‘Not Enough’, US Lawmakers Slam Biden’s Response to Iran

According to reports, Iran's best-known filmmakers refused to attend the opening gala, critics criticized the organizers for their poor programming, and artists confronted officials for various reasons. The festival has become a political tool in the hands of hardliners to punish independent filmmakers and promote their loyalists.

Elnaz Shakerdoost, an actress who received awards in previous years, purchased a ticket last week to attend the festival movie house in Tehran where her new film, “Without A Body,” was being screened since she was not even invited to the opening ceremony. Shakerdoost decided to take the stage and address the audience about censorship.

The actress, considered a superstar, had been barred from official ceremonies due to her support of the 2022 protests in Iran and her advocacy for Iranian women defying compulsory hijab. She managed to make her way to the stage at the end of her movie and declare, "This is not a festival; this is a cultural war." As officials raised the music volume to drown out her speech, she added, "The officials screen the films they cannot find a reason to ban in the 'new look' section and effectively bury the movies alive forever."

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The festival this year, decided to pay tribute to director Parviz Sheikh-Tadi, known for making movies in support of the regime’s ideology. He is best known for his film, “Saturday Hunter,” full of conspiracy theories about Zionists controlling the world. Culture Minister Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili and two of the festival's officials ushered him to the stage, believing in his revolutionary credentials, unaware of any potential change in his views over the years.

Onstage, Sheikh-Tadi presented a tie as a gift to the Minister to make him appear tidy and serious, highlighting that hardliners in Iran used to cut people's ties, viewing them as a symbol of Western civilization. To embarrass the officials further, he took out a woman's headscarf and stated that it was futile to force women to wear it. The audience gave him a standing ovation, and the officials wore forced smiles, worried about what might happen next. The audience applauded every word Sheikh-Tadi uttered during his powerful protest act.

One film critic commented, "The videos and pictures of the event went viral, offering a valuable lesson for the officials. However, based on experience, we shouldn't be too optimistic." He pointed out that Sheikh Tadi shared political affiliations with the officials, making his message particularly impactful. "Who else should have told them what they needed to hear?" 

Yet another embarrassment came as Asghar Naimi, a filmmaker and a former journalist tried to enter the festival's venue to watch his film, “Two days Later,” with the audience. The festivals officials and the organizers' representatives did not recognize him and violently tried to stop him. Naimi, a strong man, forcefully made his way inside while chastising the officials, who seemed clueless about the festival's essence.

Naimi later commented that "those who fund the movies through connections with the state should stop ignoring Iran's independent cinema."

Even during its best periods under President Mohammad Khatami's reformist government (1997-2005), the Fajr Film Festival, dedicated to paying tribute to the 1979 Islamic revolution, remained a caricature of the pre-revolution Tehran International Film Festival, which showcased the best of Iranian and world cinema and attracted giants from the global film industry.

Abou-Es’haqi, an active member of the Lordegan Teachers' Union, was initially removed from his job in May 2023.

Abou-Es’haqi's expulsion was attributed to his active involvement in the 2022 anti-government protests, his solidarity with the families of government victims, and his artistic expressions through music and singing in sympathy with the protesters, alongside his participation in teachers' protests.

Iran's hardliners who control the parliament and the executive branch have been systematically replacing professional teachers and university professors with clerics and loyalists in the past one year.

Following the eruption of anti-regime protests in September 2022, security forces have been implicated in the deaths of more than 500 civilians, with hundreds more suffering severe injuries.

Numerous young protesters were also targeted with shotgun pellets, resulting in the loss of one or both eyes. Additionally, the regime detained approximately 22,000, encompassing journalists and hundreds of minors, in a widespread crackdown on dissent.

Iranian teachers have long been advocating for higher wages and pensions, highlighting their status as one of the lowest-paid classes of government employees.

The strikes, initiated after a drone attack in Jordan on January 28 that resulted in the deaths of three US troops and injuries to over 40 others, have yet to directly target Iranian forces.

The recent attacks in western Iraq near the Syrian border resulted in the deaths of 16 Iraqis with an additional 25 people wounded. Telegram channels affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards shared images of 10 Iraqi militiamen purportedly killed in the strikes.

Amid Washington's publicized intentions to target Iranian allies in the region, Tehran seems to have had time to prepare and relocate its personnel, avoiding significant casualties among senior Revolutionary Guard members.

“As long as US strikes in Iraq and Syria avoid killing senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard personnel, Tehran is unlikely to respond in kind,” added the report.

Some commanders in eastern Syria have reportedly moved to safe houses in densely populated areas or to southern regions where they can blend in with Syrian and Russian military forces.

Meanwhile, in Yemen, approximately 50 advisers from Iran's Guards and Hezbollah have relocated from coastal areas, where they were involved in missile and drone attacks on ships, to San'a, the de facto capital of the Houthi rebels.

While the US strikes may lead to a temporary decrease in attacks from Iran-backed militias, groups such as Yemen's Houthis and some Iranian proxies in Iraq have vowed to continue their activities until Israel ceases its operations in Gaza.

The banks are banned from accessing the Iraqi central bank's daily dollar auction, a main source of hard currency in the import-dependent country that has become a focal point of a US crackdown.

The measure was taken to reduce fraud, money laundering and other illegal uses of the US currency days after a visit by a top US Treasury official. The measures are in line with US regulations aimed at curbing the illegal siphoning of dollars to Iran and applying pressure on Tehran along with US sanctions imposed over its nuclear program and other disputes.

As an ally to both the United States and Iran, Iraq -- holding over $100 billion in reserves in the US -- heavily depends on Washington's goodwill to ensure access to its oil revenues that are kept in US banks.

Citing an Iraqi central bank document verified by an official at the bank, Reuters said the banned banks are Ahsur International Bank for Investment; Investment Bank of Iraq; Union Bank of Iraq; Kurdistan International Islamic Bank for Investment and Development; Al Huda Bank; Al Janoob Islamic Bank for Investment and Finance; Arabia Islamic Bank and Hammurabi Commercial Bank.

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A US Treasury spokesman said, "We commend the continued steps taken by the Central Bank of Iraq to protect the Iraqi financial system from abuse, which has led to legitimate Iraqi banks achieving international connectivity through correspondent banking relationships.”

The measures to restrict Iran's access to US dollars come amid high tensions between Washington and Tehran after three US soldiers were killed on January 28 by a drome attack launched by Iranian proxy militias operating in Iraq.

In July 2023, Iraq banned 14 banks from conducting dollar transactions as part of a wider crackdown on dollar smuggling to Iran via the Iraqi banking system. The decision came after a request from Washington, according to Iraqi and US officials. The targeted banks were mostly small institutions, even by Iraqi standards. Some of these banks have ties to influential Iraqis, who are known for financial connections to Iran, or have heavy involvement in dollar transactions. The sanctions, along with previous ones on eight banks, left nearly a third of Iraq's 72 banks blacklisted, two Iraqi central bank officials said.

Last week, the US Treasury Department's top sanctions official, Brian Nelson, met top Iraqi officials in Baghdad, and discussed how to protect the Iraqi and international financial system from criminal, corrupt and terrorist actors, a tacit reference to the Islamic Republic.

During the visit, the Treasury announced action against Al-Huda Bank, saying it was involved in diverting billions of US dollars to Iranian-backed militia groups.

Reuters quoted an unnamed Treasury official as saying that Washington expected Iraq to do more to help counter Iran-backed armed groups operating out of Iraq after the killing of three US soldiers in Jordan, which has prompted US-led military strikes against Iran-linked targets in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Iran International revealed in May, that an aide to former IRGC’s Quds force commander Qasem Soleimani is a key figure in money laundering for Tehran. Earlier in 2023, Iran International also reported some details about the inner workings of a Quds force unit tasked with smuggling money from Iraq to Iran, demonstrating that the Islamic Republic’s embassy in Iraq is also involved in the money laundering operations aimed at funneling revenues from oil and gas exports back to Iran.

This financial network is bypassing the US sanctions at the cost of the Iraqi economy. An informed source in Baghdad told Iran International late in December that Washington has received reports Iraq is still conducting trade with Iran using US dollars despite sanctions.

The United States has insisted that oil-rich Iraq, the OPEC group's second-largest producer, moves towards self-sufficiency in energy and power generation, and has put pressure on Baghdad to stem the flow of dollars into neighboring Iran.

The Iraqi dinar went into a tailspin against the dollar after the New York Federal Reserve imposed tighter controls on international dollar transactions by commercial Iraqi banks in November 2022 to halt the illegal siphoning of dollars to Iran.

Under the curbs that took effect in January 2023, Iraqi banks were obligated to use an online platform to disclose their transaction details.

Saeed Karimi, the Deputy Health Minister, said warnings had been given. "Out of the 350 hospitals expected to take action, only 200 have complied. As a consequence, licenses for 100 hospitals, including Gandhi hospital, have not been renewed."

Speaking to ISNA, he admitted that many of the hospitals have been operating for over 25 years and are in dire need of renovation.

On January 25, a large fire broke out at Gandhi hospital, a prominent healthcare facility in northern Tehran. The blaze engulfed the building's exterior facade, prompting an evacuation of the premises. There were no immediate reports of casualties, although the cause of the fire remained unknown.

Karimi said "dealing with the situation of hospitals is a multifaceted process" amid allegations that Tehran's hospitals are unsafe. In December, Ali Nasiri, the head of the Crisis Prevention and Management Organization in the Tehran municipality, said that the capital does not have adequate infrastructure and safety measures in place for hospitals.

While Iran's critical civilian infrastructure crumbles and the population is pushed ever deeper into poverty, the regime continues to fund billions each year into its proxy militias around the region.

With the upcoming elections, turnout is expected to be almost zero as Iranians feel desperately apathetic to the prospect of change, with deepening crackdowns on women's rights, spiralling execution rates and a crumbling economy.