Netanyahu Says Europe Closer To Alignment With Israel Over Iran

According to the latest report released by the Research Center of Iran Chamber of Commerce in early-February, growing unemployment as well as internet shutdowns or restrictions also contributed to the unprecedented crisis in the production sector. 

The report is based on the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), which is a measure of the prevailing direction of economic trends in the manufacturing and service sectors. The purpose of the index is to summarize whether market conditions, as viewed by purchasing managers, are expanding, staying the same, or contracting. It is supposed to provide information and useful insight about current and future business conditions to the decision makers, analysts, and investors. The PMI is derived from a monthly survey of supply chain managers across many industries, covering both upstream and downstream activities.

The latest report on this indicator of overall economic activity proves that the country’s production sector has been contracting to an alarming level, with the index dropping to below 40, while a number less than 50 means economic contraction. 

The report added that a survey of economic enterprises indicates that this record-breaking fall in the entire economy is caused by factors such as a rise in production costs due to inflation and instability in the exchange rates, which had already put pressure on economic enterprises. However, the new issue that has been added to the equation is the challenge to supply energy to producers.

Iran is facing a serious natural gas shortage in winter months as output at its gas fields gradually declines due to lack of investments and Western technology. To keep homes warm, the government reduces gas supplies to steel makers, refineries and a host of medium-sized enterprises.

Another index that factored in the report pertained to “the extent of business activities,” indicating that in all three main sectors of the economy, i.e. industry, services and agriculture, activity has dramatically decreased. 

The index of "inventory of raw materials or purchased supplies" in the previous Iranian month (which ended on January 20) saw the sharpest decrease rate in the past 27 months. The significant devaluation of the rial and the resulting price inflation have disturbed the supply chains for producers who cannot secure their required raw materials.

Some of the other indices that contributed to a drop in PMI are growing unemployment, fewer customer orders, and less exports of goods and services, as well as sales in general. 

Head of the Research Center of Iran Chamber of Commerce Mohammad Ghasemi told Donya-e-Eqtesad daily that the new report shows the Islamic Republic “has been removed from the map of international trade,” warning that “apart from its consequences for our economic growth, this has risks for our national security."

"The most painful result of these studies...is that the 'existence and absence of Iran's economy' does not have much effect on the international economy," he added, noting that it becomes very easy for the international community to inflict damage on the country’s economy. This means that sanctions and embargoes on Iran are irrelevant to the global supply chain and economy. 

Emphasizing that "Foreign trade is one of the instruments of continuous economic growth," Ghasemi said that no country has ever prospered since the end of World War II without benefitting from the international trade.

In the United States, people in San Diego, California expressed solidarity with the protesters in Iran by holding a demonstration on Saturday.

Activists in Sacramento also held a rally, carrying banners and photos of those killed during protests after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

In Canada, the cities of Calgary, Vancouver, and Montreal were scenes of similar protests.

Iranians living in the German cities of Hamburg, Frankfurt, Bremen, Cologne and Kassel also held demonstrations, calling for the designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.

In London, a similar demonstration was held to demand that the IRGC be proscribed by the British government.

Iranians and Swedish activists also held rallies in the cities of Gothenburg and Karlstad calling for the expulsion of diplomats of the Islamic Republic.

Iranians in Copenhagen, Denmark, holding pictures of protesters who lost their eyes due to shooting by security agents, demanded the expulsion of the ambassador of the Islamic Republic.

Videos sent to Iran International also show that similar events took place in Vienna, Milan, and Tbilisi.

A big round of rallies is scheduled in many cities for next Saturday.

Meysami, 53, who has been in jail since 2018 for supporting women activists protesting against Iran's forced hijab policy, began his hunger strike on October 7 to protest recent government killings of demonstrators, the dissident's lawyer said.

Social media images purported to be of an emaciated Meysami have caused outrage online as supporters warned on Friday, he risks death for protesting hijab and opposing the death penalty.

Also, 380 female rights activists wrote a letter Saturday asking him to end his hunger strike.

"When relentless violence does not stop its continuous attack, one must survive to resist," they said in the letter.

"We call for your demands and will not stop fighting the oppression until they are realized," reads the letter.

At the same time, a campaign was launched by "a group of friends and supporters of Farhad Meysami" to collect signatures about his dire situation and the call for his immediate release. About seven thousand people have signed the petition so far.

On Friday, Amnesty International also called for Meysami’s "immediate and unconditional" release.

However, Iran's judiciary denied that he was on hunger strike and said the photos were from four years ago when Meysami, a physician, did go on hunger strike.

Reuters quoted four sources close to the plan on Friday saying that the effort by state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and the state-owned National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) to boost fuel output at the Paraguana Refining Center marks a step toward ending Venezuela's reliance on US refinery technology.

The two sides are expected to ink in the coming weeks a 460-million-euro contract to overhaul the 955,000-bpd Paraguana refinery complex on the coast of western Venezuela.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian arrived in Caracas on Friday and met Venezuela's oil minister Tareck El Aissami.

Venezuela, which has the world's largest crude reserves, has struggled in recent years to produce enough gasoline and diesel due to refinery outages, a lack of investment and US sanctions.

At least 400 Iranian workers will work alongside between 1,000 and 1,500 local staff and contractors in this project, the sources said.

Venezuelan officials are responsible to find temporary housing and vehicles for the workers, including the possibility of building a camp close to Paraguana.

The Islamic Republic has boosted relations with Venezuela in recent years, providing crude and condensate as well as parts and feedstock for Venezuela's aging 1.3 million barrel per day oil refining network.

Clint Watts, the general manager of Microsoft's Digital Threat Analysis Center, said Friday that the hackers, who called themselves "Holy Souls," were from Iranian cybersecurity firm Emennet Pasargad.

Emennet Pasargad was the employer of two Iranians, Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi and Sajjad Kashian, who were indicted by the United States Justice Department in November 2021.

They allegedly conducted a cyber campaign "to intimidate and influence American voters, and otherwise undermine voter confidence and sow discord" during the 2020 US presidential election.

In early January Holy Souls announced they had obtained the personal information of more than 200,000 Charlie Hebdo customers and published a sample of the data as proof.

It came after the magazine published a series of cartoons that negatively depicted Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The caricatures were part of a media campaign that Charlie Hebdo said was intended to support anti-government protests in Iran that swept the country following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in mid-September.

Iran publicly vowed an "effective response" to the "insulting" cartoons, and summoned the French envoy in Tehran, while also ending activities of the French Institute of Research in Iran and saying it was re-evaluating France's cultural activities in the country.