The sanctions announced by the US Treasury Department on Thursday, targeted the entities cooperating with Iran’s Mahan Air, Caspian Air, Meraj Air, Pouya Air and Dena Air, which operates the airplane Iranian President Rouhani uses for his official travels.

According to Bourseandbazaar, an Iranian business news site, Dena Airways is the company which operates EP-DAA, an Airbus A340. Until November 2017, the aircraft was registered to Meraj Airways, an entity that was previously sanctioned as part of the Specially Designated Nationals list, known as the SDN list.

In Early February, German fuel companies refused to refuel Iranian foreign minister’s plane out of fear they would violate US sanctions against Iran.
The incident almost prevented Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif from attending the Munich Security Conference.

The US also imposed sanctions against nine Iranian and Turkish individuals and companies after President Trump withdraw from the nuclear deal between Iran and five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. Under the deal, US was obligated to avoid imposing new sanctions against Iran.

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A Persian version of this article published on November 3 edition of Iran’s state newspaper Jam-E-Jam. IFPNews.com translated the article into English and published it on November 5.

The global reactions to the temporary restriction of social media in Iran amid the recent unrest raises a serious question for Iranian people: if the freedom of Internet is so much important for other countries, why don’t we see any major reaction to the anti-Iran technology sanctions?
“Use of this service is restricted for your country.” This is a sentence that has deprived Iranian elites from having free access to information, and has for years kept Iranians from enjoying full benefits of the Internet and modern technologies.

Iranian people are considered first-class citizens of the global village only when it comes to the use of Internet for inviting people to street riots. However, if an Iranian wants to use the online territory for science and research, the “visa ban” applies to him/her.

Internet sanctions are good, but just for Iran!

We will later name several countries that have restricted social media in order to ensure their national security without any severe political and media pressure. We can even conclude that during the recent unrest, the Iranian government has shown much more tolerance than the Western countries who claim to be protectors of citizens’ rights. However, the important point is to understand that maintaining peace, security, and national interests is the top priority of any state. All countries, even those whose media is spreading propaganda against the Iranian government, would implement various restrictive measures in emergency situations in order to ensure their security.

Despite all these points, the international media harshly criticized the Iranian government for restricting people’s access to Telegram and made a fuss about it. This, however, has create a more serious question for Iranian netizens: if the freedom of Internet and the Iranians’ use of online services is so much important for other countries and international media, why have they refused to show any major reaction to the fact that Iranian people are deprived of using many online services due to sanctions? Iranian netizens are tired of receiving the message “this service is not provided for your country”. The United States’ widespread technology sanctions, in many cases, have even deprived Iranian people from receiving online training courses, web hosting services, Google’s specialized services, and the like. What is the difference between the Western governments’ restriction of professional Internet services for Iranian users and the Iranian government’s move to restrict certain online services in order to counter street riots?

A decision to restrict the Iranian people’s access to Instagram and Telegram messaging app amid the recent unrest in Iran has made the headlines within the past few days. The decision seems to be mainly aimed at preventing the activities of certain Telegram channels and Instagram pages that published fake news, spread rumors, and incited violence.

Blocking the Internet is bad, but just for Iran!

As expected, immediately after Iran’s decision to restrict access to Telegram and Instagram, which was made in order to prevent the expansion of rioters’ activities, foreign media started criticizing the Iranian government’s decision, describing it as a violation of freedom and civil rights. However, Iran is not the only country that restricts social media in order to control street unrest and prevent the spread of violence.

In August 2011, unrest and street violence broke out in London and several other cities in the UK after the British police killed a 29-year-old man. The British government believed the rioters coordinated their moves using social media, and thus it asked Facebook, Twitter, and Blackberry to restrict these people’s access. Some of these networks accepted the request, but UK Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons that his government was “working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.” At the same time, the UK police announced it would arrest anyone who sends violence-promoting messages using the Blackberry Messenger.

In exactly the same month, the US government shut down cell phone services, including mobile Internet access, in several parts of San Francisco in an attempt to control violence that had resulted from the police’s killing of a number of black and homeless people. The US officials believed that protesters were coordinating their plots to exacerbate the violence using online services.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) of the US also includes protocols for limiting the access of citizens and mobile phone users to the Internet at the time of a national crisis. However, the US government has used the Act even against those who protested the construction of North Dakota oil pipeline.

Even France, which claims to be an advocate of Western liberties, has shown no mercy to the Internet and social media users whenever it comes to national security and interests. In 2015, France used an armed attack on Charlie Hebdo’s office as a pretext to block many websites. It even approved an emergency law that allowed the French interior minister to restrict websites and social media if deemed necessary. In 2016, the French ministry of justice arrested at least 39 people just for visiting websites that, according to the ministry, were affiliated with terrorists. Later in 2017, the French government urged the removal of videos related to the 2016 armed attacks on Nice. In the same year, the access of 11 million French people to Google, Wikipedia, and some other websites was temporarily blocked.

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Crude prices dropped below $28 a barrel earlier this week due to the expected rise in Iranian exports after the sanction against Tehran was lifted.

The group of P5+1 decided to revoke the international sanctions that disable Iran in exporting approximately 2 million barrels per day (bpd), as part of the landmark nuclear accord reached between Iran and six world powers. Prior to the sanction, Iran exported 2.3 million bpd, which fell to one million in 2011 and 2012.

As a member of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries), Iran issued an order to increase their production by 500,000 bpd. Currently, the country has at least a dozen very large crude carrying super-tankers in-place to export to potential buyers.

However, investors fear that the lifting of the sanction could worsen the already existing oversupply of crude worldwide, especially in the United States. Since Iran’s sanction has been lifted, other OPEC members will now be able to export oil across the already weak markets, which are currently plagued by an energy supply surplus.

Even with a surplus of crude worldwide, extraction of fossil fuel is still very much ongoing in the top producing nations in the Middle East, including Iran and Iraq.

At the minute, global oil companies are planning to cut investments and projects to safeguard their future, due to declining price of crude.

“Companies want to reduce their range of activity and pick those with the highest returns on capital,” said Brendan Warn, oil and gas equity analyst.

But, construction and rehabilitation of gas pipes and gas treatment plants are still visible in West Qurna and other Middle Eastern territories. Oil and gas solution companies have been utilising local workers to help the regions provide stable maintenance support staff as well as building good relations with the country due to the high percentage of local labour employed by said oil and gas companies.

“We have established a strong network of relationships with local construction companies. These factors along with our dedication to HSE, ethics and compliance, and security have given us a successful track record of utilising local capabilities and managing the risks of working in challenging locations,” said Cyrus Ahsani, CEO of one of the top oil and gas solutions in the Middle East.

It’s not all bad though as OPEC members expect to see the price of crude regain its footing in the market this year, as they forecast the non-OPEC producers to have difficulty in sustaining production over the next six months due to the continuing low oil price.

“With market participants likely opting for the worst outcome, which would swell the global oversupply even further, lower prices are required to shut-in production from non-OPEC countries, particularly the U.S. These adjustments are likely to (contribute to) even more company defaults related to oil, as well as less investment spending across the oil sector,” said UBS analysts Giovanni Staunovo and Dominic Schnider to CNBC.

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“Iran has been in sanctions condition for the past 12 years, and Russia is sanctioned too; so we have some joint interests to discuss. I look over the Iranian market and we know Iran has great experiences in working in these sanctions conditions which is much favored by Russia,” Sergey Lasutenko said in an interview with IransView’s Mojtaba Mousavi.

He said Iran and Russia are two of the biggest oil and gas countries in the world; adding Iran has great oil and gas reserves as Russia does and both countries have some big experiences in exploration and production of crude oil and other hydrocarbon products.

“We have some very close views on the market. The idea is to unify our forces. It is work of professionals to promote these ideas but the potentials in political and economical situations are very big. I think it will be very fruitful to cooperate,” he added.

He said Gazprom does not have many activities in Iran at the moment but it will be doing major projects in the near future.

“In the field of exploration, we can cooperate with Iran. Iran has a lot of experiences in constructing some machines and tools for drilling under the sanctions,” he said.  

He added Gazprom is estimating the Iranian market to estimate the Iranian forcibility and work of equipment production.

“We have technologies and Iran has its own. We have a great experience in offshore works. Gazprom is very good at sea drilling. We know that Iran has two seas: the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea; the Persian Gulf is very rich with gas and oil reserves and we can cooperate in the field.”

Iran and Russia are much closer than Iran and the US, he said, adding Tehran and Moscow have some platform to discuss in the oil and gas sectors.

Both Iran and Russia have great experience in drilling. Russia’s Gazprom has the biggest pipeline systems in the world, he said.

The post Gazprom after Iranian Savvy Developed Under Sanctions first appeared on .

The post US Ups The Ante In Iran Sanctions first appeared on .

The two countries had agreed to settle bilateral trade in rupees after it became difficult for India to route payments to Iran because of the sanctions.

India is Iran’s second-biggest oil client after China.

While Iran is pursuing diplomacy through negotiations with so-called P5+1 group consisting United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, to settle longtime dispute with west over its nuclear program, US is using unilateral sanctions to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear program, which the West believes is aimed at making a bomb but Iran insist is for civilian use.

India exported goods from Iran worth $3.36 billion in 2012-13 while its imports were $ 11.6 billion, prompting New Delhi to look for more items to sell to the country.

“We visited Iran and suggested sectors they could look at including engineering, power, steel, auto and pharma. They are keen on automobile and pharma for now,” said a commerce ministry official, adding that the country did not appear keen on a larger trade agreement.

Under the rupee arrangement, India makes part payment into a rupee account maintained with UCO BankBSE 0.06 %. Iran uses this account to import goods from India, reducing the need for routing dollar payments through third country.

A delegation led by Indian commerce secretary SR Rao had visited Iran last month when India presented many import options to Iran to reduce the $11 billion trade deficit it ran with the country last year.

Automobiles and pharmaceuticals are India’s biggest exports adding up to $18.4 billion and $14.6 billion in 2012-13. Currently, India’s exports comprise mainly of agriculture and processed goods and more recently, pharma. Iran had rejected Indian wheat citing quality issues.

The arrangement suits Iran, which was importing most of the automobiles and auto components from EU, but after the sanctions were imposed is facing some difficulty. Indian automakers already meet the stringent quality norms and are in position to meet Iranian demands.

The Iranian industry is working at one-third lower capacity due to problems in importing auto parts. Iran has most European and Japanese, South Korean brands of cars, trucks and buses. India enjoys competitive advantage as it is being driven by R&D, said FIEO.

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Military threats coupled with economic sanctions from the US and the EU has hurt Iran’s economy and its currency lost almost two thirds of its value; Meaning that the people can buy less and their income doesn’t match the increasing prices.

The People’s Participation in the Election Despite Domestic Instability

Military threats aren’t the only problem Iranian people are dealing with today. It has been quite some time since some Iranian officials are dissenting on domestic issues.

Iran is passing its most tense situation. As we move closer to the Presidential Election each party tries to gather the public’s attention and reach power. Even the patriot “Principalists” party is facing divisions among themselves.

This tension began after the Presidential Elections in 2009. Reformist candidates rejected the outcome and claimed fraud in the voting process and encouraged voters to take the protest to the streets. Protests began slowly and over time it turned Iran into turmoil and the street protests lasted 8 months. It all ended when masses of people came to the streets and demanded the trial of the leaders of the unrest.

Last year Iran held Parliamentary Elections which was the first elections after the 2009 unrest. International sanctions had the highest impact and people were facing growing economic problems. The dissent between the Majlis (Parliament) and the government flared up as the Majlis insisted on questioning the President for his actions. Because of the discontent among the people analysts expected a very low participation in the elections. But at 65% the voter turnout was even higher than the previous Parliamentary elections.

People Unity Regarding Nuclear Issue

Nuclear Energy is just the West’s bargaining chip to pressure Iran. With this in hand they have been able to enforce an all-out assault on Iran, ranging from psychological warfare to every kinds of sanctions and economic pressures.

Despite all the sanctions and pressures from the US to cancel Iran’s nuclear program Iran has been able to reach 20% uranium enrichment and claims that every details of the knowledge was achieved within Iran without any foreign help.

Four nuclear scientists have been murdered in terrorist acts in the past two years. This shows how advanced Iran’s nuclear program is that they are trying to stop it with terrorist acts. It is believed that these attacks were made by Mossad agents to cause fear among those associated with this technology. But after these attacks many Iranian college students said they wanted to change their field of study to nuclear physics to fill the place of those martyred scientists and insure that nuclear technology would thrive.

A Public Poll shows 63% of Iranians are in favor of the nuclear program.

The Gallop Institution revealed that its surveys show that Iranians blame the US for sanctions and they fully support their nuclear program. It seems that one of the goals of imposed sanctions by Obama is to distance people from their government. But Iranians are in favor of their nuclear program however the questionnaire was designed to indicate economic problems as the main result of the sanctions.

The question was this: Given the impact of the economic sanctions against Iran should Iran continue to develop its nuclear capabilities? About 63% said yes, 17% said no and 19% refused to answer. They blamed the US for sanctions and 1 in 5 of them blamed the Iranian government. While less than that blamed the EU and the UN.

With these surveys analysts knew that the Iranian people would close ranks and defend their national interests against foreign enemies. After 34 years of sanctions Iran is on its feet.

8 years of war between Iran and Iraq supports this fact. During this war Iran was effectively held hostage by 30 different countries. This means many countries were in the enemy front lines helping Saddam’s regime. Iran was under strict sanctions and countries refused to sell her military equipment. According to Iranian officials Iran couldn’t even purchase barbed wire.

Iranian regime with the help of the media showed there are other economic difficulties in the EU and the US so Iranians haven’t felt alone in the global financial crisis.

Iranians see OWS (Occupy Wall Street) as a result of the pressures that American people are facing. Many European countries are having a budget deficit and people in many countries like Spain Italy and Greece are showing the discontent in street violence.

But the Iranian government proudly says that unlike the US and the EU Iran’s problem are caused by outsiders and sanctions. Handling these pressures can result in Iran’s self-sufficiency, advancement and victory. This may be the reason why in Iran the economic pressures don’t end in street violence.

Street reports indicate that although the prices are overwhelmingly increasing especially for essential goods Iran is having calm days.

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Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, met with thousands of Iranian labors ahead of international Labors’ Day, on Saturday morning.

He spoke about the Iran’s upcoming 11th Presidential Elections, how to counter sanctions and how to empower domestic production.

He has previously named the Iranian New Year as the year of “Political and Economic Epic” and said, “One of the prominent examples of political achievement would be the Elections, which will be held on schedule.”

With only 47 days to the Elections, the Leader invited people from different parties once again: “Anyone from any party, who feels he’s capable, can enter the Presidential race.”

He stressed the “People’s significant participation” and said, those with ill will are trying to shatter people’s willingness to participate in the Elections in order to derail political achievements.

He also called objections against the Guardian Council establishment irrational and said, “We are blessed with the Guardian Council in the Islamic Republic. Imam Khomeini fully supported this establishment. The Guardian Council’s assessment is done by a community of honest people who take no sides and are aware of the requirements.”

He said those who want to become candidates should know what the executive management of the country is and they should know what the country needs and how far they can go.

He also criticized those inexperienced candidates and said, “Those who are willing to become candidates should know what the country needs and how far they can go.” The following statement was made because a growing number of politicians declared candidacy while some of them have no significant experience in executive management.

Prediction of harder economic situations and criticism of Ahmadinejad’s Economy

In reaction to the U.S. and its allies pursuing their sanctions against Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei reiterated: “Our economic policy should be based on an economy of resistance during sanctions, so its firm structure wouldn’t be influenced by world events.”

The Leader also said that an economy of resistance during sanctions is different from the economic policies pursued by other countries.

He indirectly criticized an unbalanced economic policy in Ahmadinejad’s administration in the last two years and said, “Daily decision making on economy issues, constantly changing them, seeking non-professional advise and believing in Western or Eastern structures of economy, are harmful to the country and our economy policy should be based on an economy of resistance during sanctions.

Iran’s Leader said, “Economy hardships and discontent in the West are confirming the failure of Capitalist economic policy.”

He believes that what we see in the U.S. and EU is the tip of the iceberg and things will deteriorate because Capitalism is in decline.

After economic reforms, coupled with rising sanctions against Iran, domestic production faced a lot of hurdles. Because many ingredients couldn’t make their way to Iranian factories and the government refused to pay subsidies and instead, gave it directly to people, as a monthly payment. This has caused a leap in inflation and consequently, more discontent of the government.

This happened exactly in the year which was supposed to be the year of “supporting Iranian workers and their funds”. The Leader reiterated many times that the government and people should support manufacturing.

He called on Iranian people to buy goods “Made in Iran”. He ordered governmental organizations not to use any foreign goods for their needs.

It seems that Iran’s Leader predicts that his country will face more severe sanctions and harder economic situations. His new policies are implementing a counter-sanctions economy that can withstand forceful pressures from the West; because he reiterated that Iran will not give up its nuclear enrichment rights.

Now we can better understand his comments on the required characteristics of the future President: “Iranian people are pursuing big ambitions and achievements and won’t surrender and no one can bully them. So, the President should be someone who is brave and hard-working against the threats of the enemies and won’t retreat.

If a huge leap in the economy should be the center of attention in the executive and legislative establishment of the country then we would not counter any political hardship.”

One other topic that the Leader elaborated on was his advice to every administration. “I have supported different Administrations and Presidents in the past years and also questioned them on various issues. My main concern was that the administrations should not create difficulties and stress in people’s lives.” He said, governments should not make unreachable promises, but they should progress in a reasonable way.”

Critics believe that “inflation” and “baseless promises” are two problems in Ahmadinejad’s administration. The majority of the criticisms against 10th administration are about the economic issues, involving inflation and domestic production.

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Manouchehr Mottaki, who served as Iran’s Foreign Minister from 2005 to 2010, and has now announced his candidacy for the Presidential elections in June, told Iran’s Supreme Leader in the last months of his service that “We are ready to reach an agreement with the P5+1.”

“[In this scenario] we also should make the West accept our rights and allow them to announce that they convinced Iran to accept their demands,” Mottaki said as he explained his plan to Ayatollah Khamenei.

The plan, apparently, proposed to accept of some of the P5+1 demands as a face-saving step for the western side.

Speaking in a conference of “Union of Islamic Societies of Independent Students” in Tehran, Mottaki said on Friday that he suggested Iran should declare the Supreme Leader’s Nuclear Fatwa (religious edict, declaring that the production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons are all prohibited in Islam), and increase cooperation with the IAEA, despite all of their sabotages.

“The Supreme leader accepted my plan, [then] we discussed it with President Ahmadinejad and [following his order] a 4- member team was formed,” he said. “but unfortunately I was dismissed after a few months,” Mottaki said.

On 13 December 2010, Mottaki was dismissed as foreign minister – while on an official tour of Africa – by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

President Ahmadinejad appointed the country’s then top nuclear official, Ali Akbar Salehi, to replace Mr Mottaki.

“We were [running] in a marathon, we had to manage sanctions and perform our policies simultaneously,” He said about his serving period as Iran’s Foreign Minister.

“On the nuclear issue since 2005 we have arrived at a new battle, we reached self-sufficiency in uranium enrichment and consequently are facing fresh pressures from the West,” Mottaki asserted saying “…for the one who has the upper hand, retreating will make him the loser.”

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council formulates the country’s nuclear policy. The nuclear policies formulated by the council would become effective if they are confirmed by the Supreme Leader. The Secretary of the council, Saeed Jalili acts as the chief nuclear negotiator of Iran.

Latest round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 group held April 5^th and 6^th in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

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Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, The supreme leader of Iran on March 21, 2013 (Persian year 1392), in his most important annual speech which he makes on the first day of each Persian New Year, evaluated sanctions against Iran and their effects on the country during this last year (1391).

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