IRAN REGIONAL PRESENCE OFFICE DUBAI: WINDOW ON IRAN - JULY

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 RPO DUBAI 000297 NOFORN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 7/22/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV ECON IR SUBJECT: IRAN REGIONAL PRESENCE OFFICE DUBAI: WINDOW ON IRAN - JULY 22, 2009 DUBAI 00000297 001.2 OF 002 CLASSIFIED BY: Timothy Richardson, Acting Director, Iran Regional Presence Office, DOS. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (S) IRGC Assumes Control: An Iranian journalist working for a Western wire service told us July 18 that the IRGC had asserted its authority "to protect the revolution" and assumed control of the IRIG's response to the protest. In the process, he said, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) had been supplanted. It had been the IRGC that arrested journalists and others, in what he described as a preventative effort to disrupt the opposition's ability to publicly criticize the government. He asserted that journalists, including his close contact journalist and economist Saeed Laylaz, were not being "punished" but would be held until things calmed down. He said that four videographers working in his office had been briefly detained during the initial protests, and that his service had been barred from using IRIB facilities to uplink video feeds to the service's headquarters in New York. Turning to the election, although it was fraud that returned Ahmadinejad to office, he cautioned against underestimating his support throughout the country and overestimating the strength of the opposition. Western journalists and commentators were quick to extrapolate what was happening in Tehran to the rest of the country, leading to an inaccurate picture of events, he said. Comment: Our contact corroborated what we've heard from other sources about the IRGC's control of the response and being responsible for the arrests that have taken place. ¶2. (S/NF) Fars News Maintains Interest in US Bureau: Our contact separately told us he had been approached by representatives of the semi-official Fars News Agency about their desire to open a US bureau. They continued to maintain they had been refused permission, although when pressed, they could not provide details on to whom they applied or what process they were using. Nevertheless, he said, he feared that the IRIG would "retaliate" by placing further restrictions on Western journalists. Comment: This is the second time Fars has approached this news service about a US bureau, and we're told it is because the Iranians are erroneously assuming that this service is quasi-governmental, like Fars. (Note: Fars, established in 2002, is privately-owned but strongly aligned with President Ahmadinejad.) ¶3. (S/NF) Advertisers Pulling Ads from IRIB: Executives of Farsi1, a joint venture between News Corp subsidiary StarTV and Dubai-based Moby Group, told us Western advertisers were pulling or delaying advertising campaigns on state-run IRIB amid the post-election unrest. The companies involved were primarily Japanese, including Sony, Bridgestone, and Toshiba. According to our contact, these companies and others were expressing interest in shifting their advertising to Farsi1 to protect their image. Farsi1 begins broadcasting August 1 and will show Western entertainment programs, such as 24 and X Files, dubbed into Farsi. Comment: Lost advertising would be a further indication of international displeasure with the IRIG response, and companies' concerns about damage to their international reputation would be a further disincentive to investment in Iran. ¶4. (S/NF) Iranians Open to Foreign-based Opposition Leadership?: During a discussion of the continued detention of many senior reformers, a Dubai-based Iranian political analyst well known to IRPO suggested that the movement may need foreign-based leadership to persevere. He argued that many Iranians would be open to foreign-based leadership and explained that attitudes toward Iranian ex-pats vary based on the timing of their departure from Iran. Those who left early on after the Revolution, whom he dismissed as monarchists, have lost credibility with the Iranian population. However, Iranians may not carry the same grudge against those who left later on for specific reasons, such as to pursue higher education. He cited Akbar Ganji and Ahmad Batebi as examples of Iranians who left only after having have suffered at the hand of the government, suggesting that these individuals could still attract support from Iranians. Comment: Foreign-led opposition groups -- be they ethnic minority groups, monarchists, or the MEK -- since the Revolution have garnered little popular support inside Iran; the possibility that this may changing represents a new vulnerability to the IRIG. The popular movement sparked by the disputed election appears to hold broader appeal among Iran's diverse population than previous opposition groups, and the widespread arrests of reformist leaders in Iran suggest that the DUBAI 00000297 002.2 OF 002 longevity of the movement may eventually require foreign-based leadership. As such, our contact's suggestion is plausible. At the same time, IRPO has not seen indications that Iranians are looking abroad for leadership or that any ex-pat Iranians are attempting to provide such leadership to those in Iran. ¶5. (S/NF) Iran-China Energy Cooperation "Ruining" Iran's Oil Sector: IRPO contacts in Iran's oil sector have criticized China's involvement in Iran's energy projects and view the government's recent advertising campaign for Iran-China cooperation as "bad news" for the oil sector. An Iran-based managing director of a engineering company characterized Iran's recent talks with two Asian banks on the USD 1.4 billion bond for South Pars gas field as a "slippery slope" and expressed concern that Iran will grow increasingly dependent on China for development financing as Western companies concede to international pressure and limit their business in Iran's energy sector. As a result, over the long-term Iran's oil sector will suffer. Several contacts claim China's work is subpar and does not meet Western or international standards. Although Chinese companies are increasingly active in Iran, their activities thus far have been limited to smaller projects like Masjid-e-Suleyman oil field because the Chinese have yet to develop and master the technology required for larger and more complex projects, such as North Azadegan and Yadaveran. One executive working on South Pars claimed that China is using its smaller, cheaper projects, such as the development of Masjed-e-Suleyman (valued at less than USD 200 million),as "practice" as they develop their own technology and techniques. Our contacts note that after years of working with the West, they have found it difficult to relate to the Chinese. Language barriers impede communication with Chinese workers, greatly complicating joint ventures and technology transfers. Moreover, Chinese companies reportedly often insist on using their own labor, meaning the projects do not bring jobs to Iranians. Indeed, an Iranian newspaper earlier this month ran a headline criticizing Ahmadinejad for giving jobs to the Chinese. However, despite their misgivings, the oil businessmen all acknowledged that the insolvency of Iran's banks has frozen domestic-led energy sector development, and that Iran has no choice but to work with China. An Iranian businessman who works closely with both the National Iranian Oil Company and National Iranian Gas Company even admitted that the government in some cases has awarded tenders to Chinese companies over Iranian ones because of the cheaper bids, in effect sacrificing quality for price. ¶6. (C) Seismologist Warns Iran Not Prepared for Major Earthquake: A seismologist from Iran's International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES),who was in Dubai to pick up her visa, warned that Iran is due for another earthquake and the Iranian government is ill-prepared to handle a disaster similar to the 2003 Bam earthquake. Although every new building is legally required to meet earthquake safety standards, she said that in reality few are ever actually tested. The seismologist said that while the government listens when the IIEES warns of the potential danger of another major earthquake, disaster preparedness is "not their priority." Tehran, which she claims lies on ten major fault lines, is too congested and overdeveloped for an effective search-and-rescue effort to be implemented if a large earthquake were to strike the city. The seismologist, who is traveling to Los Angeles for an earthquake drill, said that Iran's earthquake disaster management community works closely with its European and U.S. counterparts, and she claimed that Iranians still speak of the hospitality and kindness of Americans who set up field hospitals after the 2003 Bam earthquake. Commenting on the disputed election and the recent unrest, she said that the majority of her colleagues are Western educated and supported reformers in the June 12 election. Although many wanted to join the protests, as employees of the IIEES they are subject to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and they feared they would lose their jobs. Instead, many at the IIEES were as of last week participating in their own "informal strike" by working at half-pace. RICHARDSON