Questions Abound Over German Clinic Admitting Iranian ‘Hangman'

Last month, the United States issued a sanctions’ waiver allowing Baghdad to pay over $2.7 billion of the $11 billion it owes Tehran for importing electricity and natural gas. Last week, Washington announced a change in the method of disbursing the funds, by transferring the money to third-country banks and then allowing purchases of goods such as food and medicine.

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller in his Monday briefing announced that the third country selected for the new payment method is Oman. “As we’ve said for some time, we thought it was important to get this money out of Iraq, because it is a source of leverage that Iran uses against its neighbor,” he said, without elaborating.

Late last year, the Biden administration started to tighten controls over dollar transactions by Iraqi banks, seeing evidence that there were banking violations potentially enabling Iran to illegally acquire US dollars. In February this year news emerged that Washington further tightened regulations over dollar transfers to and from Iraqi banks.

The leverage the US has in this matter is that Iraqi oil export proceeds are cleared by its banking system. Iraqi requests for cash dollar shipments and banking transfers are scrutinized by US federal agencies to make sure that illicit activities are prevented.

Since the Trump administration exited the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal and imposed banking sanctions on Iran, it has periodically issued waivers allowing Iraq to make funds available to Iran for purchase of non-sanctionable goods, but to control all the transactions and Iranian attempts to syphon money out of Iraq has been hard.

Whether shifting the funds to Oman will ensure a tighter control over the process is yet to be seen. Clearly, Iran’s attempts to pressure all parties involved in slackening controls will continue. It is not clear if the change is not the result of an Iranian plan to gradually weaken the impact of US banking sanctions on its dealings with Iraq. Iran’s next move could be to further pressure Iraq to ask the United States to lift restrictions on how the funds are disbursed, enabling Tehran to withdraw cash dollars. The current Iraqi government has closer ties with Tehran than its predecessor.

State Department’s Miller, however, insisted that all funds “will still be subject to the same restrictions as when the money was held in accounts in Iraq, meaning that the money can only be used for non-sanctionable activities such as humanitarian assistance, and that all the transactions need to be approved by the United States Treasury Department in advance.”

There have also been multiple media reports that Washington and Tehran have been negotiating over the release of four American held hostage in Iran in exchange for $7 billion frozen by South Korean banks due to US sanctions. The decision to shift Iraqi funds to Oman could also be related to these secret talks.

Miller was asked Monday about the prisoners, but he refused to provide details.

“It’s obviously a very sensitive matter with respect to these detainees,” he said.

But critics who are suspicious of the Biden administration’s secret dealings with Tehran are wary of attempts to give financial rewards to the Islamic Republic in return for the hostages or a limited nuclear understanding, that has been reported by the media.

The two journalists – from reformist Iranian dailies Sharq and Ham-Mihan – have been imprisoned for about 300 days because the regime blame them for the nationwide protests that followed the death of the Iranian Kurdish girl. Since her tragic death, Amini has become the icon of Women, Life, Liberty movement, the boldest uprising the regime has faced since its establishment.

The Islamic Republic is known to crack down on people who reveal corruption and wrongdoing in Iran, with authorities announcing that reporting the crimes is worse than the crimes themselves.

The Twitter and Instagram storm was instigated by the husbands of the two journalists -- Mohammad-Hossein Ajorlou and Saeed Parsaei ahead of their next trial hearings. Acting on the call, Iranians rose up with hashtags with the reporters’ names trending in addition to the campaign tag #JournalismIsNotACrime.

The two journalists, whose second court hearing is scheduled for later in the week, have been charged with propaganda against the regime and conspiracy to commit acts against national security, which could bear death sentences.

The duo have become symbols of free journalism and resistance against the regime’s oppressive rule, with a large number of people calling for freedom in their posts.

Hamedi, managed to visit Mahsa Amini in Tehran’s Kasra hospital and broke the news of her grave condition after being taken into the custody of the 'morality' police three days earlier for wearing her hijab “improperly”. Amini was in a coma at the time.

Mohammadi, likewise, managed to travel to Amini’s hometown of Saqqez in western Iran to report on her funeral on September 17, which thousands attended.

The first session of Mohammadi’s trial presided by the notorious judge Abolghasem Salavati was held behind closed doors at Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran late in May.

Hamedi’s hearing was held the following day by the same judge and in the same manner. Lawyers of the two journalists were not allowed to speak. The Iranian Constitution stipulates that trials of political prisoners and journalists should be public and with the presence of a jury.

A lot of well-known Iranian human rights activists have participated in the online campaign.

Arash Sadeghi, who has been arrested and jailed on multiple occasions for his activities in defense of human rights, said, “Journalism is not merely a profession; it's a belief in uncovering the truth. Whoever seeks to illuminate with the torch of truth will find their esteemed place in society.”

Rights activist Atena Daemi said on her Twitter page that “the killers of Gina (Mahsa) and thousands of other people are free, but those who expose these murders are being punished!" 

Shiva Nazarahari − Slovenia-based human rights activist and a founding member of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters – said the two are among the most committed and active women advocates for women's rights in recent years, covering issues related to allowing women into sport stadiums, violence towards women, and advocating for reproductive rights. “We will not forget them,” she vowed.

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi said in her Telegram channel that "Niloufar and Elahe are innocent. They will remain exemplary models of commitment in journalism. We will not leave them alone."

The Telegram channel of the ultrahardliner Raja News claimed that “anti-Iranian media” are trying to “reduce” the arrest of the two journalists to their coverage of Mahsa Amini’s death. Meanwhile it has been trying to implicate the women in underground revolutionary activity and acting as foreign agents, the most common allegation levied at rights activists and those speaking out against the regime.

The outlet affiliated to the ultraconservative Paydari Front wrote that “reliable information” suggests the two “participated in training courses of institutions that seek the overthrow [of the Islamic Republic] and had connections with foreign intelligence services,”

Iran's intelligence ministry and SAS, the intelligence organization of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) even accused Mohammadi and Hamedi of being CIA agents. “Using the cover of a journalist, she was one of the first people who arrived at the hospital and provoked the relatives of the deceased and published targeted news,” they said in a joint statement.

The meeting comes after Syria's neighbors got a pledge from Damascus in May to cooperate with their efforts to rein in Syria's flourishing drug trade in exchange for helping end its pariah status after a brutal the civil war.

"The meeting discussed cooperation in confronting the drug danger and its sources of production and smuggling and the parties that organize and execute smuggling operations across the border," the Jordanian foreign ministry said.

Syria is accused by Arab governments and the West of producing the highly-addictive and lucrative amphetamine captagon and organizing its smuggling into the Gulf, with Jordan a main transit route.

The kingdom is concerned about lawlessness in the strategic southern region where it echoes Washington's accusations that pro-Iranian militias protected by units with the Syrian army run the multi-billion dollar smuggling networks.

The West blamed Syria's government for the production and export of the drug, naming Maher al-Assad, the head of the army's elite Fourth Division and the president's brother, as a key figure.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government denies involvement, or complicity by Iranian-backed. Iran says the allegations are part of Western plots against the country.

Jordan, impatient with what it says are broken promises to curb the drug war, made a rare strike in May inside Syrian territory where an Iran-linked drugs factory was demolished.

In the last few weeks, Jordan's army downed two Iranian operated drones coming from Syria with one the army said carried weapons.

Jordan requested more US military aid to bolster security on the border.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaanisaid Monday, “We want governments of countries in which such shameful insults occur to prevent the repetition of such disgraceful actions and to strongly deal with the perpetrators."

Two men publicly burned the Quran outside Stockholm's central mosque late in June -- on the first day of Islamic festivities of Eid al-Adha -- an act approved by a Swedish court. Some 200 onlookers witnessed one of the two protesters tearing up pages of a copy of the Quran and wiping his shoes with it before putting bacon in it and setting the book on fire, while the other spoke into a megaphone.

The incident involved Salwan Momika, an Iraqi immigrant, who repeated the act once again last week, this time in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm. Also on Friday, members of the far-right nationalist group "Danske Patrioter (Danish Patriots)" burned a copy of the Quran in front of Iraq's Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark.

In an effort to garner support from believers of other religions, Kanaani said that “insulting celestial sanctities and Abrahamic religions is unacceptable and cannot be justified by any means.”

According to Kanaani, Iran has taken several measures to hold Sweden responsible for the 'sacrilege,' including summoning Swedish Ambassador to Tehran Mattias Lentz two times in the past few weeks, sending out a note of protest to Stockholm, and writing a letter to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. 

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahianalso held a conversation with the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in this regard. Iran has also announced that it will refrain from accepting the new Swedish ambassador and has no plans to send a new ambassador to the country.

He also reiterated the call on Stockholm to hand over the individuals behind the burning of the Quran to Islamic countries. “No country can, based on its own laws, infringe upon the values of others, as it would be a clear violation of the rights of other nations.” 

Urging collective action by Islamic countries, Kanaani added, “We believe that Islamic countries must seriously utilize their capacities. It is the request of Islamic countries that actions be taken against criminals.”

He was echoing remarks by Iran's ruler Ali Khamenei, who demanded harsh punishment for the perpetrators, saying that Sweden should hand over the individuals involved to a Muslim country. In the case of some Muslim states, the punishment would be execution.

Following the incident, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group, called on all Arab and Muslim countries to expel the Swedish ambassadors from their respective nations and recall their own ambassadors from Sweden, echoing the actions taken by the Iraqi government.

The tensions escalated further when hundreds of supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr, a radical Iraqi Shia cleric, attacked the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, setting it on fire. A few days later, Baghdad expelled the Swedish envoy from the country.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Commander Hossein Salami has also threatened attacks against those responsible for the incident in their own country, saying that those who burn or desecrate the Quran will not enjoy security.

“We will not allow those who insult the Quran to have security. If someone wants to play with our Quran and religion, we will play with all his world,” Salami threatened. He went on to say, “Sooner or later the vengeful hand of “mujaheds” will reach politicians and stage managers behind this sort of crimes, and we will render the highest punishment to the perpetrator.”

In the late 1980s, Iran’s then-ruler Ayatollah Khomeini issued a Fatwa for the killing of British author Salman Rushdie for his book, Satanic Verses, seen by some Muslims as insulting to Prophet Muhammed. Iran also announced a reward for Rushdie’s killing.

Speaking at a meeting of national security advisors and secretaries of BRICS countries in South Africa, Iran’s Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Akbar Ahmadian warned of the impacts of Washington’s interference on the internet.

"The experience of Iran has shown how Americans have tried to make different types of interferences and create insecurity in other societies through cyberspace," Ahmadian said.

He claimed that the US’s control over online platforms like Google, Twitter, Instagram, etc. has made it possible for Washington to assert control over the global online media.

In a subtle attempt to justify the regime’s restrictions on the Internet and access to information, he said "The cyberspace of each country... must be managed exclusively by their respective governments."

Among the challenges the regime faces to stifle voices of dissent and crack down on popular protests, authorities have blocked access to Instagram and WhatsApp in September, when the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody ignited the boldest uprising against the Islamic Republic since its establishment. Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram had previously been banned after the 2009 presidential election and the November 2019 protests. 

His remarks came as concerns have been raised over cyber threats emanating from Iran. Hackers linked to the country have targeted critical US infrastructure, including transport, energy, and ports, prompting heightened vigilance in the United States.