawmaker Ali Yazdikhah said January 18.

"Passage of time proved that speculation over imitating the Chinese in Internet restriction are more true than other theories [such as using European models, which have generally aimed to extend non-digital rules into cyberspace]," the reformist Etemad newspaper wrote January 25.

China uses its ‘Great Firewall,’ a fortified digital border, to manage access to information entering and exiting the country through the Internet.

If passed, the legislation currently under review in Iran would require foreign and domestic social-media networks and messaging applications to register with a regulatory and supervisory body that would include representatives of intelligence organizations. The ministry of communications and information technology would be charged with blocking any social networks or messaging applications that failed to gain approval.

Lawmakers behind the bill, including the committee spokesman Siyahkali, want foreign social networks and messaging applications to designate a responsible Iranian company as their legal representative and to agree to abide by rules set by the regulator.

The Great Firewall

Iran has been heavily restricting access to the Internet for the past 20 years. Many foreign and Iranian websites, including media websites, are already blocked in Iran although controls are readily sidestepped by VPNs (virtual private networks) and anti-filtering software. While Instagram is the only major social-media platform not blocked in Iran, millions of Iranians use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and WhatsApp.

Despite China’s national intranet, the Chinese use various means, including VPNs, to circumvent restrictions.Tech Rader, the technology news and reviews website, recently recommended for visitors and residents the top five VPNs for piercing China’s ‘Great Firewall.’

Tehran in March signed a 25-year cooperation agreement with Beijing. It was launched during Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian's recent visit to China. With around 18 percent of the world’s population, China is home to 20 percent of Internet users globally.