Iran Further Limiting Access To Western Social Media

According to Alireza Pakfetrat, the representative of Shiraz in the parliament, the number of passenger planes that remain operational have decreased as well as the number of flights in the country. 

He added that the quality and technical upkeep of the aircraft have also suffered significantly, causing flight delays. 

Criticizing Roads and Urban Development Ministry, he said it is spending most of its time and budget on housing projects and forgets that the aviation industry is also part of their responsibilities. 

He also proposed splitting the ministry in two: one for urban development and one for road and transportation, which was the case in the past.

According to Alireza Barkhor, the deputy chairman of the Association of Iranian Airlines, more than 50 percent of Iran’s passenger planes are grounded due to lack of spare parts, particularly engines.

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

The 2015 nuclear agreement (JCPOA) suspended sanctions on purchases of Western aircraft and Iran began talks to buy new planes from Boeing and Airbus. A few airbus planes were delivered but the Trump administration never approved sale of US planes until Washington withdrew from the JCPOA in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions.

Khatib made the remarks on Thursday as the Islamic Republic’s security apparatus is increasing pressure on the signatories of a statement against Iran’s crackdown on popular protests, demanding they rescind their signatures.

Informed sources told Iran International Wednesday, August 17, that the Intelligence Ministry as well as the security division of the country’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance have threatened more than 100 film industry figures to withdraw their signatures from a May statement titled “Lay down the gun”. 

Khatib blamed the United Sates for internal opposition, saying the US was forced to leave the region following humiliation and defeat and their conspiracies were thwarted, and now “the enemy’s hopes in some domestic seditionists and statement writers are doomed to failure.”

The statement by filmmakers had called on military and security forces who “have become tools for cracking down on the people,” not to suppress protesters during popular demonstrations in May.

According to reports, under the threat of security forces, about 15 people have so far withdrawn their signatures from the statement.

Iran International’s sources also said that 10 documentary makers have been informed that they are banned from leaving the country and that a list of artists who are banned from working will be announced next week.

Conservative Foreign Policy Expert Jalal Khoshchehreh said in an interview on Thursday that hardline conservatives in Iran are preparing to blame whatever falls short of their demsands on Iran's previous government if the new deal is different from what President Hassan Rouhani's government had achieved in its negotiations with the West between April and June 2021.

Khoshchehreh explained hardline, or in his word, radical conservatives are pretty much sure that a deal is being made with the United States. On Wednesday, lawmakers at the Iranian parliament said that they had been briefed by top security, nuclear and foreign policy officials who told them that major hurdles on the way of an agreement have been removed and the United is weighing Iran's final response.

The analyst cautioned however that radical conservatives are getting ahead of themselves and setting the stage for the post-agreement developments, a situation in which both Tehran and Washington have made compromises.

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Meanwhile, the former head of the Iranian parliament's Foreign Policy and National Security Committee Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh described the differences among various Iranian conservatives over a new deal as a sham fight.

Referring to tough positions taken by some hardliner conservatives such as the editor of hardline daily Kayhan, Hossein Shariatmadari, who said on Thursday there no US guarantee is trustworthy, or conservative politician Mansour Haghighatpour, who has spoken about disciplining the United States, Falahatpisheh said that "Obstructionism has already started against a new deal. Had an agreement been reached earlier, it would have been working by now. Nonetheless, everyone in Iran and America should welcome any move toward reducing tensions no matter when this move starts."

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He said that "Iran's response indicates Tehran's acceptance of [EU’s Josep] Borrell's proposal. Tehran only needs to make sure that Washington's promises about [lifting] the sanctions are spelled out in the text of the agreement."

In another development, former Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said in a commentary published by reformist daily Etemad that "It is wrong to believe signing an agreement will improve everything in Iran. This is a trap we should not fall in. An agreement simply removes the barrier on the way of moving ahead. But going forward needs prudent policymaking and efficiency." 

He acknowledged that everybody in Iran seems to be happy about reaching an agreement as they think the country's has moved in the right direction. Rabiei added that as a result, the former opponents and supporters of a deal have reached a common understanding. But still, they will have two different approaches in the post-agreement situation. One group will limit the outcome to selling more oil and getting more money to survive and improve the current situation. However, the right approach is using the agreement as a first step to end Iran’s isolation from the world economy and to reconstruct and expand the country's infrastructure by investing in development.

The former official then opined that "the confrontation between these two approaches is the first challenge Iran will face in the post-agreement situation. Meanwhile, officials should prepare the country's banking system for the new reality…pave the way for foreign investment and strengthen the private sector."

In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Pahlavi noted that the regime of Iran is the main responsible party for the attack on writer Salman Rushdie in New York last week, adding that Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini invoked God to “call on all valiant Muslims wherever they may be in the world to kill [Mr. Rushdie] without delay.”

“While the Islamist regime in my country and the assailant it appears to have inspired bear responsibility for this attack, they were enabled by Western policy makers,” he wrote.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the United Kingdom and Germany cut relations with Iran, sending a strong message, Pahlavi said.

“This forced the Islamic Republic to keep a low profile. British and German citizens were largely safe from its machinations. The strong response from the West didn’t change Tehran’s destructive desires, but it did contain them,” he said, highlighting that now it appears “Western powers on both sides of the Atlantic have forgotten the lessons that kept their citizens secure as well as the dissidents to whom they offered a haven.”

He said although the Islamic Republic has not changed its revolutionary principle, it is now “accepted at glitzy panels at international forums and attend headline-grabbing negotiations at Europe’s chicest hotels.” That acceptance has afforded the regime unprecedented and undeserved moral equivalency with the West and has fostered confidence among Tehran’s radical followers who see the regime as a source of revolutionary inspiration to radical action, Pahlavi said. 

The negotiations with Washington over a new nuclear deal in Vienna have shown “Khamenei and his criminal cabal” that they can effectively get away with murder, he said.

Pompeo, who was one of the main targets of a newly-revealed assassination campaigns by Iran, told the Washington Free Beacon that the Biden administration is setting a dangerous precedent by permitting Ebrahim Raisi -- who is on the US and European sanctions list -- into the US to attend UN ceremonies next month following his repeated threats against the US.

"We worked for four years to deny Iranian terrorists the freedom to put Americans at risk. This administration is allowing them to come to New York City while actively engaged in efforts to kill Americans on US soil. The Iranians just recently sponsored an attack that was almost successful in killing an American in that very city. We can do better," Pompeo said, referring to the Justice Department charges against a member of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) for an alleged plot to kill former national security advisor John Bolton and Pompeo.

Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, also criticized the UN for providing a megaphone to the world’s top sponsor of terror. 

"This shows just how corrupt and broken the UN is. Even when Iranian terrorists try to assassinate our officials, on our soil, the UN welcomes them with open arms and lets them give a speech," she said. 

Earlier in the month, eight US Republican senators, including Tom Cotton, March Rubio, Joni Ernst and Ted Cruz, wrote to President Joe Biden asking him to deny the visa to Raisi.