Iran Digest Week of March 5- March 12
/Iran Digest Week of March 5 - March 12
AIC’s Iran digest project covers the latest developments and news stories published in Iranian and international media outlets. This weekly digest is compiled by Communications Associate Elizabeth Kos. Please note that the news and views expressed in the articles below do not necessarily reflect those of AIC.
US-Iran Relations
B-52s again fly over Mideast in US military warning to Iran
A pair of B-52 bombers flew over the Mideast on Sunday, the latest such mission in the region aimed at warning Iran amid tensions between Washington and Tehran.
The flight by the two heavy bombers came as a pro-Iran satellite channel based in Beirut broadcast Iranian military drone footage of an Israeli ship hit by a mysterious explosion only days earlier in the Mideast. While the channel sought to say Iran wasn’t involved, Israel has blamed Tehran for what it described as an attack on the vessel.
The U.S. military’s Central Command said the two B-52s flew over the region accompanied by military aircraft from nations including Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It marked the fourth-such bomber deployment into the Mideast this year and the second under President Joe Biden.
US sanctions two Iranian officials for ‘gross rights violations’
The United States has sanctioned two officials from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for alleged involvement in human rights violations against Iranian political prisoners and protesters.
In a statement on Tuesday, the US State Department said Ali Hemmatian and Masoud Safdari, whom it described as IRGC interrogators, and their immediate families would be barred from entering the country.
The department accused the pair of being involved “in gross violations of human rights, namely the torture and/or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of political prisoners and persons detained during protests in 2019 and 2020 in Iran”.
US demands 'credible answers' from Iran on Robert Levinson's abduction
The United States will “continue to demand answers” from Iran about the abduction, detention and probable death of retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Tuesday marking the anniversary of his disappearance.
“After 14 years and repeated, persistent efforts to secure Iran’s cooperation in locating Mr. Levinson, we are still without answers,” Psaki said. “Nevertheless, we will continue to demand answers and to hold Iran accountable.”
Levinson disappeared on Iran’s remote Kish Island in March 2007 during an unauthorized CIA mission that the US government for years claimed was a private business trip. He hasn’t been seen or heard from publicly since, and the Iranian government denied holding the veteran agent in its custody.
Nuclear Accord
Rouhani: Iran ready to take steps when US lifts sanctions
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday his country was prepared to take steps to live up to measures in the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers as soon as the United States lifts economic sanctions on Iran.
In a meeting with Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney, Rouhani said: “Iran is ready to immediately take compensatory measures based on the nuclear deal and fulfill its commitments just after the U.S. illegal sanctions are lifted and it abandons its policy of threats and pressure.”
Iran enriching with new set of advanced machines at Natanz -IAEA
Iran has started enriching uranium with a third set of advanced IR-2m centrifuges at its underground plant at Natanz, the U.N. nuclear watchdog told its member states on Monday, a further breach of Tehran’s 2015 deal with major powers.
The move is part of a recent acceleration by Iran of its violations of restrictions under that deal, which granted Iran relief from financial sanctions in return for curbs to its nuclear activities.
The acceleration of breaches appears aimed at raising pressure on Trump’s successor Joe Biden. The new U.S. president wants to revive the accord, but Washington and Tehran are locked in a standoff over which side should move first.
(Reuters)
US lawmakers implicitly criticise Iran deal in bipartisan letter
US Congress members from both political parties have urged the Biden administration to seek a "comprehensive" deal with Iran, in an implicit criticism of efforts to revive the nuclear deal.
In a letter addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the 140 lawmakers did not explicitly rebuke the nuclear accord, but said any deals with the Islamic Republic should address Tehran's regional activities and ballistic missile programme - issues that fall outside the scope of the agreement.
“America and our allies must engage Iran through a combination of diplomatic and sanction mechanisms to achieve full compliance of international obligations and a demonstrated commitment by Iran to addressing its malign behavior," the letter, signed by 70 Republicans and 70 Democrats and released on Tuesday, reads.
COVID-19
Health Ministry against intercity travel during Norouz: Minister
The Iranian health minister said his ministry is absolutely against intercity travel during the Norouz holidays, annually celebrated during March 21-April 2 to mark the arrival of the New Year in Iran, as the period is needed to be used for the revival of the country’s worn out medical staff.
Speaking on Friday, Saeid Namaki described as extremely worrying the unrestrained travel, which leads to the overcrowding of the roads and public places, and the rapid spread of the mutated coronavirus strains, IRNA reported.
The minister regretted that the country’s medical staff is weakening day by day, stressing intercity travel is the most important factor and very effective in the spread of the UK strain of the virus.
Inside Iran
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says airplane hijacking disrupted
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard on Friday said authorities disrupted an attempted hijacking of a passenger plane in flight the previous night, though it offered few details on what happened. Media outlets close to the forces later said the hijacker had used a fake gun and explosives belt to stage the attempt.
The purported hijacking targeted an Iran Air Fokker 100 regional commercial jet heading from the southwestern city of Ahvaz to the northwestern city of Mashhad, the Guard said on its website.
The Guard’s announcement did not identify the suspect and only said the hijacker sought to divert the flight to the “southern shores of the Persian Gulf.” That description would include the countries of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, three nations long suspicious of Iran’s intentions in the wider region.
Young Iranians defy tattoo taboo
A face hauntingly peering through a mirror surrounded by black. A woman with a skeleton hand protruding from her mouth. A skull with a colourful knife lodged in it.
These are not images you would normally find on display in galleries across Tehran, or anywhere else in Iran.
But a group of artists put together a display of those artworks, alongside others, as part of a private gallery dedicated to paintings done by tattoo artists.
“We wanted this art show to firstly be a wake-up call for local tattoo artists in order for them to focus more on their art, and to remind them that a good tattoo artist needs to have a strong background in art,” said Farshad Mirzaei, the chief organiser of the event.
Analysis
Iran Isn't Just a Nuclear File:
The Biden Administration Should Put Human Rights at the Center of Its Policy
By: Karen Kramer
As President Joe Biden sets the course for a new U.S. policy toward Iran, he would do well to put human rights at the center of the American agenda. The new administration in Washington has the opportunity and the imperative to address a human rights situation in Iran that is not only deteriorating but also intimately connected to multiple areas of strategic concern.
The last four years have been dark ones for human rights in Iran. Societal discontent over worsening economic conditions and continued repression exploded in November 2019 into the most serious protests the country has seen in decades. To crush them, security forces used indiscriminate, lethal violence. The judiciary has also issued increasingly harsh prison sentences to human rights lawyers and activists after unfair trials and meted out death sentences to protesters and dissidents.
Yet still the world remains fixated on the nuclear file, portraying it as the foremost issue to resolve with Iran. That view overlooks the link between human rights and security concerns—including the spread of nuclear weapons. Indeed, the United States can more effectively address all of its key strategic interests regarding Iran—nuclear proliferation, missile production, regional conflict, terrorism, and oil markets—by affording human rights a central place in its foreign policy.
