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Jahromi has been released on bail. His prosecution is seen as part of a political struggle between the more reform-minded politicians and conservative hardliners in Iran ahead of the presidential election in June. Rouhani will not run in that poll, as he will have completed two terms as president. A third consecutive term is not possible by law.
Many websites and social media platforms are blocked in Iran. They include YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Telegram. Many Iranians get around the restrictions by accessing banned websites and social media via proxy VPN services.
Jahromi, the youngest member of President Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet and the official behind the introduction of fourth-generation (4G) broadband cellular network technology to Iran has bucked the trend adhered to by previous generations of Islamic Republic officialdom by siding with the country’s youth in the battle against shutting down popular social media applications like Instagram and WhatsApp in recent years.
A 2013 law permits the Ministry of Information Technology to lock down aspects of the internet and throttle internet speeds.
In 2017, when Jahromi started out in his ministerial role, he openly criticised the judiciary after it disconnected the internet in the country for 10 days after nationwide riots.
2.4 Iran’s central bank blames Europe’s ‘lack of courage’ in face of Trump for failure of Instex trade channel
The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has blamed what it described as Europe’s lack of courage in the face of US President Donald Trump’s sanctions for the failure of the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (Instex) trade channel.
Instex was designed to disguise the identities of buyers and sellers and financial intermediaries to enable the shielding of trade between Iran and EU member states from the sanctions. At the weekend, Germany blamed Iran for the ineffectiveness of Instex, saying it failed to agree to the terms of the deal behind it. But the Iranian central bank hit back on January 17. It said in a Twitter post that European governments weren’t able to find a finance conduit and they were not brave enough to maintain their economic sovereignty. Instex was hampered after the Trump administration threatened to penalise any Instex trade parties that it discovered, though there was theoretically dispensation for those involved in non-sanctionable trading such as in humanitarian goods.
Instex was supposed to shape trade relations between Iran and Europe independent of US sanctions, not define it within the framework of sanctions, the CBI added.
Instex was introduced on January 31, 2019, by France, Germany and Britain. At first there were hopes that Iranian oil might even be used in Instex barter trades, but given the aggressive posture of the US, these hopes soon faded away.
8 IRAN Country Report February 2021 www.intellinews.com
