US Launches Retaliatory Attack On Iran-Backed Forces In Syria

Defense Minister Benny Gantz will depart for an official visit to the US and Japan on Thursday August 25, his office said on Tuesday, adding that in the US, Gantz will hold a series of meetings at CENTCOM headquarters in Florida and meet with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Washington, DC. Israel's National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata is also in Washington. 

Also on Tuesday, Naftali Bennett urged President Joe Biden to refrain “even now at this last minute” from reviving the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA). “This agreement will send approximately a quarter of a trillion dollars to the Iranian terror administration's pocket and to its regional proxies, and will enable Iran to develop, install and operate centrifuges, with almost no restrictions, in a mere two years,” he tweeted.

Expressing hope to dissuade the US from restoring the nuclear accord with the Islamic Republic, he said, “Throughout the past year, even when it was very close, we successfully convinced our White House counterparts not to give in to Iranian demands.”

Reiterating Israel’s opposition to the deal with Iran, Bennett noted, “Israel is not committed to any of the restrictions stemming from the agreement and will utilize all available tools to prevent the Iranian nuclear program from advancing.”

There have been clear signs in recent days that EU proposals of August 8 are closing lingering Washington-Tehran gaps over reviving the deal.

Iran’s Industries Minister Reza Fatemi-Amin traveled to Moscow at the head of a large delegation to attend the opening ceremony of the MIMS Automobility Moscow 2022, from August 22 to 25. 

He told IRNA that the show marks a turning point in automotive industry cooperation between Iran and Russia as the two countries seek to offset the impacts of foreign sanctions on their economies.

Seeking to expand their markets in Russia, Iran’s largest carmaker the Iran Khodro Company, branded as IKCO, and its rival Saipa plan to cooperate with Russian automakers in car productions, such as a project between Saipa and Russia’s AvtoVaz -- maker of the Lada -- to manufacture a Renault model that was discontinued in Iran in 2018 after the French company left Iran because of US sanctions. 

Sixteen European car manufacturers (including four of the top 10 by market share) sold close to half a million units of Russia’s total sales of 1.67 million in 2021, making the country the eight-largest car market in the world in terms of global sales volumes. But following the sanctions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, almost all foreign firms left and car sales were down by 84 percent in May. 

Criticizing Iranian automakers for producing low-quality vehicles responsible for a high rate of road accident casualties, Iran’s traffic police said Tuesday that substandard and unsafe cars lead to at least 17,000 deaths and 300,000 injuries every year.

Fars, linked to the Revolutionary Guard, is not the only government-controlled media outlet periodically bringing up this issue, as Iran negotiates with the United States through the Europeans to restore the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA).

Once the deal is restored the United States will lift oil export sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump when he withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018. It will also remove international banking restrictions also imposed as part of Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ on Tehran.

But what Iranian media presents as ‘Europe’s freezing winter” has almost nothing to do with Tehran’s crude oil exports, except generally helping to bring down oil prices. Europe’s need to replace Russian gas is a specific issue on its own that Iran cannot help with at all.

There are two major reasons why a nuclear agreement now cannot impact Iran’s ability to export natural gas for the foreseeable future.

First is Iran’s huge domestic need that exceeds its current production capacity, and second is the absence of the infrastructure to export the gas as LNG.

Iran produces around 750 million cubic meters of gas per day, which is a considerable amount, but it has suffered from domestic shortages for the past three years as demand has risen and gas production has plateaued or decreased.

The huge domestic demand primarily comes from extraordinary low prices – a de facto fuel subsidy offered to the population more as a loft-over of the revolutionary days than any good reason. Some estimates say that Iran has sustained a loss of close to $300 billion in the past decade simply by selling gas cheap to domestic consumers. In the same manner, gasoline and electricity are extremely cheap in Iran. A gallon of gasoline is sold at the pump for around 22 US cents.

Natural gas production could have increased with exports in mind, since Iran has the second largest reserves in the world, but for close to 20 years successive government were unable to invest in boosting extraction. The reason for this was both international sanctions (2010-2015) and current US sanctions imposed since 2018. There are also US sanctions prohibiting American participation in Iran’s energy sector going back to 1996.

All these sanctions were imposed because of Iran’s nuclear program and they banned investments and critical technology that only Western energy giants could have provided for expanding production.

Even Chinese energy companies left Iran’s South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf that can easily produce more than 10 percent of global needs.

Having fallen behind in gas production, Iran also never built LNG terminals to serve global markets, like its tiny neighbor Qatar has done. Building such terminals can take 3-5 years, even if a nuclear agreement is signed today and US sanctions are lifted. Considering the need to build larger gas platforms to boost production, the time needed for Iran to ship LNG to Europe is at least 7-8 years.

There are also political hurdles Tehran must overcome. Its most important strategic ally is Russia, which would not like Iran taking a big share of its European market. The Iranian government is talking about a “gas swap” with Moscow, which means Russia wants Iran to sell its natural gas.

If current European strategy of replacing Russian gas stays in place in the absence of a resolution to the Ukraine crisis, any gas deal with Iran would mean buying energy from Moscow.

In their letter released to media on Monday, the prisoners said that considering the spread of the new covid-19 variant in the prison and lack of enough room for quarantine areas, the inmates are in danger. 

They denounced a lack of proper attention to their health conditions, noting this is not the first time that health conditions for the prisoners have been ignored in the women's ward at Evin and other prisons, including Qarchak prison near the capital. “What has worsened the situation these days is the daily increase in the number of female prisoners while the Covid-19 is spreading."

Rights defender Narges Mohammadi, one of the signatories of the letter, said earlier in the month that authorities put the lives of female prisoners in danger by refusing to protect them from Covid despite new cases. Mohammadi, who has been transferred to the Women’s Ward of Evin Prison after a recent open-heart surgery, said that some of the inmates have tested positive for Covid while several others have developed symptoms but have not been tested.

Ill-treatment of political prisoners and activists at Evin and other prisons such as Qarchak is not limited to denying them necessary healthcare. Sepideh Rashno, an anti-hijab protester who is reportedly held at a ward run by the IRGC at Evin, had to be taken to hospital to check for internal bleeding symptoms resulting from torture before her ‘forced confession’ was aired on state-run television last week.

In an interview with the government’s official news website IRNA on Tuesday, Mahmoud Salari said "I am not a representative of the artists, I am a representative of the government of the Islamic Republic."

He noted that the artistic department of the ministry is not responsible for artists who seek their own artistic values, adding that the department does not back artists who would act against the policies of the Islamic Republic. 

The government’s money is only for those artists who work in line with the charter of the Islamic arts devised by the founder of the Islamic Republic Rouhollah Khomeini, he elaborated, adding that "anyone who wants to insult the Islamic Republic should take money from the people who ask them to do so."

Films, music and books go through a rigorous censorship process in Iran and often have to change and re-write segments to be accepted by religious-political censors. In Iran’s closed economy, most artistic creations also depend on government financing.

On Saturday, the minister of culture and Islamic guidance Mohammad-Mehdi Esmaili threatened filmmakers and actors with a work ban if they criticize Islamic Republic entities and officials, adding that Iranian films cannot participate in foreign film festivals if they are not authorized to be shown in Iran.

Iran’s Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib also warned government’s critics on Thursday against writing statements and open letters to criticize the current situation in the country.