“How Iran’s central bank currency system is manipulated to fund regional proxy wars,” Hollie McKay, Fox News, December 24, 2020.
“How Israel and the US combined media and military power to prevent war,” Seth Frantzman, Jerusalem Post, December 24, 2020.
It occurred to me while posting this article, where else in the world today did one country shoot rockets at another country’s embassy? It only happened in one place, Iran shooting at the U.S. embassy in Iraq. That the U.S. did not retaliate and issued a warning is a testament to national interest, strategy, and that Iran did not kill any Americans. What an interesting Christmas Eve. See “Trump issues stern warning to Iran after rocket attack on US Embassy in Baghdad,” Edmund DeMarche, Fox News, December 24, 2020.
Here on Dec. 24, before Christmas Day, we’ll talk about the gift the Regime should have already given its people. There will be other stories beyond today. “Editorial—Why Iran’s Regime Refuses To Purchase COVID-19 Vaccine,” NCRI, December 24, 2020.
“Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said an Iranian bank had received backing from the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to transfer the money to a Swiss bank to pay for the vaccines. … Iran would pay nearly $244m for initial imports of 16.8 million doses of the vaccines from COVAX, a multiagency group dedicated to assuring fair access to vaccines for low- and middle-income countries. Iranian officials have repeatedly said the US sanctions are preventing them from making payments to COVAX, to which some 190 economies have signed up.” See “Iran says US approved its funds transfer to buy COVID vaccines,” Al Jazeera, December 24, 2020.
“Iran, Azerbaijan to build hydropower plants at common border,” Xinhua, December 24, 2020. “Iran and Azerbaijan have agreed to reactivate the building of two hydroelectric power plants on the Aras river border, the Iranian Minister of Energy Reza Ardakanian announced on Wednesday. … The dam has the potential to regulate 1.6 billion cubic meters of water throughout the year, irrigate up to 120,000 hectares of agricultural land and feed “two hydropower plants with a total capacity of 280 MW of electricity,” said the minister.”
“Iranian People Continue Protests; Nine Rallies and Strikes on December 23,” Mahmoud, Iran News Update, December 24, 2020.
Despite the Expediency Council saying they will take up the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and a bill amending Iran’s Combating the Financing of Terrorism law, the Leader and the IRGC do not want to make the banking system transparent. This would impede using the banks to facilitate payments to a variety of bad/terror/criminal actors in and outside of the country. See “Iran’s Expediency Council Says to Review FATF Bills,” Tasnim News Agency, December, 24, 2020.