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15th September, 2022

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Iran signs memorandum to join Shanghai Cooperation Organisation -----------------------------------2
US sanctions affiliates of Iran’s IRGC for ‘malicious’ cyber acts ------------------------------------------ 3
Human development setback ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5
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Iran signs memorandum to join Shanghai

Cooperation Organisation
As leaders meet in Uzbekistan, the eight-member regional body is poised to add Iran to
its ranks.

Iran has signed a Memorandum of Obligations to become a permanent member of the

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a central Asian security body, the Iranian
foreign minister said.

“By signing the document for full membership of the SCO, now Iran has entered a new
stage of various economic, commercial, transit and energy cooperation,” Hossein
Amirabdollahian wrote on social media.

The statement came as leaders from China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan,
Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan headed to the latter’s city of Samarkand for a summit
of the eight-member SCO, a security group formed by Beijing and Moscow as a
counterweight to United States influence.

Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia are observer countries, while the organisation
has six “dialogue partners”: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and
Turkey.

Last year, the rapidly expanding SCO approved Iran’s application for accession, while
the government in Tehran called on members to help it form a mechanism to avert
sanctions imposed by the West over its disputed nuclear programme.

“The relationship between countries that are sanctioned by the US, such as Iran, Russia
or other countries, can overcome many problems and issues and make them stronger,”
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi told his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, during a
meeting in Samarkand.
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“The Americans think whichever country they impose sanctions on, it will be stopped,
their perception is a wrong one.”

For his part, Putin said relations were “developing positively” between Russia and Iran
and gave his full support to the latter’s application to become an SCO member.

Reporting from the Silk Road oasis of Samarkand, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said Iran’s
full membership is expected to become effective in April 2023.

He added that the SCO, the world’s largest regional organisation consisting of 40
percent of the world’s population and 30 percent of global gross domestic product
(GDP), wants to further expand.

“Belarus is also officially going to sign the documents that its membership will be
initiated,” Serdar said. “Qatar and Saudi Arabia are also expected to become new
dialogue partners.”

Iran’s economy has been hit hard since 2018, when then-US President Donald Trump
unilaterally abandoned a landmark nuclear deal signed between Iran and world powers,
including Russia and China.

Months of indirect talks between Iran and US President Joe Biden’s administration have
hit a dead end over several obstacles to reviving the nuclear pact, under which the
Iranian government agreed to curbs on its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of
sanctions.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

US sanctions affiliates of Iran’s IRGC for

‘malicious’ cyber acts
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Washington accuses individuals and firms of compromising networks based in the US

and other nations since at least 2020.

The United States has imposed sanctions on 10 individuals and two entities that it says
are linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and are involved in
“malicious” cyber actions, including ransomware activity.

In a statement on Wednesday, the US Department of the Treasury accused the “group of

Iran-based malicious cyber actors” of compromising networks based in the US and other
nations since at least 2020.

“This IRGC-affiliated group is known to exploit software vulnerabilities in order to carry

out their ransomware activities, as well as engage in unauthorized computer access, data
exfiltration, and other malicious cyber activities,” the department said.

The sanctions come on the heels of economic measures imposed last week targeting
Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security over what the US called “malign cyber
activities” as the two countries struggle to find a way back into the 2015 nuclear deal.

Those sanctions last Friday were in response to a July cyberattack that disrupted
government websites in Albania, which Washington and Tirana blamed on Tehran. The
Iranian government has denied any involvement.

he administration of US President Joe Biden also imposed penalties on several Iranian

companies last week, accusing them of being involved in the production and transfer of
drones to Russia for the war in Ukraine. Tehran has not commented on that allegation.

The US government has been piling sanctions on Iran since then-President Donald
Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018.

The multilateral pact, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
(JCPOA), had seen Iran scale back its nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of
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international sanctions against its economy. But efforts to return to the deal under
Biden have stalled.

Wednesday’s sanctions block the targeted firms’ and individuals’ assets in the US and
make it illegal for American citizens to do business with them.

The IRGC is a branch of the Iranian military that ultimately answers to Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei. It is responsible for the Iranian government’s covert foreign operations
and military support for regional allies.

“Ransomware actors and other cybercriminals, regardless of their national origin or

base of operations, have targeted businesses and critical infrastructure across the
board—directly threatening the physical security and economy of the United States and
other nations,” Treasury official Brian E Nelson said in the statement.

Reported ransomware payments in the US reached over $590m in 2021, compared to a

total of $416m in 2020, the Treasury Department also said.

“In addition to the millions of dollars directly paid in ransoms and allocated to response
and recovery, the disruption to critical sectors underscores the objectives of those who
seek to weaponize technology for personal gain, disrupting our economy and damaging
the companies, families, and individuals,” Wednesday’s statement read.

Human development setback

EDITORIAL: When it rains, it pours. Reeling from one disaster after another for the
last couple of years, mainly the once-in-a-century trauma caused by Covid, the United
Nations (UN) laments that human progress has been set back by at least five years, in
addition to fuelling a global wave of uncertainty.

It turns out that in the 30 years that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been
active, the landmark Human Development Index (HDI) — which measures life expectancy, education
levels and living standards in countries — declined for two years in a row for the first time in 2021
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and 2022. “It means we die earlier, we are less well educated, our incomes are going down,” in the
chilling words of UNDP chief Achim Steiner to an international news outlet.

In its latest report ‘Uncertain times, unsettled lives’ the UN notes that the HDI had been steadily
rising for decades till the Covid shock, and also explains how a number of other political, financial
and climate-related crises have not allowed time for populations to recover. And now the whole
world has lost at least five years of hard-earned progress.

The UN and its affiliate agencies were, in fact, warning since the beginning of the pandemic that it
would push millions upon millions across the world back below the poverty line once again, eroding
decades of advances that took a lot of money and effort from stakeholders in all countries.

And since most of the poor countries are still trying to find their feet and prevent outright
economic/financial collapse, there’s no telling when they’ll have enough money again for things like
poverty alleviation and better education for their children.

There’s also the concern that this particular report might not have factored in the full impact of latest
climate-related devastation, especially in countries like Pakistan. In just the last few days, estimates
of the damage done here have risen from $10 billion to approximately $30 billion.

And you can be sure that this number will rise for a while as more destruction is accounted for.
Needless to say that without substantial outside help, the math alone is enough to break the economy
which runs on less than $10 billion in reserves and will most likely tumble into default if the IMF
(International Monetary Fund) lifeline is not kept intact; whatever the cost.

This is indeed a very grim moment for the international community. The UN, for all its shortcomings
in preventing wars and controlling superpowers, truly stands out as the only international outfit with
the footprint and ability to conduct research on a global scale; and it not only raises timely red flags
but also helps distribute more aid and settle more displaced people than other institutions.

Yet as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres saw with his own eyes in Pakistan just the other day,
the challenges we face now are unprecedented. They will require everybody to join hands. And even
more importantly, rich countries will have to step forward to help poor countries if everybody is to
make it out of these crises in one piece.

That, once again, brings us to the question of debt relief. Most third world countries have still not
recovered from Covid. Now they’re overwhelmed by climate catastrophes — more death, destruction,
loss to economy, etc.
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If the biggest part of their budgets still goes to debt servicing, that too when they’re forbidden from
extending the few subsidies they might still be able to afford, then they’re sure to lose yet more on
the human development front, weighing the rest of the world down as well.

Perhaps making rich nations understand their responsibilities at this moment ought to be the UN’s
next priority.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022