Saudi FM Says Riyadh Trying To Find Path To Dialogue With Iran

Belgium's Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib and her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian held two phone conversations on Saturday and Monday – January 14 and 16. In the readout of both calls, the Islamic Republic’s foreign ministry did not mention the case of the aid worker and only said the two diplomats discussed bilateral ties and ways to expand cooperation as well as latest state of consular cooperation between the two countries. 

Earlier in the month, the Islamic Republic’s judiciary sentenced Olivier Vandecasteele, who was detained in 2022, to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes for alleged “spying and cooperation with the United States, money laundering and currency smuggling $500,000 out of Iran.”

Vandecasteele, 41, has served in various international humanitarian organizations since at least 2006, including, Médecins du Monde, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and Relief International. He worked in Iran for humanitarian organizations for more than six years and left the country. Later, he was lured back by “a girlfriend” and was detained in February 2022. A spokesman for Vandecasteele’s family announced in December that he has been sentenced to 28 years in prison.

However, according to French daily Libération, Tehran has explicitly informed Belgium that Vandecasteele will only return to his country only if Asadollah Asadi -- an Iranian diplomat imprisoned in Belgium, returns to Iran. Assadi, 50, a former attaché at the Iranian embassy in Austria, was convicted of plotting to bomb a gathering of the exiled opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) near Paris on June 30, 2018. He is currently serving a 20-year sentence in Belgium for “attempted murder and involvement in terrorism.”

Earlier in the year, the Belgian parliament passed a law proposed by the government about a prisoner exchange treaty between Tehran and Brussels, creating an uproar in the international community since it could lead to the release of Assadi, and potentially turning Belgium to a safe haven for the agents of the Islamic Republic to operate in Europe. Numerous people and groups from around the world warned about the imminent perilous consequences of the prisoner exchange treaty, calling it “the green light to state terrorism” that only emboldens the Islamic Republic.

The phone conversations between Lahbib and Amir-Abdollahian took place a few days after the Belgian minister vowed at the parliament that her ministry would do its best to improve the conditions of Vandecasteele in prison and work for his release. She said her ministry is doing everything it can for the release of Vandecasteele noting that they have stepped up diplomatic efforts and are exhausting all possible leads. 

However, according to the Brussels Times, the liberal party in the parliament deemed such promises insufficient and called on Lahbib to travel to Iran and increase the political pressure on the Islamic Republic’s authorities about his case. 

Belgium and Vandecasteele’s family believe he is innocent and a victim of hostage taking by the Iranian regime.

In the past years, 49 European citizens have been arrested in Iran. Eighteen of them are still in prison, including the Belgian citizens. Two of them have been killed: one has been executed and one died due to lack of medical access.

There were speculations that the prisoner swap agreement would lead to Asadi’s exchange with Swedish-Iranian professor Ahmadreza Djalali (Jalali), who was arrested during a working visit to Iran about seven years ago. He was sentenced to death in October 2017 on charges of spying for Israel.

Amnesty International released a detailed research and analysis paper in May to prove that Iranian authorities were threatening to execute Djalali to compel Belgium and Sweden to hand over Asadi and Hamid Nouri who is in prison in Sweden for involvement in mass execution of prisoners in 1980s, and “to deter them and others from future prosecutions of Iranian officials”.

UN experts and international human rights organizations say that the Islamic Republic takes foreigners hostage to extract concessions from the West.

Sadeq Ziyaian, Head of National Center for Forecasting and Crisis Management announced Tuesday that "air pollution will continue in industrial and densely populated cities,” after weeks of dangerous levels of pollutants in the air.

The northeastern city of Mashhad, as the most polluted metropolis, with a pollutant index of 154, was placed in an unhealthy category for "everyone". The situation in Esfahan in central Iran is equally dangerous with a pollutant index of 153.

Tehran, Karaj, Ahvaz and Tabriz are at the top of the industrial cities that experience air pollution.

Based on the approval of Tehran Air Pollution Emergency Committee, schools in all cities of the province were shut on Tuesday.

Experts say the reason for the high concentration of air pollutants is burning mazut, a dirty fuel, instead of natural gas in thermal power plants.

Mazut -- commonly called waste oil -- is a heavy, low quality fuel oil, only used when the facilities to blend or break it down into more conventional petrochemicals such as diesel are not available.

Iran has the world’s second largest natural gas deposits but is unable to boost production because it lacks capital and Western technology. It needs to invest $40 billion in modernizing and expanding its gas fields, but most are in the Persian Gulf and need Western technology.

Due to its anti-West foreign policy and an expanding nuclear program, Iran is under US sanctions and cannot borrow money or technology from the West.

Like other European capitals, Amsterdam expressed its displeasure and protest to Iran's Ambassador Alireza Kazemi Abadi.

This is at least the third time in the past month that the Iranian ambassador to the Netherlands has been summoned. Since Iran began executing detained protesters in December, the ministry of foreign affairs of the Netherlands has protested to Tehran.

Alireza Akbari, a dual national, and a former top employee of Iran’s ministry of defense was executed Saturday on espionage charges.

Britain called the execution a barbaric act immediately after the announcement by Iran on Saturday and said it would not go unpunished.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Akbari’s execution is a heinous and barbaric act.

Iran’s action triggered a major escalation in tensions between the West and the Islamic Republic, which were already sour over Tehran’s crackdown on nationwide antigovernment protests and its military support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Jam-e Jam daily, which is owned by Iran's state broadcaster, reported Tuesday that the person was arrested while taking photos of Omidiyeh oil facilities.

Omidiyeh is home to the Aghajari oil field which is owned by National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and operated by National Iranian South Oil Company.

No other details have been published yet, but Jam-e Jam has told it will report more on the issue later.

After the outbreak of protests over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in mid-September, Iran had detained tens of foreign nationals including those from France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands.

Following Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s lead, Iranian officials claim the ongoing anti-government protests across Iran are instigated by foreign enemies.

Germany and other European countries have slammed Iran's killing of protesters and increased human rights violations, with proposed plans to designate the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization across Europe.

Meanwhile, several foreigners visiting Iran have also disappeared, confirming earlier reports that the Islamic Republic is taking foreign citizens hostage.

Tehran denies any policy of hostage taking and insists all foreigners are tried according to legal process. However, it has frequently shown readiness for prisoner exchanges and participated in swaps in the past.

At the same time, an aide to the Russian president Vladimir Putin met with the Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic in Tehran.

Russia, Turkey and Syria have launched diplomatic efforts for an agreement to improve Ankara-Damascus relations, after years of tensions during the Syrian civil war, but Iran has not been invited to take part.

TASS news agency announced that talks between Sergey Lavrov and Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, which were scheduled for January 17, have been postponed "by agreement of the parties".

No explanation was provided about the reasons, but Maria Zakharova, Spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier that Lavrov and Amir-Abdollahian were going to discuss the JCPOA, cooperation in the United Nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the situation in Syria, Afghanistan, and other issues.

Meanwhile, Nournews website reported that Putin Aide Igor Levitin met with Shamkhani Tuesday morning.

The details of the meeting have not been reported yet.

The US State Department said last week that Iran is the most important source of security assistance to Russia and that the military relations between Tehran and Moscow have strengthened in the last few months.