US Calls On Iran To Release American Held For 2,500 Days

In an interview with Etemad Onlinein Tehran Safari, Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs explained that Iran relies on Russia for importing essential commodities and in return exports cement to Russia. "We lend our export capability to Russia," he said, adding that "Our trade volume with Russia is $5 billon and we want to increase it to $10 billion."

Safari said Russia is a powerful country in oil and gas and can invest in Iran in the same areas while also transferring technology to Iran. He added that "Iran can also swap Russia's gas and oil with other countries. We get gas from one country and sell it to another country and make some profit. This is our economic and geopolitical potential."

Lately, Iranian officials have spoken about gas swap with Russia. Receiving natural gas and selling it to neighboring countries. But in reality, only Iraq is need of gas, but it is not a customer of Russia.

Safari, who has studied electronic engineering and telecommunications at George Washington University is introduced by Iranian media as a Russia expert. The Etemad Online reporter characterized him as a man with a conservative character who refused to remove his face mask during the interview.

Meanwhile, Safari, a former Iranian ambassador to Russia and China, told Etemad Online that Iran has signed barter trade contracts with up to ten countries despite US sanctions, however, he declined to name those countries. Safari added that barter trade is Iran's solution to circumvent the sanctions.

He has been a member of Iran's nuclear negotiators team since the 2010s when ultraconservative politician Saeed Jalili was in charge of the negotiations. During the interview, says the reporter, he declined to share many information points, fearing that "the other side might take advantage."

Safari told Etemad Online that "sanctions do not mean death and there are many ways to nullify them." However, his only solution was barter trade. He said that despite the sanctions there are many ways to further international trade although sanctions mainly affect international banking. Asked what those ways were, Safari once again referred to barter.

He disagreed with Etemad Online that barter trade will inevitably increase the cost of transactions. While this can be true in normal circumstances, Iran faces sanctions and countries that agree to barter trade with Tehran would use it as leverage to enhance their profits. Barter also deprives the country of foreign currency it can invest for economic growth.

Prominent economic journalist Maryam Shokrani wrote in a series of tweets on Sunday, August 14, that "Russia has quoted a price ten times higher than usual for work on projects in Iran." She quoted the Transportation and Logistics Confederation as saying that "Iran is about to conclude a contract with Russia for constructing a railway between Garmsar and Inceborun.”

The reporter also quoted Meysam Lajevardi, a rail transport expert, as saying that a German company has offered a contract at one tenth of that amount for the same project."

Shjokrani added that Russia had offered no bank guarantee to Iran for that contract and wanted to bring 80 percent of the personnel needed for the project from Russia. She added that the government of President Hassan Rouhani had accepted those unlawful conditions and it appears that the Raisi administration has also submitted to the same conditions.

The demonstrators gathered in front of the governor’s office of Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari province amid a large presence of security forces and chanted slogans against the authorities, such as “Death to President Raisi” and “Down with the governor”.

According to Ahmad Rastineh, the city’s representative in the parliament, the problem stemmed from the recent flash floods in the region and the lack of any water treatment plant for the province.

In addition to the provincial capital Shahrekord, water is cut in four other cities due to the recent floods and increased water turbidity.

In April, a group residents had held another protest rally against a project to transfer water out of the province, causing scarcity in their region. Protesters carried placards and chanted slogans threatening to take up arms against the ‘mafia’ behind the redistribution project.

Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari, a traditionally water-rich region in the Zagros mountains, has seen its water resources decline due to both drought and projects to irrigate other arid regions.

In recent years, many cities across the country were scenes of massive protests against the authorities’ mismanagement of water resources or harmful dam building and politically motivated diversion of rivers that have devastated agriculture and drinking water sources.

Iran has been suffering from drought for at least a decade and this year officials have been warning of a further decrease in precipitation.

Both of these joint military drills, which started on Monday, August 15, are being held in Iran and Venezuela within the framework of Russia’s 2022 International Military Exercises, which was initiated by Moscow. Venezuela has been hosting the “Sniper Frontiers.”

“The goal, the spirit of these games is to unite cultures and peoples more” than to demonstrate military skills, said Venezuelan Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino Lopez, adding that a delegation of 200 Venezuelan soldiers has also been sent to Russia to participate in other events of these games.

The annual event was launched in 2015 at the initiative of Russia, and about 30 countries including China, Iran, India, Cuba, and Myanmar have participated in the maneuvers.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard also confirmed on Monday that it is holding joint drone exercises with Russia at the Kashan Air Base, adding that Belarus and Armenia are also partaking in the international UAV competitions.

Russia and Iran have expanded their strategic partnership since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Senior Russian and Iranian officials have met frequently in recent months to boost cooperation and sign economic and military agreements.

US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel reiterated on August 10 that Russian officials have undergone training in Iran in recent weeks as part of an agreement on the transfer of drones from the Islamic Republic.

An advisor to the Ukrainian President’s Office, Oleksiy Arestovych, said earlier in the month that Russia is using Iranian-provided military drones in its invasion of Ukraine, noting that Iran handed 46 drones over to Russia and that the Ukrainian government has already confirmed the use of these drones in combat in Ukraine. 

The United States military said in a statement that the Monday attacks in eastern Syria had no casualties, adding, "Operation Inherent Resolve forces, in coordination with our Maghaweir al-Thowra partners, responded to an attack by multiple unmanned aerial systems in the vicinity of Al-Tanf Garrison," located near where the borders of Syria, Jordan and Iraq meet.

Maghaweir al-Thowra are US-backed Syrian opposition fighters, trained by US and coalition troops at Al-Tanf to counter Islamic State (ISIS) militants.

On Tuesday, rockets were also fired at the Green Village at the US-controlled Al-Omar oil field in eastern Syria. The oil field in Deir ez-Zur province is Syria’s largest and US personnel and the YPG/PKK militants are present there. “The attack injured two US service members, one was treated and released, while the other is under evaluation for traumatic brain injury,” The Special Operations Joint Task Force-Levant said.

There was no claim of responsibility for either of the attacks but a Syrian opposition source told Israel’s Kan public broadcaster that Iran is believed to have carried out the attacks, and the Wall Street Journal said, “The shelling follows a long-running series of attacks on US forces and local partners in Iraq and Syria carried out by Iran and its allied paramilitary groups in the region.”

On Sunday, a series of Israeli airstrikes hit Iranian targets close to Russia's main Syrian bases on the Mediterranean coast and areas near the ancestral home region of the Syrian president. Three servicemen were killed and three were wounded in two simultaneous attacks south of the province of Tartous, and another on the northeastern outskirts of capital Damascus.

In a televised news conference on Tuesday, judiciary spokesperson Masoud Setayeshi said the Swedish national was arrested on April 17 but the case is still under investigation. 

“A number of documents were discovered from the detainee and are being investigated, and the preliminary investigation is confidential. Based on our clues, another charge may be brought against the suspect,” he said. 

Iran’s Intelligence Ministry said late in July that it has arrested a Swedish citizen in Iran on charges of espionage. The suspect, whose identity remains unknown, had been under surveillance by the ministry during several previous trips to Iran because of "suspicious behavior," including contacts with "European and non-European suspects who were under surveillance in Iran.”

The ministry added the suspect visited different cities across Iran which are not typical tourist destinations, and that the Swedish person had also travelled to Israel before visiting Iran.

The arrest was announced as Iran has “strongly condemned” a Swedish court’s sentencing of former Iranian jailor Hamid Nouri to life imprisonment over executions of political prisoners in 1988.

Late in June, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised its citizens against traveling to the Islamic Republic due to security risks to foreigners.

Tehran is already holding hostage Iranian-Swedish academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who is on death row.

Iran has been accused of wrongfully detaining foreign and dual nationals on trumped up charges, effectively as hostages to extract concessions from Western governments.