Saudi Crown Prince To Discuss Iran In Paris Meeting With Macron

Grossi told CNN on Tuesday, July 26, that "Iran has to restore all our inspection capabilities" after Iran's nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami declared on the same day that Iran will keep cameras monitoring its nuclear activities switched off until a deal is struck with the United States." Grossi, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency explained: "We do not know what is happening with Iran's nuclear program."

In an interview with the Iranian Labor News Agency ILNA on Wednesday, Beheshtipour criticized Iranian officials for saying repeatedly that the IAEA is under the influence of the United States and Israel, and said that this will not solve any problem. He stressed that the difference between Iran and IAEA can be solved only through negotiations.

Beheshtipour said while Iran and the IAEA level accusations against each other it means that this is not the right time for cooperation and added that Iran possibly expects Grossi to also call on the United States to go back to its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal.

With the latest accusations against Iran, the IAEA will certainly issue a resolution against Tehran in September, Beheshtipour remarked, adding that Iran will take that as a step fabricated to condemn Tehran. However, Beheshtipour pointed out that the IAEA has confirmed in 14 previous reports that Iran was committed to the terms of JCPOA.

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Meanwhile, Iran's former ambassador to the United Kingdom Jalal Sadatian said in an interview with Didban Iran website that the negotiations to revive the JCPOA have failed. He added that the 2015 agreement could be revived only with a miracle. "We should consider the JCPOA as a terminated case, and if Iran's nuclear issue is not resolved, its economy will not improve," Sadatian said, adding that Russia and China are not able to solve Iran's economic problems. He argued that there has been no benefit for Iran in the boosting of its ties with Russia.

Lately, Iran has been insisting that it can survive under US sanctions by closer ties with Russia and China. Vladimir Putin visited Tehran earlier this month and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei praised him for his invasion of Ukraine.

The former diplomat further said that Russia is determined to prevent Iran from providing oil for Europe while Europe is keen to have access to Iran's energy market.

In a related development, former diplomat and current political analyst Ali Bigdeli said in an interview with Nameh News website that there is no hope the nuclear talks would continue and bear results, nonetheless, the two sides are reluctant to declare the failure of the negotiations, partly because they know that there is no chance for another agreement.

Bigdeli's view is more pessimistic than the position of commentators such as Heshmatolah Falahatpisheh who believe that Iran and the United States should forget about the JCPOA and start working from the scratch on a new agreement.

Bigdeli went on to say without an explanation, that the United States is by no means prepared to accept a new agreement. In the meantime, Iran has demands from the US which are beyond the scope of the JCPOA, and the United States insists that the two sides should return to the 2015 nuclear deal.

It is not in Iran's interest to declare the failure of the JCPOA as this would be a bonus for Israel, which could launch a war in that case to protect its security, the analyst added.

The protesters – some of whom were seen walking on tables, waving Iraqi flags and sitting in lawmakers' chairs – were followers of Muqtada al-Sadr, who seeks to curb the influence of the Islamic Republic in Iraqi politics. 

On Monday, the Coordination Framework, a coalition of Shiite parties close to Iran, nominated Mohammed al-Sudani as the prime minister, a decision opposed by firebrand Shia cleric al-Sadr, whose party won last year’s general elections.

Protesters, who had forced their way into the Green Zone, which houses the parliament, after removing a number of concrete barriers, began making their way out of the parliament building when al-Sadr issued a statement on Twitter telling them their message had been received and "to return safely to your homes. 

Addressing the protesters, the leader of the Sadrist movement, Saleh Muhammad al-Iraqi, said, "I stand in reverence and respect. It is a wonderful spontaneous and reformist popular message, thank you."

It was the largest protest since federal elections were held in October and the second time al-Sadr has used his ability to mobilize the masses to send a message to his political rivals this month.

The protest took place after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force Chief Esmaeil Gha’ani arrived in Baghdad, one day after Iran-backed groups nominated Sudani, and met with leaders of Shiite groups.

Fararu website in Tehran quoted Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, former chairman of parliament’s foreign policy committee as saying that fully restoring the JCPOA is not possible in current circumstances, therefore, the EU is proposing lifting oil exports sanctions in return for “some monitoring” of Iran’s nuclear activities.

The conservative Iranian politician did not say if he has concrete information about the EU plan, which this week its foreign policy chief Josep Borrell presented to Washington and Tehran for consideration. But given statements lately by some officials and well-informed sources that restoring the 2015 nuclear agreement, JCPOA, is difficult, a limited plan might make sense from the perspective of Iran.

Tehran has always labeled the nuclear talks as “negotiations to lift sanctions” and if a plan calls for oil sanctions to be lifted in exchange for monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Iran has not really given up much.

Falahatpisheh did not say if he believes Iran’s uranium enrichment would be stopped or curtailed according to Borrell’s plan, a key issue given the fact that Tehran has enriched a considerable amount of fissile material to 60-percent and either already has enough for a nuclear bomb or is close to obtaining it.

Meanwhile, Axios quoted White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk as having told of experts last week that it “highly unlikely” that the JCPOA will be revived in the near future. He was also quoted as saying that with a deal highly unlikely, the Biden Administration plans to strengthen sanctions and diplomatic isolation against Tehran, “but not needlessly escalate the situation.” Use of force would only be a last resort; he was quoted as saying.

Borrell has said that his proposal includes a detailed plan about the lifting of sanctions, as well as steps that Iran must take, without offering details. This, in general might not be much different from what Falahatpisheh says the “temporary” deal could be.

John Kirby, the US National Security Council spokesman in a briefing on Wednesday refused to comment on what Axios had reported about McGurk’s remarks.

However, he told reporters that the US remains committed first, “to seeing Iran never achieve a nuclear weapons capability,” and second, “the President believes diplomacy is the best path forward to see that outcome.” This was a reiteration of the long-held White House position.

Kirby added, “the negotiations are pretty well complete on a new JCPOA, and it’s on the table. And the onus is now on Iran to decide whether they’re going to take that deal or not.” He said that Washington and its European allies still believe that Tehran will “come back into compliance” with the JCPOA.

Kirby was not asked about Borrell’s proposal at the briefing, but he added that the President has an obligation to defend US interests and allies in the Middle East against continuing non-nuclear threats by Iran. The US has an obligation “to defend ourselves and to help defend our allies and partners against the range of other Iranian threatening behavior: their burgeoning ballistic missile capability, which continues to improve; their support for terrorist groups; their threats in the maritime environment. All of that is still happening.”

Western intelligence sources said that Caspian Air and Qeshm Fars Air both have stopped flying to Syria and the only Iranian airline sending planes is Mahan Air, which was sanctioned by the United States in 2011 for transporting weapons to Iranian proxies at the outset of the Syrian civil war.

Caspian Air is also sanctioned by the United States for its links with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and its extraterritorial Qods (Quds) Force (IRGC-QF). In 2019, the US also sanctioned Qeshm cargo airline as part of Mahan Air and providing material support to the IRGC-QF. All three airlines are believed to have been established and owned by the Revolutionary Guard.

According to information received by Iran International, Mahan Air flights have increased by 30 percent following suspension of service by the other two companies. Aleppo is the destination of most Mahan flights. The same sources said Hamid Arabnejad the CEO of Mahan Air in a recent trip to Syria took part in the inauguration of a new flight to the Aleppo airport.

In addition to transporting weapons, the sources alleged that Mahan Air is also carrying smuggled goods to Syria without paying taxes or customs duties.

Last November, a hacking group calling itself ‘Vigilant sons of the homeland’ in Persian accused Mahan Air of closely linked with IRGC-QF and often issuing fake or falsified air tickets for people with false identities.

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The group also alleged that Mahan was registering its interactions with IRGC-QF in one particular name, which appeared seven thousand times in the company’s records. “We’ve found Mahan does keep records of its suspicious business with QF under the name ‘Hamrah’, and that this business is managed by sardar (general) Golparast.”

The group added that Golparast is also listed as the owner of Qeshm Fars Air which “is a known QF cover company, frequently used to transport munitions throughout the Middle East,” the group said in November.

Israel is known to have conducted operations, including in Iran, to track and prevent IRGC-QF form transporting weapons to other countries.

Iran International reported July 21 that the Israeli Mossad had captured and interrogated an IRGC official inside Iran, about weapons transfers. The man was introducing himself as Yadollah Khedmati, deputy commander of the IRGC logistics and provided information to Mossad about weapons transfers before being freed.

IRGC’s wings for weapons transport

Mahan Air was fully under the control of IRGC-QF when Qasem Soleimani headed the extraterritorial military-intelligence unit. There were many reports about the airline’s role in weapons shipments. Soleimani was killed in a targeted US air strike in Baghdad in January 2020.

Amir Assadollahi a Mahan Air pilot revealed in June 2020 that on one occasion Soleimani in 2013 Soleimani was on a Mahan flight to Syria with 200 passengers and 7 tons of “banned cargo” that landed in Baghdad with orders of the Iraqi government. Soleimani instructed the pilot to bribe inspectors and was able to continue the flight to Syria.

Iran’s former foreign minister Javad Zarif in an audio recording leaked in 2021 had said that Soleimani preferred to use the official Iran Air flights for his purposes to reduce risk to his operations.

However, it seems that with continuing Israeli air strikes on Iranian arms depots in Syria, IRGC-QF prefers to use Mahan Air more often.

Israeli is usually silent about its attacks on Iranian targets in Syria but in recent months there have been repeated attacks on Iranian arms depots. The attack on the Damascus airport on June 10 was the 15th airstrike in Syria attributed to Israel.

According to a BBC correspondent, the attack on the base – located in al-Shadadi city 55 kilometers south of Al-Hasakah in the northeastern corner of Syria -- had no casualties and all the US-led coalition’s personnel are accounted for with no damage reported.

"The attempted strikes were ineffective and landed well outside the Coalition base. Our Syrian Democratic Partners quickly responded to the incident and have the lead for any further response," a senior coalition official said. 

However, Syrian news agency SANA quoted local sources as saying that several rocket targeted “the illegal US occupation base,” one of which fell inside the base, claiming that loud explosions were heard by the people of the city and the surrounding areas and smoke plumes were billowing from the base.

The same base was attacked in January, with eight rockets landing inside its perimeter.

The attack occurred less than a week after the top US Air Force general in the Middle East, Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, warned of increasing attacks by Iran-backed militias against the United States and its allies as tensions rise in the region. 

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi last week called for US troops to leave Syria, during the visit of Russia’s Vladimir Putin to Tehran.

No group has claimed responsibility for the Tuesday night attack but the US coalition operating in Syria and Iraq has repeatedly condemned Iran for attacks on its bases as repeated strikes have hit sites near American forces in the region.