Iran's Intelligence Minister Calls Blinken A 'Peddler'
Iran's minister of intelligence has ridiculed US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, saying he is moving around the region like a "peddler" seeking a solution favorable to Israel.
Iran's minister of intelligence has ridiculed US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, saying he is moving around the region like a "peddler" seeking a solution favorable to Israel.
Esmail Khatib alleged that Blinken, with the assistance of certain countries, is actively pursuing what he termed a "dignified ceasefire" in the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel.
Khatib asserted on Saturday that “a regime, initially claiming victory in the region following operations against Hamas, is now shifting its focus towards negotiating a ceasefire.” He suggested that the ceasefire is being sought in exchange for the release of prisoners and an attempt to diminish Hamas's control over Gaza.
The Iranian minister claimed that the October 7 attack by Hamas was a setback for the United States in the region. He alleged that “the US dominance, previously asserting military, intelligence, economic, and political support for the Zionist regime, has collapsed.”
However, Khatib did not provide details on how the US has been defeated despite deploying significant military assets, including a nuclear submarine and two aircraft carriers, along with thousands of forces to the region amid the conflict.
On the contrary, the ongoing conflict has seen Israel intensify its attacks on Gaza, aiming to uproot Hamas. The war has become exceptionally bloody due to Hamas's strategy of operating within the civilian population and beneath non-military facilities in the coastal enclave.
While Iran supports Hamas, it denies any involvement in the October 7 terror attack that triggered the current crisis. Additionally, Iran backs Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group with close ties to both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian faction in Gaza supported by Iran.
He emphasized that without re-injecting gas into oil deposits, some fields might become unproductive, leading to substantial economic losses for the country's oil sector.
Reports from Iran's Ministry of Oil and the US Energy Information Administration indicate that 80 percent of Iran's oil production comes from aging fields facing pressure drops, resulting in an annual production decline of 8 to 10 percent.
To prevent a rapid decline in oil production, Iran needs to re-inject nearly 300 million cubic meters of gas per day (mcm/d) into its old oil deposits. However, the latest available official data reveals that the actual daily gas re-injection in 2018 was less than 37 million cubic meters. The situation must have deteriorated even further in the past five years, as gas production rapidly declines.
Additionally, the semi-official Fars news agency reported in June 2023 that only 10% of the required gas is being re-injected into the aging fields currently, reflecting a significant decline in gas re-injection to under 30 mcm/d. This gas deficit poses a severe threat to Iran's oil production and requires urgent attention to avoid economic repercussions.
According to estimates from the Parliament's Research Center and the Ministry of Oil, Iran has injected an average of 70 mcm/d into its oil fields during the last three decades. However, this re-injection rate has sharply declined since 2015.
Iran’s gas production is declining because of decades of inadequate investments and lack of Western technology to increase extraction in Iran's main under water gas fields in the Persian Gulf. Years of various sanctions and mismanagement have prevented the necessary upgrades of gas platforms.
This reduction is concerning, given the growing need for gas re-injection to maintain oil production levels, which should reach around 300 mcm/d due to more fields entering the second half of their lifespan since 2005.
This reduction is concerning, given the growing need for gas re-injection to maintain oil production levels, which should reach around 300 mcm/d due to more fields entering the second half of their lifespan since 2005.
Currently, the average daily gas injection into these fields is below 30 million cubic meters. Inadequate gas injection not only leads to a decline in oil production but also leaves a substantial portion of oil reserves permanently unrecoverable within the soil.
For instance, Iran's oil fields with 650 billion barrels of oil reserves, typically have a recovery rate of about 20%, meaning only 20% of the oil can be extracted under normal conditions. Over the past two decades, gas re-injection of 70 mcm/d and 250,000 barrels of brackish water has increased Iran's oil field recovery rate from 20% to 24%, meaning Iran’s recoverable oil reserves stands at 156 billion barrels.
With sufficient gas re-injection, this rate could reach 27-28%, potentially adding around 20 billion barrels to Iran's extractable oil reserves. Considering the current market values, this additional oil would be worth over $1.5 trillion.
Iran has only tried to compensate for declining oil production by drilling more wells and developing new oil fields over the past two decades.
However, following last winter's gas deficit of 250 mcm/d, 50 mcm/d more than in 2020, this winter is anticipated to experience a gas deficit of around 300 mcm/d.
Iran, with 33 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves, ranks second globally after Russia. Its annual gas production is approximately 260 billion cubic meters, with 18 billion cubic meters exported to Turkey and Iraq. Due to gas shortage and continuance of its gas exports, Iran's domestic oil product consumption experienced close to 10% growth last year.
Dr Umud Shokri, Energy Strategist and Senior Visiting Fellow at George Mason University
Dalga Khatinoglu, Azerbaijani expert on Iran’s energy issues
"There is no other way but to resist Israel, we kiss the hands of Hamas for its resistance against Israel," Raisi said in his address to a joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh. He also called on Islamic countries to impose oil and goods sanctions on Israel.
The summit called on Saturday for an immediate end to hostilities in Gaza, declaring that Israel is responsible for "crimes" against Palestinians.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, gathered Arab and Muslim leaders in Riyadh as the kingdom has sought to exert its influence to press the United States and Israel for an end to fighting in Gaza.
The Iranian regime praised Hamas as soon as news about the October 7 attack emerged and immediately organized street celebration. However, it has refrained from direct involvement in the fighting. However, its Iraqi, Syrian and Yemeni proxy forces have launched more than 40 rocket and drone attacks against American forces in the region, not deterred by a large deployment of US naval forces in the region.
Dozens of leaders including Iran’s Raisi, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was welcomed back into the Arab League earlier this year, attended the meeting.
Prince Mohammed said the kingdom affirms its "condemnation and categorical rejection of this barbaric war against our brothers in Palestine".
"We are facing a humanitarian catastrophe that proves the failure of the Security Council and the international community to put an end to the flagrant Israeli violations of international laws," he said in an address to the summit.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Palestinians are facing a "genocidal war" and called on the United States to end Israeli "aggression".
As he headed to Riyadh, Raisi said it was time for action over the conflict rather than talk.
The Middle East has been on edge since Hamas fighters rampaged into Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Since then, Israel has escalated its assault on Gaza, where 11,078 people had been killed as of Friday, 40% of them children, according to Hamas officials. It is not possible to independently verify these numbers.
ARAB COUNTRIES DIVIDED
Fighting intensified overnight into Saturday near Gaza City's overcrowded hospitals, Palestinian officials said.
The war has upended traditional Middle East alliances as Riyadh has engaged more closely with Iran, pushed back against US pressure to condemn Hamas and put on hold its plans to normalize ties with Israel.
Raisi's trip to Saudi Arabia is the first by an Iranian head of state since Tehran and Riyadh ended years of hostility under a Chinese-brokered deal in March.
Erdogan called for an international peace conference to find a permanent solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestinians.
"What we need in Gaza is not pauses for a couple of hours, rather we need a permanent ceasefire," Erdogan told the summit.
The kingdom had been scheduled to host two extraordinary summits, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Arab League, on Saturday and Sunday. The joint summit will replace the two gatherings in light of the "extraordinary" Gaza situation, the Saudi Foreign ministry said.
Hamas called on the summit to take "a historic and decisive decision and move to stop the Zionist aggression immediately".
"We call on Arab and Muslim leaders ... to put pressure on the American administration, which bears direct responsibility in the genocidal war that our people are facing in the Gaza Strip," a statement from the Palestinian militant group said.
Arab foreign ministers were divided as some countries, led by Algeria, called for a complete cut in diplomatic ties with Israel, two delegates told Reuters.
Other Arab countries, which have established diplomatic relations with Israel, pushed back, stressing the need to keep channels open with Netanyahu's government, they said.
With reporting by Reuters
The Interior Ministry has conducted the initial screening, and additional candidates, including current members of parliament, are anticipated to face disqualification by the conservative Guardian Council, operating under the direct supervision of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
For months, there has been speculation among politicians and commentators about whether the March elections would be more competitive, after two scandalous elections in 2020 and 2021, when most non-hardliner candidates were barred in a highly questionable vetting process.
Three of the five MPs are lawmakers from Tabriz including outspoken Ahmad Alirezabeigi. He revealed a significant case of financial corruption involving over one hundred members of parliament who were purportedly bribed by a former industry minister to avoid impeachment. The alleged bribe involved hundreds of SUVs gifted to dozens of lawmakers.
According to Shargh daily, the other lawmakers from Tabriz who has been disqualified by the Interior Ministry are Massoud Pezershkian, a staunch reformist critic of the Raisi administration, and Alireza Monadi. During the past four years, Pezeshkian has harshly criticized the government for the large exodus of Iranian medical staff to other countries to evade hardships brought about the current economic crisis blamed on the regime’s adversarial foreign policy.
Pezeshkian had also criticized the government for the shortage of medicine, rising prices and other matters on various occasions. Meanwhile, as a reformist lawmaker, Pezeshkian also criticized his colleagues in the parliament (Majles) for chanting slogans such as death to other countries, instead of trying to correct the state of affairs in Iran. "We need to tolerate others and work and collaborate with the world," he said adding that "we need to create solidarity inside Iran." He has also called for reforms in Iran and demanded the replacement of Raisi's inefficient cabinet ministers.
Another outspoken lawmaker who has been barred from running for the next parliament is Gholamreza Nouri Ghezeljeh who is very well known for his criticism of the Raisi administration's economic policies and the failure to control the inflation rate in Iran. Ghezelje is also a staunch critic of the government's restrictive cultural policies including the bill to restrict Iranian's access to social media.
In one of his latest speeches at the Majles he lashed out at the government for attempting to invade Iranians' privacy through a plan officially introduced as a bill to "monitor the citizens' lifestyle." While the Majles was approving the bill last Tuesday, Ghezeljeh pointed out that such a monitoring is against Article 25 of the Iranian Constitution which bars the government from spying on citizens’ private lives. He warned that any study of lifestyle should not include the private lives of citizens and invasion of their privacy.
Another outspoken MP also barred from re-election is Jalil Rahimi Jahanabadi, a member of parliament's National Security and Foreign Relations Committee. He told the press that he will take his complain about his disqualification to God almighty.
An advocate of openness to international community, Jahanabadi has continuously supported the Idea of Iran joining international conventions such as the FATF conventions against money laundering and financing of terrorism. Last month, while Iran's radicals and hardliners were once again blamed for the impasse in the country's economy, politics and foreign policy, Jahanabadi called for a powerful reformist minority in the Majles to counterbalance hardliners. He said: "We need to harness and control the radicals. A powerful reformist minority can have a good impact on the Majles."
Jahanabadi is also known for a comment in August in which he acknowledged that the consequences of last year's protests continue to impact the nation's psychology.
The disqualified MPs may appeal the Interior Ministry's verdict, however, the totalitarian government in Tehran, needs to have some of its critics punished by disqualification as a lesson for the new lawmakers who win the next Majles.
