Iran News Round Up - January 11, 2017

Iran Air Chairman Farhad Parvaresh received the first of 100 planes under a deal with Airbus on January 11, according to the Iranian news outlet Press TV. At a ceremony marking the plane’s delivery near the French city of Toulouse, Parvaresh stated, “Today marks a great day for this company as well as the relations between Iran and the European Union.” Parvaresh added that Iran Air hopes to receive at least two more planes from Airbus before the start of the Persian new year in March 2017. Iran will also receive 80 planes under an agreement with Boeing, with deliveries set to begin in 2018. (Press TV) (E)

Security forces reportedly arrested a Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) “ringleader” in the city of Esfahan on January 10. The MEK member reportedly sought to create “chaos and confusion” during the funeral proceedings for Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The MEK is a controversial exiled Iranian opposition group that the U.S. listed as a terrorist organization until 2012. (Tasnim News Agency) (E)  

Guardian Council Spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodaei addressed an ongoing debate over how to hold the election to fill Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s seat in the Assembly of Experts following his passing on January 8. The assembly is an 88-member clerical body constitutionally charged with selecting the next Supreme Leader. Kadkhodaei clarified that the Assembly of Experts will decide the details of the election for Rafsanjani’s seat, stating, “The Assembly of Experts must make a recommendation, and we in the Guardian Council must study the issue and give our opinion on holding the election.” Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Hassan Moghimi previously announced that the Interior Ministry will submit a proposal to the Guardian Council and Assembly of Experts to hold the election concurrently with the May 2017 presidential election. The Interior Ministry falls under the purview of President Hassan Rouhani, unlike the conservative-dominated Guardian Council, whose members are appointed directly or indirectly by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Tasnim News Agency) (Tasnim News Agency)

Outspoken moderate-conservative parliamentarian Ali Motahari tweeted, “The chants at Rafsanjani’s funeral show that officials must quickly solve the issue of the Green Movement leaders who are under house arrest.” Numerous mourners at the funeral proceedings for Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani chanted in support of reformist leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, who have been under house arrest for their roles in the Green Movement protests after the 2009 presidential election. Reformists have increased pressure on the Rouhani administration to lift their house arrests. The controversy over their house arrests will be a flashpoint for Iranian leadership as the May 2017 presidential election approaches. (Kaleme)

Ibrahim Amin al Sayyed, the head of Hezbollah’s political council, vowed that Hezbollah forces will remain in Syria “until the terrorists are defeated” during a news conference in Tehran. In October, Lebanese Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah similarly declared that Hezbollah forces will remain in Syria until “final victory.” (Fars News Agency)

IRGC Political Deputy Brig. Gen. Rasoul Sanaei Rad responded to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu’s call in late December for Lebanese Hezbollah to withdraw from Syria. Sanaei Rad stressed that the groups that assisted in the Syrian regime’s recapture of Aleppo city “will never be excluded from the equation.” (Mehr News Agency)  

Iranian news agencies circulated reports that IRGC Brig. Gen. Iraj Masjedi will replace Hassan Danaeifar, who reached the end of a six-year term, as Iran’s new ambassador to Iraq. Masjedi previously served as a senior advisor to IRGC Quds Force Commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. (Asr Iran)

The Critical Threats Project team explains the significance of Iran’s upcoming 2017 presidential election and tracks important electoral developments in “Iran Presidential Election Tracker: Updates and Analysis.”

Paul Bucala and Caitlin Shayda Pendleton discuss how Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s death will upend Iran’s political landscape in “What Rafsanjani’s death means for the Supreme Leader’s succession.”