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fuel its power plants, as its own resources have not been developed. In a country where the government has struggled for years with meeting electricity and gas demand, an energy shortage can have serious political ramifications: blackouts and gas shortage can potentially fuel mass protests. Baghdad could ease its energy dependency if it can find a contractor to capture natural gas flares from its oilfields, which are currently burned off. Abadi said ministers had already met “to discuss alternative fuel sources and prepare the Ministry of Oil [MoO] to fill the shortage that has occurred at production stations”. Given the instability in sanctions-hit Iran, the gas shortage could become more acute. “It is possible that there could be further drops in gas pumped for longer periods... this drop happens every year, but the drop has been higher this year,” Abadi added.
In February 2019, when Iran’s central bank governor Abdolnasser Hemmati met with his Iraqi counterpart in Baghdad, they signed an agreement on a payment mechanism for Iraq to settle its dues, but owing to payment issues resulting from US sanctions during the past year Iraq has not been able to pay in dollars, and foreign currency-deprived Iran has not consented to be paid in Iraqi dinars, which, given the circumstances, is the only possible way. The last 90-day waiver that the US gave to Iraq to continue purchasing gas and electricity from Iraq will expire in February, after which date Iraq's Commerce Bank has to stop any transactions with Iran.
According to Iran's Oil Minister Bizhan Zanganeh, Iraq now owes $2bn to Iran for gas and electricity imports, which it cannot pay. While the tendering process is still underway to contract a firm to capture Iraq’s gas flares, Abadi said the government was hoping for another waiver “due to Iraq’s urgent need for electricity”. The US has long urged Iraq to wean itself off Iranian energy imports. In a bid to diversify its sources of energy, Baghdad has been developing network connections with its wealthy Arab Gulf neighbours.
9.1.14 ​Defence sector news
Tehran will attempt to put a satellite into orbit during Islamic Revolution celebrations in mid-February, according to a January 22 report from Tasnim News Agency citing Iranian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi.
The plan to launch observational satellite Zafar (Victory), built by the Iranian Space Agency (ISA), might prompt a hostile response from the US which accuses Iran of using its rocket-building programme as a disguised way of developing missiles that could carry a nuclear payload—something Tehran refutes.
The satellite, reportedly to be delivered to the defence ministry within the next few days, will be launched on Simorgh (a benevolent, mythical bird in Iranian mythology, sometimes equated with the phoenix). In fact, Iran’s space rocket and satellite programme needs something like a phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes recovery. The Iranians in 2019 suffered three space rocket launch failures. The third instance involved ​a rocket exploding on the launch pad​ last August at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in northern Semnan province.
Azari Jahromi said Zafar would be launched “before the 22nd day of [Persian calendar month] Bahman [February 11] and information about it will be publicised.”
He added: “If the mission fails, Zafar 2 will be launched shortly afterwards.” Zafar weighs 113 kilograms and the plan is to put it in orbit at an altitude above 500 kilometres, Jahromi said, adding that it would be utilised for telecommunications, taking images and “picking up space signals”. Its planned
50​ IRAN Country Report​ February 2020 www.intellinews.com