New UK Foreign Minister Has Face-To-Face Iran Experience

During his speech in the Bundestag on Tuesday, Isaac Herzog called the Islamic Republic “ineligible for concessions, under any circumstances,” and warned of “dark forces of hate, led by Iran” that threatens both Israel and stability in the Middle East, calling on the international community to stand on the “right side of history.” 

Iran is behind “radical forces sowing terror, grief and devastation and seeking to menace everyone in the world,” he added, saying, “The possession of weapons of mass destruction by a UN member state that calls on a daily basis for the annihilation of another UN member state is simply inconceivable. Threats and endeavors to annihilate Israel are inconceivable.”

Following his meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin, Herzog said “Iran is openly striving for Israel’s destruction, and the international community must treat it severely, firmly and assertively. Toothless and watered-down accords and sweeping benefits will not stop Iran.”

Reiterating that Iran “has proven that it cannot be trusted,” he said that Israel “will stand up and assertively and powerfully defend its citizens and Jewish communities all around the world. We expect our allies to stand firmly by our side at this hour.”

Germany is one of the main world powers currently negotiating the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal as an agreement is seen likely in the next few weeks despite persistent gaps between Tehran and Washington.

Addressing a conference on the exchange of modern energy technologies on Tuesday, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said Tehran pursues the “open door policy” and seeks to become a hub for designing and building nuclear power plants.

Mohammad Eslami added that “We intend to provide various services in the field of nuclear technology, including the development of nuclear power plants and nuclear power generation,” the he said, claiming that the country plans to convert 20 percent of its energy portfolio into nuclear power.

Eslami had earlier said that Iran plans to invest $50 billion for building new nuclear power plants, noting that the new power plants will be able to generate 10,000 megawatts of electricity, still far from the country’s total need. 

For decades, Iran has neglected investment in other sources of power, especially renewables, making it almost impossible to bounce back in the foreseeable future, considering its isolation in the global community. Currently Russia is the only country cooperating with Iran in the nuclear industry. 

Commissioned by Russia in 2011, Iran's Bushehr power plant has one operational unit that generates 1,000 megawatts, providing less than two percent of the country’s electricity. In July. Eslami said construction projects for phase two and three of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant have accelerated since a few months ago.

Russia says it received the needed assurances from the United States that sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine should not impact implementation of a revived nuclear deal, the JCPOA. If finalized, the renewed deal lets Russia cash in on a $10-billion contract to build atomic reactors in Iran.

Babak Paknia said in a tweet on Tuesday that his clients Amir Hossein Moradi, Saeed Tamjidi, and Mohammad Rajabi, all under 30 years of age, have now been sentenced to five years behind bars. 

Iran’s supreme court had confirmed the death sentences, but after reconsideration another court had earlier revised the decision to life imprisonment. 

Paknia had earlier said that during the trial, the defense attorney was not allowed to participate in the process and a notorious judge, Abolghasem Salavati finally sentenced them to death. Judge Salavati, also known as the “hanging judge” among Iranian activists, was sanctioned by the United States for violations of human rights and “unfair trials in Iranian Kangaroo courts.”

Moradi, Tamjidi and Rajabi were reportedly subjected to torture during interrogation to obtain forced confessions, and the judiciary had said they were linked to the exiled Albania-based opposition group Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK).

According to some reports, in the "bloody November" of 2019 at least 3,000 protesters were killed by the Islamic Republic’s security forces and nearly 20,000 were arrested. Earlier estimates ranged from 300 to 1,500 civilians killed nationwide. The protests were the most widespread against the regime since its establishment in 1979, and the internet outage gave security officials the opportunity to commit mass killings amid a news blackout for about 10 days.

Economist Mehdi Pazouki says, "The government of President Ebrahim Raisi has been put at the disposal of the Imam Sadeq alumni who have no executive experience." Imam Sadeq University is known for its more than usual religious orientation.

Pazouki added in an interview with the centrist daily Ham Mihan on September 2 that "economic managers of the early years after the 1979 revolution had a far better performance than the current officials."

Meanwhile, the moderate news website Rouydad24 quoted Pazouki as having said in the interview that no foreign investment is likely to be made in Iran without solving the Islamic Republic's problems with the JCPOA and FATF. The economist was hinting that Iran needs to improve its ties with the West by reaching a nuclear deal and accept the terms of FATF, an international financial watchdog.

The Financial Action Task Force, whose evaluations of a country’s financial regulations can impact it ability to interact with the international financial system has black listed Iran and demanded legislation to improve transparency and a ban on financing of terrorism.

Pazouki added that the government's economic team behaves like an organized religious organization. "When you hand over a government ministry to someone whose only accreditation is having studied at the Imam Sadeq University and has no background in executive work, you will obviously leave the government face to face with economic problems," he said.

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Journalist Zaynab Ghobayshavi writing in Rouydad24 quoted critics who say Raisi's economic team cannot step up to its job and his aides lack coordination and a teamwork mentality.

Pazouki told Rouydad24 that Raisi’s economic ministers have yet to present an economic plan, but they lack a strategy. Nonetheless, the Raisi administration claims that the budget bill for the current year has been formulated based on the country's sixth development plan that was made under former President Hassan Rouhani while the new administration has been constantly criticizing its predecessor’s economic policies.

"If Rouhani's plans are bad, why are you still following them as your own policy?" Pazouki asked.

During the election campaign in 2021, Raisi had said that he has a 7000-page economic plan, but no one has ever seen even seven pages of that plan, the economist said. He then argued adding that lacking a plan, the Raisi Administration made one of the biggest mistakes in the history of the Islamic Republic, that is increasing the minimum wage by 57 percent overnight while the country was suffering from an inflation rate more than 40 percent. It also increased employment in the government sector by 38 percent.

Even some of Raisi’s political allies, such as hardline conservative politician Hedayatollah Khademi have charged that Raisi's ministers are not fit for their jobs and the President should fire them and demand operational plans from the remaining ministers.

Khademi went on to say that Raisi's ministers failed to meet any one of the nation's expectations during the past 13 months, and even if Iran reaches an agreement with the West, the current ministers will not be able to solve any of the country's problems.

In another development, lawmaker Somayeh Rafiei has also said that after 13 months in office, there is no coherence and coordination visible in Raisi's economic team.

Iranian lawmakers have repeatedly threatened to impeach Raisi's economic team, and tabled motions for their impeachment, but Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf have so far stopped every motion, waiting for Raisi to fire them.

Reiterating the pledge to stop the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear weapons, Nides said at a press conference in Jerusalem that “We understand the aggression of Iran,” adding that “[Biden] was very clear to the prime minister in that belief.” 

“We also would like a diplomatic solution, but only under the conditions the president has laid out with our European colleagues. There are many gaps and conditions that have to be reached before we would actually agree to an agreement,” Nides said.

He made the remarks as a congressional delegation, including Robert Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, is visiting Jerusalem. Menendez told a press conference that Biden has pledged to submit any agreement on Iran’s nuclear program to Congress for review. 

He added that a review would be conducted by his committee and that there would be a vote on such a deal, noting that he was unsure if the outcome of that vote “would meet the threshold under the law to nullify the agreement.”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, also part of the congressional group, said the delegation was briefed by Mossad chief David Barnea, who will be in Washington this week to attend closed-door classified meetings of House and Senate intelligence committees.

“The Mossad leader’s trip to the US will focus on tightening security and intelligence coordination with the Americans surrounding the Iranian nuclear issue,” read a Sunday statement from Lapid’s office.