Iranians Pressuring Europe To Designate IRGC As Terrorist

Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP), best known for water-skis and snowmobiles, said it has established through a “thorough investigation” set up three months ago that an engine found in a shot-down Mohajer-6 drone had not been sold directly to either Iran or Russia.

A company spokeswoman said this week that Bombardier was “in full compliance with all laws and regulations,” but disclosed nothing substantive in public about its investigation. The drone used the Rotax-912 engine made by BRP-Rotax, a subsidiary based in Gunskirchen, upper Austria.

Bombardier ended supplies of the engines to Iran in 2019, although the Mahtabal company in Tehran still markets itself as official representative for Rotax engines. The date – 2019 – suggests this was a response to the United States 2018 introduction of ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions that threatened punitive action against third parties dealing with Iran. The engines, made primarily for recreational use, would not have been covered by a partial United Nations arms embargo on Iran that expired October in October 2020.

‘Unclear usage’

But in 2020, Bombardier also barred sales to Turkey and announced it would stop sending engines to “countries with unclear usage.” This followed reports its engines were used by Turkish-made Bayraktar TB-2 drones deployed by Azerbaijani forces in war with Armenia.

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Ironically, Bayraktar TB-2 drones are currently used by Ukraine against Russian forces, while a British defense analyst in November identified from a photograph an engine from a Bombardier jet ski in a Ukrainian marine unmanned vehicle recovered by Russian forces in Crimea.

Whilst media coverage of Iranian-made parts in Russian drones led to outcry from politicians in north America and western Europe, the manufacturers’ reactions reflect the difficulty, and expense, in tracing where sold goods end up. Engines suitable for light-weight drones are cheap and readily accessible, while categorizing equipment as having a potential military application is near impossible. After decades of sanctions, Iranian buyers are adept at sourcing materials and even proud of it – Iran Press News Agency last year reported that the Shaheed-129 drone, “an efficient bird,” used the Rotax-914 engine.

There has been no public report from a US task force – involving departments of State, Defense, Justice, Commerce, and Treasury – launched December by President Joe Biden after the United Kingdom-based Conflict Armament Research said 82 percent of parts in shot-down Russian drones in Ukraine came from US companies. Texas Instruments, whose processors were in the drones, said it compliedwith “applicable laws and regulations in the countries where we operate.”

Dmitri Alperovitch, former chief technology officer at the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, told CNN December that while US firms could do more to track their supply chains, end-buyers could easily switch middle-men – creating a “a game of whack a mole.”

‘Inflammatory actions’

Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel said Friday that Israel’s proposed transfer of missile-defense technology had been delayed by the government handover. New prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sworn in two weeks ago, has long celebrated a warm relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has argued that any weapons sent to Ukraine would fall into Russian hands and reach Iran.

Both Europol and European Union Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva have warned of the dangers of weapons sent to Ukraine ending up in the wrong hands, with Canada among the countries warning it had no effective means to track them.

Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is due to meet Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow January 17 – a meeting the Russian foreign ministry has said will focus on boosting trade. In an interview with Izvestia published Thursday, Iranian Ambassador Kazem Jalali repeated Tehran’s official line that while the root of the Ukraine crisis was “inflammatory actions of Nato,” there was no way forward in military confrontation.

Iran Daily, the formal government newspaper, leveled the accusation on Saturday, saying that the Friday Imam of Zahedan in the largely Sunni southeastern Sistan- Baluchestan province continues to play his “destructive role against national security and unity”.

The daily also claimed in an editorial note that the “CIA media arms have invested on Abdolhamid”.

After the Bloody Friday of Zahedan on September 30, in which tens of Baluch citizens were killed by the regime, Mowlavi Abdolhamid held Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible and demanded the cancellation of death sentences for protesters. He has continued calling for justice and respect for the people, gaining support from non-Sunni Iranians.

Last week, Mohammad Javad Larijani, one of the political figures of the Islamic Republic, implicitly called for the destruction of Makki Mosque in which Mowlavi Abdolhamid makes critical sermons on Fridays.

Earlier in November, the hacktivist group Black Reward targeted the data servers of Fars news agency, a media network affiliated with the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guard, releasing several documents to media indicating that Khamenei is dismayed by Mowlavi Abdolhamid’s remarks, the most prominent religious leader of Iran's largely Sunni Baluch population.

The documents also revealed that instead of arresting or harming him, Khamenei ordered underlings to tarnish Abdolhamid’s reputation so that his influence would decrease among the Sunni population of the country.

Mohammad-Mehdi Hosseini Hamedani, the Friday prayer imam of the city, reiterated that observance of hijab should be enforced strictly in society. 

Describing anyone who unveils in public as an enemy, he emphasized that all such people must be confronted by the state. "It is not possible to imagine that we are living in an Islamic country when we enter some institutions, shopping malls, pharmacies, etc.!" he said, calling on the authorities to warn shops and malls that serve women who have removed their hijab and close them down if warnings did not suffice. 

This is not the first time that the Islamic Republic’s hardliners are linking Islamic rituals to drought or natural disasters. 

Ahmad Alamolhoda, a senior firebrand cleric who is the father-in-law of President Ebrahim Raisi, had earlier called on people to say prayers for rain to solve the problem of drought in the country. 

Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri in 2019 said, "The judicial system does not allow women to unveil in public, because it causes natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes in the country.”

Yousef Tabatabai Nejad, Ali Khamenei’s representative in the central city of Esfahan (Isfahan), said in 2016 that women who unveiled and took photos “like Europeans” are the reason for the city’s river, Zayandeh-Roud (Zayanderud) to go dry and added that if this continues, its headwaters will also dry up. 

The water crisis has been getting worse in Iran for the past decade because of mismanagement in constructing unnecessary dams, encouraging water-thirsty crops like rice and political influence in water distribution.

In a Thursday letter to Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and European Commission Vice-President, the signatories also urged the EU to expand its sanctions list with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Ebrahim Raisi, Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri and other individuals responsible for violations of human rights.

They also want coordinated efforts to facilitate measures to ensure the safety of the Iranian diaspora in the EU and restrict the access of sanctioned Iranian individuals’ family members to European facilities such as universities.

In the letter, they also asked Borrell to clearly communicate that further executions of Iranian protesters would lead to additional restrictive measures, including economic sanctions.

Stressing the necessity of the correct application and enforcement of the sanctions regime, they emphasized on the Islamic Republic's “despicable role” in the Russian invasion of Ukraine by supplying arms and other means of support. “This fact has to be taken into account, as Iran is thus aiding a criminal Russian state, which keeps on terrorizing the people of Ukraine through relentless bombing of civilians and critical infrastructure,” they said. 

Moreover, according to draft documents seen by POLITICO, the EU is considering fresh sanctions against nearly 40 Iranian individuals and entities. There are overall 27 EU documents which are called an “evidence pack,” as they include the information — mostly press reports — backing up the proposed sanctions. 

There are 17 people the EU is thinking of sanctioning, including regional governors, a lawmaker, a minister and a top official at the state broadcaster (IRIB) World Service, as well as several current and former officials in the IRGC over their key role in the government’s repression. The list also included Sports Minister Hamid Sajjadi Hazaveh, who the document says is “responsible for pressurizing Iran’s athletes into silence, to prevent them from speaking out internationally against repression in Iran.” “He was personally involved in the case of Elnaz Rekabi, an Iranian athlete climber that competed without hijab at the Asian Championship rock climbing competition in the fall of 2022,” read the document. 

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About 20 entities are also on the list, including Iran’s Communication Regulation Authority (CRA), which “enforces the Iranian government’s requirements to filter Internet content through a spyware called SIAM” and the Ravin Academy, a body that has trained hackers “involved in directly disrupting the communication of those protesting against the Iranian regime.” Twelve regional corps of the IRGC are also included. 

EU countries — led by Germany, France and the Netherlands — have separately been discussing whether to go ahead and label IRGC a “terrorist organization.” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock tweeted in support on Monday, saying the move “is politically important and makes sense.” France has also kept the door open to the idea.

The United States has already designated the IRGC as a terrorist group and the UK is set to follow suit soon, as members of its House of Commons on Thursday unanimously voted for a motion that urges the government to designate IRGC as a terrorist organization. 

The feud with the International Chess Federation (FIDE) occurred after Bayat wore a T-shirt bearing the main motto of the current wave of antigovernment protesters "Women, Life, Freedom" at a tournament in Iceland in October, soon after rallies began following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. 

The 35-year-old international referee, who is among a string of sports figures to clash with authorities over the mandatory hijab policy and express solidarity with anti-government demonstrators, told Reuters that "I don't think it's normal to stay quiet about this,"

She noted that the FIDE had removed her from its arbiters' commission after she angered its President Arkady Dvorkovich, a former Russian deputy prime minister from 2012 to 2018.

Bayat, who was also accused by Iran of violating hijab practice at a tournament in 2020, said Dvorkovich asked her to change her attire in Iceland. She reappeared at the tournament in a yellow suit and blue blouse: the colors of the Ukrainian flag. FIDE confirmed Dvorkovich had requested she not wear the shirt about women's rights. 

Bayat accused Dvorkovich of succumbing to geopolitics, saying, "Iran and Russia are very united in the war against Ukraine. When I was told by Dvorkovich to take off my T-shirt, that was the reason probably. My T-shirt was not political at all ... It's one of the most beautiful women's rights messages in the world."