Iran Finds Ways To Circumvent US Technology Sanctions

The report on Saturday said US officials are in advanced discussions on the sanctions and have zeroed in on Tiandy Technologies Company, an electrical equipment manufacturer based out of the Chinese city of Tianjin whose products have been sold to units of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

“Chinese customs data shows exports of video-recording equipment to Iran jumped last year amid mass protests sparked by the September death of a young woman while in police custody for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code,” reported the WSJ on Saturday.

According to the Journal, the US is also looking at whether Zhejiang Uniview Technologies Co., another large Chinese provider based in the eastern Chinese tech hub of Hangzhou, has sold surveillance tools to Iran security forces.

“If implemented, the move could put the company at risk of being cut off from the American financial system and cripple its ability to conduct business in US dollars.”

Tiandy is a private firm based in the northern city of Tianjin, which ranks among the top video surveillance companies in China and the world.

An industry survey says the annual sales revenue of Tiandy was more than $800 million in 2021 with branches in over 60 countries.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) criticized Iran on Wednesday for making an undeclared change to the interconnection between the two clusters of advanced machines enriching uranium to up to 60% purity, close to weapons grade, at its Fordow plant.

Iran said the IAEA's position on Tehran's nuclear work was not correct.

“Iranian claims that this action was carried out in error are inadequate. We judge Iran’s actions based on the impartial and objective reports of the IAEA, not Iran’s purported intent,” the Western powers said in their statement.

The IAEA Board of Governors comprised of more than 30 countries has already censured Iran several times for breaching its obligation. The Board took action twice in 2022, as a warning to Iran that the West can take the issue to the UN Security Council.

According to the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran known as JCPOA, signatories can trigger the automatic re-institution of international sanctions imposed by the Security Council in the early 2010s that were lifted when the deal was made. In this case, since the United States has withdrawn form the agreement, the three European countries can resort to the ‘trigger mechanism.’

The IAEA found the change during an unannounced inspection on Jan. 21 at the Fordow Fuel enrichment Plant (FFEP), a site dug into a mountain where inspectors are stepping up checks after Iran said it would dramatically expand enrichment.

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"As stated by the Agency, this unnotified change is inconsistent with Iran's obligations under its NPT-required Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement," the four countries said in their statement, referring to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

"The IAEA inspector's interpretation was incorrect but we reported it to the agency ... We immediately provided the explanation to the IAEA on the same day," Iranian nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said on Thursday.

Eslami in a television program Friday night tried to justify Iran’s nuclear program in general terms, claiming that the country needs nuclear power generation and nuclear medicine. Iranian officials often make misleading statement to the domestic audience, not mentioning that a high degree of uranium enrichment is not needed for civilian purposes. Nuclear reactors use less than 5-percent enriched uranium, while Iran has so far accumulated enough 60-percent uranium for one nuclear bomb.

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The production of high-enriched uranium by Iran at Fordow carries significant proliferation-related risks and is without any credible civilian justification, the joint statement said.

Fordow is so sensitive that the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers banned enrichment there. Since the United States pulled out of the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions against Iran, the Islamic Republic has breached many of the deal's restrictions on its nuclear activities.

The Western powers warned, “We call on Iran to comply with all its legally-binding international obligations under its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA and to fully cooperate with the Agency in the application of effective safeguards at Fordow.”

The US Treasury Department said the Iranian drones made by the company were being used by Moscow to attack Ukraine's critical infrastructure.

In a statement, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced it has designated eight senior executives of Paravar Pars.

"Iranian entities continue to produce UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) for Iran's IRGC and military. More broadly, Iran is supplying UAVs for Russia's combat operations to target critical infrastructure in Ukraine," said Brian Nelson, the US Treasury's top sanctions official.

The drone maker was previously sanctioned by the United States and the European Union for making drones for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force.

The name of Alireza Tangsiri, the Commander of the IRGC Navy, could be seen in the list of targeted people.

The forward base ship IRIS MAKRAN (MAKRAN), an oil tanker that was repurposed for naval operations and maintains UAV launch capabilities, as well as the naval frigate IRIS DENA (DENA) are included in the list.

As a result of Friday's action, all property and interests in property of those individuals that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons must be blocked and reported to OFAC, the Treasury Department noted.

People that engage in transactions with the individuals designated on Friday may themselves be exposed to sanctions, the department added.

In the wake of a bloody crackdown on antigovernment protesters in Iran, Britain and the European Union began considering proscribing the Islamic Republic’s leading military, intelligence and internal security juggernaut.

The Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) has also been linked to acts of terror abroad, including threats against Iran International’s journalists working in London. The network’s headquarters in Chiswick came under Metropolitan Police protection in November when threats became serious.

The Times says that while home secretary Suella Braverman and security minister Tom Tugendhat support sanctioning the IRGC, according to sources the Foreign Office has blocked the move, “citing the need to keep communication channels open,” with Iran.

The report added that the Home Office is hopeful that “proscription will eventually progress but it is expected to be delayed by weeks if not months.”

The West’s relations with the Islamic have also soured for a lack of a nuclear agreement after almost two years of talks and Iran’s move to supply Russia with killer drones used against Ukraine.

In a separate ‘Leading Article’ The Times called for listing of the IRGC as a terror organization, saying not doing so would hardly change Tehran’s behavior and policies.

“Yet it is surely time to abandon the illusion that anything useful can be obtained though diplomatic engagement with Tehran. The theocratic regime has long since abandoned any restraint as it clings to power,” The Times said.

In a 128-page report on the current protests across Iran condemning institutionalized oppression of women and the Islamic Republic’s brutal response to quell the uprising, the senate decried the use of live ammunition and indiscriminate force by security agents against civilians. 

The Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade References Committee, which issued the report, urged the Australian Government to be unequivocal in its response to violence and human rights abuses in Iran, adding that “whilst Iran’s future must ultimately be written by the people of Iran in its own streets, the protection of human rights is a moral obligation and a practical necessity for us all.”

The committee, reporting on behalf of the senate, said that “evidence presented to the committee painfully illustrates the wholesale maltreatment of a nation by the very authorities whose job it is supposed to be to safeguard and protect the Iranian population.” 

“Hundreds have been killed and many thousands wounded. Tens of thousands have been arrested. A number have been sentenced to death—some already executed—without access to a fair trial. Confessions are extracted through torture. Adults and children are subjected to horrific physical and sexual abuse in prison,” read part of the report, titled “Human rights implications of recent violence in Iran.”

Having studied a very large sample of submitted reports and evidence, the report made a series of recommendations designed to hold accountable a regime for abusing its own people, and reduce the Islamic Republic’s ability to violate human rights without consequence. 

The committee recommended that the Australian Government take the necessary steps to formally categorize the IRGC as an organization involved in supporting and facilitating terrorism, also calling for the use of sanctions to target Islamic Republic and IRGC-affiliated individuals and entities responsible for malicious cyber activity against Australia.

It also urged the government “to use the available Magnitsky legislation to expand the list of individuals and entities subject to sanctions in response to human rights abuses in Iran, with particular focus on senior officials responsible for violence, human rights abuses, arbitrary detention and executions without due process.”

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The document also called on Canberra to oppose the election of the Islamic Republic to United Nations’ bodies in light of the regime’s clear disregard for human rights, it said, particularly the rights of women and girls. 

The senate also expressed concerns about credible allegations of intimidation and threats against Australian citizens, residents and their families, urging the responsible government ministers to provide an update to the Parliament and the Australian public on the government’s current assessment of whether persons connected to the regime are undertaking such behavior in Australia.

The committee also recommended that Australia should minimize relations with the Islamic Republic to “the greatest extent possible in recognition of the appalling behavior of the regime,” adding that the government should increase transparency and better inform the public about the status of its diplomatic relations with Tehran, as well as the security concerns in relation to the regime’s behavior relating to cybercrime, hostage diplomacy and threats to Australian residents.

“Implementing the committee’s recommendations would place Australia more firmly in the community of nations which have heard the Iranian people cry: Enough,” read the report, acknowledging that “Australia lagged well behind many of our partner Western democracies in taking action to send a clear unambivalent message to the Iranian regime that what they are doing is grossly unacceptable.”

The West has stepped up pressure on Iran over its crackdown on protests and arms supply for the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the US, European Union and United Kingdom imposed fresh sanctions on Tehran.

Earlier in the day, US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley said that “all corners of the Biden Administration have worked urgently and powerfully to mobilize the international community and confront the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses.”

On Tuesday, US lawmaker Representative Claudia Tenney (Rep-NY) reiterated, “We must impose the strictest sanctions possible on the leaders of the murderous Iranian regime, which is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.”