Russian president Vladimir Putin and Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty during a visit by Pezeskhian to Moscow. The 20-year treaty covers trade, intelligence sharing, and military cooperation, as well as cooperation in other sectors including science, education, and culture. It does not include a mutual defense pact, but requires both countries refrain from providing military support or aid to any country attacking the other party. It also provides for the two countries to coordinate their response to external sanctions and to facilitate payments in their national currencies.
News Briefs
January 17, 2025
-- Associated Press
January 15, 2025
Iranian vice president and former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif acknowledged that Israeli sabotage was responsible for explosions at Iran’s underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility in 2020 and 2021. Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency had already signaled its responsibility for the attacks, which involved the sale of explosive-packed centrifuge platforms to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran through an infiltrated dealer.
-- Associated Press
January 14, 2025
Iran, Britain, France, and Germany held talks in Geneva intended to restart negotiations over Iran's nuclear program and related sanctions. The four countries' representatives also met for discussions in November 2024.
-- Reuters
January 12, 2025
Iranian national Mohammad Abedini was released from detention in Italy and returned to Iran after Italy's justice minister revoked his arrest. Abedini had been detained on a U.S. warrant for allegedly having supplied microelectronics to Iran that were subsequently used in a fatal drone attack on U.S. troops in Jordan. The Italian justice ministry claimed that the charges had no parallel in Italian law, preventing extradition. Italian media linked the case to the Iranian detention of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, which took place three days after Abedini's arrest. Iran released Sala shortly before Abedini’s release from Italy.
-- Reuters
January 11, 2025
Iran withdrew nearly three million barrels of oil from a stockpile at the Chinese port of Dalian. The oil is part of a 25-million-barrel supply Iran stored in China in 2018 because of the threat of U.S. sanctions. The oil was withdrawn by two tankers, Modestar and CH Billion, and would need to be transferred to another vessel and its Iranian origin disguised before it could be sold in China or elsewhere. The approximately $1 billion expected net proceeds are reportedly intended for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
-- Wall Street Journal
January 7, 2025
U.S., European, and Arab officials confirmed that Iranian forces largely withdrew from Syria following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December. Iranian personnel and Iran-backed militias that had supported Assad since 2011 fled to Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon, leaving behind military equipment and vehicles.
-- Wall Street Journal
January 6, 2025
Iranian officials announced the beginning of about 30 land, air, and sea exercises involving the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the regular military, more than double the number of military exercises conducted last winter. The exercises are scheduled to end in March and include drills near Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility and the Strait of Hormuz.
-- Financial Times
December 24, 2024
Iranian oil trader Hossein Shamkhani has been shipping Iranian weapons, including missiles, drone components, and dual-use goods, across the Caspian Sea to Russia since mid-2023, according to U.S. and European officials. Shamkhani, who goes by the alias "Hector", used a network of companies including Dubai-based Crios Shipping LLC to facilitate more than a quarter of Iran’s weapons shipments to Russia, which are paid for by barters of Russian oil. Shamkhani also oversees the U.S.-sanctioned companies Oceanlink Maritime DMCC and Koban Shipping LLC on behalf of Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics. Two ships operated by Crios, Sea Castle (also known as Tooka) and Sea Anchor (also known as Roja), each made at least five voyages from Iranian ports to the Russian port of Astakhan in 2024.
-- BNN Bloomberg
December 18, 2024
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) now control around half of Iran’s more than $50 billion per year in oil exports, up from 20 percent three years ago, according to Western and Iranian sources. Most of the oil is sold to China through front companies such as China-based Haokun. IRGC-controlled oil sells at a slight discount compared to that sold by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) subsidiary NICO because the IRGC is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.
-- Reuters
December 16, 2024
U.S.-Iranian national Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi and Iranian national Mohammad Abedininajafabadi (Abedini) were charged in the United States with illicitly exporting electronic components to Iran. With Sadeghi's assistance, Abedini allegedly used a Switzerland-based front company Illumove SA to procure U.S.-origin microelectronics for his Iranian company San’at Danesh Rahpooyan Aflak Co. (SDRA or SADRA). SDRA produces navigation systems for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). A drone equipped with a SDRA-built navigation system was used in a January 2024 attack on a U.S. military base in Jordan that killed three U.S. service members. Sadeghi was arrested in the United States, and Abedini was arrested in Italy.
-- U.S. Department of Justice