IRAN’S TAXMAN COMETH
Declining oil revenues – the result of tightening international sanctions – has prompted the Islamic Republic to generate revenue by hiking taxes. In recent days, a number of Iranian officials (including Finance Minister Shamseddin Hosseini and Yahya Al-Eshagh, head of Tehran’s chamber of commerce) have hinted at the fact that taxes could soon replace oil revenue as a key element of the regime’s income stream. According to Al-Eshagh, next year’s federal budget “places a special priority on taxes, based on which taxes will replace oil revenues in financing the annual budget.” The shift reflects policies being advocated by the government of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which has argued that “structural reforms in [the] government’s revenue stream” are a necessary part of the “resistance economy” advocated by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as a response to Western economic pressure. (Tehran Rooz, October 31, 2012)
SUDDENLY, A TOURIST HOTSPOT
Mounting international pressure on Iran over its nuclear ambitions is having an unintended side-effect: a spike in tourism to the Islamic Republic. Adventurous travelers are reportedly flocking to Iran, drawn by the decline of the Iranian rial and a resulting surge in their own purchasing power. Tourism to the Islamic Republic is now estimated to be at an “all time high,” dwarfing last year’s figures, when some three million foreign tourists visited Iran and provided the regime with more than $2 billion in revenue in the process. (Washington Post, November 5, 2012)
NO DIPLOMATIC GOODWILL GESTURES AFTER ALL
Recent weeks have seen fresh diplomatic stirrings between Iran and the West, with rumors proliferating of back-channel negotiations between Washington and Tehran over possible face-to-face talks regarding the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Regime officials, however, are sticking to their atomic guns; according to one Iranian news source, policymakers in Tehran have made clear that enrichment of uranium to 20 percent—a key area of concern for the international community—will "continue as before and no change has happened," even if Washington and Tehran do agree to sit down and talk. (Jerusalem Post, November 4, 2012)
[Editors’ Note: The possibility of such a freeze had briefly been floated by Mohammad Hassan Asfari, head of the majles’ National Security and Foreign Policy Committee. Asfari, however, rolled back his statement in response to pressure from government sources, who have maintained that the Islamic Republic will offer no concessions ahead of possible talks.]
A HELPING PUBLIC DIPLOMACY HAND FROM RUSSIA
Iran’s struggling international outreach effort is getting a shot in the arm from an unexpected quarter: Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Following the passage last month of new European Union sanctions against Iran, and the resulting decision by European company Eutelsat to stop broadcasting the Islamic Republic’s satellite programs, Moscow has announced that it will henceforth serve as Tehran’s global broadcast vehicle. Specifically, Russian satellites will reportedly now carry 19 Iranian television and 11 Iranian state radio channels – which collectively serve as the core of Iran’s public diplomacy and public affairs efforts abroad. (Radio Zamaneh, November 4, 2012)
NEW MOMENTUM IN IRAN’S WAR ON DRUGS
Iranian officials have announced that they intend to reinvigorate its counter-narcotic measures through new – and heavy – capital investments, especially in the country’s southern border regions. “The measures currently underway against narcotics should be strengthened and we will continue controlling and fighting drug transiting and trafficking by air, sea and land patrolling and watching of our Southern coasts and the Southern corridor,” according to Bahram Norouzi, Head of the Prevention Department of Iran's Law Enforcement Police. Anti-drug efforts countrywide have intensified since last year, forcing drug-traffickers along the country's eastern borders to resort to other routes, including the Sea of Oman and the Persian Gulf. (Tehran FARS, November 5, 2012)