Iran's Raisi Orders Strict Enforcement Of Hijab Amid Crackdown

Answering a question by Iran International’s correspondent Samira Gharaei and another reporter at the Tuesday briefing about when the US would conclude that there is no hope for success in the nuclear negotiations, State Department spokesman Ned Price said, "The reason it's impossible to put a timeframe is it isn't based on a political decision, but on a technical assessment of Iran's nuclear program versus non-proliferation benefits of the JCPOA."

US officials have said Iran already has accumulated enough enriched uranium to produce a bomb and critics wonder when the current situation would reach a point for the United States and its allies to walk away for the talks and adopt a different approach. The administration in January had said that the last chance for Iran was sometime at the end of February, and then negotiations broke down in March.

About US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley’s remarks earlier in the day on US waiting for an answer from Tehran, he said, “The answer that not only the US is waiting for, but also that our European allies are waiting for is a decision on the part of the Iranian government to fully return to compliance with the JCPOA.”

“It is not clear to us, based on what we have heard from the Iranians indirectly; from our European allies; that they have made that political commitment. There has been a deal on the table that is more or less finalized for several months now,” he added.

Price said, “In recent weeks and recent months, rather than make that political commitment to return to compliance with the JCPOA, Iran has consistently introduced extraneous demands that go beyond the four walls of the JCPOA.” “To introduce anything that goes beyond the narrow confines of the JCPOA suggests a lack of seriousness, a lack of commitment.”

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He highlighted, “We are at a point where a lack of forward momentum, a lack of progress is tantamount to backtracking,” adding that "Current assessment of experts and intelligence community is that the Iran agreement on the table right now is far preferable to where we are now.”

The US has said that that the West made an offer to Iran in December after nine months of talks in Vienna and the ball is in Tehran’s court.

Malley told National Public Radio Tuesday that last week’s Qatar talks between Tehran and Washington had been a waste of time.

Malley said the European Union – whose leading official Enrique Mora acted as a go-between in Qatar – had “put on the table very detailed outlines of what they think a fair outcome would be, and we’ve said we’re prepared to take that deal; the party that has not said yes is Iran.”

Iran’s Hostage Taking Policy

In response to a question about Belgium's controversial treaty on the exchange of convicts with Iran and whether the US is pursuing a different path to handle the Islamic Republic’s hostage policy, Price said the US has a near term goal when it comes to its citizens detained in Iran as well as a long-term goal.

“Our near-term goal is to see to it that those who are at the present moment held unjustly and wrongfully... are released.” The longer-term goal, he said, “is to create and reinforce a norm against this horrific practice; to see to it that the international community speaks with one voice and acts together.” He added that the US is working with allies to lay the ground to achieve this.

Price went on to say the US is monitoring several “egregious cases of Europeans and dual citizens” held in Iran such as Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali, adding that “we echo concerns from UN experts that the situation... is truly horrific.”

Numerous people and groups from around the world have warned about the prisoner exchange treaty between Belgium and Iran, warning Belgian politicians against “giving the green light to state terrorism," and demanding that the bill be abandoned.

The treaty by the Belgian government that parliament is debating for approval could lead to the release of Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat serving a 20-year prison sentence in Belgium for “attempted murder and involvement in terrorism” for his role plotting to bomb a gathering of the exiled opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) near Paris in 2018.

The committee was due to vote on the bill on Tuesday but adjourned the session until Wednesday after nearly four hours of debate. It is likely to be put before the full 150-member chamber on Thursday.

At the Annual Economist Government Roundtable in Greece on Tuesday, Benny Gantz unveiled recent satellite images showing four Iranian military ships in the Red Sea, adding that the Islamic Republic has been “unusually” patrolling the region with its military ships.

The four military ships in the Red Sea were a Hengam-class landing ship, two Bandar Abbas-class replenishment ships – which are auxiliary fleet supply vessels – and a Mowj-class light frigate. 

“Today, we can confirm that Iran is methodically basing itself in the Red Sea, with warships patrolling the southern region,” he noted. 

Describing the Iranian presence as a direct threat to trade, energy and the global economy, Gantz said, “The presence of Iran's military forces in the Red Sea in recent months is the most significant in a decade.”

Referring to the recent test launch of a satellite carrier rocket, whose “technology could be used to develop a long-range intercontinental missile with a range of thousands of kilometers that could also threaten Central Europe,” he said, “Iran is a prime example of a widespread regional and global threat.”

The United States Naval Institute said last week that satellite imagery shows Iran is constructing a new stealth missile boat on the island of Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. The unidentified catamaran is similar to another new multi-hulled missile watercraft -- a Shahid Soleimani-class missile corvette -- but is noticeably smaller.

Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne urged the foreign relations committee of Belgium's lower house to back an accord that intelligence services believed could avert an increased threat against Belgian interests.

"People's lives are at stake," the minister said, adding one threat that had materialised was the detention of a Belgian man in Iran since February.

Many lawmakers spoke about the possibility of an exchange to secure the release of the man, first identified by Iran International as a 41-year-old aid worker, and Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who had taught in Belgium and has been sentenced to death in Iran.

Iran has called for the release of Assadollah Assadi, sentenced to 20 years in prison in Belgium in 2021 over a foiled 2018 bomb plot. His was the first trial of an Iranian official for suspected terrorism in Europe since Iran's 1979 revolution.

Many Iranian groups and activists as well as former senior US officials have urged the Belgian parliament not to approve the treaty, citing increased risk of fresh Iranian terrorism.

Several lawmakers expressed concerns that it could encourage Iran or others to seize Belgians.

"Would this open the door to a sort of hostage diplomacy?" said Greens member Wouter De Vriendt.

The committee was due to vote on the bill on Tuesday but adjourned the session until Wednesday after nearly four hours of debate. It is likely to be put before the full 150-member chamber on Thursday.

Belgium’s Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne said Tuesday the man was seized in Iran on February 24 and has been in “illegal” detention since. 

He did not identify the man but he was most likely referring to Olivier Vandecasteele, a 41-year-old Belgian aid worker who has served in various international humanitarian organizations since at least 2006.

The announcement by the ministry came after Iran International revealed the identity of the Belgian national, who had previously worked in India, Afghanistan, and Mali and later became the director of Norwegian Refugee Council’s Iran operations in 2015 and assumed the same position with Relief International in Iran in 2020. On July 2, an informed source had told Iran International that at least two Belgian citizens are currently in prison in Iran.

A draft law proposed by the Belgian government to the parliament could put the seal of approval on an agreement with Iran, which could lead to the release of Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat serving a 20-year prison sentence in Belgium for planning a terror attack in Paris four years ago.

Numerous people and groups from around the world have warned about the imminent perilous consequences of the prisoner exchange treaty, calling “the green light to state terrorism” that only emboldens the Islamic Republic.

Biden’s trip, July 13-16, has reportedly put on hold until later this month further talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), pushing them beyond a related four-week deadline announced early June by Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), for the agency’s ability to certify the peaceful natureof Tehran’s atomic program.

By the last quarter of 2022, Biden’s leeway could be restricted by Democratic Party losses in mid-term Congressional elections. The continuing expansion of Iran’s nuclear program beyond JCPOA limits, including the enrichment of uranium to 60 percent purity, has led many of the deal’s US critics, Democrats but especially Republicans, to call failure on Biden’s approach.

Some speculation over Biden’s Middle East trip – which will take in Israel, the occupied Palestinian West Bank, and Saudi Arabia – centers on whether he will meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, whom Biden criticized on coming to office after US intelligence implicated him in the 2018 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudis’ Istanbul consulate.

‘Not about Saudi Arabia’

Biden told reporters at the Nato Madrid summit last week that his visit to Riyadh was to a summit of Gulf nations. "It’s in Saudi Arabia, but it’s not about Saudi Arabia,” Biden said. “And so there’s no commitment that is being made or – I’m not even sure; I guess I will see the king and the crown prince, but that's – that’s not the meeting I'm going to. They’ll be part of a much larger meeting.”

The president will meet leaders of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain – as well as the leaders of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.

US officials have suggested the president’s visit will take forward plans for closer military co-operation between Israeli and the Arab Gulf States, aimed at thwarting Iranian and Iranian-supplied missiles and drones, and building on the US-brokered 2020 Israeli ‘normalization’ agreements with the UAE and Bahrain.

Pumping more oil?

Biden said in Madrid that the Israelis had “come out so strongly for my going to Saudi.” But it remains unclear whether a new defense arrangement would make JCPOA revival harder or help make its revival more palatable to Saudi Arabia and Israel.

While pragmatists have argued Biden should seek Saudi agreement to pump more oil and curb cost-push inflation that has sent gasoline prices in the US to around $5 a gallon, human-rights advocates say he should concentrate on holding the Saudis and others accountable over human rights. Supporters of the JCPOA, meanwhile, argue the deal’s revival would ease oil prices by easing US sanctions restricting the flow of Iranian crude.

King Salman, now 86, is widely reported to oppose ‘normalization’ with Israel ahead of the acceptance of a viable Palestinian state, in line with Arab League policy since 2002. In 2008, according to cables unearthed by Wikileaks, King Salman urged the US to “cut off the head of the snake” with military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.