US Highlights Sanctions, Oil And Arms Seizures As Iran Talks Stall

The spokesman of the Customs Organization, Ruhollah Latifi, told local media that in the first 8 months of the current Iranian calendar year exports have already topped all last year’s sales by $800 million.

Latifi announced that that exports of steel, iron, iron ore and construction steel constitute 14 percent of all exports that total $31 billion, in the eight-month period. Exports of metal products and iron ore last year was $3.7 billion, he said.

The World Steel Association last month said that Iran’s production fell by 15 percent in October, following smaller declines earlier this year. The declines were due to shortages of electricity.

Iran has been suffering from an power shortages in recent years as its natural gas production, feeding power plants, fails to keep up with domestic demand. Lack of investments and technology resulting from years of various sanctions have gradually reduced output in operating gas fields.

Export of non-oil products has become more important for Iran as US sanctions have reduced oil exports its main revenue-generating commodity.

General Mohammad-Reza Gharaei Ashtiani said the defense ministry’s role is strengthening strategic industries and production to provide hardware to the armed forces. He was speaking to the senior management of the AIO, which is officially a state organization to develop civil aviation.

He stressed the importance of setting priorities in the quest to become self-sufficient in industry and military capabilities.

Iran has been under various kinds of arms embargoes, including a UN Security Council embargo that ended in October 2020, since the inception of the Islamic Republic in 1979. But it has managed to develop a strong missile force and lately lethal drones that have led to concerns in the region and in the West.

Deputy Defense Minister General Seyed Mehdi Farahi also spoke at the event, emphasizing that 280 private companies in Iran are involved in aviation industry. He added that this potential could satisfy the needs of the armed forces in terms of quality, quantity and price of hardware.

Raisi who visited the university to mark the annual student day, was peppered with attacks by the Secretary of the university’s Islamic Student Union. The group is present on all campuses and is a state-sanctioned organization whose members belong to the Basij paramilitary wing of the Revolutionary Guards.

The remarks of the student leader, Mohammad Hossein Bayat are stunning in their directness and degree of criticism. He told Raisi that “You got elected in the least competitive election in the history of the Islamic Republic, with the lowest rate of voter participation.” He added, “We are speaking to you not as a president elected with the free vote of the people in a free election. We are speaking to you as a representative of the ruling system.”

Raisi’s key rivals were barred from running in the June election by a watchdog council controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, that ensured his victory among less popular candidates.

Bayat, addressing Raisi said that he represents a ruling system which “in the past 40 years has not opened a path for the progress of the people, despite the revolutionary ideals of freedom and justice.” But what the student leader said next was even more stunning. He told Raisi that the Islamic Republic not only has failed to serve the people, but it has “drowned itself in various crises and super crises and except some brief periods, it has not seen stability and calm.”

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These remarks implicitly pointed to the Islamic Republic’s confrontational foreign policy among other issues, such as an inefficient economic system, persecution of dissidents, lack of transparency and disastrous environmental policies.

Bayat then reminded the president that he is the product of the least competitive election, organized by an “incapable and ineffective political system” which has pushed the people into “hopelessness about any change or improvement” in Iran.

He went on to accuse Raisi of stacking his administration with corrupt cliques, and he openly named the president’s top aides. Bayat also said that the current administration is the most militarized government in the history of the Islamic Republic, dividing critical posts among the Revolutionary Guard brass.

Iranian presidents have often met tough critics whenever they visited universities. But dissident students have been intimidated into silence and the Islamic Student Associations are controlled by elements who are supposed to be loyal to the Islamic Republic. Bayat’s harsh remarks should be seen in this context.

Bayat told Raisi to tell his friends that there is no glory in zero percent economic growth, political isolation, lack of transparency and all other policies that impose an “exorbitant cost on the Iranian nation.”

He continued to mention more than a dozen crises in the country, above all corruption of the “political-military elite” and the suppression of the people who are hopeless and fed up with their economic plight. In a situation where all civil society has been demolished and activists are in prison, Bayat asked Raisi, what other alternative exists except violence and protest. He added that the ruling elite has basically decided it does not want to listen to the people as long as it can fire guns to protect itself.

In the end of his remarks Bayat warned Raisi that if a rational way out of the current crises-ridden situation is not found, the ruling elite will receive “an answer from the people that might not come immediately…but will definitely be revolutionary and decisive.”

Bennett was speaking during a meeting with the leaders of Cyprus and Greece.

His comments came as Syrian state media reported that Israeli warplanes fired missiles at the port of Latakia earlier in the day.

Israel has attacked hundreds of Iran-related military bases and positions in Syria since 2017, but the port of Latakia is not a usual target.

Syria's state media quoted an unnamed military official as saying that several missiles struck the containers area in the port, setting some of them on fire.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group, said the airstrike hit arms shipments for fighters loyal to Iran.

There was no comment from the Israeli military.

Israel has previously acknowledged, however, that it targets the bases of Iran-allied militias, such as Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group that has fighters deployed in Syria.

It says it attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for the militias.

Report by AP

In an interview with state-controlled media, Alireza Barkhor, deputy chairman of the Association of Iranian Airlines asked for government assistance to airlines for repairing and procuring spare parts. He said that lack of money and sanctions have prevented essential maintenance and repair work on Iran’s aging fleet.

Barkhor is a former air force captain appointed to civilian government positions, according to common practice by the Islamic Republic.

“Currently, more than 170 planes are grounded for lack of financial resources and restrictions due to sanctions,” Barkhor said and added that if this trend continues, more planes will become non-operational in the near future.

The United States banned the sale of aircraft and parts to Iran in 1995, and because most passenger planes are manufactures by outsourcing parts to hundreds of companies, the sanction practically makes it impossible for most manufacturers to sell parts.

In addition to the ban on aircraft sales, the US also reimposed banking sanctions on Iran in 2018 that would penalize any financial institution or bank for dealing with Iran. Therefore, payments to established aviation companies become out of question.

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

When the 2015 nuclear agreement, JCPOA, went into effect sanctions on purchases of Western aircraft were lifted and Iran began talks to buy aircraft from Boeing and Airbus. A few airbus planes were delivered but the newly elected Trump administration never approved sale of US planes until Washington withdrew from the JCPOA in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions.

Earlier this year, Barkhor had said that Iranian airlines are on the verge of bankruptcy, confirming that the government’s flagship Iran Air had $800 million in debt. He had also said that without piecemeal government help these companies would have already gone bankruptcy.

In September, an aide to President Ebrahim Raisi promised assistance to Iran Air but so far nothing has materialized. The government is under tremendous financial pressures and Iran’s currency, rial, has fallen 25 percent since Raisi took office in August.

Everything hinges on Iran’s negotiations with the United States over restoring the JCPOA and lifting sanctions. The Raisi government, however, has toughened Tehran’s posture in the talks and a round of negotiations in Vienna last week ended without success. Diplomats and observers are pessimistic over the talks.