Attack on Nuclear Negotiations with a New Codename

The newspaper Qanoon, in its Saturday issue, described the statements of Mohammad Hossein Safar Harandi and Ahmad Khatami as an 'attack on nuclear negotiations with a new codename.' This newspaper referred to the new codename for the attack on the eleventh government as 'Oslo Agreement' and wrote that simultaneously, Mohammad Hossein Safar Harandi in a television program and Ahmad Khatami in Friday prayers in Tehran compared a potential agreement between Iran and the 1+5 countries to the 'Oslo Agreement' signed 22 years ago by Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, marking a new wave of attacks on the government and nuclear negotiations. Concurrently, the newspaper Javan in its issue on February 14 warned about the 'risk of erosion in the two-stage nuclear agreement,' emphasizing that 'negotiation with the 1+5 should not suffer the same fate as the Oslo agreements.' The newspaper Etemad published a report on 'new currency restrictions for real and legal traders' and its consequences on the currency market in Iran. The newspaper Farhikhtegan published a 'field report on dust in Khuzestan,' stating: 'People who once had missiles and bombs raining down on them are now disturbed by the dust of their lives.' Meanwhile, the newspaper Khorasan quoted Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi, the Minister of Health, stating: 'Solving the dust problem is not effective in the short term,' but 'if a mistake has been made, regardless of which government made the mistake, we should apologize to the people not verbally but practically.' The newspaper Shahrevand reported new details about 'the transfer of 7 trillion tomans of oil money to four foreign countries' by Babak Zanjani and his supporters. 'Attack on nuclear negotiations with a new codename' The newspaper Qanoon, in its Saturday issue, described the statements of Mohammad Hossein Safar Harandi and Ahmad Khatami as an 'attack on nuclear negotiations with a new codename.' This newspaper noted that the remarks made a few days ago by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic 'pushed the opponents of the negotiations to the sidelines,' writing: 'Their silence did not last long' and 'this time the opponents coordinated their efforts to compare the Geneva negotiations with the Israel-Palestine negotiations in Oslo. A comparison that seems to be a new codename for questioning the achievements of the nuclear negotiations.' The newspaper Qanoon referred to the new codename for the attack on the eleventh government as 'Oslo Agreement' and wrote: 'At the beginning of this new wave of attacks, Mohammad Hassan Safar Harandi, who was invited to a special news program, referred to the signing of the Oslo Agreement in 1993 between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin with the presence of Bill Clinton, stating that this agreement 'was from the very beginning a corrupt seed, which presented the generalities in this contract and left the details for the future.' According to this newspaper, Mohammad Hossein Safar Harandi also stated: 'In that contract, they agreed to respect the rights of the Palestinians and they must have their land to fulfill many of their unmet demands, and in this contract, matters related to details such as land, the fate of Jerusalem and the Palestinian refugees and their return to their land, as well as the fate of the important waters flowing there, were postponed to the future,' and while 'Yasser Arafat at the time of the contract believed he had made a good agreement,' but 'after 22 years only a few wars occurred' and 'today Palestinians feel that nothing has come of that contract, and neither the fate of the refugees has been determined nor the status of Jerusalem, and every day that passes, the situation in Palestine worsens.' The newspaper Qanoon wrote that Mohammad Hossein Safar Harandi continued by referring to the nuclear negotiations between the Islamic Republic and the 5+1 countries, stating: 'We must be assured of the immediate lifting of all sanctions in exchange for Iran's nuclear commitments because these two issues are of equal weight and one cannot be realized while the other is postponed to the future.' This newspaper also referred to similar remarks by Ahmad Khatami in Friday prayers on February 14 in Tehran. According to this newspaper, Ahmad Khatami also mentioned the nuclear issues from the Friday prayer podium, stating: 'The 1+5 team, especially the United States, was engaged in a deception operation, the same deception that was brought upon Palestine with the Oslo Agreement, and with the agreement on the generalities, they said that gradually we would reach the details, but until now, 22 years after that agreement, they have not moved an inch forward, and they wanted to repeat the same issue in our nuclear program.' The newspaper Qanoon emphasized that 'these attacks, which started with the codename 'Oslo,' continued through the media opposed to the government, and they tried to steer public opinion in the direction they wanted by interviewing experts opposed to the government,' while 'international law experts believe that comparing [the Oslo Agreement] and [the Geneva Agreement] is incorrect, and those who compare these two agreements do not have sufficient study and knowledge in this area.' Youssef Molaei, a professor of international law at Tehran University, told the newspaper Qanoon: 'Equating the current nuclear negotiations with the framework of the Oslo Agreement is a false analogy because those negotiations were about the independence and existence of Palestinian land, which had long been a point of contention and dispute between the parties to the agreement, and ultimately both sides committed to adhering to specific solutions and boundaries in their relations, which has no relation to our nuclear negotiations with the 1+5 group.' This international law professor told the newspaper Qanoon: 'Those who make such comments certainly do not have complete legal knowledge of the mentioned agreement and have not studied it, and their only goal in using such terminology is to provoke negative feelings towards these negotiations; otherwise, this analogy is not legal and scientific at all.' Youssef Molaei also stated that 'in my opinion, the negotiating team can use these opposing voices to benefit our country, national interests, and the expectations of the leadership from the results of these negotiations,' while 'on the opposing side, various voices are also heard, which are also seeking to exert pressure on Iran,' but 'the success of these negotiations depends on the skill of our diplomats and negotiating team.' Concerns of the newspaper Javan about the 'risk of erosion in the two-stage nuclear agreement' Meanwhile, the newspaper Javan in its issue on February 14 warned about the 'risk of erosion in the two-stage nuclear agreement,' emphasizing that 'negotiation with the 5+1 should not suffer the same fate as the Oslo agreements.' This newspaper, close to the Revolutionary Guards, emphasized that 'the experience of the negotiation process shows that dividing into a general and detailed agreement opens the way for vague and ambiguous phrases that each party can interpret in its own way, and on the other hand, there is no guarantee of adherence to commitments.' It wrote: 'Based on past experience, the West has violated its clear and explicit commitments, let alone vague and ambiguous commitments. Now, if the element of time is added to this collection, the complexity of the issue increases even more, as seen in international agreements.' The newspaper Javan compared a potential two-stage agreement between Iran and the 5+1 countries with the 1990 agreement of the Council and the United States regarding 'conventional armed forces in Europe' and also with the signing of the 'Oslo Agreement' by Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, writing: 'Two examples of the impact of the erosion of time in international agreements can be seen in current crises.' This newspaper also wrote: 'It remains to be seen what the role of the element of time will be in the nuclear negotiations and what impact it will have on the final agreement. Assigning parts of the agreement to this element raises the risk of erosion of the core of the contract and can lead the nuclear agreement to suffer the same fate that befell the conventional forces agreement in Europe and the Oslo Agreement.' New currency restrictions for real and legal traders The newspaper Etemad in its Saturday issue published a report on 'new currency restrictions for real and legal traders' and its consequences on the currency market in Iran. This newspaper reported that in the latest action by the Central Bank, 'exchange offices are facing new restrictions,' on one hand 'unauthorized exchange offices are not allowed to operate in the currency market,' and on the other hand 'with the issuance of new currency regulations by the Central Bank, 445 exchange offices are authorized to announce transaction information in the Sena system.' According to Etemad, 'This action is aimed at organizing the currency market, and the Central Bank has announced that it intends to have sufficient and comprehensive oversight over the currency and financial market of the country,' and although 'the circular regarding the activities of exchange offices has not yet been issued, the news published in this regard has caused the Iranian currency market to face new conditions.' According to this newspaper, the Central Bank has set two special and simultaneous actions to organize the currency market, and it has been decided that 'simultaneously with the street ban on buying and selling currency, exchange offices will also be subject to specific laws to prevent influencing future currency prices.' Etemad noted that 'based on the Central Bank's circular, the activities of exchange offices in cyberspace are prohibited, and any activity of exchange offices outside the Sena system for currency trading is unauthorized,' and also 'from now on, any activity of authorized exchange offices for buying and selling currency in cyberspace is prohibited, and these regulations do not recognize forward transactions at all, and exchange offices are now obliged to install the buying and selling rates of currency in the exchange office or on their website, and all transactions of authorized exchange offices, whether bulk or retail, must be registered in the Sena system.' This newspaper also referred to the assignment of announcing the currency rate to the Association of Exchange Offices, stating: 'The Association of Exchange Offices has been tasked with announcing the daily currency rate based on the information registered by exchange offices in the Sena system within the time frame of 10 AM to 6 PM on working days at intervals of every hour, and this rate must be posted on the exchange offices' websites. All currency transactions are only valid for authorized exchange offices, and buying and selling currency based on Article 3 of the regulations governing exchange offices is prohibited for real and legal persons.' Etemad simultaneously examined the effects of the Central Bank's actions on the currency market, stating: 'Neither Ferdowsi Square is empty, nor Sabzeh Meydan and Istanbul, street currency sellers are still busy selling currency in corners of the streets, and the issued circulars regarding the prohibition of buying and selling currency outside the official network have not been able to change this trend, but have put large traders in new conditions.' This newspaper noted that 'the effort to organize the currency market is not the first time that it has been on the agenda of economic officials and Central Bank authorities,' writing: 'Previously, the Central Bank had repeatedly attempted to organize the currency market, dealing with street brokers and unauthorized exchange offices, etc.' Etemad also recalled that 'the currency jump in 2011 and 2012 took the currency market out of normal conditions and currency brokers faced significant profits due to the substantial increase in the number of customers,' but 'police actions could not place the currency market in normal and problem-free conditions,' and 'many experts believe that unifying the currency rate and eliminating the price gap between government currency and free currency can account for the cost of removing brokers from the currency market.' Field report from Farhikhtegan on public discontent in Khuzestan; 'Give me back my air' The newspapers Farhikhtegan and Khorasan reported on public discontent and the statements of government officials regarding the crisis of dust in Khuzestan. The newspaper Farhikhtegan published a 'field report on dust in Khuzestan,' stating: 'People who once had missiles and bombs raining down on them are now disturbed by the dust of their lives.' Nasrin Niknam, a reporter dispatched by Farhikhtegan to Ahvaz, in the Saturday issue of this newspaper described the conditions of this city during the dust crisis, stating: 'Life flows here under a pile of dust. These days Khuzestan is hosting an unwelcome guest that sometimes takes the form of a compatriot and sometimes that of a neighbor. The drying of wetlands and reduced rainfall have combined to cast this unwelcome guest's shadow over the city, and now it has found a good place to stay.' This newspaper pointed to the increase in the disease 'asthma' among the citizens of Ahvaz as one of the consequences of the dust crisis, citing 'Ali Mohammadi, who has two daughters aged eight and eleven,' stating: 'His younger daughter has developed asthma due to the persistent dust phenomenon,' and although 'schools have been closed for a week, my daughter's asthma problem has not been resolved, and she uses sprays and allergy medications. Doctors have said that for definitive treatment, you must go to Tehran and complete your daughter's treatment there. In this situation, treatment here does not work.' The reporter from Farhikhtegan also quoted Abu Hamzeh, another citizen of Ahvaz, stating: 'Just tell the officials to solve this problem as soon as possible because if things remain as they are, the day will come when we will have to collect the corpses of people from the corners of the city.' This newspaper also quoted a working woman from Ahvaz stating: 'No one thought this dust would bother people so much. The problems of the people were already few, and now this dust has added to them. My daughters say we should leave this city, but the reality is where can we go? What will happen to our lives?' A housewife also told the newspaper Farhikhtegan: 'I only clean the house three times a day. Every time I sweep, I imagine two kilos of dust are collected. On the other hand, I have to keep the house clean for my young child constantly,' and if 'we do not sweep the house for a day, footprints remain on the carpet and dust enters the food.'