Pro-Reform Iranian Religious Leader Dies Aged 83

Yousef Saanei
Yousef Saanei
TT

Pro-Reform Iranian Religious Leader Dies Aged 83

Yousef Saanei
Yousef Saanei

Iran´s state-run IRNA news agency on Saturday reported that a pro-reform religious leader, who sided with an opposition presidential candidate during the turmoil following the controversial 2009 elections, has died. He was 83.

Ayatollah Yousef Saanei died in a hospital in the holy city of Qom after being hospitalized for two days with a broken hip and wrist, IRNA said.

In 2009, Saanei had supported opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and criticized hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who beat Mousavi in that year's disputed elections. Mousavi's electoral defeat led to the widespread Green Movement protests, which were put down by Iranian security forces.

That year, some opposition websites quoted Saanei as saying, "Ahmadinejad is not the president and cooperation with him is haram (forbidden by Islamic law)."

Many religious hard-liners in Iran isolated Saanei because of the positions he staked out after the 2009 elections. The Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom stripped him of his authority to issue religious edicts, and his website was blocked a year later.

Saanei also supported Iran's current Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate within the country's political system, during his successful 2013 presidential run. Many members of Rouhani's Cabinet visited Saanei after taking office.



Ships with Missile Propellant Ingredient Reportedly Set to Sail from China to Iran

A picture shows copies of Iranian daily newspapers, including 'Sazandegi' (C) showing on its front page a picture of US President Donald Trump and a headline in Farsi reading 'Again Trump' at a newsstand in Tehran on January 21, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A picture shows copies of Iranian daily newspapers, including 'Sazandegi' (C) showing on its front page a picture of US President Donald Trump and a headline in Farsi reading 'Again Trump' at a newsstand in Tehran on January 21, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
TT

Ships with Missile Propellant Ingredient Reportedly Set to Sail from China to Iran

A picture shows copies of Iranian daily newspapers, including 'Sazandegi' (C) showing on its front page a picture of US President Donald Trump and a headline in Farsi reading 'Again Trump' at a newsstand in Tehran on January 21, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A picture shows copies of Iranian daily newspapers, including 'Sazandegi' (C) showing on its front page a picture of US President Donald Trump and a headline in Farsi reading 'Again Trump' at a newsstand in Tehran on January 21, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Two Iranian cargo vessels carrying an ingredient for missile propellant will sail from China to Iran in the next few weeks, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing intelligence from security officials in two Western countries.

The reported transactions could make the Chinese entities involved subject to US sanctions aimed at curbing Iran's weapons programs, as the two Iranian vessels are already under US sanctions.

The FT said the Iranian-flagged ships, the Golbon and the Jairan, are expected to carry more than 1,000 tons of sodium perchlorate, which is used to make ammonium perchlorate, the main ingredient for solid propellant for missiles.

Ammonium perchlorate is among chemicals controlled by the Missile Technology Export Control Regime, a voluntary international anti-proliferation body, Reuters reported.

The FT report cited two unnamed officials as saying that the sodium perchlorate could produce 960 tons of ammonium perchlorate, enough to make 1,300 tons of propellant, which could fuel 260 mid-range Iranian missiles.

The officials said the sodium perchlorate was being shipped to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and that 34 20-foot (six-meter) containers containing the chemical had been loaded onto the Golbon, which departed the Chinese island of Daishan on Tuesday and was off the coast of Ningbo in China’s Zhejiang province early on Wednesday.

The FT said the Jairan is expected to depart China with 22 containers in early February. The officials told the FT that both ships, owned by Iranian entities, were expected to make the three-week voyage to Iran without making any port calls.
The officials said the chemicals were loaded onto the Golbon at Taicang, a port just north of Shanghai, and were destined for Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on the Arabian Gulf.

The FT said the officials could not say if Beijing was aware of the shipments.

The spokesperson for China's Washington embassy, Liu Pengyu, said he was not familiar with the situation reported by the FT.

Doug Jacobson, a Washington-based sanctions lawyer, said that while UN sanctions on Iran's missile program were no longer in effect, the Chinese entities involved in the reported transactions could face US sanctions against dealings with both the IRGC and the already sanctioned vessels.

Vann Van Diepen, a retired US non-proliferation official, said Chinese entities had been helping Iran's missile program since the 1980s. He said Iran probably had its own ammonia perchlorate production facility by now, but may need feedstock to make the chemical.

"It's probably not sort of a continuous flow thing," he said. "But from time to time, over these many years, these kinds of shipments will go on."

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but an official there, who did not want to be identified, said that if the missiles were designed to be used by
Russia in Ukraine, the shipment could be subject to US sanctions to curb dealings with Moscow.

In 2023, The United States imposed sanctions on people and entities in China, Hong Kong and Iran, including Iran's defense attache in Beijing, over accusations they helped procure parts and technology for Iran's ballistic missile development. It imposed similar sanctions on individuals and entities last year.