July 17
International: Finance Minister Ehsan Khandouzi announced a series of joint trade and cooperation projects between Iran and China. “China is Iran’s largest trading partner and the most important for the export of Iranian goods and an important part of our imports are also from China,” said Khandouzi. An office of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce in Beijing was also opened.
Domestic: The head of the Nongovernmental Schools Organization, Ahmad Mahmoudzadeh, announced that an educational institute accused of “inciting riots” during last year’s anti-regime protests had been shut down. Gaj Educational Institute, a college preparatory center, reportedly issued exam questions which mentioned protests and cited dissident poet Mohammad Farrokhi Yazdi.
Domestic: Protests broke out in the city of Rasht in Gilan province after police attempted to arrest three women under the new police crackdown on Islamic dress. Protesters reportedly chanted “Death to [Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei” and were dispersed by plainclothes officers using tear gas.
Domestic: The Human Rights Activists News Agency published a report identifying a total of 4,829 executions in Iran between May 2013 and May 2023. Of these, 2,196 were for drug-related offenses. The organization noted that executions in 2022 had almost doubled compared to 2021, increasing from 315 to 581, or more than 10 per week in 2022.
July 18
Domestic: Poisoning from homemade liquor surged in the month of June, according to data compiled by Amwaj.media. Alborz province reported 191 poisonings including 17 deaths between June 13 and 23. A hospital official in Qazvin province reported that 29 people had been poisoned on June 26 alone. An official in Hormozgan province reported 34 poisoned on June 27.
Domestic: Former President Mohammad Khatami warned that the decision to re-enforce mandatory hijab laws could lead to the government’s “overthrow by itself and social collapse.” The “danger of self-overthrow, which has been talked about many times, stands out more than ever with the return of morality police,” he told government advisors. Khatami added that renewed enforcement of the Islamic dress code “will make the society more tense than before.”
International: President Joe Biden pledged that Iran would “never acquire nuclear weapons” during an official visit by Israeli President Isaac Herzog. “America’s commitment to Israel is firm and is ironclad, and we are committed as well to ensure that Iran never acquires nuclear weapons, so we have a lot to talk about,” Biden said during a White House press conference.
International: The Wall Street Journal reported that 800,000 barrels of Iranian oil has been stuck off the coast of Texas since early 2023. Prosecutors charged the Greek owners of a tanker with sanctions evasion and seized the contents of the vessel months ago. But no shipping company has been willing to offload the cargo for fear of Iranian retaliation in the Persian Gulf. If the oil is successfully offloaded and sold, prosecutors were expected to turn the proceeds over to the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund.
July 19
Domestic: Actress Afsaneh Bayegan received a two-year prison sentence for appearing at a film ceremony without hijab. Bayegan was banned from using social media, leaving the country for two years, and required to attend psychological counseling “to treat the mental disorder of having an anti-family personality.”
Domestic: Retired Iranians protested poor living conditions and limited socioeconomic freedoms outside of pension fund offices and provincial buildings in major cities. The unrest followed Tehran’s recent decision to consolidate 18 different pension funds into one.
International: Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed a waiver allowing Iraqi payments to Iran for electricity. The agreement allowed Iraq to pay-off energy related debts owed to Iran via non-Iraqi banks for a period of 120-days.
International: The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York barred 14 Iraqi banks from carrying out dollar transactions. The United States was concerned about the transferring of dollars to Iran and other sanctioned countries.
International: Israeli President Isaac Herzog emphasized the need for a united U.S.-Israeli front for halting Iran’s nuclear development during a joint meeting of Congress. “Israel and the United States must act forcefully together to prevent Iran’s fundamental threat to international security.”
International: British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said that the United Kingdom upholds its firm stance against Iran. “We maintain a tough and robust position towards Iran and that will remain our position,” Cleverly told the Aspen Security Forum. He noted that the United Kingdom had foiled at least 15 attacks by Iranian agents on its soil.
Military: Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani implied that the agreement to purchase Russian Su-35 combat aircraft was not moving forward. “Sometimes, we make a deal for a purchase, but reach the conclusion that we have the capability to produce at home,” he told reporters. Ashtiani added that Iran’s aviation industry was “in a good state.”
July 20
International: Bolivian Minister of Defense Edmundo Novillo Aguilar met with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, in Tehran to strengthen bilateral ties and discuss South American security. The talks culminated in a memorandum of understanding on defense and security.
International: The European Union sanctioned six Iranians and issued a new sanctions framework over Iran’s military assistance to Syria as well as Russia for the war in Ukraine. The new measures barred E.U. export of parts that could be used in the production of drones. They also included travel restrictions and asset restrictions on those involved in Tehran’s drone program.
International: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin deployed an amphibious readiness group, reportedly including a Bataan assault ship as well as the transport ships USS Mesa Verde and USS Carter Hall. The United States also sent the 26thMarine Expeditional Unit, which could include some 2,500 Marines. The move came less than a week after the United States deployed the USS Thomas Hudner in addition to F-35s and F-16s to the region.
Military: Revolutionary Guards navy commander Alireza Tangsiri warned that Iran would punish any oil company unloading Iranian oil from seized tankers.
International: C.I.A director William Burns warned that military cooperation between Iran and Russia was deepening. “We have seen signs of the Russians--Russian technicians--working on the space launch vehicle program in Iran and other aspects of their missile programs,” he told the Aspen Security Forum. “We have seen discussion at least of the possibility of the Russians providing advanced combat aircraft to Iran, which expands the threat from the innocent Ukrainian civilians.”
July 21
Military: The oil ministry refuted claims that the oil on an Iranian-flagged tanker seized by Indonesia belonged to Tehran. “Published news linking the cargo of this ship to… Iran has no validity and this is done with the aim of creating a negative atmosphere against our country,” said the ministry in a statement.
International: The foreign ministry rejected a new slate of EU sanctions and accusations over its drone sales to Russia. The foreign ministry said that Iran "reserves the right for reciprocal and proportional action" and denied sending drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine.
International: Semafor News reported that Iran had detained a fourth American citizen, according to three anonymous officials briefed on the matter. The identity of the prisoner and details of his or her detention were not been disclosed.
International: The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency warned that Russia was building a drone manufacturing facility with Iranian assistance that could significantly impact the war in Ukraine. Analysts added that the facility could be complete by early next year and would make Russia’s drone stockpile “orders of magnitude larger.”
July 22
International: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Sweden of pursuing “war” against Islam for allowing public desecration of the Koran. Khamenei added that demonstrators should face the “most severe punishment” and demanded that Swedish authorities hand over protesters to “the judicial system of the Muslim countries.”
July 23
International: Taliban leadership rejected Iranian Foreign Minister Abdollahian’s claim that members of ISIS had been sent to Afghanistan. “If Iran has any intelligence that Daesh members have been transferred to Afghanistan, we hope [they] share it so the Afghan security forces can take the necessary steps,” said Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi.
Domestic: The Ministry of Culture banned a film festival scheduled for September after posters for the event featured an Iranian actress without hijab.
Military: Iran’s air force conducted an annual drill with bases from across the country amid increasing tension and Western military deployments in the Persian Gulf. More than 90 combat aircraft from 11 bases across Iran participated, according to state media. Air Force Chief Hamid Vahedi said that “sustainable security, improving and fostering regional ties, peaceful coexistence and defending air borders are on the agenda.”
Domestic: Militants killed four policemen in the southeast province of Sistan and Baluchistan, according to local media. The officers were on a routine highway patrol when they were ambushed by separatists in the latest of a string of attacks on security forces in province, which is home to the restive Baluch ethnic minority.
International: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged that the United States and Iran were “now in a place where we’re not talking about a nuclear agreement” in an interview. “There have been some developments and some changes since the time we got out of the [nuclear] deal and the time we were trying to get back in it,” Blinken told CNN. “An agreement was on the table. Iran either couldn’t or wouldn’t say yes. We’re not about to take any deal. Of course, it has to meet our security objectives. It has to meet our interests.”
Diplomatic: Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al Khulaifi traveled to Tehran to meet with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and senior diplomatic officials. After the meeting, Khulaifi tweeted that he had discussed “returning to the nuclear agreement” among other regional issues.
Picture Credits: Khatami via World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org), swiss-image.ch/Photo by Remy Steinegger (World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos 2007) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons