Iran News Round Up - May 9, 2017

Iranian news outlets circulated a report by two U.S. officials that Iran had attempted to launch a cruise missile from a Yono-class “midget” submarine in the Strait of Hormuz on May 2. No Iranian news outlets appear to have confirmed the failed launch. (ISNA)

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with the Pakistani Parliament Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Interior Minister Chaudry Nisar Ali Khan on May 3. Zarif discussed the recent attack on Iranian soldiers near the Pakistani border, and asked the Pakistani government to capture the perpetrators. The two sides reaffirmed their historically deep ties and agreed to deeper security cooperation against terrorism and drug trafficking. (Fars News Agency) (E) (Mehr News Agency) (E)

Iran’s Ambassador to the UN Gholamali Khoshrou issued a letter to the President of the UN Security Council, Elbio Rosselli, to protest against the recent remarks by Saudi Defense Minister Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Bin Salman accused Iran of following an “extreme ideology” and declared that dialogue with the country would be “impossible.” Khoshrou called the Saudi government an instigator of “dangerous ambitions in the region and beyond.” Khoshrou wrote that Iran would nonetheless “continue to stand ready for dialogue” with Saudi Arabia. (Mehr News Agency) (E) (Fars News Agency)

Delegates from Iran, Russia, and Turkey signed an agreement in Kazakhstan on May 4 establishing a cessation of hostilities in four designated “zones” in Syria. The Syrian government stated that the agreement took effect on May 8. (ISNA)

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)

Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf stated that as president, he would reform the Foreign Ministry to better serve the country’s economic interests. Ghalibaf cited Japan and South Korea as examples of countries that used their “diplomatic bodies” to bring about economic progress. Ghalibaf said that the Foreign Ministry must market Iranian products internationally in order to reduce unemployment without requiring a large investment. (Tasnim News Agency) (E) (Fars News Agency)

Reformist former President Mohammad Khatami announced on his website on May 2 that he would support current President Hassan Rouhani for reelection. Khatami maintains a certain political influence despite a Judiciary-mandated media ban for his support for the 2009 Green Movement. Many attributed the reformist-moderate camp’s victory in Tehran in the 2016 parliamentary elections to Khatami. (Khatami.ir)

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)