The Forest, one of three Iranian oil tankers in a flotilla delivering hundreds of thousands of barrels of fuel to Venezuela, entered Venezuelan waters on its way to the El Palito refinery port. The other two oil tankers, the Faxon and the Fortune, appeared set to arrive in Venezuela in several days. General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, a military advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claimed that Venezuela had repaid Iran by sending gold bars by plane.
News Briefs
September 24, 2020
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) inaugurated the Shaheed Rahbari military base near the Iranian city of Sirik, which sits on the Strait of Hormuz. Major General Hossein Salami, the head of the IRGC, attended the ceremony. Iran's state-owned media reported that the base, which was under construction for six years, would give Iran "full control" of vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, the IRGC also flew a drone over the U.S.S. Nimitz, an aircraft carrier transiting the Strait.
-- Bloomberg
September 24, 2020
According to intelligence reports, Iran is procuring advanced engine technology used in drones from Chinese manufacturers. The technology is smuggled from Xiamen, in China, to Mombasa, Kenya, then sent to Salalah, Oman, from where the technology is sent on to Houthi strongholds in Yemen. This procurement pattern is a shift from previous efforts by Iran to obtain miniature engines from small German manufacturers, including the successful procurement of 42 twin-cylinder propeller motors in 2015 that were routed through Athens to Tehran. Such engines were found in drones used by the Houthis in attacks on Saudi Arabia. Their sale to Iran was subsequently banned by the German government. Iran has used a range of Dutch and German engines in its drones to boost domestic production.
-- The National
September 23, 2020
Rear Admiral Ali Reza Tangsiri, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy, said that the IRGC Navy had received 188 new drones and helicopters. The drones included the Sepehr vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drone, the Hodhod-4 VTOL drone, the Shahab-2, and the Mohajer-6, which has a range of 200 km and can carry a payload of four missiles. The drones can take off from naval ships and surveil maritime targets. According to Tangsiri, the IRGC Navy now uses drones in all its operations. The IRGC Navy also unveiled two new amphibious helicopters and four new combat helicopters equipped with missiles.
-- Tasnim News Agency
September 21, 2020
A new executive order authorizes the United States to freeze the assets of any company or individual helping Iran obtain conventional weapons – a means of unilaterally enforcing a U.N. arms embargo. In addition, the United States imposed sanctions and trade restrictions on 27 organizations and individuals connected to Iran's nuclear program or its ballistic missile and conventional arms activities. The sanctioned entities include the Iranian Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL), the Defense Industries Organization (DIO), three subunits of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, for his role in conventional weapons deals with Iran.
-- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 19, 2020
The United States reimposed international sanctions on Iran that the United Nations lifted in 2016 as part of the nuclear agreement, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). However, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, as well as Iran, said that the reimposition lacked legal validity because the United States is no longer a party to the agreement. The United States threatened to use domestic authorities to punish countries that fail to enforce the U.N. sanctions. The U.S. move is a response to a failed effort by the United States to extend a U.N. arms embargo on Iran set to expire on October 18.
-- The New York Times
September 18, 2020
Irish militants linked to the New IRA (NIRA) met with officials at the Iranian embassy in Dublin during a ceremony to honor the deceased Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. British authorities later arrested nine NIRA members after they attempted to acquire weapons and Iranian- and Lebanese-designed bomb-making technology from the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah; NIRA operatives had traveled to Lebanon in 2018. The NIRA members intended to use the weapons to target security forces in Northern Ireland.
-- The National
September 17, 2020
The United States charged three Iranians with hacking aerospace and satellite companies to steal data for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The U.S. Department of Justice accused Mohammad Bayati, Mohammad Reza Espargham, and Said Pourkarim Arabi of disguising themselves as academics or company representatives in order to trick actual company employees into downloading computer viruses. According to the Justice Department, the trio planned to target 1,800 accounts in Australia, Israel, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. While U.S. authorities described all three individuals as having IRGC ties, U.S. authorities alleged that Arabi worked as an IRGC operations manager and lived in IRGC housing. The charges followed two earlier indictments of Iranian hackers and coincided with the U.S. Treasury Department's announcement that it was sanctioning a separate Iranian hacking group known as "APT39."
-- Reuters
September 13, 2020
An Iranian-flagged oil tanker alternatively known as "Honey" and "Horse" delivered two million barrels of condensate from Iran's South Pars field to the state-controlled Venezuelan port of Jose. The condensate will likely go to the Venezuelan state-owned enterprise Petroleos de Venezuela SA and be blended with Venezuela's lower-quality crude oil. The Iranian oil tanker, which belongs to the U.S.-sanctioned National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), turned off its transponder before heading from the Persian Gulf to Venezuela. The shipment marks the first time that Venezuela has imported Iranian crude oil; Venezuela has already received shipments of Iranian gasoline. Iran has supplied Venezuela with 1.5 million barrels of gasoline so far this year.
-- Bloomberg
September 13, 2020
Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), announced that Iran has 1,044 centrifuges enriching uranium at the Fordow plant and that the uranium produced there will be stockpiled. Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran had pledged to refrain from enriching uranium at Fordow. After the United States withdrew from the JCPOA and reimposed sanctions on Iran, however, Iran began reneging on some of its JCPOA commitments.
-- Bourse and Bazaar