Tehran Exchange Suspends Largest Steel Maker For Corruption

The US dollar has dropped from a high of 330,000 rials in June to around 280,000 in Tehran’s exchange market as of Sunday morning local time. That could help prevent a faster rise in the annual inflation rate, which stands at 54 percent, with food prices having risen by more than 100 percent in the past year.

The small but important reprieve from economic pressure, however, can reverse itself if negative signs emerge that the nuclear talks have hit a snag.

Statements and leaks by Iranian officials of having gained big concessions from the United States have fueled a sense of certainty that most important issues have been resolved in the talks.

At the same, time the Israeli Walla News reported on Saturday that Biden Administration officials have told Israel’s leaders a new deal “is not imminent” and Washington has not made any new concessions to Tehran.

However, the report said that Israeli officials, who in recent days had called for an end to talks, have not been convinced by US assurances.

“We may be closer to a deal than we were two weeks ago, but there are still uncertainties about a resolution and differences remain with the Iranians,” an unnamed US official told the site. “At any rate, the signing of a nuclear deal is not expected in the immediate timeframe.”

In fact, Iran is waiting for the US to send a response to the European Union regarding Iran’s position passed on to the EU on August 15. Observers were expecting the US response on Friday, but so far it is not clear when Washington will formally send an answer.

In the meantime, a leak from Tehran attributed details of “US concessions” to Iran’s top negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani from a closed-door briefing with local reporters. It is not clear if the leak was meant to influence US politics regarding the nuclear deal or was to assure domestic audiences that Iran won in the negotiations.

The ultra-conservative Kayhan newspaper in Tehran, affiliated with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei published a lead article on Sunday urging Iran’s negotiators not to give in the “America’s bluffs”. The paper claimed that the economic situation is so bad in Europe and the United States that they are the ones who need the nuclear deal.

At the same time, the government official news website IRNA on Sunday cited an International Monetary Fund report, saying that Iran’s available foreign currency reserves have risen from $21 billion in 2021 to $41 billion so far.

In fact, Iran’s economic crisis is far from being resolved, despite more clandestine oil exports starting from late 2020 and higher oil prices since the invasion of Ukraine.

A government official speaking on financial hardship to meet salary and pension increases promised to the population said that Iran’s estimated budget deficit would be 3,250 trillion rials until March 2023. Depending on the exchange rates, this could range from $13 billion to as much as $18 billion, but the important fact is that it constitutes around 30 percent of the budget.

The parliament’s research center estimated in December that the budget deficit for 2022 would be “between 3,000 and 6,000 trillion rials.”

Marandi said in a tweet on Saturday that “I've often said over the past few months that removing the Guards from the US Foreign Terrorist Organization list was never a precondition or key demand.”

“Iran will simply keep CENTCOM on its terror list. But if the US needs to say this to sell the deal, that's their business,” he added. 

Marandi’s comment came while talks to revive the JCPOA in Vienna came to an abrupt stop in March, reportedly for Iran’s insistence that the IRGC be removed for the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).

Marandi, who has been advisor-cum-spokesman for Tehran’s negotiators, made the remarks after a leak quoted Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani presenting a detailed list of "concessions" Iran claims to have received from the US, but removing the IRGC terrorist designation was not included in the list. Bagheri-Kani was quoted as saying that the IRGC Issue will be discussed at a later stage with the US.

However, according to the same leak, the US is willing to guarantee that its sanctions against IRGC would not affect other sectors and firms, including companies dealing or affiliated with the military force.

In the past ten days, subscribers to Instagram and WhatsApp who use two-step authentication for signing into their accounts have reported that they are not receiving the required authentication codes via text message. Text message codes are also required for creating new accounts.

Many suspect that Iran’s mobile operators are blocking text messages containing keywords including “code”, “Telegram”, “WhatsApp”, and “Instagram”.

A majority of Iranian lawmakers issued a statement in January asking the government and the Judiciary for measures to restrict peoples’ activities on the internet. In February, an ad hoc parliamentary committee approved the outline of a controversial bill, ironically titled Legislation to Protect Cyberspace Users’ Rights, to limit access to various apps and platforms.

Many Iranians including some lawmakers say the implementation of the plan has practically been in progress in the past few months. Authorities have restricted bandwidth allocated to Instagram in the past few months and reduced Internet speed both of which make connecting to social media platforms difficult.

According to information technology expert Arian Eghbal, the recent disruption in access to Instagram and other platforms is deliberate. “There is evidence that our [filtering] system is working like China’s,” he told Entekhab news website on August 17.

The slow internet has affected many areas of life, from navigation of taxis and cars to tens of thousands of large and small online businesses that rely on Instagram, as well as government and public online services.

“They are restricting access to the Internet to make communication between people harder … Those who wrote the Siyanat bill don't want people to conjoin in the cyberspace, talk to each other, and discuss social and political issues,” Gholamreza Nouri-Ghezeljeh, chairman of the Independents’ Faction in the parliament told Salam-e No website earlier this month.

Canada-based science and technology reporter Mehdi Sarami told Iran International that the government is quietly implementing the yet unapproved legislation to force people to use domestically developed platforms such as Soroush and Rubika which can easily be controlled.

A survey conducted by the state-run Iranian Students Polling Agency (ISPA) in 2021 found that 73.6% of Iranians over the age of 18 use social media, including WhatsApp (64.1), Instagram (45.3), and Telegram (36.3). Only 4.8% reported that they use domestically developed platforms. Many of Instagram’s subscribers in Iran use it for business.

Instagram with around 45 million users is the only major social media platform not blocked in the country where other platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Telegram cannot be accessed without the use of anti-filtering software and VPNs (virtual private networks).

Nearly every Iranian with a smartphone has installed anti-filtering software that allows access to filtered applications and websites. Anti-filtering software, however, will time out if the internet speed is low. Nonetheless, with over 50 million users, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging application in Iran.

In June 2020 Pavel Durov, the CEO of the encrypted instant messenger

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has multiple accounts on Instagram and Twitter, but his loyal followers are behind the efforts to restrict access for citizens.

Iran has one of the world’s worst internet censorships, with tens of thousands of websites blocked since the early 2000s and most social media platforms banned. In the absence of free media and heavy censorship, many Iranians turn to social media for political news and information.

According to Alireza Pakfetrat, the representative of Shiraz in the parliament, the number of passenger planes that remain operational have decreased as well as the number of flights in the country. 

He added that the quality and technical upkeep of the aircraft have also suffered significantly, causing flight delays. 

Criticizing Roads and Urban Development Ministry, he said it is spending most of its time and budget on housing projects and forgets that the aviation industry is also part of their responsibilities. 

He also proposed splitting the ministry in two: one for urban development and one for road and transportation, which was the case in the past.

According to Alireza Barkhor, the deputy chairman of the Association of Iranian Airlines, more than 50 percent of Iran’s passenger planes are grounded due to lack of spare parts, particularly engines.

Iran has suffered from shortages of civilian airliners since the 1990s and used a variety of ways to lease older planes or buy spare parts through intermediaries, but the technical state of its fleet has been deteriorating.

The 2015 nuclear agreement (JCPOA) suspended sanctions on purchases of Western aircraft and Iran began talks to buy new planes from Boeing and Airbus. A few airbus planes were delivered but the Trump administration never approved sale of US planes until Washington withdrew from the JCPOA in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions.

Khatib made the remarks on Thursday as the Islamic Republic’s security apparatus is increasing pressure on the signatories of a statement against Iran’s crackdown on popular protests, demanding they rescind their signatures.

Informed sources told Iran International Wednesday, August 17, that the Intelligence Ministry as well as the security division of the country’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance have threatened more than 100 film industry figures to withdraw their signatures from a May statement titled “Lay down the gun”. 

Khatib blamed the United Sates for internal opposition, saying the US was forced to leave the region following humiliation and defeat and their conspiracies were thwarted, and now “the enemy’s hopes in some domestic seditionists and statement writers are doomed to failure.”

The statement by filmmakers had called on military and security forces who “have become tools for cracking down on the people,” not to suppress protesters during popular demonstrations in May.

According to reports, under the threat of security forces, about 15 people have so far withdrawn their signatures from the statement.

Iran International’s sources also said that 10 documentary makers have been informed that they are banned from leaving the country and that a list of artists who are banned from working will be announced next week.