LATEST: Leading Human Rights Lawyer Sotoudeh Arrested Yet Again
A statement from Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has pointed — perhaps unwittingly — to a slowing in the pace of nuclear talks between Iran and the 5+1 Powers.
The two sides failed to reach a comprehensive nuclear agreement after intense, last-minute discussions in Vienna last month. Instead, they extended interim arrangements to July 1 to allow for more discussions.
Iranian officials said just before the adjournment that they expected a resumption in Oman on December 15; however, this was soon withdrawn, with no statement on the location and time of the next negotiations.
Zarif said on Tuesday that Iran and the 5+1 are still trying to set a date in December.
However, he indicated that the next talks will be a lower level. While Foreign Ministers had been at the Vienna discussions, the next meetings would be “at the deputy level”.
Zarif again insisted that a final deal, resolving more than a decade of dispute over Iran’s nuclear efforts, can be reached:
“We have repeatedly said that if there is political will and there are no excessive demands, we will be ready to accept a logical, fair and rational solution, as highlighted by [the Supreme] Leader of the Revolution.”
Iran and the 5+1 appear to still be far apart in their proposals for the level and number of Iranian centrifuges for uranium enrichment, as well as possible arrangements such as shipment of Tehran’s uranium to other countries for processing.
On Monday, high-level Iranian officials rejected Western reports that they had agreed to the shipments and to a suspension of the testing of advanced centrifuges.
Leading Human Rights Lawyer Sotoudeh Arrested Yet Again
Prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested yet again on Wednesday.
Sotoudeh, who imprisoned for almost three years before her release in September 2013, was seized by intelligence agents who surrounded the car in which she and her husband were travelling in Tehran.
“Nasrin and I were arrested. I was freed but Nasrin is still in detention,” her husband Reza Khandan said. He described the detention as the regime’s “gift for World Human Rights Day”, which was being celebrated on Wednesday.
Sotoudeh was released several hours later.
Sotoudeh was freed last year, halfway through a six-year sentence for “actions against national security” and spreading “propaganda against the regime”. She was arrested briefly in October when she and supporters protested a three-year ban on Sotoudeh’s practice of law.
Rouhani: Falling Oil Prices Are Foreign Plot
Betraying worry over the Government budget and the Iranian economy, President Rouhani said on Wednesday that the sharp decline in global oil prices is a foreign plot
Defending his draft budget after the weekly Cabinet session, Rouhani said, “The fall in oil prices was a plot against regional people and Muslims and certain countries are the beneficiaries of such an act.”
The global oil price has almost halved since June, dropping to about $65/barrel.
On Tuesday, Rouhani’s 1st Vice President, Eshagh Jahangiri, maintained that Iran could adopt the Supreme Leader’s “resistance economy” and withstand a further fall of the price to $40/barrel (see separate entry).
The President also promoted the resistance economy on Wednesday and said people of the region would never forget the schemes against the world of Islam: “Absolutely, people will show reaction to such a plot and the countries masterminding such a scheme should know that they would make the world of Islam more hateful towards them.”
Rouhani maintained that the Government budget, based on oil revenues of $70/barrel, will be viable because of non-oil revenues. He also indicated that the State would hand over “half-finished development projects” to the private sector.
Intelligence Minister: 20 Members of Ahmadinejad Adminstration Arrested Over Fraud
Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi announced on Tuesday that 20 mid-level officials of the Ahmadinejad Government have been arrested in connection with a fraud case.
Alavi said the fraud took place from 2010 to 2013 Ahmadinejad’s second term as President. He said the Intelligence Ministry discovered the fraud and began identifying the people linked to it last February.
Of the 20 people arrested, three are in custody, Alavi said. About 30 others have been summoned for questioning.
In the past year, senior Ahmadinejad officials such as 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi and former Tehran Prosecutor General Saeed Mortazavi have been given prison sentences in connection with fraud cases. Billionaire Babak Zanjani remains in custody after his arrest in late 2013.
1st Vice President: “Resistance Economy” Can Succeed With Oil at $40/Barrel
First Vice-President Eshagh Jahangiri has declared that an Iranian “resistance economy” is viable if oil prices fall below $40 per barrel.
The global oil price has almost halved since June, falling to around $65/barrel. The drop has significantly affected Iran’s oil revenues, which make up most of its export income and underpin the Government budget.
Economists estimate that a price of $140/barrel is needed for a balanced budget. However, this week President Rouhani — who warned MPs last month of a 30% fall in oil income — presented a draft budget based on a price of $70/barrel.
Jahangiri insisted on Tuesday that “we intend to run the country” on the basis of the Supreme Leader’s notion of a “resistance economy”, presented as a successful counter to US-led sanctions.
New Hardline Attacks on Former President Rafsanjani
The battle of hardline factions with former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, in advance of an important election to head the Assembly of Experts, appears to be escalating.
Mohammad Hussain Mirlohi, the grandson of Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani — the head of the Assembly who died in October — announced in an interview that Mahdavi Kani was not fully satisfied with his predecessor Rafsanjani and did not like to work with him.
Mirlohi is the son-in-law of prominent cleric Alireza Panahian, who is close to the hardline Endurance Front.
The Iran Prosecutor General, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, said on Wednesday that even if the trial of Rafsanjani’s son Mehdi Hashemi ends in his acquittal, the judiciary will continue investigations of his case.
Mehdi Hashemi, arrested in September 2012, is being trial for fraud and electoral manipulation. His supporters claim the prosecution is politically motivated.
A speech by Rafsanjani’s daughter Faezeh Hashemi was cancelled on Wednesday as hardline students chanted slogans against her father.
Leading MP Motahari Criticizes House Arrests of Opposition Leaders
Prominent MP Ali Motahari has criticized the 46-month detention of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard.
In a speech at Esfahan University, Motahari said that strict house arrest is “a wrong method”, begun with the detention of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Montazeri for years after a power struggle within the regime following the death of Imam Khomeini in 1989.
Motahari said that house arrests, imposed in February 2011 as Iran’s leaders feared a revival of mass protests, were against the Constitution and asked students to try their best to resolve the issue.
On Monday, students greeted a high-profile speech by President Rouhani with chants for Mousavi and Karroubi, both candidates in the disputed 2009 Presidential election “won” by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The MP added that Iranians should be able to criticise officials, even the Supreme Leader: “It shouldn’t be like Ahmadinejad’s time when the deputy of intelligence services ordered the bugging of my office.”
Report: Members of New Political Party Arrested by Intelligence Services
Weeks after a new Iranian political party — the first permitted in years — was arrested, three of its members have reportedly been arrested.
The opposition site Kalemeh claims that Moshen Biglar Beigi, Javid Fakhrian and Sina Rahimpour the Nedaye Iranian (Iranian Call) party were detained on Monday night and transferred to an unknown location.
The reformist party was announced earlier this month by Sadegh Kharrazi, a former diplomat and senior advisor to President Khatami.
