Iran's Oil Shipments Halved In May, Report Says

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks on Sunday after attending a session of the Parliament’s Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy to brief lawmakers about a resolution passed by the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to condemn lack of cooperation by the Islamic Republic. 

“Every time that the opposite side put forth excessive demands during the [Vienna talks], we used the country’s own tools and power, so that they would understand that the interests and welfare of the Iranian nation were important to us,” he said without elaborating on the tools, but he was probably referring to the government’s decision to reduce monitoring access to the UN nuclear watchdog. 

Iran told the IAEA it plans to remove more monitoring equipment after the 35-member IAEA board Wednesday passed the resolution. Tehran says it intends to maintain a basic level of monitoring and inspectors’ access as required under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

In a statement issued by the Iranian parliament on Sunday, 260 lawmakers slammed the IAEA's “excessive, politically-motivated measure,” saying the resolution proves that the agency and its director general have lost all their technical credibility, in reference to Rafael Grossi’s recent visit to Israel.

On Friday, all Friday Prayer Imams in Iran, who are representatives of the Supreme Leader, backed the decision to reduce relations with the IAEA.

Malley said in a tweet on Friday that Washington and Seoul “are committed to coordinating our efforts across a wide range of shared interests on Iran.”

He did not elaborate on what exactly was discussed but the two diplomats probably talked about the Islamic Republic’s frozen assets in Korean banks due to US sanctions. 

Since the beginning of the year, Iran and South Korea announced on several occasions that they would start negotiations to devise a mechanism to release the funds frozen, but nothing materialized.

Two South Korea banks hold $7-9 billion of Iranian money, owed for oil imports, but the funds are locked under US sanctions, which were reimposed after former President Donald Trump in 2018 withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

In April, Iranian media said $7 billion of Iran's frozen funds in South Korea will be freed in exchange for the release of three American dual citizens held as hostages in Tehran.

Iranian hardliner newspaper funded by Iran’s Supreme Leader suggested later in April that Iran must close the Strait of Hormuz to South Korean vessels until Seoul releases $7 billion frozen funds.

US National Security advisor Jake Sullivan said in May that Iran’s money in South Korea and elsewhere will remain frozen as long as a nuclear deal has not been reached.

In an editorial authored by the daily's outspoken managing editor Masih Mohajeri on June 9, Jomhouri Eslami [Islamic Republic] writing about the Iranian government's economic problems said, "A government that holds up payments to pensioners as a bid to solve its economic problems should prioritize its expenditures and get rid of unnecessary organizations."

The daily asked: "Some of Iran's cultural organizations do nothing other than duplicating the efforts of other government institutions. For instance, what kind of service is the Islamic Propagation Organization rendering that justifies its survival?" The newspaper maintained: "The high-maintenance organization should have attained its initial goals during the past 40 years [of an Islamic government]. If it hasn't, it means that it has not been successful."

The Islamic Propagation Organization is a body that operates in parallel with Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and one of its objectives is offering guidelines to Friday Prayer Imams in cities and towns nationwide.

Over the past four decades, the organization's main function has been justifying the government's policies and trumpeting the ideas of fundamentalists in Iran such as the Friday Prayer Imams in Isfahan and Mashhad. The two clerics are often criticized by the people for undermining human rights and advocating violence against women and those who follow a lifestyle different from the preferences of the fundamentalists.

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Last week, a young man in Isfahan attacked Yousef Tabatabainejad, the Imam in Isfahan who had opined that people can attack "bad-hijab" women at their own discretion. In their sermons on Friday June 10, several imams made outlandish statements. Ignoring Iran's economic problems, Rasoul Abdollahi who led the prayers in Tabriz said that Raisi's economic policy is being followed in Russia as an economic model for resistance.

Meanwhile, Mohamad Nabi Mousavi Fard in Ahwaz called for shaming those who undermine “Islamic values in the streets” as a lesson for others, while Ahmad Khatami in Tehran and many others in other cities repeated the official jargon about a resolution passed this week at the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, criticizing Iran's non-cooperative behavior and praised the government for undermining IAEA safeguards.

In another article on Thursday, the Jomhouri Eslami wrote that the government has increased the Islamic Propagation Organization's budget by 156 per cent in for the current year. The article charged that the government of President Ebrahim Raisi has started what he called an "economic surgery" by targeting the poorest Iranians while giving more funds to government bodies such as the Islamic Propagation Organization.

Last year the organization received around $40 million based on the average exchange rate in 2021, there fore this year the appropriation is more than $100 million. Although this might not seem like a large sum by Western standards, in Iran an average person has a salary of $150 per month.

Overall, the government spends close to $800 million on propaganda outfits, not counting the state television with close to 40,000 employees and a $200 million budget plus advertising income.

The article went on to say that such organizations have been a burden on the country's annual budget and national financial resources for years without being able to contribute to productive efforts or the nation's welfare. The daily argued that economic pressures should be distributed fairly among various parts of the government and groups of the population.

The Friday Imams described removing the monitoring equipment installed by the International Atomic Energy Agency as the first step in reducing relations with the agency, with Tehran's Friday prayer Imam Ahmad Khatami condemning the IAEA resolution against Iran and saying that “the revolutionaries hit the bully in the mouth."

Referring to the IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi's visit to Israel, the hardliner cleric called on the authorities "not to provide complete information to the IAEA." 

Similar remarks against the resolution and IAEA’s monitoring of Iranian facilities were made during the Friday prayer sermons in several other cities, including Esfahan, Arak, Bushehr, Ilam, and Ahvaz. 

Iran told the IAEA it plans to remove more monitoring equipment after the 35-member IAEA board Wednesday passed the resolution. Tehran says it intends to maintain a basic level of monitoring and inspectors’ access as required under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The contents of Friday Prayer sermons delivered by Khamenei's local representatives in various cities are dictated by two state bodies close to Khamenei's office, officially known as "The Policy-making Council for Friday Prayer Imams" and the "Friday Prayer Headquarters," both dominated by hardliner clerics.

The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations issued a statement on Thursday, calling on teachers all over the country to take to streets on June 16 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM local time and demand their legal rights.

Teachers have been often holding protests for nearly a year, but the political situation in Iran has worsened in recent months, with rising food prices and a growing perception of government inefficiency and corruption.

The statement said their demands include better salaries, freedom of their colleagues arrested during the previous rounds of demonstrations as well as standard education facilities and free education for students. They also demand the implementation of decade-old legislation that would bring the salaries and pensions of 750,000 teachers in line with other civil servants.

Emphasizing that holding protests for their demands is among their basic rights, the statement added that the authorities are charging union activists with fabricated accusations of endangering the security of the country, as a last resort to repress the protests and ignore teachers’ demands.

“We declare loudly that if our colleagues are not released immediately and unconditionally, and the legitimate demands of Iranian teachers are not fulfilled, the protests will continue,” the statement read.

The teachers’ restlessness coincides with protests by Iranian retirees, which started Monday and continued Thursday in several cities across the country.

The pensioners, who are protesting the meager rise in their pensions while the inflation rate is hovering at over 40 percent, gathered in front of the offices of the Social Security Organization in the cities of Karaj, Zanjan and Arak among others. Just a few days ago the government announced that pensions for most retirees will increase by just 10 percent.

On Monday, enraged protesters chanted slogans such as “Death to Raisi”, directing their anger at President Ebrahim Raisi and denounced “empty promises” by the government. Videos surfaced on social media Thursday showing people cheering for the Pahlavis, who ruled Iran before the 1979 Islamic revolution, praising the Shah’s government for taking care of them.

On Tuesday, videos showed the bazaar in the northwestern city of Tabriz was on strike with merchants shutting down their stores and businesses in protest to a sudden increase in sales tax.

On Wednesday, similar strikes and protest rallies were reported by merchants in the southern city of Bandar Abbas.

Strikes in Bazaar, or traditional retail market, have a deep historical root in Iran and signal a serious political and economic crisis. The bazaar strikes played a major role both in the Constitutional Revolution of the early 20th century and the 1979 revolution against the monarchy.

Four years of deep economic crisis in Iran following the introduction of United States ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions in 2018 has led to sharp increases in living costs and to labor unrest. In January hundreds of firefighters and staff from the judiciary took to the streets in several cities. Prison guards have also picketed to protest their salaries.

People from different walks of life, including teachers, nurses, firefighters, and even judiciary department employees and prison guards, have held protest rallies or strikes to demand higher salaries.