A selection of the latest news stories and editorials published in Iranian news outlets, compiled by AEI Critical Threats Project Iran Analyst Will Fulton and Iran Intern Amir Toumaj. 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.

Politics

  • Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with Friday Prayer Leaders from around the country and discussed the conflict between Western and Islamic civilization:
    • “If we want to defend Islam’s integrity, we must have a broad look at global and national issues. There has been a deep conflict between Islam and the West that spans centuries, and we are amid the continuation of this conflict today.”
    • “If there is no strength and the Westerners find an opening, they will show no mercy, just as they do not express sadness about killing millions in world wars and the massacre of innocents in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan.”
    • “The emergence of the Islamic Awakening was certain and the West entered the field with concern and haste.”
    • “The era of colonialism was not sustainable, and the West pursued its dominance in the economic, political and cultural form in the Eastern and Islamic countries.” 
    • “In such circumstances, the Islamic Awakening movement has begun in the region, and the Westerners, who view themselves as being further behind than the Islamic Revolution intellectual movement, entered the field with haste to confront Islamic Awakening and political Islam.”
    • “This ‘victory of victories’ [the Islamic Republic] still exists with strength and steadfastness and an ever more internal solidarity, and increase adherence of its organs to values and principles will certainly make this strength and ‘victory of victories’ invulnerable.” 
  • Expediency Council Chairman Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani stated, “If the excuses of the Western sides are not introduced, conducting serious negotiations and achieving understanding is possible.”
  • Senior Islamic Motalefeh Party member Hamid Reza Taraghi said, “The West’s attack on Syria is to the detriment of the new Rouhani Administration’s policies because this attack will make Iran’s position towards America more hostile and will close the path of negotiations and dialogue.”
  • Combatant Clergy Society member Jafar Shojouni said, “Even though we say this act [attacking Syria] is a mistake and we oppose it, we have something else in mind and it would not be bad that America commits this mistake and then sees the results. From one side, Syria will strike Saudi Arabia and from another [Lebanese] Hezbollah and Iran will target Tel Aviv and we will wipe Israel from the earth. I want to see what America is going to do at that time. Therefore, our government would not mind that such an event occurs, even though our country will be seriously damaged in this [period], but this matter will, God willing, end with Israel’s destruction.”
  • Senior cleric Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi said, “Believe it or not, some of the prayers I said, especially along the grave of this benevolent Ahl-e Beit lady [Fatima Masumeh shrine in Qom; daughter of the seventh Shi’a Imam Musa al-Kadhim] was for Syria, that God may keep the enemies’ evil away from Islamic countries.” 
  • Followers of the Principlist Rahravan-e Velayat faction member Hojjat al-Eslam Rouhollah Beigi announced the unofficial formation of the Moderation faction in the Parliament. 
  • An Asr-e Iran editorial discussed whether moral police enforcement of female hejab is to the benefit or detriment of the Islamic Republic. It reads in part, “Negative confrontations not only do not have any benefit, but rather defeat the purpose, and woe that it transforms a normal non-political girl who was solely in ‘bad-hejab’ to an anti-system political element during arrest and humiliation.” 

Diplomacy

Regional Developments

Military and Security

Nuclear Issue

  • Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif confirmed that an information exchange between Iran and the United States regarding Syria had taken place, and provided further details on the new nuclear negotiations team:
    • “Iran does not pursue the shape of negotiations as much, but our preference is that negotiations take place at a level that there is the necessary political will in the opposing side to reach a solution. We feel that such political will has not been demonstrated by the opposing side, but currently new circumstances have been created.”
    • “Guaranteeing the peaceful [nature] of the Iranian nuclear program is not possible without Iran’s access to the nuclear technology that has become indigenized by Iranian scientists and exists in our scientists’ minds. On this basis, Iran considers both issues in the path of its interest and is prepared to take measures in this regard.”
    • “Determining the methods and levels of negotiations is with the Foreign Ministry, which is based on the necessities of negotiations. Negotiations can be at the level of Minister or [at a level] that other friends pursue, but guiding the nuclear case is under the supervision of the Supreme National Security Council whose chairmanship is with the Islamic Republic of Iran's President.”
    • “International negotiations regarding the nuclear program will be pursued by the Foreign Ministry which will be based on the necessity of strategic and tactical negotiations.”
    • “Maintaining nuclear achievements and alleviating the international community’s concern is the Islamic Republic’s goal, which we consider necessary for our national security and stability.”
    • “Some team members have been selected and others must be introduced by other organs, which we hope are introduced.”
  • Former Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said, “About two and a half years ago, in a letter regarding sanctions that I wrote which [First Vice President] Mr. Eshagh Jahangiri pointed out in the administration’s session,  I predicted the trend of the new sanctions and which matters it will encompass. Unfortunately, some friends at that time criticized such analyses…. [They said], 'They [the West] cannot sanction our oil and the Central Bank and if they want to sanction our oil, oil price will become 250 dollars.'” 

Economy

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