Exiled Prince Tells European Parliament About Future Of Iran

Companies from the UK, Canada and Russia are cooperating with an Iranian telecommunication company to track protesters and access the content of their calls or messages. 

In October, American non-profit news organization The Intercept leaked a series of internal documents and communications, including emails sent by representatives of the Iranian and foreign companies, providing details on what appear to be plans to develop and launch an Iranian mobile network, including subscriber management operations and services, and integration with a legal intercept solution. The system, called Integrated system to query telecom customer Information – known by its Persian acronym SIAM – allows Iran’s Communication Regulation Authority (CRA) to enforce the Iranian government’s requirements to filter Internet content through a spyware and track the data of customers.

The CRA is tasked with executing governmental powers, supervision, and executive powers of Iran’s Ministry of Information and Communication Technology. The regime’s CRA regulations state that all telecom operators in Iran must provide the CRA with direct access to their system for retrieving user information. Justified under its own broadly defined “Legal Intercept” provisions, the CRA aims to use this sophisticated system to store user information, allow or deny a user’s access to mobile services, and view historical voice, SMS, and data usage.

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Ariantel is an Iran-based Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), the primary source of the emails. Telinsol is a UK-based satellite communications consultancy which appears to have conducted international business transactions with vendors on behalf of Ariantel. PROTEI is an international telecommunications systems vendor founded in Russia which was selected by Ariantel to provide core network components to the company in support of user authentication, data management and Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), SMS delivery, and mobile network signaling. And PortaOne is a Canada-based mobile business and support system vendor, which was selected to provide mobile account creation, service provisioning, billing, and customized integration with Iran’s Legal Intercept system.

Iran International’s Mojtaba Pourmohsen has contacted all the foreign-based companies but none of them provided any comments about their cooperation with Iranian firms. He went to the addresses registered for the London-based company, but they turned out to be fake or old, strengthening the speculations that these firms can be cover companies belonging to people close to Iranian authorities. The manager of the company is identified as Iranian national Nima Eskandari, who, according to the leaked emails, was in correspondence with Ariantel and the Russia-based company about their services. 

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The emails and other documents revealed the level of sophistication Iranian authorities sought to conduct surveillance operations and control access to mobile information and communications. The software and services offered by the foreign-based vendors allow the CRA to integrate with mobile service provider systems inside the country, including the web service API that is called SIAM. It seems that Ariantel has deployed a fully operational mobile network in Iran, integrating with the CRA’s Legal Intercept system. 

According to our sources, representatives from Iran’s main mobile service providers are likely attending the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, the largest and most influential event for the connectivity ecosystem. While the organizing body of the MWC Barcelona confirmed in response to Iran International's email that no delegation from Iran has been invited to this conference, exclusive information shows that four high-ranking managers of Iran's biggest service provider are participating in the event, being held from late February until March 2. 

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An informed source told Iran International that they applied for a visa through France to attend the Barcelona conference as independent individuals. The four Iranians are close to the company’s CEO Mehdi Akhavan Bahabadi, who is himself among the close circle of one of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s sons. 

Iran’s biggest mobile companies, namely Mobile Telecommunication Company of Iran (Hamrah Avval) and MTN Irancell, are mainly owned directly or through intermediaries by Revolutionary Guards – or the IRGC – that is the Islamic Republic’s main force in quashing the ongoing protests across the country. 

Speaking to Shafaqna, conservative lawmaker Mostafa Hosseini Ghotbabadi said that while Iran publicly claims to have a “neither East nor West” approach to foreign policy, it is going too far towards relying on the East at the expense of total alienation from the West.

He said Russia’s war against Ukraine and conflicts between China and Taiwan are calculated games engineered by the world’s biggest powers over securing their share of the world’s resources, luring Iran and its neighbors into the game and distracting Iran from its priorities.

He claimed that big powers use Iran to scare the Persian Gulf states and sell weapons to them and plunder their resources.

Iran, ruled by Ali Khamenei, a staunch anti-West cleric has drawn closer to Russia in recent months, supplying drones and possibly other weapons for Moscow's war against Ukraine. It has also been trying to expand economic ties with China, but Beijing has been cautious in the light of American economic sanctions on Iran.

Foreign policy expert, Diako Hosseini, writing in reformist daily Shargh, said “Iran should not fall victim to the rivalry between China and the United States”, the world in “a transitional period marked by instability … [which is] shaping a new international order”. The revival of Russia after the collapse of Communism and China’s economic success, he says, has jeopardized the United States’ vision to become a singular world power.

“The United States is not merely concerned about China’s growth, it is also worried about China’s expanding ties with the world,” he said, including its ties with Iran, which has a key strategic location between East and West.

Putting restrictions on Iran also helps curb China's rise, Hosseini believes, the United States doing its best to prevent Iran from becoming part of the Russia-China axis. He said: “America’s current plan is to weaken Iran from within and isolate it in the international community. This can be part of a plan to once again create a unipolar world order.”

The new alliance of China and Iran could ultimately backfire, he warned, as it has for Russia. In the long run, Iran will not get concessions from America while its relations warm up with China and Russia and Iran must keep the doors of diplomacy with the West open.

Recently, prominent reformist figure Mostafa Hashemi-Taba, also writing in Shargh about Raisi’s visit to China, claimed that Iran is not capable of implementing an economic cooperation agreement with China as it does not have the administrative structure and manpower.

He also pointed out that the joint statement by China and Iran which was issued at the end of Raisi’s visit is indicative of Iran’s de facto recognition of Israel as for the first time in an official document Iran has used the word Israel rather than its usual jargon “the Zionist regime”.

Hashemi-Taba also pointed out that Iran’s dependency on China has the sole aim of attracting Chinese investment, given the dire economic crisis resulting from sanctions and the impasse on the JCPOA.

Meanwhile, In the United States, the Biden administration and European powers have also expressed deep concern over Iran’s growing military ties with Russia. They have said that a resumption of nuclear talks with Tehran is contingent on its change of policy in supplying weapons to Moscow.

Protests on Monday afternoon saw male and female students across the campus chanting “in-person education is our absolute right”, in addition to calling on Mohammad Moghimi, the Dean of the university to resign.

The news was announced by Mahmoud Kamarei, the university’s vice President was said that the student accommodation will not be available from March 16 to April 7, with the closures of facilities such as canteens during the same period.

The country’s Student Union Council claims "the authorities are afraid of the presence of students in the university and that the lack of budget is a false excuse for closing the universities in the second semester”.

Iran's universities were one of the main centers of protests during the nationwide uprising against the regime following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. In order to suppress the protests, the security force of the Islamic Republic repeatedly attacked the universities and arrested over 700 students.

A large number of students have also been banned, expelled and suspended by university administrators.

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Colin Kahl, said: “Back in 2018, when the previous administration decided to leave the JCPOA it would have taken Iran about 12 months to produce one bomb's worth of fissile material. Now it would take about 12 days.”

It is the most alarming warning yet of the threat Iran's nuclear capabilities pose. In September, Israel’s then defense minister, Benny Gantz, told the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna that Iran would be able to produce enough enriched uranium to make three nuclear warheads within a few weeks.

US officials have repeatedly estimated the time it would take to acquire the fissile material for a nuclear bomb to be a matter of weeks but have not yet been as specific as Kahl was. Speaking to a House of Representatives hearing, he admitted that "Iran's nuclear progress since we left the JCPOA has been remarkable,” sending a clear warning that the Islamic republic had become a global threat.

Iran began violating the JCPOA enrichment limit set at 3.67 percent in 2019 when the Trump administration imposed full oil export sanctions but until the Biden administration came to office higher enrichment had stayed at around 5 percent.

In early 2021, Tehran toughened its position and said it would begin to enrich uranium to 20 percent purity, as the new US administration signaled its readiness to open talks to revive the JCPOA. Later Iran increased enrichment to 60 percent, which has no civilian use.

Kahl said that though the US would prefer to take the diplomatic approach to resolving the nuclear issue, it was unlikely since the recent breakdown in talks meant that “right now, the JCPOA is on ice”.

Talks to revive the JCPOA that began in April 2021 reached a deadlock last September and the administration insists it is no longer focused on reviving the accord.

The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that monitors Iran’s nuclear program was quoted Tuesday as confirming that its inspectors have found traces of uranium enriched to 84 percent – just a short step away from 90-percent enrichment needed for bomb material.

Many lawmakers from both sides of the aisle oppose lifting US economic sanctions on a country that is engaged in repression at home and “malign activities” abroad, including arming Russia with drones and possibly other weapons.

Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, Chairman of the foreign relations committee told Iran International Tuesday that the Biden administration should understand that rather than Iran changing its way, “on the contrary, it is doubling down”.

He did, however, express hope that Iran’s alarming 84-percent enrichment would bring about a shift in Biden’s policy.

Iran’s wider role in global conflict was addressed on Tuesday at a media call with Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Dana Stroul, who told reporters that the US and its allies are moving to treat the Islamic Republic as a "global threat”, because of its growing military alliance with Russia.

"We are now at a point where Iranian threats are no longer specific to the Middle East, but a global challenge," she said, reinforcing recent warnings by senior administration officials.

"It is reasonable to expect that the tactics, techniques and procedures that the Iranians are learning and perfecting in Ukraine will one day come back to our partners in the Middle East, which is why we are increasing cooperation now, intelligence sharing, understanding these networks and increasing our collective defensive capabilities so that we are prepared to counter these threats in the region," she added.

In the capital Tehran, regime forces attacked the gathering of retirees. In the cities of Yazd, Sanandaj, Shahrekord, Kermanshah, Marivan, Ardebil, Ilam, Arak, Qazvin, Rasht, Esfahan, Tabriz, Kerman and Sari the retirees chanted slogans like "Costs are in dollars, pensions are in rials", "Expenses, inflation are taking people's lives", and "Incompetent government, resign, resign".

The nationwide gatherings were held to protest the poor living conditions and regime’s failure to increase payments for the retirees.

According to trade union organizations, in Tehran, pensioners gathered in front of the parliament, but the security forces dispersed them.

Eyewitnesses say, “the situation was very tense, and the forces physically assaulted the protesters.”

According to the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Associations, the security forces violently arrested several people in front of the parliament.

On Monday, Telecommunications retirees also gathered in Esfahan, Sanandaj, Arak, Bandar Abbas, Kermanshah, and Khorramabad to protest the government’s inattention to their demands as inflation soars and their pensions remain unchanged.

Iran witnessed another wave of daily protests and strikes since Saturday, as its currency sank leaving ordinary people to wonder how they can afford minimum necessities.