Iran News Round Up

President Hassan Rouhani, First Vice President Eshagh Jahangiri, Mostafa Hashemitaba, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Mostafa Mirsalim, and Astan Quds Razavi Foundation Head Ebrahim Raisi discussed the nuclear deal and its economic impact, among other issues, during the second presidential debate on May 5.

• Rouhani: Rouhani accused his opponents of previously planning to kill the nuclear deal. Rouhani claimed they welcomed the election of U.S. President Donald Trump because he promised to tear up the nuclear deal during his campaign. Rouhani referenced the Tehran municipality’s earlier installation of billboards opposing the nuclear negotiations as an example of his opponents’ hypocrisy regarding their current support for the deal.

• Rouhani also accused the IRGC of attempting to “disrupt” the nuclear deal. Rouhani referenced the IRGC’s inscribing its missiles with the slogan “Israel should be wiped off the Earth” in Hebrew, and stated, “They wrote slogans on rockets to disrupt the nuclear deal and keep” Iran fully realizing the nuclear deal.

• Jahangiri: Jahangiri did not appear to attack Rouhani or to diverge fundamentally from Rouhani’s core policy positions during the debate. He praised Rouhani’s signature achievement, the nuclear deal, as a success.  

• Raisi and Ghalibaf: The conservative candidates upheld the nuclear deal. Ghalibaf, for example, stated that the nuclear deal “is certainly a document that will be respected by all governments.” The candidates instead criticized Rouhani’s economic realization of the nuclear deal. Raisi claimed the deal is like a check Rouhani has been unable to “cash.”

• Ghalibaf claimed that Rouhani represents only an elite “four percent,” rather than the majority, of the Iranian population. Rouhani responded by accusing Ghalibaf of borrowing slogans from the Occupy Wall Street movement. (Fars News Agency)

Armed Forces General Staff Chief IRGC Brig. Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri met with his Syrian counterpart, Lieutenant General Ali Ayyoub, to explore methods of strengthening military cooperation between their two countries. Bagheri called on the Syrian people to “remain vigilant” in the face of “foreign threats” that aim to “create a rift” in the country. He also praised the Syrian Army for reclaiming Aleppo and freeing people in the Shia villages of Fua’a and Kefraya. (Fars News Agency) (E)