Conservative Politician Lashes Out At Hardliners For Isolating Iran

In his address at the official opening ceremony of the consulate, Chinese Ambassador to Iran Chang Hua hailed the move as a fresh "landmark moment in China-Iran relations," adding that Beijing considers ties with the Islamic Republic “strategic.” 

However, earlier this month during a visit to Saudi Arabia by Chinese President XI Jinping, China had signed off on a joint statement with the Gulf Cooperation Council, where a UAE claim on three Iranian islands were mentioned. This led to an avalanche of criticism against the Iranian regime, which has been boasting about its strategic ties with Beijing.

Noting that China supports and respects Iran’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Chang said “China decisively supports Iran against foreign intervention and for preserving its national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national dignity.”

He highlighted that China sees ties with Iran from a strategic point of view, reaffirming Beijing’s determination to expand its partnership with Iran based on bilateral agreements as well as the 25-year comprehensive cooperation agreement between the two countries.

The opening of the consulate is described as an opportunity to actively implement the 25-year deal and China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure development strategy to invest in nearly 150 countries and international organizations. The BRI, originally named, “One Belt, One Road,” is an international development strategy as China looks to expand its influence worldwide by improving trade routes. As of December 2021, China had expanded its’ BRI—which includes infrastructure developments across land corridors, in ports, across maritime routes, as well as over-land links (bridges, tunnels, etc.)— into 142 countries. Developing diplomatic relations with Iran is crucial to China’s ability to implement the BRI.

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Adel Shahrzad, the deputy governor of Hormozgan province where the port is located, said during his speech that Iran's southern provinces look forward to increasing cooperation with China, adding that the opening of the consulate general will play an important role in developing bilateral relations and enhancing exchanges in various fields.

The area of responsibility of China's Consulate General in Bandar Abbas includes eight Iranian provinces in the south, namely Khuzestan province, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Fars, Bushehr, Kerman, Hormozgan, and Sistan-Baluchestan province. 

Reports of the imminent inauguration of the consulate were circulating in media since at least a year ago but its final move can be seen as a sign of détente following the controversial joint statement by China and the GCC about three Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s Council of Ministers approved the opening of a Chinese consulate in Bandar-Abbas, Iran’s most significant trading and military port on December 29th, 2021—China’s first consulate in Iran. While at face value this may seem like a benign partnership between two developing countries, it might have far-reaching significance for Iran and the region.

The new Chinese consulate in Bandar-Abbas will share its home with The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ main naval base. Iran’s invitation of an emerging global superpower into their backyard could pose a threat to Iran, should regional disputes one day arise. China has already “attempted to claim more internal waters, territorial sea, exclusive economic zone, and continental shelf than it is entitled under international law,” the spokesman of the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet said in 2019.

Although bilateral trade has declined in the past two years, China is still Iran’s top trading partner, buying illicit Iranian crude oil in the face of US sanctions. However, out of the two, China alone has enjoyed a favorable trade partnership, while Iran has been isolated internationally by essentially only being able to trade with China, forcing Iran to trade its oil reserves at much lower prices than it would otherwise like, although no official figures are available.

Iranian sociologist Taghi Azad Armaki told Etemad Online on December 18 that Iranians want the Islamic Republic to change its views and rhetoric. At the same time, the regime's official project is all about its survival.

Armaki added that regime insiders' exit strategy from the current crisis is merely eliminating all of its critics and those who protest against its performance. They call the critics "traitors" and label protesters as "rioters".

The political system is too old and outdated, the sociologist argued. It is clear that a new society has emerged which is pluralist, has many different demands and criticizes the outdated system. But the Islamic Republic wishes to change this new society and force it to become compatible with the old system. This is what has created the current political crisis.

Armaki believes that the new society does not accept this and naturally, the government's policy is likely to lead to an impasse. "The new generation of Iranians wants a civil society, civil rights, government accountability, as well as economic progress and welfare, but all government policies are only meant to ensure its survival.

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Meanwhile, former Roads Minister Ahmad Khorram, a reformist figure, believes that the current crisis is the outcome of concentrating all political and economic powers in the hands of one political faction (hardliners). Khorram told Rouydad24 that concentration of power leads to misery and Iranians do not deserve all the problems they are facing.

Khorram added that even officials have said that the public's trust in the government has been declining. This, he said, plunges the society into despair and will lead to violence, which is certainly not a cure for the Iranian society's problems.

Based on some research, trust in the government has dropped from 98 percent to around 20 percent since the inception of the Islamic Republic, he said. This is mainly because the government is against civil society and civil institutions such as NGOs, political parties and so on.

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In another development, the former chief of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh in an interview criticized the government for trying to solve its problems with protesters unilaterally, in an extremist way and by shedding blood. He added that some of the individuals who pour gasoline on the fire of protests are the members of the extremist group Hojjatiyeh. He reiterated that this group's policies can never solve the country's problems. They easily talk about execution and promote it as a remedy for Iran's current problems. He was probably referring to individuals such as hardliner lawmaker Mostafa Mirsalim who has said detained protesters should be executed within five to ten days.

Falahatpisheh said the members of the extremist group have crept into the government. The group has always been a hardliner proponent of compulsory hijab and confiscation of assets belonging to religious minorities such as the Baha’is since the 1970s. Falahatpisheh said that opposition to blue jeans is part of the group's teachings. He explained that after the 1979 revolution, the Islamic government has been trying to isolate this group but currently they have become powerful again.

Falahatpisheh added that this group has been taking the lead in nearly all the attacks on foreign embassies in Iran.

A current member of parliament’s national security and foreign policy, Jalil Rahimabadi has also criticized the government for not listening to the people. He reiterated that no political system will be weakened by accepting people's demands. Rahimabadi pointed out that some elements in the government wrongly believe that if they accept some of the demands of the protesters, this will lead to further unrest. "I think it is wrong to believe that listening to protesters means a retreat on the part of the government."

State Department Spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday in a statement that the Winter Solstice, or Shab-e Yalda as it is known in Iran, is normally a festive time for many Iranians, but the regime has killed hundreds of protesters since September.

“Yalda is a time for celebrating at home with loved ones as the longest night of the year gives way to light – a symbolic triumph of good over evil. Instead, many families face empty chairs tonight,” stressed Ned Price.

“Iran’s leadership has used executions, arbitrary detention, forced disappearances, and sexual violence to stifle peaceful protests by the Iranian people. It appears no act is beneath the Islamic Republic’s leadership in their attempts to silence dissent,” reads another part of the statement.

The State Department went on to say that on Shab-e Yalda, the United States mourns with the people of Iran, reiterating its commitment to the Iranian people that Washington will continue to confront Iranian authorities’ human rights abuses.

Iran's religious establishment and hardliners often say Yalda festival is a "pagan" event. They call on people not to celebrate such festivals and sometimes even try to ban it. But ancient traditions appear to have gained more popularity since the 1979 Islamic Revolution despite non-stop religious propaganda.

In a tweet on Tuesday, former prime minister Neftali Bennett said, “Great achievement by our government! Quietly, and through a series of diplomatic and other wise actions, we managed to stop the return to the nuclear deal without confronting the United States.”

“We also brought the fight against Iran’s terrorism (and not just the nuclear program) from Israel's borders to Iran’s soil. We hit the head of the octopus to weaken its tentacles. The new government should continue the same process,” he added.

During an interview with a New York Times columnist on June 21, Bennett talked about his “Octopus doctrine,” saying Israel hits Tehran at the head of the octopus rather than its tentacles that have spread across the region.

Biden’s video, which was published on Twitter for the first time by Damon Maghsoudi, a software engineer living in the United States, was recorded on the sidelines of the November 4th election campaign in California.

In this video, the US President clearly confirmed that the JCPOA is “dead”, but he said he cannot announce it for “a lot of reasons”.

Although Biden does not give a direct answer about the “reasons” why Washington refuses to officially announce this, concerns about Iran’s progress towards obtaining a nuclear weapon could be the main reason for leaving the door open with the Islamic Republic.

Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio told Iran International's Arash Aalaei that “the regime in Tehran feels threatened by peaceful protesters...I think what's the most interesting to see is some clerical dissension.”

Iranians have begun to express the belief that their society should be more open, more transparent, and people have a right to express themselves, he said. 

Referring to American lawmakers taking political sponsorship of Iranian political prisoners like their German and Austrian counterparts, Rubio welcomed the idea calling it “innovative.”

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South Dakota Republican Senator Mike Rounds told us that the extent of the crackdown on peaceful protests in Iran is "unfortunate, but when you have this type of regime which clearly doesn't respect life and who wants to maintain power at any cost you have this type of an outcome. It's unfortunate, and the people of Iran deserve better."

Echoing similar remarks, Texas Republican John Cornyn also expressed concern over the crackdowns on peaceful protesters in Iran, saying, “It's not a free country, it's a theocracy. We have been doing as much as we can to support Iranian people against this sort of intolerable backlash."

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Louisiana’s Republican Senator Bill Cassidy censured the Iranian regime for “killing its own people,” Saying, “We could start with the young woman who was abused in prison to the point where she died. And now we have sights of them shooting with high-power weapons.”

“The regime has lost its legitimacy and it's only being held in force by that oppression. And there's a little bit of an irony: the regime that took the place after a revolution in which the Shah was felt to be no longer a representative of his people, now no longer represents the people,” he added. 

He also criticized President Joe Biden for his remarks earlier in the day about not announcing the death of the 2015 nuclear deal. 

In a video clip, posted in social media Tuesday, Biden apparently at a campaign walk-about during November’s Congressional elections is asked why he does announce the 2015 nuclear agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) dead, the president clearly replies: “It is dead, but we’re not going to announce it.”

Cassidy said that “Iran has been assassinating people in Europe... So I think there needs to be a hard line not against the Iranian people who are great and incredible people who go back to the Persians and the Medes, but against a government which has ceased to represent those people, and instead has become a force of repression.”