US Senate Introduces Resolution Against Iran’s Persecution Of Women

Critics have been accusing the Biden administration of not seriously implementing sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump, while negotiating with Tehran to revive the 2015 nuclear accord, the JCPOA. They argue that a substantial increase in Iranian oil exports to China occurred when President Joe Biden assumed office. This in turn made Iran more intransigent in nuclear talks that began in April 2021.

The latest warning came on September 23 from an advocacy group, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), opposed to the revival of the JCPOA. In a report UANI argued that since President Joe Biden’s election, China has bought around $38 billion of crude oil from Iran in violation of US third-party sanctions.

The US State Department spokesperson Ned Price on September 28 evaded a question from Iran International during his daily briefing about the UANI report.

“I think what we can say with some confidence is that some of the open-source statistics have been inflated, and that is the case when it comes to certain reports of Iranian oil exports to the PRC,” Price said when he was asked about the administration’s response to the UANI report.

But the shipment of at least 750,000 barrels of crude per day to China has been reported by industry sources, news agencies and experts since early 2021, which triggered the warnings by critics of the administration’s Iran policy. Although prices Iran charges small Chinese refineries is a secret and it is reported that discounts are offered, Iran must have earned close to $30 billion in this period by shipping 350-400 million barrels of crude to China.

Although this is far below the heyday of Iran’s $100 billion annual oil export earnings around 2010, but it was sufficient to convince Tehran that it can weather the economic pressure while negotiating with the Biden administration.

Now, the Biden administration is left with no discernible Iran policy except tightening enforcement of sanctions, the same ‘maximum pressure’ strategy Trump was using when he lost the 2020 election.

In addition, a popular revolt against the clerical regime in Tehran has exposed the degree to which the rulers are willing to use violence against their own citizens, forcing the Biden team to impose new human rights sanctions.

The protests were triggered by the death in custody of a 22-year-old woman who received fatal blows to her head while being arrested for “inappropriate hijab”. Both her killing and the ensuing protests have generated a high level of international support for the people in Iran, which can be a double nail in the coffin of the JCPOA talks.

A renewed deal would have released tens of billion of dollars for the Islamic Republic and in the current atmosphere of human rights violations by Tehran, signing a nuclear agreement that would lift sanctions and enrich the government, seems improbable.

The Biden administration has apparently reached the conclusion that Iran does not want a nuclear agreement, which would mean that the way it tried to revive the JCPOA simply allowed Iran to sell more oil and greatly advance its nuclear program. It calculated that maybe it can reach the nuclear weapons threshold and have enough income to survive.

Activists believe the daytime protest on Saturday, at the beginning of the week in Iran, will show the power of their movement. So far, most protests have started in the evening hours lasting till midnight.

Images and reports also say that some women have already shed their hijab and appear in the streets without a headscarf, not just in Tehran but even in other locations.

Another development is that calls for commercial strikes seem to have produced results, as shops closed in some areas on Thursday. Activists are urging workers and businesses to go on strike to put more pressure on the government.

Authorities have arrested around 20 journalists and several celebrities who have voiced support for the protests.

State television is organizing relatively open debates focused on the issue of hijab, trying to portray the protests as a single-issue movement, while protesters everywhere are calling for a regime change, chanting against dictatorship and the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Some observers have commented that the regime is concerned about the situation as protests pop up in many cities and towns and security forces show signs of fatigue after almost two weeks of daily protests.

International pressure is also increasing, especially from European leaders and government. Germany is reported to be seeking European Union human rights sanctions on individuals involved in suppressing dissent. A report in the Washington Free Beacon on Wednesday also said that the Biden Administration regards the nuclear talks with Iran as having failed.

We will update information on protests Thursday night in Iran, starting at 21:00 local time.

Iran International cannot verify the full authenticity or details of videos posted on Twitter, but we use our best judgement to share what we believe is not disinformation.

Our live coverage of Thursday protests ended at 01:15 local time on Friday.

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A new video from Sanandaj in western Iran. Protesters are in the streets as gun shots ring out.

A woman in Yasooj, Ilam Province in southwest, shved her head during protests on Thursday. Security forces used firearms and arrested her. She was taken to an unknown location.

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Young protesters in the streets of Qom, the most important Shiite religious city in Iran where the main seminaries are located. They are chanting, "Don't fear anything, We are together".

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Another video from Qom showing tear gas being fired at protesters.

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Gunshots are heard in the western city of Sanandaj. Video quality is poor but the screams point to possibly protesters getting hurt.

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Demonstrators pulled down a propganda banner in the northern city of Noshahr Thursday evening and cheered.

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"Justice, Freedom, Hijab by choise" was a slogan chanted in a demonstration on Thursday in the religious city of Mashhad. Interestingly, some women with full hijab were among the protesters.

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A video shows two homemade explosive devices thrown at the Prisons' Organization headquarters in Tehran at 22:00 on Wednesday.

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Security forces Thursday raided the home of famous former football (soccer) player Hossein Mahini to arrest him but he was not home. They confiscated all the electronic equipment of the family.

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Large protest in Kermanshah, a provincial center in western Iran. Crowds are chanting that Khamenei's son will never succeed his father, after rumors that the top leadership has been grooming Mojtaba Khamenei to become Supreme Leader after his ailing 83-year-old father dies.

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Protesters in Sanandaj, Kurdish-populated city in western Iran, chanting "Death to Khamenei".

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There is visual evidence of businesses shutting their doors in protest. Activists have been calling for strikes to put further pressure on the government. The picture below is from district of shoemakers in Tehran but there were also commercial strikes in Esfahan.

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The video below shows all businesses closed on Amir-Kabir Boulevard in Esfahan on Thursday.

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Funeral of a protester killed in Rasht that took place on Thursday. Mourners are performing a religious ceremony by beating their chests.

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One technique people use to amplify the protests is for people who drive honking horns. It is difficult for security forces to identify which car is honking in a street full of traffic.

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Protest in the northern city of Rasht Thursday evening, with possible clashes taking place neaby with security forces.

On Thursday, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned an international network of companies involved in the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian petrochemicals and petroleum products to end users in South and East Asia.

Several Iranian brokers and front companies in the UAE, Hong Kong, and India that have facilitated financial transfers and shipping of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products were targeted in the new move.

“These entities have played a critical role in concealing the origin of the Iranian shipments and enabling two sanctioned Iranian brokers, Triliance Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (Triliance) and Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Commercial Co. (PGPICC), to transfer funds and ship Iranian petroleum and petrochemicals to buyers in Asia,” the Treasury said.

In addition to the measures by the Treasury, the Department of State designated two China-based entities, namely Zhonggu Storage and Transportation Co. Ltd. and WS Shipping Co. Ltd., for their involvement in Iran’s petrochemical trade.

Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson said, “The United States is committed to severely restricting Iran’s illicit oil and petrochemical sales. So long as Iran refuses a mutual return to full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the United States will continue to enforce its sanctions on the sale of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products.”

According to the police, at least two people sustained light injuries during the angry demonstration. The police added that “considerable resources" were deployed, and the situation was brought under control.

Also on Thursday, Taliban forces used gunfire to disperse a women's rally in the Afghan capital Kabul in support of the protests in Iran over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody of the hijab police for "inappropriate clothing.”

Chanting the same "Women, life, freedom" mantra used in Iran, dozens of Afghan women protested in front of the Iranian embassy before Taliban forces fired into the air. Women in headscarves carried banners that read, "Iran has risen, now it's our turn!" and "From Kabul to Iran, say no to dictatorship!"

An organizer said that the rally was staged "to show support and solidarity with the people of Iran and the women victims of the Taliban in Afghanistan".

Since the Iranians have risen up against the Islamic Republic following her death, protest rallies are being held regularly inside Iran and abroad.

French police used tear gas and employed anti-riot tactics September 25 to prevent protesters from marching on Tehran's embassy in Paris as several hundred expatriates and human rights activists gathered to protest against Iran’s crackdown on demonstrations.

Officials, who only refer to the protests as “riots” and blame “foreign enemies”, claimed Thursday that ‘rioters’ are back in their homes, and all is quiet now, before protests resumed in the afternoon.

“The recent riots have ended, and security has been established in Tehran which has been secure in the past few nights,” governor of Tehran Province, Mohsen Mansouri said Thursday. “We will take action against celebrities who fanned the fire of the riots,” he said.

Authorities also say they have arrested some of the “leaders of the riots” in various cities and threatened to take action against celebrities many of whom have published posts on social media supporting the protesters’ cause and condemning violence against them.

Reports on social media Wednesday, however, portrayed a different picture. These reports said protesters were staging smaller flash mob style protests in many areas amid the very heavy presence of security forces and plainclothes agents, who had turned out in large numbers on foot and on motorbikes, amid serious disruption of the internet.

Various reports point to a situation of physical and psychological fatigue for security forces, as protesters seem determined to persevere.

Disruption of the internet has seriously affected uploading of footage from protests on social media platforms all of which are now blocked. Some new footage of protests from previous days is still emerging on social media. Mostafa Faghihi, managing director of Entekhab website, in a tweet Wednesday said he had to try various VPNs for five hours to finally access his Twitter account at four in the morning.

Calls to strike have come from various groups, including teachers and university students. In a video posted on the union’s Twitter Wednesday a truck driver says some drivers have been on strike for three days but have not been able to inform others of their call to strike due to internet disruptions. On Thursday, the coordination council of contracted oil industry workers issued a statement saying they would go on strike if suppression of protesters and arrests continue.

Meanwhile, media have been gagged from reporting the protests altogether. There were no photos and no headlines referring to the protests on the front pages of newspapers, but a few have ventured some mild criticism of the situation. Hardliner newspapers such as the IRGC-linked Javan newspaper, however, beat on the drums of revenge against celebrities for siding with protesters. “The Law’s Priority Is Punishing Rioter Celebrities”, Javan printed across its front-page Thursday.

Authorities have also targeted journalists. Niloufar Hamedi from the reformist Sharq newspaper, who had reported Mahsa’s case from the hospital with a photo of the young woman in coma was arrested several days ago whileElaheh Mohammadi, a journalist with the reformist Ham Mihan newspaper, who had reported the funeral of Mahsa Amini, the young woman whose death in custody sparked the protests, from her hometown Saqqez in Kordestan Province, was also arrested Thursday.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on Wednesday published a list of 16 journalists arrested in Iran since the protests began.