Iran Claims US Sent Message For Regional Crisis Resolution

Jalel Salari, CEO of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company, emphasized that adopting the standards could lead to a daily reduction of 50 million liters (over 13 million gallons) in gasoline consumption.

"If we were producing standard cars, daily gasoline consumption would decrease to 60 million liters (approximately 16 million gallons), allowing us to export 50 million liters daily."

Salari underscored the stark contrast between Iranian cars' high fuel consumption and the global average, underscoring the substantial gap in meeting international standards. He addressed the inefficiency and fuel wastage in domestically produced low-quality cars, an issue previously criticized by authorities.

Additionally, the deputy minister of oil justified Iran's gasoline deficit, citing an annual increase of two million vehicles that contributes an extra five to six million liters (1.3 to 1.6 million gallons) to daily gasoline consumption.

The country's gasoline shortage is exacerbated by the transformation of one-third of Iran's refining products into mazut and bitumen. While the statement did not specify the status of Tehran's refinery or others, the imbalance significantly contributes to the shortage of petrol.

Official statistics from the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company indicate that gasoline constitutes only 28% of Iran's refinery products. Modern refineries, exemplified by those in the UAE, convert a mere 4% of received crude oil into mazut, allocating the remainder to high-quality products such as gasoline.

As Iran grapples with an escalating gasoline deficit since last summer, the government has resorted to limited imports of low-priced mazut substitutes. However, the current administration led by President Ebrahim Raisi has faced criticism for a lack of transparency in reporting the volume of gasoline imports.

Mohsen Saravani, a 24-year-old law student, was accused of collecting classified information through government officials and sharing it with a Mossad agent. He was arrested in March 2022 and the execution took place mid-December after Saravani confessed under torture to espionage activities.

"This person communicated with foreign services, specifically Mossad, collecting classified information, and with participation with associates, provided documents to foreign services, including the Mossad," state media said after the execution without naming him, itself unusual. Usually, the regime makes loud examples of such cases, such as that involving Alireza Akbari. The British-Iranian dual national, a former member of the Iranian government, was executed a year ago, accused of spying in a very public display of outrage.

But this time, mystery surrounded the execution, which is one of hundreds raining down on Iran since the Women, Life, Freedom protests erupted in September 2022. IRNA said 'the accused' had handed classified information to a "Mossad officer" with the aim of "propaganda for groups and organizations opposed to the Islamic Republic". 

The execution, which took place in a Zahedan jail in Sistan-Baluchestan province, came a day after Baluch militants attacked a police station in the province, killing 11 security personnel and wounding several others. The impoverished Sistan-Baluchestan province, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, has long been the scene of frequent clashes between security forces and Sunni militants.

Saravani's alleged collaboration with Mossad dates back to 2021, according to the Ministry of Intelligence. 

Since the age of 18, the young IRGC-Basij member served as an adviser to Ali Osat Hashemi, the former governor of Sistan-Baluchestan province. He also had close ties with the next governor Danial Mahboubi and Ali-Asghar Mirshekar, the deputy for security affairs of the governor’s office. Saravani’s photos alongside high-ranking officials, including the supreme leader’s chief personal aide Vahid Haghanian, suggested he was very close to Ali Khamenei’s inner circle. Saravani introduced himself as a representative of Zahedan’s prosecutor general to exert influence over provincial offices.

Mandana Zanganeh Soroush, a former economic deputy in the governor’s office, was accused of providing Saravani with thousands of classified documents. Zanganeh Soroush later transferred to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, where Saravani approached her for information gathering there too. Images of chat history obtained by Iran International suggest an emotional and sexual relationship between Zanganeh Soroush and Saravani. Zanganeh Soroush, previously sentenced to eight years, had her sentence reduced to one year on appeal.

Saravani is just one of the many people whom Iran has executed over charges of espionage for Israel. Late in December, Iran executed four men in West Azarbaijan province arrested a year earlier for “collaborating with Israel” and allegedly involved in acts of sabotage, the Judiciary said. The accused were tried in secrecy and except for a brief announcement about their alleged crimes, no other details were released. Human rights monitoring groups say that the convicted prisoners had appealed their death sentence, but authorities ignored the legal process and carried out the death sentences. 

The executions occurred shortly after the reported killing of Razi Mousavi, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander, in an attack attributed to Israel in the Zainabiyya neighborhood of Damascus, Syria. Some observers interpret the executions as potential retaliation by the Islamic Republic for the killing of Razi Mousavi. Mousavi played a crucial role in logistics and support for the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, being one of the six senior commanders instrumental in the survival of Bashar al-Assad's regime and the consolidation of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran has accused Israel of carrying out several attacks on facilities linked to its nuclear program and of killing its nuclear scientists over the years. In August, Iran accused Israel of being behind "one of the largest sabotage plots" targeting its defense industry and the production of missiles. In July, the intelligence ministry said it had arrested a network of agents working for Israel before they were able to carry out sabotage in sensitive locations. In January 2021, Israel said it had broken up an Iranian spy ring that recruited Israeli women via Facebook to photograph sensitive sites. In April 2021, Tehran blamed an act of "nuclear terrorism" for a disruption of power at its Natanz uranium enrichment facility in the desert in the central province of Esfahan (Isfahan).

On Monday, Behzad Shokati, a 47-year-old park ranger in Astara County, Northern Iran, ended his life, citing "poor living conditions" as the driving factor.

Zeynab Bahraini, an environmental journalist, reported that this marks the "second suicide among foresters in Astara and Gilan province in the past year."

In a second incident, a worker at the Khaniabad fruit and vegetables market in southern Tehran took his own life on Saturday. Colleagues of the worker remain unaware of the reasons behind his actions, with the police discovering his body near the workplace.

Emtedad, a social media news channel, also covered the ongoing suicides among workers in the Chovar petrochemical complex in Ilam. An interview with the brother of one of the workers revealed that the suicides were a response to the termination of cooperation by the contracting company. Allegedly, the company's CEO stated, "We don't need the services anymore," leading to the tragic outcome.

The incidents highlight the urgent need for attention to workers' well-being, addressing financial hardships, and providing mental health support. Workers in various sectors, including the petrochemical industry, face precarious employment conditions and economic challenges, contributing to the growing crisis.

As concerns intensify, demands for improved working conditions and fair treatment echo through protests and gatherings, as witnessed with retirees and employees from the Social Security and Steel Industries, Iranian Offshore Oil Company, Aghajari Oil and Gas, and Haft-Tappeh Steel, who rallied on Sunday to draw attention to their unmet demands.

Suicide in Islam is forbidden, but death by suicide has grown by more than 40 percent in Iran over a decade, according to statistics, attributed to deepening economic, political and social upheaval. The 2022 report on “Social Justice Indicators” shows that law enforcement agencies recorded 5,085 suicide cases in 2021, compared to 3,559 in 2011, Iran Open Data reported. 

As partial results of the vetting of Iran's upcoming parliamentary elections emerged, the official news agency IRNA has confirmed that the Guardian Council, which has the final say in the process of vetting, approved the candidacy of a few rejected candidates. This, however, is far from giving all regime insiders a chance to compete in the elections. Dozens of serious contenders have remained ostracized by the hardliner followers of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, which is expected to lower voter turnout in March.

Conservative politician Abolghasem Raoufian has argued that that most Iranians have still not come to terms with the idea of an all-conservative government and side-lining all other political groups. Raoufian said: "The turnout in Tehran was 18 percent during the previous Majles election, however, as a result of the performance of the current parliament and the government, the turnout in the upcoming election is likely to drop to 8 percent."

The government is under pressure by public opinion to open up the political atmosphere. It is currently suffering from a legitimacy crisis as the middle class, women and young voters have stopped communicating with the government particularly after the 2022 nationwide protest and the ensuing harsh crackdown.

Raofian went on to say that the Guardian Council's strategic mistakes of barring hundreds of candidates during the previous two rounds of elections in Iran “has caused irreparable damage to the Council's credibility and the reputation of some of Iran's key political figures."

The most well-known reformist figures whose qualifications have been endorsed are former vice president Mohammad Bagher Nobakht who is a key aide to former President Hassan Rouhani and the leader of his Moderation and Development Party, and Massoud Pezeshkian a lawmaker from Tabriz. Pezeshkian said on Monday that without a remark by Khamenei in his favor, his candidacy would have never been reconsidered.

Several Iranian government-owned news agencies reported the endorsement of Nobakht's qualifications. Nobakht was the head of the Planning and Budget Organization under President Rouhani.

IRNA has also confirmed the official candidacy of Gholamreza Tajgardoon, a former MP whose credentials were revoked after he was implicated in a major financial corruption case. This is yet another indication that there is no will in the Iranian government to tackle corruption.

Meanwhile, the official news agency also confirmed that the Guardian Council has endorsed the qualification of former MP Ali Motahari, a conservative critic of some the Raisi Administration's policies. Motahari's candidacy was rejected by the Guardian Council during the 2021 Presidential elections.

Most of the results of the vetting are expected to be announced during the coming days. The voting for the parliamentary election is slated for March 1. Some of Iran's Reformists have called for postponing the election to another date, but that is unlikely to be approved by the government.

Still, the presence of a few reformist and moderate candidates cannot guarantee a high turnout in the elections as those who have got through the Guardian Council's net are not among the top tier of reformist figures in Iran. Some reformists including Mohammad Ali Abtahi have pointed out that without free and fair elections and solving the country's economic problems, most of eligible voters are unlikely to show up at the polls.

Many other Iranian politicians have highlighted the nearly 80 percent turnout in the latest elections in Turkey and reminded the Iranian government that it is a shame that turnouts in the latest elections in Iran were between 20 to 40 percent.

Raoufian said that the government's poor economic performance is one of the major causes of low turnout in Iran's elections in recent years. He added that the parliament's silence in the face of the recent $3.5 billion-dollar Debsh Tea financial corruption has badly damaged the reputation of the Majles and its lawmakers.

Ali Mozaffari, the Chief Justice of Qom Province, said on Monday that three more men face the risk of the same punishment.

In June 2022, a prisoner in Tehran's Evin prison underwent the amputation of four fingers using a guillotine, which was allegedly installed in the infirmary a month prior to facilitate such sentences.

At the time, Amnesty International warned that the Iranian authorities were preparing to amputate the fingers of eight men and according to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre, since January 2000, the Iranian authorities have amputated the fingers of at least 131 people in total.

In spite of it contravening Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a state party, Iranian law states that for certain types of theft, those convicted shall “have four fingers on their right hands completely cut off so that only the palm of their hands and their thumbs are left”.

Amnesty International claims that the Iranian authorities have consistently defended amputation as the best way to deter theft, and have expressed regret that it cannot be practiced in public because of international condemnation.

Despite calls from international bodies such as the United Nations and rights groups urging the cessation of amputation sentences and their execution in Iran, the issuance and execution of such punishments persist in the Islamic Republic, including whipping, finger amputation, stoning, and amputation of hands and feet.

The amputations come amidst Iran's surge in executions, which have gained pace since the Women, Life, Freedom uprising began in September 2022.