US To Keep Pressure On Iran, Not To Get Back To Any Deal – Senator

President Ebrahim Raisi’s hardliner government, that has so far refused to reach an agreement in the nuclear talks with the United States that would lift oil sanctions, has been insisting on collecting more taxes to bridge a budget deficit that is estimated to be at least 50 percent.

Aftab News, a relatively independent website in Tehran, said Wednesday that to compensate for lost oil export revenues the current budget calls for collecting 5.26 quadrillion rial in taxes, (that is 15 zeros).

That is hard to calculate in US dollars since there are a variety of exchange rates in Iran, but the sum is in the neighborhood of $20 billion. That might not seem like a big amount by Western standards, but in rials it is larger than the whole government budget was just three years ago.

Due to a huge fall in rials value, the budget has ballooned from 4.6 to 12 quadrillion rials since 2019.

Davood Manzur, the head of Iran’s tax department recently said that the government has succeeded in collecting 112 percent of scheduled taxes since March 21, the beginning of the Iranian calendar year. The amount cited was around 3 quadrillion rials.

Recently the government has gone after personal bank accounts, saying that if an account has more than 100 deposits in one month totaling to around $1,100, it will be considered tax liable as a commercial account.

Aftab news cited a business leader as saying that Iran has the highest tax collection rate in the Middle East, while Saudi Arabia is establishing tax-free zones to encourage economic growth in non-oil sectors.

While Iran struggles amid continuing US sanctions, with an annual inflation rate of around 50 percent and lack of investments, the growing tax burden is a toxic formula for the private sector.

Donya-e Eghtesad (World of Economy), the best-known business and economy website in Tehran published an article on September 7 about a survey of 40 business leaders and potential about what they thought of the prevailing condition in the country.

An overwhelming majority of 87 percent said they had no clear picture of the future for investments in Iran. Their main concern revolved around decision makers creating “instability”. More than half indicated that they were contemplating to take their capital out of the country, and most have either partially have already moved their businesses to other countries.

A huge exodus of capital to tune of up to $10 billion annually has been taking place, mostly to the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, where Iranians are the largest group of real estate buyers.

The businessmen cited persistent high inflation as a major manifestation of instability, as Iran has been printing money with an accelerated rate since the US imposed sanctions in 2018 after abandoning the nuclear agreement known as the JCPOA.

Higher taxes this year are undoubtedly another manifestation of erratic economic decision making by a government that its own hardliner supporters are now criticizing as inept.

Traditional Bazaar merchants in Tehran and other cities protested in June to the unfavorable economic conditions and specifically to higher taxes.

Last year, Iran International published a facial composite of Salarvand that was obtained from Lab-Doukhtegan (Sealed Lips) hacktivist group, and the new photo – released for the first time by an account called ‘3ackd0or’ on Tuesday – corroborated his identity. 

He is the head of the ‘Intelligence Group 13,’ which is apparently a sub-group within the Shahid Kaveh unit, headed by an IRGC cyber warfare commander, Hamidreza Lashkarian (Lashgarian)

Salarvand’s team was in charge of preparing a database of targets for cyberattacks, including cargo ships, gas stations and maritime control centers in the US and elsewhere.

The 30-year-old with a bachelor’s degree in information technology engineering from the South Branch of Tehran’s Azad University with a lower-than-average grade of 13, according to his BS certificate, which was also released by Lab-Doukhtegan. 

On Monday, Iran International released photos of key Iranian players in global cyberattacks who are affiliated with various government intelligence agencies in Tehran.

Last week, Albania cut diplomatic relations with Iran and expelled its diplomats and immediately its security forces entered the embassy compound looking for evidence.

The United States imposed sanctions on Iran’s intelligence ministry and its minister, with NATO also expressing support for its member state Albania.

Family members of someprisoners sentenced to death held protest rallies outside the building of the Iranian judiciary for nearly a week but on Saturday and Sunday security forces and plainclothesmen attacked them to end their protest.

At least twenty protesters were arrested, and some were beaten so badly that they had to be taken to hospital for treatment, according to information received by Iran International.

Informed sources say some of the detainees have been forced to sign written pledges promising not to take part in protests and have also been threatened that they will be charged with “assembly and collusion against the regime”, “disturbing public order”, and “insulting top officials” and prosecuted, that can carry long prison terms.

Detainees have also been warned not to speak with foreign-based Persian language media, which authorities always refer to as “hostile media”.

One of the parents of a death row prisoner told Iran International that intelligence agents threatened him with the arrest of his other children and their persecution for participation in the protests although his other children were never involved.

Videos posted on social media last week showed protesters including some children holding placards with words ‘No to Execution’ and ‘No Execution for Drugs’ and chanting ‘Don’t Execute’.

“I stand in solidarity with anguished relatives of death row prisoners in Iran who are protesting bravely to stop the execution of their loved ones. Iran’s authorities must abolish the death penalty, which is the ultimate cruel and inhumane punishment,” Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International and former UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Executions (2016-2021) tweeted Monday with the Persian hashtags ‘No to Execution’ and ‘Don’t Execute’.

The Islamic Penal Code of 2013 provides for the death penalty for a wide range of offences including murder, drug trafficking, adultery, and homosexuality as well as political crimes.

Most of those executed in Iranian prisons are convicted for drug trafficking or murder but anti-death-penalty activists say the regime uses executions as a political tool of intimidation, especially at times of political crisis.

“There are extensive, vague and arbitrary grounds in Iran for imposing the death sentence, which quickly can turn this punishment into a political tool,” Javaid Rehman, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, told the UN General Assembly in delivering his fourth annual report in July 2020.

“In addition, the structural flaws of the justice system are so deep and at odds with the notion of rule of law that one can barely speak of a justice system,” he said. “The entrenched flaws in law and in the administration of the death penalty in Iran mean that most, if not all, executions are an arbitrary deprivation of life,” Rehman said.

The number of executions has considerably increased in the past few months with most probably hundreds of executions not officially announced.

The US-based HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, on Monday reported a spate of executions in various prisons across the country in the past few days.

The judiciary this month sentenced two female LGBTQ rights defenders, Elham Chubdar and Zahra Sedighi Hamedani, to death for “promoting homosexuality”.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell’s spokesperson Peter Stano on Tuesday condemned the death sentences passed on LGBTQ activists. "The EU is fundamentally opposed to death penalty at all times and in all circumstances and aims at its universal abolition," he said adding that the EU is also firmly opposed to all forms of criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The source told Iran International’s correspondent on Tuesday that the rumors are lies and disinformation aimed at undermining diplomacy.

“Mr. Malley will brief members of Congress on the state of Vienna talks at a closed door briefing tomorrow [Wednesday] and will continue his efforts to restore the JCPOA and bring Americans back home,” the source added. 

The Times of Israel Monday quoted a “senior Israeli official” travelling with Prime Minister Yair Lapid in Berlin who said talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA, are dead. The official said the Israeli delegation had given “information to the Europeans that proved the Iranians are lying while the talks are still happening.”

The official had also claimed that the talks were “no longer in Malley’s hands,” with the US special envoy shunned aside. The State Department subsequently denied that Malley had eased out or that the US position had “toughened,” the Times of Israel reported.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Monday that it was not possible to give a timeline for the JCPOA talks. US officials, including Malley and Blinken, have said they will continue efforts to revive the 2015 agreement as long as this suits US national interests and has non-proliferation benefits.

Navid’s sister Elham Afkari, along with one of the four brothers, Habib, and his wife were arrested by security forces who have blocked roads leading to the grave.

Navid Afkari was arrested along with two of his brothers Habib and Vahid during protests in Iran in 2018 and was executed despite international campaigns to save his life. His other brother Saeed said in August that Vahid has been threatened with death in prison in Shiraz.

Habib Afkari was freed after months of solitary confinement in March, but Vahid is sentenced to 54 years and 6 months in prison and 74 lashes and is held in solitary confinement.

On Tuesday, Saeed confirmed the arrest of his family members and also released an audio recording from one of the hearings of Vahid that proved he was not given a fair trial. He initially received a death sentence for an “act of war against God” for his participation in protests, the authorities later charged him and his brothers with the murder of a government employee.

Amnesty International said in June 2021 that Vahid and Habib were being subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in Adel-Abad prison in Shiraz, and were denied access to adequate healthcare, fresh air, telephone calls and face to face family visits.