Iran TV Chief Downplays Brothers' Defection

He added that recent exploration had shown a diverse portfolio of uranium in the Arab state, the world's top oil exporter.

Saudi Arabia has a nascent nuclear program that it wants to expand to eventually include uranium enrichment, a sensitive area given its role in nuclear weapons. Riyadh has said it wants to use nuclear power to diversify its energy mix.

It is unclear where its ambitions end, since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in 2018 that the kingdom would develop nuclear weapons if regional rival Iran did.

"The kingdom intends to utilize its national uranium resources, including in joint ventures with willing partners in accordance with international commitments and transparency standards," Abdulaziz bin Salman said.

He told a mining industry conference in Riyadh that this would involve "the entire nuclear fuel cycle which involves the production of yellowcake, low enriched uranium and the manufacturing of nuclear fuel both for our national use and of course for export".

Atomic reactors need uranium enriched to around 5% purity, but the same technology in this process can also be used to enrich the heavy metal to higher, weapons-grade levels.

This issue has been at the heart of Western and regional concerns about Iran's nuclear program and led to the 2015 deal between Tehran and global powers that capped enrichment at 3.67%.

The pact unraveled after then-President Donald Trump exited the deal in 2018, and efforts to salvage the agreement have stalled since September.

Reporting by Reuters

Reformist newspaper Shargh wrote in a January 10 article that Expediency Council members have also become critical of the Raisi administration's inability to prepare the country's annual budget bill and the related 5-year development plan, as well as rising inflation and the devaluation of Iran's national currency.

Shargh further asked whether the conservatives are going to lose their patience in the face of the government's indecision and inaction while the country's worst economic crisis continues with an ever-increasing momentum.

At the same time, “poverty has been spreading” to large parts of the Iranian society while the government has not introduced any plan to support the low-income strata and prevent further shrinking of Iran's middle class, the daily wrote.

Conservative economist and a member of the Expediency Council Ahmad Tavakoli has recently warned the Raisi administration and Iran's conservative-dominated parliament: You may not be too far from the day when the poor pour into the streets and put an end to the current situation." He further warned: "Please do not do something that might lead to a revolt by the poor."

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Tavakoli also criticized members of Iran's parliament for approving or rejecting economic issues including the bill about capital gains tax without having read at least two pages about the matter.

Meanwhile, another member of the Expediency Council, Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghaddam, who is also a member of the right-wing Militant Clerics Association, said in an interview with Khabar Online: "The structural problem of Iran's economy is that we do not produce wealth. We simply distribute the resources. People see the situation in other countries…about better living standards."

Mesbahi added: "Iranians need to spend more money than they earn and the Iranian government's expenses are more than its revenues. As a result, both Iranian families and the Iranian government have to constantly borrow money to make ends meet."

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He said, "Unfortunately the Iranian government lacks a strategic vision and does not have the right people to pursue a strategy. Raisi used to say during the 2021 presidential election that he has a 7000-page economic plan on his desk. I asked him to show me the plan, but he did not have anything. I offered him some suggestions, but he insisted on his opposition to the FATF saying that it will give the United States more pretext for sanctioning Iran."

The Financial Action Task Force, an inter-state watchdog has blacklisted Iran’s banking for lack of adherence to anti-terror financing rules and money laundering.

Mesbahi also criticized the government for not having a long-term plan and thus furthering its business on a day-to-day basis.

In yet another development, hardliner Students of Amir Kabir University in Tehran harshly criticized Raisi's justification for rising prices in Iran. They told him they expect him to have an effective hand to do things rather than a tongue to justify everything by words.

Hardliner cleric Naser Makarem Shirazi also criticized Raisi's economic policies. He said: "It is regrettable that the officials not only do not solve economic problems such as rial’s steep fall, but they tend to totally ignore the problem."

Meanwhile, conservative commentator Naser Imani has said recently: "Government officials have still not realized the country's situation and therefore, they cannot offer any solution for the problems. Their best defense often is to say that there is nothing wrong with their performance and it is the enemy who creates all the problems." However, Imani shied away from saying that two of those who always attribute Iran's problems to foreigners' conspiracies are Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi.

While Commander Richard Smith of the Metropolitan Police said the small amount of contaminated material discovered December 29 was “assessed by experts as posing no threat to the public,” British tabloids by January 10 splashed headlines on ‘Terror Alert’ and ‘Nuke Plot.’Some recalled a 2003 warning from then head of British MI5 intelligence service Eliza Manningham-Buller of a possible ‘dirty bomb’ attack by ‘terrorists’ including radioactive material in a conventional explosive device.

While Smith said the police would “continue to follow up on all available lines of inquiry,” he wanted to “reassure the public that the amount of contaminated material was extremely small.” A police spokesman said Border Force officers had detected it with “routine screening” and had summoned the Metropolitan Police’s Counter-Terrorism Command.

The Daily Mirror reported Wednesday that the uranium was in a shipment of scrap metal, with police investigating the possibility of “poor handling.” The Sun reported the “deadly shipment” was “destined for Iranian nationals in the UK, originated in Pakistan and arrived on a slight from Oman.”

While a ‘source’ told the Sun and the Daily Express that “the race is on to trace everyone involved,” various newspapers agreed that nearly two weeks after the shipment was found, no arrests had been made. Most reports mentioned that the metal was found on a passenger plane.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Sullivan pointed out that it has been "five terrible years" since Morad Tahbaz was detained in Iran.

“We again call on Iran to release immediately Morad and fellow Americans Emad Shargi and Siamak Namazi. Reuniting these Americans with their families is a top priority of this Administration,” he added.

In a similar tweet, Robert Malley also described the “wrongfully” detainment of Morad Tahbaz for five years “too many”.

“We have no higher priority than making sure that Morad and fellow wrongfully detained U.S. citizens Emad Shargi and Siamak Namazi return home and are reunited with their loved ones,” reads his tweet.

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Iran routinely arrests people with Western passports and uses them as bargaining chips.

Tara Tahbaz, the daughter of Iranian-British-American Morad Tahbaz, told CNN on the fifth anniversary of her father's arrest that her family still is calling on the United States and United Kingdom to do whatever they can to bring him home.

Morad Tahbaz, 66, is a British-US-Iranian triple national who was arrested in January 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on “espionage” charges.

Siamak Namazi, is a 50-year-old dual-national businessman, who was arrested and imprisoned in October 2015 on charges of "collaborating with the US government".

Emad Shargi is another Iranian-American businessman who was convicted of espionage without a trial and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2020.

The Associated Press reported that the State Department notified Congress late last week of the extension saying that the threats to Pompeo and Brian Hook remained “serious and credible.” Hook served as the Trump administration’s special envoy for Iran.

Along with Pompeo, Hook was the public face of the US “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran following President Donald Trump’s 2018 decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal known as the JCPOA. Iran has also threatened revenge against former US officials for the US assassination of Iran Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020.

Another former official with government protection is John Bolton, UN ambassador during President George Bush and National Security Advisor during Trump. The Justice Department revealed in August that an operative of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard tried to hire a hitman in the US to kill Bolton. DoJ said Shahram Poursafi, also known as Mehdi Rezayi, 45, had attempted to pay “individuals in the United States” $300,000 to carry out the killing, “likely in retaliation for the January 2020 death of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Qods Force (IRGC-QF) commander Qasem Soleimani.”

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Bolton told Iran International Television that he was not surprised as the indictment was unsealed because he was kept informed “in general terms until late in 2021 when it was determined I would again get secret service protection.” But he criticized the Biden administration for not doing enough to stop the Iranian threat against former US officials.

The notifications, obtained by The Associated Press, were signed by Acting Deputy Secretary of State John Bass.

“I hereby determine that the specific threat with respect to former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo persists,” Bass wrote. He used identical language to refer to the threat against Hook.

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The AP reported in March 2022 that the State Department was paying more than $2 million per month to provide 24-hour security to Pompeo and Hook. The latest determinations did not give a dollar amount for the protection.

Even as the Biden administration has made those determinations and spent money for Pompeo and Hook’s protection, it has continued to press ahead with indirect talks with Iran aimed at salvaging the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Trump withdrew from in 2018.

Those talks have been stalled for many months now and the administration has been saying since October that its focus has shifted from the negotiations to the protest movement in Iran.

In the meantime, Iran has launched a major crackdown on antigovernment protests sparked by the death of a woman in custody who was accused of violating a law requiring women to wear headscarves in public.

The State Department did not specifically mentioned Iran as the source of the threats, but Iranian officials have long singled our Pompeo, Hook and Bolton for leading the Trump administration’s policy against Iran, including designating the Revolutionary Guard Corps a “foreign terrorist organization,” subjecting it to tough economic sanctions and orchestrating the Soleimani assassination.

On the third anniversary of the Soleimani killing last week, Iranian officials renewed their threats to take revenge. Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi in a speech on Tuesday addressed the US saying, “We have not forgotten martyr Soleimani’s blood and will never forget. They [Americans] should know that revenge for Soleimani is certain and his killers…will not have any peaceful sleep.”