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

• International and Legal Affairs Deputy to the Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s lead negotiator, said the proposals concerning the Arak reactor that have been presented thus far would not “reduce the strength” of the heavy water reactor: “It is strange to me that I’ve heard the Arak reactor will be reduced from 40 megawatts to 10 megawatts. This is absolutely not the case.” 
  • President Hassan Rouhani announced “God willing, negotiations between Iran and the P5+1, despite the existing difficulties, will reach an agreement in the end. Everyone’s expediency is in an agreement and in a win-win game.” 
  • IAEA and Iranian officials will meet tomorrow in Tehran to discuss the implementation of seven terms of agreement reached in February. Iran was supposed to have implemented these measures by May 15, 2014. 

• Armed Forces General Staff (AFGS) Headquarters Basij Affairs and Defense Culture Deputy Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Deputy Massoud Jazayeri said that Iran’s “military and defense equipment are considered unimaginable red lines.”
  • “America has committed a strategic mistake in the matter of nuclear energy and sanctions against Iran based on a strategic imagination. It thinks that it is capable of causing the Islamic Republic of Iran to change its behavior.”
  • “The secret to success against the center of the globe’s wickedness, meaning the Americans, is perseverance and resistance.” 

• IRGC weekly newspaper Sobh-e Sadegh carried an article explaining the message underlying the Supreme Leader’s attendance at the recent IRGC Air Force exhibition. The article was addressed to “some who are thinking of compromise with the Arrogant System to improve the country’s situation”:
  • Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that raising the issue of ballistic missiles in nuclear negotiations “shows that they…will introduce other scientific and technical arenas that create power!”
  • “Imam Khamenei said that the industrial production of these achievements must accelerate so this scientific achievement can transform to industrial production so development and progress can take place in industrial arenas. In the economy realm, we can even think about exporting these products.” 

• AFGS Headquarters Chief Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi defended President Rouhani, who he said “served during the revolutionary struggle and 35 years after the revolution in the sensitive security-defense trenches and policymaking. We must be proud and thankful of his presence and we must all concentrated our efforts in supporting an administration that can guide the country’s ship in such sensitive circumstances.” He then warned of confrontation against “media outlets that are related to the armed forces in a way. They are committing a mistake. They do not move according to the Supreme Leader’s wishes. They must reform their ways or we will confront them.” 

• Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli announced the removal of 240 of 430 County Chiefs. The officials were dismissed because they lacked necessary qualifications and on the basis of their work locations. Fazli said “County Chiefs will be appointed whose work method is close to the administration and have more sympathy and cooperation with it.” 

• The Ministry of Intelligence and Security’s (MOIS) Western Azerbaijan Office announced the arrest of three members of the Kurdish opposition group Komala in Mahabad County. These individuals allegedly planned a bombing on September 22, 2010 in Mahabad that left dozens dead and wounded. 

• Political Deputy to the Supreme Leader’s Representative in the IRGC Brig. Gen. Rasoul Sanaei Rad said “no one can do as they damn please” in the Islamic Republic and that violators must “pay the cost and consequences or at least apologize so this matter prevents any enthusiasm for the continuation of sedition.” 
  • Chief Prosecutor Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei announced the trial of 13 “seditionists” related to the 2009 post-election protests. 

• Cultural Advisor to the IRGC Commander Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi stated: “Today the outlook of some regarding the revolution and the revolution’s ideals is that if we traversed a path in the [1970’s] or [1980’s] the situation required it and that current circumstances are such that we cannot continue that path anymore and that we cannot have a government in the same style of the [1980’s] or fulfill an Islamic government or stand against the superpowers.” Harandi said these individuals “want the revolution and the system to remain but to change its criteria. As the Supreme Leader said they want to empty the system from content.”