News Digest: Week of December 16

December 18, 2024

December 16

Domestic: Iran delayed the implementation of a new modesty law after receiving criticism from the international community and human rights groups. The Supreme National Security Council requested to delay the bill to conduct further investigations and address controversies. The United Nations called for the law to be repealed because it represented “an intensification of State control over women’s bodies” and an “assault on women’s rights and freedoms.” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had also been critical of the legislation. 

Domestic: Iran shut down government offices and schools following a drop in temperature and an acute gas shortage due to Iran’s aging and ill-equipped infrastructure. President Pezeshkian, among other government officials, asked Iranians to conserve energy and lower their thermostats.

International: The United States charged two men with conspiring to export U.S. technology for use in Iranian military drones. Dual U.S.-Iranian national Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi was arrested in Massachusetts and Iranian national Mohammad Abedini was arrested in Italy at the request of the Department of Justice. Abedini was also charged with providing material support to the IRGC, which resulted in the death of three U.S. service members in a drone attack on Tower 22 base in Jordan in January 2024.

Nuclear: International Atomic Energy chief Rafael Grossi said that reviving the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran was no longer useful because Iran had dramatically increased its production of uranium enriched to near weapons grade and disregarded safeguard measures. With 60 percent enriched uranium, Iran “is practically at the same level as nuclear armed states,” he said.

 

December 18

Economy: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) reportedly extended control over the country’s oil exports. The IRGC was managing some 50 percent of oil exports, a dramatic increase from 20 percent in 2021. Oil and petrochemical sales are a key source of revenue and foreign exchange for the government. 

Economy: The Iranian rial depreciated to its lowest level to date, losing more than 10 percent of its value since the U.S. elections in November. Central Bank Governor Mohammad-Reza Farzin said that $220 million had been added to the market to improve the exchange rate.

International: U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Iran should pivot to focus on its domestic issues after a year of economic setbacks and extensive damage to Tehran’s military capabilities.

 

December 19

Diplomacy: President Masoud Pezeshkian traveled to Cairo for a summit of the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation in the first visit by an Iranian president to the country in more than a decade. “The closer, deeper, and more practical our relations with Islamic countries become, the more effectively we can thwart the enemies' conspiracies against us and other Islamic nations,” said Pezeshkian.