Iran News Round Up

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

(E) = Article in English

Politics

• IRGC Cultural Deputy and Expediency Council member Mohammad Hossein Safar Harrandi predicted 70% voter turnout in the upcoming presidential elections, downplayed a potential American military attack, blasted reformists, and said that a future president must be ideologically loyal to velayat-e faghigh:
  • "...no sedition like [2009] will happen; because for a sedition to form, in addition to foreign enemies, internal [issues] are also factors, which do not exist [this time around]."
  • "Unknown Soldiers of the Imam of the Age [Ministry of Intelligence operatives] have arrested some corrupt media elements who were bringing about sedition in the virtual and real space so we will not be taken by surprise like the [2009] sedition."
  • "One of the important enemy tricks during elections is to put the option of a military attack against Iran on the table with the goal of keeping people at home and downplaying their participation in the elections. Meanwhile, if it occurs...according to an American strategist, in the first moments 30,000 American soldiers will be killed by Iranians."
  • "The people's choice must acknowledge the leader of the revolution's religious place as representative of the Imam of the Age [12th Shia Imam] and [his] relationship with the leader of the revolution [must] be committal, not like the relationship between a father and son [as Ahmadinejad suggested], that is completely useless." 

Military and Security

• Head of the Basij Construction Organization BG 2C Majid Khorasani said that the organization would guarantee the country's economic security in the face of sanctions.
• IRGC Mohammad Rasulol Allah unit (Greater Tehran) Commander BG Mohsen Kazemeini announced that the IRGC is ready to cooperate with Law Enforcement Forces (LEF), and added that IRGC hard power would provide Iran leverage in upcoming negotiations:
  • "We have continuously said that that if LEF needs us we will cooperate in different avenues, and in discussing elections a complete plan has not yet been announced by [LEF Commander] Ahmadi Moghaddam, but whenever the commander of LEF feels an [urgent need] in the discussion of elections, we will implement the necessary measures, just as we have answered these needs."
  • "Our defensive capability in controlling aerial borders has increased significantly from previous years and if the enemy makes a move in Iranian airspace we will strongly confront them...This increases Iran's power in nuclear negotiations with the P5+1."
• Artesh BG 2C Mohammad Hassan Nami was appointed Minister of Communications and Technology. He was previously General Staff Armed Forces Deputy, Head of the Armed Forces Geography Organization, and a member of the Management of Iranian Geopolitics Society.  

Economy

• The government announced that it would reduce vehicle prices by 20%.

Photo of the Day

• Head of Iran's nuclear delegation Said Jalili meets with EU delegate representative Catherin Ashton in Kazakhstan.