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, with contributor John Lesnewich. 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

Regional Developments and Diplomacy

  • A Lebanese Hezbollah official announced that the group, in coordination with other security forces, will take “special security measures” during Ashura in the Zahiyeh Shi’a quarters of Beirut. 
  • Lebanese Hezbollah Secretary Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah warned against the penetration of “fifth columns” during the Shi’a Ashura religious mourning ceremony in various areas of Lebanon, and said, “The security environment of the country and the region and the challenges that it faces necessitate such [security] provisions and laws.”
  • President Hassan Rouhani met with the Vatican’s new ambassador to Tehran and promised to respect religious minorities’ freedom to practice and celebrate their religion, while adding, “Today we have shared goals and shared enemies. Extremists and terrorists are our common enemies, and human interaction and cooperation in eliminating poverty and inequality are our shared goals.”

Military and Security

  • IRGC Ground Forces (IRGC-GF) Deputy Commander Brig. Gen. Abdollah Araghi discussed border security efforts and values:
    • “In other countries, they design an operation or exercise in appearance and put their equipment on display, but if the matter of action comes and an enemy threatens them they will never come to the field. Whereas during the Sacred Defense era [Iran-Iraq War], a fifteen year old teenager straps a grenade around his waist, and when they ask why do you want to do this he says ‘God’s satisfaction and martyrdom.’ Therefore, our country’s values are never comparable with those of other countries.”
    • “A guerilla force can remain hidden for decades in any country, and none of the world’s armed forces can claim that they have completely destroyed a guerilla force. Of course, perhaps an element of [this force] can be degraded, but they can never say they have destroyed it completely. Therefore, the recent clashes in Saravan are a clear sign of this issue.”
    • “Per the order that the Supreme Leader issued, our position has been completely offensive and we will not have any defensive position whatsoever in the IRGC-GF. We will kill the terrorists wherever they are. We will identify them before they even enter our borders....” 
    • “Based on its own needs, the IRGC-GF uses people-based divisions, and if war occurs, certainly the IRGC-GF will go to the field with these same divisions and people’s forces at the asymmetric level.”
    • “It’s been approximately four years that [the IRGC] has researched asymmetric warfare, and with the analyses of experts, specialized researchers, and the implementation [of their findings] in the field during exercises, such as in Yazd, Kerman, and Khorasan with infantry, mechanized, air assault and commando forces, we have arrived at a specialized policy which has been implemented in the IRGC-GF.”
  • Armed Forces General Staff Deputy of Basij Affairs and Cultural Defense Brig. Gen. Massoud Jazayeri published a letter praising Bandar Charak Sunni Friday Prayer Leader Massoud Rahbar’s condemnation of the “jihad by marriage fatwa” [a fatwa issued, and then later reportedly renounced, by Mohammad Al-Arifi which allowed for girls as young as 14 to have “pleasure marriages” with Syrian rebels] and “the crimes of Wahabbi terrorists in Syria.”
    • Jazayeri’s letter commended Rahbar for “taking wise, intelligent, and determined stances against the distortion and bid’a [innovation] in the religion.”
    • He added that “There is no question that the strategy of Global Arrogance [the US and West] and the enemies of Islam and the umma is to create deviations in the religion.”
  • Law Enforcement Forces Border Operations Command Deputy Col. Habibollah Mardan Pour announced the elimination of a “banditry band” and the death of four “armed bandits” in the country’s eastern borders. He elaborated, “Special designs will be implemented in the country’s borders to confront bandits and terrorist groups, and the zealous border guards will stand against the entrance of any sort of insecurity from outside the country with all their abilities while guarding the Islamic homeland.” 

Nuclear Issue

Economy

Photo of the Day

  • Quds Force Commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani helps bury IRGC Brig. Gen. 2nd Class Mohammad Jamali Zadeh (Paghel’eh), killed in Syria this week.