Iran’s New Restriction On Supply Of US Dollars Creates Chaos In Market

Speaking on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Owji said that payments are deposited in the Trade Bank of Iraq and then spent on buying medications and “essential goods”, which usually mean food and animal feed.

Iraq and other countries stopped banking transactions with Iran after the United States withdrew in 2018 from nuclear accord with Iran known as the JCPOA and imposed sanctions. China, South Korea, India and others owe tens of billions of dollars to Iran for their oil imports.

FarazDaily news website in Tehran pointed out Thursday that President Ebrahim Raisi’s government in the past was claiming that it was receiving all the proceeds form gas and electricity exports to Iraq, and now admits that it never received any cash.

Iranian officials have recently mentioned widely differing amounts of Iraqi debts, ranging from $11 billion to nearly $20 billion. Iran has been lobbying Iraq to transfer cash to Tehran, as government finances and its currency, rial, face dire conditions. The US dollar has doubled in value in one year in Tehran’s official and non-official currency markets.

Rial’s fall directly leads to more expensive imports of food and other goods, fueling Iran’s inflation rate, which stands above 50 percent.

There were reports in March that the Biden Administration had approved of a $500 million payment by Iraq, but so far it has not been officially confirmed.

Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported that a meeting of the two delegations took place and they issued a joint statement “on expanding relations and cooperation.”

Tasnim news agency affiliated with the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard reported that Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud discussed practical measures related to the re-opening of their embassies and consulates. They also exchanged views, Tasnim said, on “certain issues related to their bilateral relations,” without providing details.

Reuters reported that the two countries agreed to resume flights and bilateral visits of official and private sector delegations, in addition to facilitating visas for citizens, the statement said.

After years of hostility that fueled conflicts across the Middle East, Tehran and Riyadh agreed to end their diplomatic rift and re-open embassies in a major deal facilitated by China last month.

In brief footage broadcast on Iranian state TV on Thursday, bin Farhan and Amir-Abdollahian, greet each other before sitting down side by side.

In March, China's President Xi Jinping helped broker a surprise deal between regional rivals Tehran and Riyadh to end a seven-year rift and restore diplomatic ties - a display of China's growing influence in the region.

In March, Xi spoke by phone with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud about several issues.

Beijing's role in the breakthrough between Tehran and Riyadh shook up dynamics in the Middle East, where the United States was for decades the main mediator.

Iran’s regime that is shunned by the West and isolated politically and under US sanctions has heralded the revival of ties with Riyadh as a significant victory and a defeat for the United States in the region.

Critics in the US have blamed the Biden Administration for pushing Saudi Arabia toward China and restoring relations with Iran, by pursuing the restoration of the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran and losing the trust of Saudi leaders as the great power in the region.

Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran in 2016 after its embassy in Tehran was stormed by mob of hardliners supporters of the regime during a dispute between the two countries over Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric.

The kingdom then asked Iranian diplomats to leave within 48 hours while it evacuated its embassy staff from Tehran.

The relationship began worsening a year earlier, after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in the Yemen war, where the Iran-aligned Houthi movement ousted a Saudi-backed government and took over the capital, Sanaa.

For Saudi Arabia, the deal could mean improved security. The kingdom has blamed Iran for arming the Houthis, who carried out missile and drone attacks on its cities and oil facilities.

In 2019, Riyadh blamed a massive attack on Aramco oil facilities, which knocked out half of its oil output, directly on the Islamic Republic. Tehran denied those allegations.

With reporting by Reuters

Agents on Wednesday arrested the parents and a brother of Javad Heydari who was killed last September by the security forces of the Islamic Republic in a village near Qazvin west of Tehran.

Fatemeh Heydari, Javad’s sister, announced in a tweet that her parents and Mohammad, one of his brothers, were arrested on Wednesday.

The arrests come as Ruhollah Heydari, another member of the family, has been detained since Monday.

Javad Heydari's sister was also fired from her workplace, Iran’s Mapping Organization in March.

During the protests, ignited by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, hundreds of people lost their lives and many more received permanent injuries.

The authorities not only failed to accept any responsibility, but put pressure on some of the victims' families who made statements against regime officials during funerals or on social networks.

According to Amnesty International, the Iranian authorities’ arbitrary arrests, intimidation and harassment of relatives of victims exposes their inconceivable cruelty and sinister attempt to cover up their crimes.

“The authorities have not only condemned families …to a lifetime of inconsolable sadness, but they have also inflicted extreme mental anguish upon them through cruel restrictions on burials, commemorations and relentless intimidation aimed at enforcing silence,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

According to the research published by The Lancet journal, currently, the number of “deaths due to global warming in the Middle East is 2·1 per 100,000 people”. However, the region “will have experienced substantial warming by the 2060s with the potential to reach the annual heat-related deaths to 123·4 per 100,000 people”.

In Iran’s case, this number is currently 11 deaths per 100,000 people, which is five times the average of the Middle East, but it will reach 423 in the next four decades.

“This death rate would be reduced by more than 80% if global warming is limited to 2°C, [but] Iran currently has the highest heat-related death rate and will experience the greatest impacts between 2021 and 2100.”

According to the report, the Middle East is one of the most vulnerable parts of the world to global warming and climate change.

The report states that the number of annual deaths due to global warming in Iran is around 1,703 people meaning six times more than that of Saudi Arabia.

The most important cause of global warming is the emission of greenhouse gases. International statistics, including those of the International Energy Agency and the Global Carbon Project, show that Iran has the highest emission of greenhouse gases in the Middle East and is ranked sixth globally.

Rouydad 24 website reported Wednesday that four security agents from the intelligence department of Western Tehran arrested Habibi at his home.

On February 8, he was released from the notorious Evin prison as part of a so-called general amnesty announced by the Iranian judiciary on the occasion of 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

This is not the first time that security forces raid Habibi’s home, who is also known as a human rights defender. On March 30, 2017, agents raided his home and confiscated his electronic devices.

Previously, he had been terminated twice from his teaching position under the pretext of the “unjustified leave of absence” while he was behind bars.

In August 2018, he was sentenced to seven and a half years imprisonment on charges of “collusion against national security”, and “propaganda against the regime” for his peaceful activities in teachers’ association.

In November 2020, he was released from prison after his sentence was reduced based on a new directive issued by the head of the Iranian judiciary.

According to the Telegram channel of the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, at least fifteen teachers including Mohammad Habibi were detained on April 30, 2022.