Iran News Round Up - February 10, 2017

Attorney General Hojjat ol Eslam Mohammad Jafar Montazeri stated that the arrested individuals had planned to execute “plots” during parades marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He did not specify the number of individuals who were arrested. (IRNA)

• Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) Brig. Gen. Hossein Ashtari announced that no suspicious activity was reported during rallies across the country. (Tasnim News Agency) (E)

Interim Tehran Friday Prayer Leader Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani criticized President Trump’s executive order banning nationals from Iran and six other Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. during his prayer sermon on February 10. Emami Kashani stated that the order “revealed Washington’s Islamophobic approach” and “showed that America and Israel’s dispute is with Islam.” (Mehr News Agency)

The Supreme Leader’s Senior Foreign Policy Advisor Ali Akbar Velayati reacted to the possible U.S. designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization in an interview with France 24. Velayati stated, “We’re not worried about the sanctions. By relying on the Resistance Economy put forth by the Supreme Leader [Ali Khamenei], we can overcome all difficulties.” The Resistance Economy doctrine is intended to make the Iranian economy resistance to all external economic shocks in the long term, including sanctions. Velayati also said, “Mr. Trump is taking the same route and line that American presidents have taken against Iran since the victory of the Islamic Revolution [in 1979]. They have all taken the same negative approach.”(Mehr News Agency)  

Senior Military Advisor to the Supreme Leader IRGC Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi stated, “Foreign and transregional enemies, especially the triangle of American, Zionist, and British devils and their regional servants, cannot pose a serious military threat to us… the Iranian nation and the Islamic political system has grown powerful enough to defend Iran’s national interests and security and [to] return any kind of possible aggression with an unimaginable strike.” (Fars News Agency) (E) (ISNA)
 

Several senior political and military officials claimed that the turnout for rallies marking the anniversary of the Revolution is a response to the Trump administration’s recent statements and actions against Iran. The tone of the rhetoric was neither more nor less hostile than in previous years.

• President Hassan Rouhani stated that the Iranian people’s “presence and attendance [at rallies] is a response to the incorrect words by the new leaders of the White House. The people take to the street to tell the world that the Iranian nation should be talked to with respect, abandoning the language of bullying and threats.” Rouhani also reiterated other standard regime themes during his speech, including continued devotion to the “path of the revolution, the Imam [Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini], and the Supreme Leader [Ali Khamenei].” (President.ir) (E)  (President.ir) (E)
• Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stated, “What has protected and strengthened this revolution has been [the] people’s presence, and today, the very same presence will foil all threats, too.” (Tasnim News Agency) (E)
• Judiciary Head Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani stated that the people’s presence at the rallies sends a message to Iran’s enemies “that they cannot speak to this nation [Iran] with the language of force and threats nor trample on [the Iranian people’s] rights…. As the Supreme Leader [Khamenei] has said, the enemy threats expressed with the language of threats will have no impact on our nation; we are more entrenched in the way [of the Revolution].” (ISNA)
• AEOI Head Ali Akbar Salehi stated, “the people’s presence shows that the government, the people, and the political system [of Iran] are hand in hand; this nation is unified and steady.” (Asr Iran)

Rallies across Iran marked the 38th anniversary of the Islamic Republic’s founding in 1979. The top strata of Iran’s military and political leadership, including IRGC Quds Force Commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, President Hassan Rouhani, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Head Ali Akbar Salehi attended the rallies in Tehran.

• Rallies featured much of the anti-U.S. rhetoric and demonstrations seen historically at events marking the anniversary of the revolution, including the defacing of American flags. American and Iranian social media accounts circulated photographs of banners with such slogans as “American people are welcome and invited to Iran” and “Thanks to the American people for supporting Muslims,” in reference to pushback against President Donald Trump’s executive order banning nationals from Iran and six other Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. Regime officials have distinguished historically between the American people and their government, however.
• Social media accounts also circulated pictures of a grandson of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei carrying a sign bearing pictures of his grandfather, Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Lebanese Hezbollah Secretary Hassan Nasrallah, and al Houthi movement leader Abdul Malik al Houthi. (Fars News Agency)