Iran Follows US In Refitting Container Ship As Operations Base

Jalil Jalaifar, who is a member of the board at Russia-Iran chamber of commerce told ILNA in Tehran that Iran has not been able “to attract even one investor.” He explained that Russian investors study the internal conditions in Iran and conclude that it is not a hospitable environment. He added that “investors realize…they will face a wall” in Iran.

Instead, Jalalifar argued that 50-60 Russian companies register in the UAE daily, while in Iran bureaucratic impediments dissuade foreigners from opening any office or subsidiary. A large bureaucracy is in charge of approving names that owners select for their companies, and this in itself is enough to drive away any foreign investor.

Iranian media, former politicians and pundits in recent days have been highlighting the fact that Russia is taking oil and steel export market share from Iran, while the hardliner government in Tehran has been advertising the benefits of expanded ties with Moscow and Beijing.

Ironically, China is said to have shifted its oil imports from Iran to purchases of heavily discounted Russian crude. This is an alarming turn of events for Tehran, which amid US oil export sanctions heavily depends on China as a buyer.

Reuters reported on Friday that Iran's crude exports to China have fallen sharply since the start of the Ukraine war as Beijing favored heavily discounted Russian oil, leaving almost 40 million barrels of Iranian oil stored on tankers at sea in Asia and seeking buyers.

Some tankers have been anchored since February but the number storing Iranian oil climbed swiftly since April, trading and shipping sources told Reuters, as more Russian oil headed east.

Jalalifar also said that since the invasion of Ukraine trade between Russia and Iran has probably doubled, but he emphasized that the volume is negligible compared to Russia’s overall trade.

The latest figures released a few months ago showed 3-4 billion dollars in annual bilateral trade between the two counties with an upward trajectory.

Jalalifar explained that Iranian ports and bureaucracy are not ready to assist an expansion in trade with Russia. “Red-tape takes up to a week to clear” at the northern Caspian Sea ports, he argued.

In land transport he argued that the border crossing point to the Republic of Azerbaijan at Astara 400 trucks can clear custom, but daily interruption in Internet access shuts down Iranian customs and exports must wait for days.

He explained that companies expediting exports are few and weak and the government ha to allow the private sector to compete in this sector.

The chamber of commerce member said that the Iranian government demands a host of documents for transiting goods from one free economic zone to another in the country. This red tape is completely unnecessary since the goods are not destined for Iran’s domestic market. It hinders the country’s proclaimed goal of becoming a transit hub in the region, especially for Russia amid the war in Ukraine.

“We need a revolutionary action and judicial authorities have to intervene” to stop red tape that stops Iran’s economic development, Jalalifar argued.

According to a report by Fars news agency, affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the average salary of the conscripts has increased about 115 to 145 percent compared with the previous Iranian year (ended on March 20) to over $100 per month.

According to unofficial data, the number of conscripts is about 400,000 to 500,000, a majority of which are drafted into the traditional Army, but some with the right connections serve with the Revolutionary Guard where conditions are much better. However, many serve in national police units, which is also used in suppressing protests.

According to Iran’s constitution, all men over 18 years of age must serve in the military for about two years otherwise they cannot apply for a passport to leave the country or conduct legal business.

In January, Iran announced it would reinstitute a buy-out scheme for the country’s compulsory military service, but canceled plans just one day after it was reported following widespread criticism by citizens and officials, who slammed the scheme as only benefitting rich families.

Rising prices have created a tense situation in the country, with heightened fears of nationwide protests breaking out at any moment. Videos published on social media in recent days show security forces being dispatched to restive regions.

The push to take over the country’s only broadcasting organization started in December 2021 with the appointment of Vahid Jalili as acting IRIB chief for cultural affairs and policy “evolution”.

IRIB operates under the supervision of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office, so the changes must have received his approval.

Vahid Jalili is the brother of Saeed Jalili, former chief nuclear negotiator, and ultraconservative Paydari Party’s presidential candidate in 2017. Saeed Jalili and IRIB chief Payman Jebelli were close colleagues at the Supreme Council of national Security in early 2010s.

It took Vahid Jalili only a few months to begin the “evolution” at IRIB. In early May, he chose ultraconservative Mohsen Barmahani as his deputy for TV operations. In less than one week, Barmahani, whose previous position was the head of the documentary department of Iran’s English-language rolling news channel Press TV, appointed new heads for six of IRIB’s key channels.

Like Barmahani himself, all the new channel chiefs are hardliners close to the Paydari Party. The Public Relations Office of the IRIB celebrated the appointments by publishing a poster that showed the pictures of Mohsen Barmahani and Meysam Moradi Binabaj who has been appointed as the chief of Channel 1, and the new managers of other channels.

The chief of Channel 3, Ali Forughi has been re-instated in his post. Vahid Rahimian, an Iranian filmmaker, wrote in a Twitter post that all of the new directors belong to the ultraconservative Ammariun Group close to former nuclear negotiator Said Jalili and that all of them are members of the ultraconservative Paydari [Steadfastness] Party. Ammarium is also close to the cultural wing of the Revolutionary Guard, IRGC.

A report by Iran International earlier this year revealed that many IRGC intelligence officers were in charge of IRIB's news operations.

Reformist news website Ensaf News also confirmed that “nearly all of the newly appointed state television managers are close to Saeed Jalili,” but warned that “instead of heralding an ‘evolution,’ the appointments marked a resemblance to the managerial style of Channel 3 Chief Ali Foroughi,” who is a relative of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and is notorious for his despotic management and firing some of the popular TV personalities such as sports commentator Adel Ferdowsipour who were not quite obedient to him.

Ensaf News noted that the appointments were in contradiction to Jebelli’s promise of “Giving a voice to the voiceless,” when he was appointed as IRIB Chief in 2021. The Paydari and Saeed Jalili have no shortage of media outlets as they control nearly all the state-owned print media, the official news agency IRNA, as well as some of Iran’s key news websites including their mouthpiece Raja News.

The new managers have served in key positions at the Ammariun Film Festival and IRGC’s Owj Media Center which produces movies and TV series that propagate the hardliners’ ideological line of thought. One of the center’s well-known productions is the TV series Gando about the alleged infiltration of foreign elements and Iranian liberals in key organizations such as the foreign ministry.

The official news agency IRNA introduced the new managers as “young revolutionaries,” a characteristic first mentioned by Khamenei as the new generation that will steer the Islamic Republic in its second 40 years.

According to IRIB’s Young Journalists Club, the oldest one of the new managers was born in 1974, while the rest of them were born between 1981 and 1988.

Expressing support for the popular protests in the country on Friday, Mohammadi said that the international community should condemn the “killing of people on the streets” similar to the way they put pressure on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

In a message from prison obtained by Radio Farda, she described the Islamic Republic’s "violent" and "repressive" actions as worse than the "aggressor" governments such as Russia.

The activist also called on the people not to abandon the families of those killed and detained by continuing their protest rallies and “mass civil disobedience”, adding that protests are the legal right of the Iranian people.

The main cause of poverty and high prices in Iran is the "widespread systematic looting and corruption" by officials, she claimed, noting that the current miserable situation in the country is the outcome of an "authoritarian government".

Mohammadi was arrested last November, and she was sentenced to eight years in jail and 70 lashes, for trumped-up political charges in a five-minute trial in late January.

Protests began in Iran on May 6 as the government drastically raised food prices, leaving tens of millions of Iranians in danger of facing hunger as inflation surpassing 40 percent has depleted their means to buy basic food.

Several members of the US Congress as well as the State Department have voiced support for protesters, calling on the Biden administration for a more active response to the crackdown on the protests.

The war monitor said on Friday the Israeli surface-to-surface missiles were fired from the Golan heights and that the three killed were officers while four other members of the air defense crews were wounded.

According to the observatory, a fire broke out at one of the Iranian positions near the Damascus airport, where ambulances were seen rushing to the site of the strikes.

Syria's official news agency SANA quoted a military source as saying that the Syrian air defenses intercepted “hostile targets” as "The Israeli enemy carried out an aggression... that led to the death of three martyrs and some material losses".

The observatory claims the Friday strike follows one on May 13 that killed five people in central Syria, and another one near Damascus on April 27 which killed 10 combatants, among them six Syrian soldiers.

Last month, Israel allegedly carried out three strikes in Syria. In March, an Israeli attack over Damascus killed two officers of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

Israel’s military does not usually comment on specific strikes in Syria but has acknowledged that it has conducted hundreds of attacks against forces under Iranian command in Syria to prevent the Islamic Republic from accumulating weapons and entrenching itself further in the war-torn country.

Earlier in the month, The Moscow Times, an independent Dutch-based paper, reported that while Russia has begun pulling out its troops from Syria to bolster forces in Ukraine, Iran forces and Lebanese group Hezbollah have reportedly taken over its bases.