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 Ali Khamenei met with Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al Ahmad al Jabar al Sabah in Tehran. Khamenei underlined Iran’s commitment to pursue good relations with its neighbors and called for expanded relations; “A new chapter should open in Iran-Kuwait ties.” Khamenei  also stressed regional threats and said:
  • “Unfortunately some regional countries are not aware of the danger that these Takfiri groups will pose to them in the future and continue support such groups.”
  • “The security of the region is contingent upon healthy and good ties among all regional states.” 
  • President Hassan Rouhani met with Kuwait’s Emir to discuss regional developments. Rouhani reiterated the Supreme Leader’s call for enhanced bilateral ties and said “Undoubtedly security and stability in the region is the first condition for expansion of relations…” The two sides also discussed economic, cultural and political cooperation.
  • Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with his Kuwaiti counterpart Sabah al-Khalid al-Hamad al-Sabah and signed two agreements to enhance security cooperation. 

• Foreign Ministry Political and International Affairs Director Hamid Baidinejad announced that the next round of expert-level talks between Iran and the P5+1 will take place in Vienna next week. Talks will be headed by Baidinejad and the EU foreign policy chief’s aide Stephen Clement. 

• National Security and Foreign Policy Parliamentary Commission Chairman MP Alaeddin Boroujerdi is leading an Iranian parliamentary delegation to Damascus for the upcoming Syrian presidential elections.  

• Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Commander Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari met with Artesh Commander Maj. Gen. Ataollah Salehi at the IRGC headquarters in Kurdistan. Both commanders emphasized “serious cooperation and interaction” in “strengthening the country’s deterrence capability and defensive strength.” 

• Representative of the Supreme Leader in the IRGC Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Saidi addressed clerical officials from the representation directorate:
  • “One of the biggest threats confronting the Islamic Revolution today is moving phrases, changing meanings, defalcating concepts, and abducting the principles of the Islamic Revolution.”
  • “We have two options: Abject surrender to America, [or] standing against the world’s bullies and breaking their horns. If we move in the path that the Supreme Leader is drawing we will reach the sublime goals of Imam [Khomeini] and the revolution.” 

• Islamic Republic of Iran Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari announced that the Navy’s 30^th fleet rescued an Iranian civilian vessel from pirates near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. 

• IRGC Commander Maj. Gen. Jafari, Defense Minister and IRGC commander Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, and Head of the Foundation for the Affairs of Martyrs and Self-Sacrificers Hojjat al-Eslam Mohammad Ali Shahidi issued statements of condolences, praising IRGC commander Brig. Gen. Abdollah Eskandari, who was killed in Syria last week. 

• IRGC Deputy Commander Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami delivered the eulogy at Eskandari’s funeral in Shiraz yesterday and said:
  • “Since the revolution until today America, Europe, Zionism and its founders have not seen anything good in the region and have not even achieved a single victory. Their history, rather, is filled with successive defeats and this is the result of martyrdom.” 

• Arab and African Affairs Deputy to the Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian denied reports that “any negotiations have taken place between Iran and Saudi Arabia regarding Lebanon’s presidential elections.” 

• Foreign Minister Zarif and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani addressed representatives from 25 countries attending the second meeting of heads of parliamentary foreign policy committees of friends of Syria in Tehran. 
  • Ali Larijani met with his Bolivian counterpart Marcelo Eli Chavez. The two held talks about expanding Iran-Bolivia ties on the sidelines of the conference.

• IRGC Deputy Commander Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami discussed Iran’s ballistic missiles and said:
  • “Our ballistic missiles are capable of destroying moving targets with pinpoint precision.”
  • “It may be possible that even America does not possess this technology.” 

• The IRGC published the first 11 volumes of the “IRGC in the Revolution’s Passage” series. These volumes chronicle the history of the IRGC from 1979 to 1981. 
  • IRGC Commander Maj. Gen. Jafari wrote an introduction for the “IRGC in the Revolution’s Passage” series:
  • “The history of the revolution and the IRGC is so intertwined that renders impossible any imagination of separation between the two. The IRGC is the revolution’s twin. Whenever we think about the revolution and protecting its previous achievements, our minds naturally associate an undeniable truth called the IRGC.” 

• IRGC Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base Brig. Gen. Farzad Esmaili unveiled the Ghadir advanced radar system that is capable of detecting radar evading stealth aircrafts, cruise and ballistic missiles with an effective range of 1,100km.

• Director of International Affairs for the National Iranian Oil Company Mohsen Qamsari said the daily volume of Iran’s crude oil exports to Turkey is between 100,000 to 110,000 barrels and announced that “The Turks have extended the oil contract with Iran.” 

• Head of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries Mines and Agriculture Yahya Al-e Eshaq addressed a group of Iranian and Emirati businessmen in Tehran to underscore the need to increase trade and said “We have to make efforts to benefit from all capacities for boosting the volume of trade exchanges between [our] countries above $10 billion.”  

• Holy Shrines Reconstruction Headquarters Khuzuestan Province Cultural Deputy Mohammad Taghi Chahar Mahali announced that the organization would undertake reconstruction efforts of the Hazrat-e Zeynab shrine in Damascus, Syria “with popular aid.”