Iran's Guards Slam Israeli Attacks, Vow Support For Gaza

The twitter account of the Islamic Republic’s embassy in Austria published photos of Tehran’s lead negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani at the mourning ceremonies of the Islamic month of Muharram. The event was held at Vienna’s Islamic center of Imam Ali, a Shiite mosque. 

The highlight of the month-long ceremonies of Muharram are the Days of Tasu'a and Ashura, the anniversary of the slaying of Shiite Imam Hussein and his 72 companions by his rivals to the leadership of Muslims. Ceremonies have been held for centuries in Iran and among Shiites in other countries, marking the event in the 680 AD battle of Karbala, in present-day Iraq, and have gained greater state support since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

This round of the Vienna talks reportedly focus on a text circulated in late July by Josep Borrell, the European Union foreign policy chief, to bridge gaps between the United States and Iran over how the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action -- or JCPOA -- can be revived. It is unclear how specific are proposals in Borrell’s text and how far he outlines a process.

European officials have presented a tough face to reporters gathered outside the Palais Coburg hotel in Vienna, insisting that the current talks will not be “reopening” negotiations, and urging Tehran not to make “unrealistic demands.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Sunday also accused the international community of silence about the death of civilians in Israel’s latest operation, codenamed Breaking Dawn, that started on Friday and according to the Israeli military could last for a week.

Iran's Supreme Leader has been still silent about the attacks as Tehran’s negotiators are trying to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal in Vienna. 

About 600 rockets have been launched from Gaza towards Israel since the beginning of the operation but the death toll continues to rise from airstrikes in Gaza as most of the Palestinians’ rockets are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system.

Six children and several Islamic Jihad fighters -- including leaders Khaled Mansour and Taysir al-Jabari -- are among the 32 Palestinians reported to have died. More than 200 people are also injured.

The latest bout of violence is the most serious flare-up between Israel and Gaza since an 11-day conflict in May 2021 that left more than 200 Palestinians and a dozen Israelis dead. 

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid also said Friday that Islamic Jihad is an Iranian proxy that wants to destroy Israel, noting that Israel has a zero-tolerance policy for any attempted attacks from Gaza.

During the week, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, the leader of Islamic Jihad -- a militant outfit designated a terrorist organization by the US, EU, and UK -- held meeting with several senior Iranian officials in Tehran.

Mohammad Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, the secretary of Iran’s Headquarters For Enjoining Right And Forbidding Evil, tasked with promoting the clerical regime’s interpretation of Islamic laws, said on Saturday that unfortunately there are no laws to prohibit those whose family members live abroad from assuming government positions. 

He rebuked those officials who keep seeking to provide dollars and euros for their foreign-based children while promulgating the independence of the country. 

Hashemi added that there are some measures under study at the parliament about the issue. 

Earlier in the year, General Morteza Mirian, the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ ground operations, said that the relatives of these officials should be “tracked” so as not to be allowed back to Iran to take up managerial positions.

A figure of 5,000 “descendants” of senior officials living abroad was cited in 2020 by Mohammad Gharazi, communications minister between 1985 and 1997 who was at the time considered a presidential hopeful. In November 2021, Alireza Salimi, a member of parliament, suggested that officials under former President Hassan Rouhani, including deputy ministers had moved to Europe due to fears they would be banned from leaving the country.

In 2019, Brian Hook, special representative for Iran (from 2018 to 2020) under President Donald Trump told Iran International that “children of Islamic Republic officials live rich and comfortable lives in the United States and other countries while Iranian people live in terrible conditions.” Hook said this showed “the regime’s hypocrisy.”

Britain's minister of state for South Asia and the Commonwealth at the Foreign Office, Tariq Ahmad, said on Friday “The UK is deeply concerned by increasing arrests of the Baha’i in Iran, including recent reports that the Iranian government has demolished houses and confiscated land in Roushankouh, [northern] Iran. Former spiritual leaders of the Baha’i in Iran are also reported to have been detained.

Condemning the increasing repression, he said that “the persecution of religious minorities cannot be tolerated in 2022. The persecution of religious minorities is a serious violation of international human rights law.”

“We are working closely with our international partners to hold Iran to account and continue to raise human rights concerns regularly with the Iranian Government,” Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon added.

On August 3, the US State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom called on the Islamic Republic to stop its ongoing oppression, saying that “Amid a continued rise in arrests, sentences, and imprisonments, the US urges Iran to halt its ongoing oppression of the Baha'i community and honor its international obligations to respect the right of all Iranians to freedom of religion or belief.”

Iran’s security forces this week arrested several members of the Baha’i religious community regarded by the clerical government as heretics, and raided more than 20 households.

Security forces also laid siege to a village in northern Iran on August 2 and started demolishing houses and farms belonging to members of the persecuted Baha’i faith.

The government’s official news website IRNA published an article Friday with the headline, “Iran’s bargaining power increased by boost to oil production,” claiming that the country can already produce 3.8 million barrels of oil per day.

The claim sounded hollow, as Iran’s oil minister Javad Owji announced in May that his ministry can boost oil production two months after a nuclear deal is reached, hopefully achieving 3.8 million barrels a day capacity.

In recent weeks, as Tehran has been trying to gain more concessions in nuclear talks with the United States, officials have increasingly dangled the prospect of helping Europe in the current energy crisis. They have argued that the only impediment is a lack of political will in Washington, meaning readiness to make concessions.

Even if Iran can produce 3.8 million barrels of crude p/d, its domestic consumption is around 1.7 million barrels, leaving roughly 2 million barrels for export. Currently Iran is shipping around 700-800 thousand barrels p/d, so its additional contribution to world markets would be a little over one million barrels per day.

This addition to world oil supplies can help, but Europe’s more acute need is for natural gas, in which Iran can hardly help despite holding the world’s second largest reserves. The reason is insufficient investments for decades that has led to a fall in production. If a nuclear deal materializes and major Western energy companies enter ventures in Iran to expand gas production, it could potentially export an undetermined quantity to Europe, most probably in liquified form.

But that can take years and can only materialize if a new nuclear agreement holds and no new complications emerge as a result of Iran’s actions in the volatile region.

IRNA’s claims of having achieved a larger production capacity and 40-percent higher revenues in energy exports is also related to Iran’s domestic politics. Economic conditions have seriously deteriorated since President Ebrahim Raisi took office exactly one year ago, and government claims of success in increasing export revenues are meant to take credit amid an avalanche of criticism.

The argument that Iran holds the trump card in the nuclear negotiations even reached the clerics. Tehran’s Friday Prayer Imam, Haj Ali Akbari said in his sermon that “when you need an agreement with us, accept Iran’s conditions and do not make too many demands.” He also warned the West “not to test Iran.”

But in fact, the West can say that economic pressure is on Iran as its annual inflation rate has reached 54 percent and prices for all essential food items have more than doubled in the past 12 months.

A table published by Etemad Online news website in Tehran on Saturday showed cooking oil became 367 percent more expensive since Raisi took office, while price of Rice climbed 200 percent and pasta 168 percent.