Iran Promoting Idea Of Joining Russia, Venezuela As Energy Block

Answering a question by our correspondent Samira Gharaei at the State department briefing on Tuesday about claims by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian that the Islamic Republic has proposed new initiatives aimed at reviving the nuclear deal, spokesman Ned Price implicitly confirmed the news but avoided directly commenting on Iran's proposals. 

Price reiterated that Washington and its European partners are ready to conclude an agreement in Vienna for the mutual compliance with the JCPOA, noting that for that to happen, “Tehran needs to decide to drop demands that go beyond the scope of the JCPOA”, suggesting that the new proposals by Tehran include demands extraneous to the 2015 accord. 

He confirmed that Tehran and Washington are engaged in indirect regular contact via Enrique Mora, the European Union coordinator for the Iran nuclear talks, saying, “We await a constructive response from the Iranians, a response that leaves behind issues that are extraneous to the JCPOA.” 

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Earlier in the day, Iran's Atomic Energy Organization released a copy of its answers to IAEA questions about origins of uranium found at three undeclared locations, saying “sabotage” is the only explanation. 

The document that was released to the media on Tuesday was earlier submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which rejected the explanations as "technically not credible".

Iran agreed March 5 to provide written explanations by March 20 of long-standing issues in its nuclear work before 2003, and to clear up remaining queries by June 21. The latest quarterly report by the UN watchdog expressed dissatisfaction with Iran’s response to agency over sites not declared as part of the nuclear program where inspectors detected traces of uranium. This led to a resolution critical of Iran’s nuclear cooperation by the agency’s board of governors on June 8. 

In its answers, Iran maintained that the only plausible explanation for such traces is probably sabotage by foreign elements at Marivan, Varamin and Turquzabad sites, pointing out that the Varamin center, near the capital Tehran, was "never" used for nuclear activities.  

Iran said the IAEA’s claims about storage of nuclear material and/or conduct of nuclear-related activities, at Varamin are not supported by valid proofs and are misleading, noting that “the initial activities conducted in this location had been exploitation of sodium sulphate from the soil and water of the surrounding region.” 

For Marivan, which is a misnomer as the site is located near the city of Abadeh in the southwestern Fars province, Iran said the origin of the particles is "unknown" and insists the site was used for "the exploitation of fireclay through a contract with a foreign company decades ago" hence the IAEA’s “conclusion is absolutely false, unrealistic and biased.”

Iran claims it carried out its own investigation in Turquzabad and "did not find the origin of the particles" reported by the IAEA. 

Later on Tuesday, the head of the Atomic Energy Agency of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, said that Iran’s contacts with the International Atomic Energy Agency are still underway, reiterating that Iran will act based on the safeguards protocol. 

The resolution called on Iran to engage with the IAEA, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, without delay and expressed “profound concern” at Iran’s failure to satisfy the agency over the traces of uranium.

Following the resolution, Iran retaliated, telling the IAEA it plans to remove more monitoring equipment, but intends to maintain a basic level of monitoring and inspectors’ access as required under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). 

The resolution comes with year-long talks paused since March between Iran and five world powers aimed at reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

Israeli cybersecurity company CheckPoint revealed on Tuesday that some of the targets have a high public profile, such as former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the former US ambassador to Israel, and the head of a large security research institute in Israel.

According to CheckPoint, the Iranians who hacked into the e-mail accounts of the officials, impersonated them on various platforms, corresponded on their behalf and eventually stole personal information from them.

The hackers, for instance, used a false identity of a retired Israeli Defense Force general and the former ambassador to Washington in order to approach other officials to continue their breach on the personal information of high-level officials in the defense industry, passports and other restricted documents.

The company added that the hacking campaign began in December of 2021, and continued for at least six months, ending last week.

The ploy was uncovered when Livni approached checkpoint after she became suspicious in December, when she received a mail from the former IDF general who urged her to enter her email password in a Trojan file that had invited her to attend a conference abroad.

In May, Israel’s security agency Shin Bet said it uncovered an alleged plot by Iranian intelligence to lure Israeli academics and former defense officials to travel abroad in order to kidnap them.

During a joint press conference on Tuesday, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said they discussed issues of mutual interest such as trade cooperation, border markets, and development of local trade. The top Pakistani diplomat arrived in Tehran for a two-day visit and is scheduled to visit Mashhad on Wednesday.

The two foreign ministers said they also talked about road and rail connectivity and tourism, as well as gas and electricity exports from Iran to Pakistan, adding that they also reviewed regional security issues with a particular focus on developments in Afghanistan and South Asia. 

During the press conference, Amir-Abdollahian also touched upon the Vienna talks to restore the 2015 nuclear deal, saying that “Iran has never escaped the negotiating table and we believe that negotiation and diplomacy is the best way to reach agreement.”

The two had met on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos late in May, calling for bolstering bilateral cooperation. But relations were strained recently over Pakistani allegations of Iranian involvement with a militant separatist group. Among other issues is Islamabad’s challenge to maintain a delicate balance in ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose ties have soured in recent years.

The semi-official Mehr news website quoting Iranian officials sadi that the oil cargo will be returned to its owner.

"With the swift and authoritative action of Iran, the Greek government finally issued an order and we are now witnessing the lifting of the ship's seizure and the return of its cargo to its owner," the PMO told Mehr.

The ship, previously called Pegas and renamed Lana in March, had reported an engine problem in April. It was headed to the southern Peloponnese peninsula to offload its cargo on to another tanker but rough seas forced it to moor just off Karystos where it was seized, according to the Athens News Agency.

A Greek court overturned an earlier ruling last week that allowed the confiscation by the United States of part of the Iranian-flagged tanker's Iranian oil cargo off the Greek coast, three sources familiar with the matter said.

The US has sanctioned Iranian oil exports since 2018.

The incident led to an angry response from Iran, with Iranian forces last month seizing two Greek tankers in the Gulf after Tehran warned it would take "punitive action" against Athens.

There is still no word about the fate of the Greek tankers, but in similar cases in the past Iran has released seized vessels if there was a reciprocal agreement.

With reporting by Reuters

According to Iranian state-owned paper JameJam, they all had to be vaccinated once again with one of the vaccines approved by Riyadh. 

After two years of pared-down pilgrimage due to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, this year Saudi authorities will permit one million Muslims from inside and outside the country to participate. About 40,000 Iranians are set to attend. 

Earlier in April, Iran’s national carrier, Iran Air, announced that Iraq does not allow entry to visitors who have received Iranian-made Covid-19 vaccines.

Iraq, with a population of over 40 million, vaccinated 18 percent of its population, short of a 40 percent target set last year by the World Health Organization for January 2022, but has reported about 25,000 deaths. Iran has vaccinated 70 percent and has reported about 141,000 deaths.

Iran has approved at least six homegrown vaccines for production, although some have not completed trials. Most of the 147 million doses administered in Iran are Sinopharm Chinese vaccines, recognized by the World Health Organization.

In January 2021, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei banned the purchase of American and British vaccines, and the state began pushing for homegrown variants. 

In September 2021, more controversy ensued when a former member of parliament alleged that Barakat, the most well-connected vaccine developer received one billion dollars from the state in advance and delivered only a fraction of the quantity promised.