Iran’s Reformists – ‘Reforms Are Dead, Long Live Reforms!’

In a Thursday letter, led by the representative Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik joined by seven of their colleagues, lawmakers urged the world’s richest man and incoming interim CEO of Twitter to ensure it complies with US law, while restoring it as a platform that protects and champions free speech.

“It is unacceptable that US designated foreign entities freely use Twitter, despite laws and regulations that prohibit the provision of goods and services to them,” the letter said.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and others sanctions by the US still use many accounts on Twitter.

They added, “The Iranian Regime uses Twitter to upend free societies and threaten violence, which is exactly why the regime has been designated a State Sponsor of Terrorism and why many of its officials are on the SDN (Specially Designated Nationals) list today".

Tenney and her House colleagues emphasized, “Allowing designated individuals and entities to continue using Twitter to incite violence against American officials and citizens, call for the eradication of the Jewish State (Israel) and its people, and promote its terrorist proxies, in in flagrant violation not only of Twitter's longstanding policies, but most importantly of US law."

France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs told Iran International in a communiqué Thursday it had summoned the Iranian charge d'affaires in Paris after Iran detained two French nationals on charges that they fomented teachers’ demonstrations. The ministry said the ambassador in Tehran had requested consular access to the detainees.

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry claimed Wednesday that the two had met with members of the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, which has organized nation-wide teachers’ protests since last year. Iran International Wednesday named those arrested as Cécile Kohler, head of the biggest federation of French teachers' unions, and her husband.

The couple arrived in Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport April 29, stayed in Tehran for two days, and then went to Kashan and Esfahan. They were due to return home May 8, the day of their arrest. An intelligence ministry statement said Wednesday that the two went to Iranwith the aim of changing “popular” demand into “chaos, social disorder and destabilization of society.”

On Thursday, Iranian teachers took to streets for the third time in under two months despite the education ministry’s threat to fire them. According to videos posted to social media, teachers demanded better working conditions and the release of colleagues arrested in previous protests.

‘Reckless and cowardly’

The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations said later in the day said that several people had been arrested after security forces used force to disperse the protesters in some cities, including Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, which Wednesday saw protests over increased food prices.

In a resolution published at the end of the Thursday’s rallies, protesting teachers condemned a "reckless and cowardly” attempt to attribute “decades” of their protests to foreign hands. In Tehran, police cordoned off streets leading to parliament, where teachers had gathered in previous protests. 

The protests and the arrest of French nationals occurred as Enrique Mora, the senior European Union official chairing talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (the JCPOA, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), was in Tehran in an effort to restart the stalled negotiations. Republican Senator James Risch, a JCPOA opponent, said Wednesday that Iran’s detention of European nationals while Mora was in Tehran “should be the final nail in the coffin for any bad deal with Iran”.

The largest protests appear to have occurred in Dezful and there are claims on social media that people had also taken to the streets in the provincial capital Ahvaz, Izeh, and at the port city of Mahshahr.

Khuzestan Province where the protests took place is where Iran's oil fields and production are concentrated.

There are few videos of the protests amid government’s disruption of Internet access, but some videos include the narrator's statement of the date, Wednesday, and place which confirm the social media reports about protests in Dezful. In these videos protesters chant against President Ebrahim Raisi, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the hike in prices.

Protesters also chanted slogans in support of the last Iranian royal family. “God bless your soul, Reza Shah,” they shouted for the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty. “King of Iran, return to Iran,” was another call aimed at the core of the Islamic Republic.

Khuzestan has been the scene of widespread protests in the past few years. Protests over water shortage in July 2021lasted for over a week during which at least eight protesters were shot dead by security forces.

A conservative lawmaker from Khuzestan, Qasem Saedi, on Wednesday warned that rising prices could trigger unrest worse than nationwide protests that rocked Iran in 2018 and 2019.

The cash-strapped government of hardliner President Raisi announced last week that it would stop paying cheap dollar for flour imports which immediately affected the price of bread and pasta. On Thursday a hike in the prices of chicken, cooking oil, and dairy products by two to threefold was also announced. Meanwhile, the Iranian rial broke the politically sensitive 300,000 threshold to the US dollar on Wednesday. It rapidly climbed to 306,000 on Thursday. Forty-five years ago, before the 1979 revolution, 70 rials bought one US dollar.

The government says it will compensate for the rise in prices of basic foodstuffs by paying cash to 90 percent of the population for the time-being, but many believe this will cause further inflation, which already stands above 40 percent.

Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare Hojjat Abdolmaleki on Thursday said payment of cash will stop within a couple of months, but ration cards will be issued for lower cost food. Rationing foodstuff has been unprecedented since the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988).

Iran's authorities often shut down or drastically slow down the Internet to prevent protesters from communicating and spreading images and videos of the protests on social media. In November 2019, NetBlocks reported a major disruption of the Internet amid nationwide protests over an increase in fuel prices.

Wednesday evening Internet access of at least one mobile carrier was completely shut down and others were seriously slowed down at the national level.

Social media users had reported disruptions in their connections in the restive province since Thursday last week in areas affected by protests over bread prices.

The international Internet freedom watchdog NetBlocks confirmed Wednesday evening that real-time network data had shown a brief collapse in international connectivity on Internet provider Rightel, as well as a deterioration on other mobile and fixed-line providers.

According to official figures published in August 2021, 94 percent of Iranians have access to mobile Internet while only around 11 percent use broadband. Authorities often reduce connection quality and speed, mainly in mobile Internet, to prevent sharing of videos and photos of protests.

In an open letter to Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf Wednesday, sixty-one archeology professors expressed deep concern over a motion, entitled "Optimum Use of Ancient Artifacts and Treasures", and demanded it to be shelved.

The motion has not officially been presented on the parliament floor yet but a copy of it has circulated in the media.

Archeologists said the planned was prepared without any consultations with expert organizations such as the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, the Society of Iranian Archeologists, or the Archeology Taskforce of the Ministry of Science and is in contradiction to several existing laws which regulate archeological excavation and trade in items of historical value.

The proposal also reinforces public perceptions that Islamic Republic officials are corrupt and take advantage of national wealth to enrich themselves.

The 46 lawmakers behind the motion, argue that legalizing trade in historical artifacts which will stop illegal trade and smuggling, could help Iran turn into a "regional hub of trade," and bring hard currency income to the country.

In their letter, archeologists strongly objected to selling the historical wealth of the country to procure income. Privatizing excavation and legalizing trade will also deprive the country's own museums, which will not be able to compete with private buyers, and deprive then of any future findings, they said.

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Moreover, approval of the motion could result in inexperienced excavators damaging archeological sites and their contents as well as lack of proper reporting of information related to the excavation sites and other related information which are of great significance to historians and archeologists.

Iran has numerous prehistoric and ancient sites many of which are still unexplored. Some of these sites, such as the paleolithic Ghogha Golan in the foothills of the Zagros mountains in the west of the country date back to as far back as 10,000 years.

Massive collections of ancient Persian artifacts excavated by foreign archeologists before the twentieth century adorn many top museums in the world such as the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum in London, the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute Museum, and the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Hamid Baghaei, Chief of the Cultural Heritage Organization and a close confidante of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2010 sought to legalize trade in historical artifacts and antiques and establish an international exchange on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf. The plan raised much objection and was eventually discarded.

On Wednesday, Hossein Jalali, one of the lawmakers who put his signature on the motion, told Entekhab news website that he has realized that critics are right, and the motion is faulty. One of the provisions in the proposed law may result in numerous excavations and the removal of excavated artifacts from the country, he said.

According to current laws, excavation for historical artifacts and transferring them outside Iranian borders without approval of the authorities are illegal and punishable by cash fines and prison. Any accidental findings, during construction for instance, must be handed over to the Cultural Heritage Organization.

Although trade in ancient artifacts is illegal, many such items find their way to markets including online platforms. A year ago, the cultural heritage organization prevented the sale of an ancient drinking vessel (rhyton) on Divar, an online auction and shopping platform in Iran similar to eBay but many other artifacts of various historical age and value are still traded on online platforms.

Moderate news website Rouydad24 quoted Saedi as saying that the current situation is more serious because the people's livelihood and bread, as the bare minimum for survival, are at stake.

Bread prices jumped last week as the government ended import subsidies for wheat and other essential commodities.

The lawmaker from Khuzestan, where intermittent protests have taken place since last week, said that never in the past 43 years since the Islamic Republic came to existence people have been so concerned about back-breaking prices. Saedi added that millions of Iranians are unable to plan for their life because wrong government policies have made any prediction impossible.

Saedi added that the people's expectations from President Ebrahim Raisi have not been met and we must now acknowledge that his economic team is weak. "It looks like they have no plans and if they had any, those plans totally ignored the interests of low-income Iranians," Saedi said.

"It no longer makes sense comparing prices to what they were in the past months. People can find out about rising prices by comparing them to yesterday's prices," he added.

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The lawmaker explained that low incomes, high inflation, and the government's inability to provide essential commodities have made life difficult for Iranians who can no longer tolerate the shortages and high prices. "This is a situation our enemies in and out of the country have always wished for," Saedi stressed.

Meanwhile, Iran Monitor website quoted former lawmaker Mansour Haghighatpoor as saying that the current parliament (Majles) shares responsibility for the failure of Raisi's government as lawmakers laid a red carpet for Raisi following his election as President in 2021, although now they do not know what to do with the government they helped rise to power.

Haghighatpoor also criticized the Majles for failing to use its supervisory tools to correct the situation. The former lawmaker obviously ignored the fact that the Majles tried on several occasion to impeach Raisi's economic ministers but the its presidium shelved the calls thanks to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's support for the Raisi administration that many believe is the leader's creation.

The former lawmaker pointed out that Iran's economic problems are the outcome of an undeniable mismanagement. He charged that the Majles confirmed a group of ministers but cannot supervise or correct their behavior. Haghighatpoor characterized the parliament's performance in this regard as "treason." He said not doing anything about the ministers' failures and not protecting the country's national interests is tantamount to adding insult to injury.

This comes while Iranian political commentator Hassan Beheshtipoor said in an interview with Didban Iran that besides domestic political reasons, there are also international developments that indicate Iran is going to come under further economic pressures. Beheshtipoor added that the current situation in the energy market is not going to last long and at the same time, US Congress seems to be determined to prevent a nuclear agreement between Tehran and Washington that would inevitably bring about an improvement to Iran's ailing economy.

However, like most Iranian analysts, Beheshtipoor also said that the best option for Iran is to try to find a new solution to issues hampering an agreement with the United States, as Tehran is under immense economic pressures.