A group of more than 300 Iranian university professors, scholars, and environmentalists has written to Iran’s Supreme Leader opposing a petrochemical project scheduled for northern Iran.
In a letter published Thursday, they asked Ali Khamenei to intervene and stop the petrochemical plant near the Miankaleh wetland, Mazandaran province, which they say will have adverse environmental impacts on the coastal region. Politicians supporting the plant − which will convert natural gas to propylene, which has a range of uses in manufacturing − say it would create 75,000 jobs, but offer no evidence.
The environmentalists’ letter argued Iran already had sufficient propylene, and that a similar project in northern Iran begun by the Golestan Petrochemical company 17 years ago was in limbo although local ranches had been destroyed. The letter alleged there were around 90 abandoned petrochemical projects across the country, for which 40 construction permits had been issued under the previous government of President Hassan Rouhani.
They added that the area earmarked for the petrochemical unit in Miankaleh was high-quality agricultural land and was near to an international Unesco biosphere reserve. The environmentalists said that some work on the site – opponents of the development Tuesday cited welding for fencing and other preparations – was going on despite this week’s orders from President Ebrahim Raisi and the supreme court to pause or halt construction.
Roxanne Tahbaz says the United Kingdom government has betrayed Morad Tahbaz, 66, who has Iranian, British, and American citizenship. She alleges officials misled her family over the chances of his release and were not taking further steps to secure his return to Britain.
Roxanne Tahbaz pointed out it was a month since Iran released Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a manager for Thomson Reuters Foundation, and Anoosheh Ashuri, a retired engineer, after the UK paid a four-decade-old debt to Iran of £400 million ($530 million). “My father’s still sitting in prison and my mother’s still on a travel ban," Tahbaz told reporters outside the Foreign Office in London Wednesday.
Morad Tahbaz, who is serving a ten-year sentence on espionage charges after arrest with other environmentalists in 2018, was released from prison on furlough on March 16 after Britain paid the debt, but he was not allowed to leave the country.
Unlike Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashuri, Morad Tahbaz is also an American citizen, which may complicate the case.
Cheap Exchange
In a commentary Tuesday entitled "Why Morad Tahbaz Shouldn't Be Exchanged for Cheap", Fars news agency affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said recent reports of unfreezing of $7b of Iran's assets in South Korea may be related to the possible release of American nationals detained by Iran including Tahbaz. State-controlled media, including the official IRNA news agency have periodically claimed that a deal has been finalized to release the funds.
Fars linked the Tahbaz case to those of Siamak and Bagher Namazi, dual US-Iran citizens jailed in 2015 and 2017 respectively. "It seems that the price of these two individuals and the third person should be much higher than $7 billion," Fars wrote, adding that Iranians held in the US should also be freed even if the US agreed with the release of the $7 billion.
Fars repeated claims by the IRGC intelligence organization that Tahbaz was connected to American, Israeli and British secret services operating in Iran under the guise of environmental activities to cause "damage to the country in nuclear and military areas." In other cases Iran has swapped detained foreigners for Iranians held in the US for sanctions violations, while Iran has also talked of links between prisoner exchanges and progress in talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Leverage
International human rights organizations and families of dual nationals held by Iran say their detention amounts to hostage-taking to gain leverage.
While the British and Iranian governments have denied any connection between the cases of the British nationals and London’s debt to Iran, Roxanne Tahbaz alleged that British authorities had led her family to believe that her father would be part of a deal and would leave Iran alongside Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashuri. Her father, she said, felt abandoned by the British authorities.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said Wednesday that Iran had failed to honor a promise to release Morad on indefinite furlough. “Continuing his horrendous ordeal sends a clear message to the international community that Iran does not honor its commitments,” the spokesperson said. “We continue to urge the Iranian authorities at every opportunity to release him immediately.”
Grenell, who was also a White House Advisor, told Iran International’s Fardad Farahzad on Wednesday that he is not surprised by the Iranian regime’s move, adding that “we know that they deny systemically, every single day, basic human rights for women, for gays and lesbians, for the general population”.
Grenell, a strong supporter of former president Donald Trump, who also tweeted similar remarks in Persian earlier in the day, said, “I’m not surprised that they see my work in Farsi and Arabic languages to push human rights as a threat. I am absolutely not surprised that they don’t want me to be speaking about these issues and try to silence me.”
Insisting that the Tehran does not sanction Democrats because they “are darting towards the Iranian regime,” he said, and added, “The Biden administration is filled with total hypocrisy. They pretend to talk about human rights, but it doesn't come into their calculus… they're talking about giving money to the Iranian regime, they dropped the sanctions on the Iranian regime.”
Grenell, who also served as the acting director of national intelligence in the Trump administration, found himself on Iran's list of sanctioned individuals this week, joined by 24 other former Trump administration officials who were officially sanctioned due to what Iran called “terrorist activity and human rights violations".
“I would just note that on the Iranians' list of sanctions, of who they're concerned about, who they want to silence, there are no Democrats, there are no progressives on that list. They're just Republicans” he added.
He said, “I find it as a point of pride when your enemies publicly say that you are a threat to them it just means that you are really doing good work”.
He defended his efforts for the rights of the LGBTQ community, saying that “I believe that if you are an international diplomat and you are working to criminalize homosexuality, then you should not get a visa. Your kids should not get a visa to come to the US. There needs to be consequences for individuals who criminalize homosexuality and push that issue in their country”.
Grenell added that the Iranian regime is terrified of the right-wing LGBTQ campaigns in the Middle East, noting that there is no such fear from the activities of left-wing organizations
There is no fear of the activities of Hollywood types and Disney-type left-wing organizations, he said. “I think the Iranian regime is very pleased that the gay left has never taken this fight to Iran or to the Middle East. I think it’s shocking that the gay left will continue partnering with the Palestinian Authority knowing that the gay pride parade in Tel Aviv is literally a beacon of hope in the entire Middle East,” the Republican campaigner said.
Campaigners against the 800-trillion-rial ($3 billion) scheme posted videos on social media Tuesday evening claiming to show welding for fencing and other preparations for building the Miankaleh petrochemical plant continuing during hours of darkness after the Supreme Court ordered Tuesday a halt in construction pending an environmental assessment.
The Supreme Court's order to halt the project followed a social-media campaign and a petition to the oil minister and chief of the Department of Environment. Activists say the plant will have adverse environmental impacts on the coastal region. Celebrities, including actress Hedieh Tehrani, have backed the campaign, posting photos and banners on their social media pages.
The site is only a few kilometers from Miankaleh Peninsula in the east of the coastal region of Mazandaran, about 45km from Behshahr. The nearly 70,000-hectare peninsula, which separates the Gorgan Bay from the Caspian Sea, is home to a variety of birds and reptiles, and was designated as an international Unesco biosphere reserve in 1976.
When he inaugurated the project March 11, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said it met environmental requirements, but the following day Ali Salajegjeh, head of the Environment Department, said the department had not authorized the plant’s construction.
75,000 jobs
Salajegheh has said some lawmakers support the plant on the grounds it can create 75,000 jobs. But the lawmakers have not substantiated such a high number. Usually a few hundred people work in a petrochemical plant. He has also argued that wildlife in the Miankaleh lagoon would be threatened by the project’s requirement for water and that the plant would cause pollution.
The project is owned by Amirabad-e Mazandaran Limited, which according to the official gazette was established less than a year ago by companies outside petrochemicals. Within an usually fast few months, the oil ministry agreed to provide natural gas for the project, which reportedly will produce 400,000 tons of propylene a year.
The official news agency, IRNA, reported Sunday that President Ebrahim Raisi had ordered the project scrapped. Government Spokesman Ali Bahadori-Jahromi said April 5 that the project would not go ahead before being endorsed by the Department of Environment.
Salajegheh has pledged not to surrender to any pressures to endorse the project and the official news agency, IRNA, reported Sunday that President Ebrahim Raisi had ordered the project to be scrapped. Government Spokesman Ali Bahadori-Jahromi also said on April 5 that the project would not be implemented before being endorsed by the Department of Environment.
Critics suspect the company that owns the project of having support from centers of power who are so influential that they can even bypass the President's orders.
"The halt in the construction of Miankaleh petrochemical plant is good news, but experience proves that the halt will be temporary, and contractors will return with even more destructive methods,” Javad Heydarian, a journalist focused on environmental issues tweeted Tuesday. “Those who implement such projects have so much money, power, and influence that they don't [have to] abide by any laws."
