Iran News Round Up

A selection of the latest news stories and editorials published in Iranian news outlets, compiled by the AEI Critical Threats Project's Iran research team. To receive this daily newsletter, please subscribe online. 

(E) = Article in English

Excerpts of these translations may only be used with the expressed consent of the authors

• Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with President Hassan Rouhani and administration officials. He also praised the administration’s reactions to the crisis in Gaza:
  • “The matter of Gaza is truly tragic. The Zionist regime commits these atrocities by taking advantage of the negligence of the Islamic world.”
  • “The killing of the Gaza people at the hands of the usurper Zionist regime must make Islamic governments and nations come to themselves, so they can set aside differences and unite.”
  • “Any change of cultural direction from the Islamic system’s framework will lead to the disruption of society’s intellectual order and true identity.”

• Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the Supreme Leader and Islamic Awakening Global Association Secretary-General Ali Akbar Velayati released a statement condemning the recent Israeli incursion into Gaza.

• Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organization Deputy Commander Brig. Gen. Majid Hosseini met with military attaches of Islamic countries residing in Iran, including Pakistan’s military attaché and Head of the Military Attaches Association in Tehran Gen. Vahid Momtaz:
  • “Our brotherly advice to countries whose support leads to the growth of takfiri and terrorist groups is to abandon this act. If not, they should be certain that this fire will engulf them in the near future and that they will pay heavy costs.”

• IRGC Deputy Commander Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami addressed five thousand Basijis in Mashhad:
  • “Many great wars have or are taking place in the region. The Iranian nation, however, has buried the enemies’ dreams with resistance and with presence in the scene of defending Islam.”
  • “We have a duty to be thankful to the divine and continue our resistance. Iran is a great power today and will certainly achieve victory in the scene of confronting the world of Arrogance [West].”

• Deputy Representative of the Supreme Leader in the IRGC Hojjat al Eslam Abdollah Haji Sadeghi slammed the Islamic State [IS]:
  • “Arrogance [West] created IS to confront the Islamic Awakening and the Islamic Front.”
  • “Terrorists groups have been inducted to stand against pure Islam under the management and directorship of infidels and Arrogance.”
  • “These groups do not believe in God, Islam, and the truth of religion. They have created their own thought, God, and Islam as a religion and make incorrect judgments based on those.”

• The Rouhani administration released its economic policy proposals to overcome low growth and high inflation, pending the review of economists:
  • Introduction: “Even during wartime [1980-1988] could we not observe two subsequent years when the gross domestic product [GDP] was negative while inflation was above 30 percent.”
  • The proposal addresses “the role of leading firms in the domestic market; exportation of industrial products and contracting and advising services to neighboring countries; tourism; housing; strengthening the capital market; improving the overdue receivables of banks and increasing their credit extension capacity; expanding downstream energy industries; improving foreign exchange reserves;; decreasing inflation; achieving relative stability in the currency market; and relatively improving the domestic business environment.”

• First Deputy to the President Eshagh Jahangiri chaired the recent meeting of the Council of Economics which addressed administration policies on fulfilling the Supreme Leader’s “Economy of Resistance.” He ratified the goals and plans of the Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry (IMTM) and the Sciences, Research, and Technology Ministry (SRTM):
  • Key policies of IMTM: “Encouraging foreign investment in the exports sector; creating diversity in the importation of good; expanding trade services; planning national production proportionate with exportation needs; forming foreign markets, diversifying economic relations with regional countries especially neighboring countries; and encouraging the production of sensitive, necessary and staple goods.”
  • Key policies of SRTM: “Reducing dependency on oil revenue and currency reserves in higher economics teaching; strengthening the quality of training courses with reliance on the two dimensions of science and skills; supporting the exportation of goods and knowledge-based services; and expanding targeted international presence to acquire international scientific seats.”

• Hamas Spokesman Fouzi Barhoum reportedly announced that the Ezzeddin Qassam Brigades is armed with the “Ababil 1” drones and that they have carried out three reconnaissance missions, one being of the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. He added “These three drones are in the reconnaissance, offensive, and offensive-suicide forms.”

• Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Minister IRGC Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan condemned Israel and said “In the present situation, the Zionist regime and takfiri group meaning the Zionist IS have marched against the nations and governments of Syria, Iraq, and Palestine in a coordinated measure and are leading the region towards a deep crisis by killing and fanning the flames of war.”

• IRGC-affiliate Fars News Agency held a roundtable for the Gaza crisis. Head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Representation Office in Tehran Nasser Abu Sharif announced that Israel’s goal is to inflict damage on the Axis of Resistance and promised “a new surprise” should Israel conduct a ground offensive.

• Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton concluded their two-hour meeting in Vienna, Austria. An unnamed Iranian diplomat said “It is still early to judge whether we can reach an agreement by July 20.”
  • Head of the Expediency Discernment Council Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani met with the outgoing Italian Ambassador to Iran Luca Giansanti, stating that Iran and P5+1 can reach a comprehensive nuclear agreement “if there is fairness in negotiations.”

• Head of IRGC Public Relations and Head of the Intifada and Quds Headquarters Brig. Gen. Ramezan Sharif accused Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza and praised the “defensive model and confrontation measures of the Islamic resistance in Gaza which has threatened the territorial integrity of the Zionist regime.” He added “With the inadequacy of the defensive shield known as the Iron Dome, the Zionists pass every moment in the nightmare of vengeful, unexpected, and new missile strikes.”

• Armed Forces General Staff Search for the Missing Committee Commander IRGC Brig. Gen. Mohammad Bagher Zadeh, in a letter, urged the International Red Cross to deliver aid to Gaza.   

• Head of the Holy Shrines Reconstruction Headquarters [HSRH] Hossein Pelarak announced the death of a “servant” of the [HSRH] and an Iraqi “shrine defender” in the vicinity of the al-Askri shrine in Samarra.

• In a statement, Lebanese Hezbollah reportedly announced the death of six members killed in the Qalamoun area of Syria: Nadim Mohammad al Meghdad (AKA Abu Muhammad), Zakaria Faisal Sojd, Mohammad Ali Hamoudi, Balal Muhammad Kasrevani, Yahya al Zekli, Ali Hossein al Nemr.

• A funeral ceremony was reportedly held in Karbala, Iraq, for two unnamed Iraqi Security Force members killed fighting IS in Samarra. Representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani Sheikh Abdolmahdi Karbalaei and Imam Ali Shrine Trustee Hojjat al Eslam Ziaeddin Zeineddin attended the ceremony.