Iran News Round Up - January 23, 2018

Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) Commander IRGC Brig. Gen. Hossein Ashtari said “None of our officers had lethal weapons” during the protests and suggested that Iran’s enemies were “making up reports of [protesters’] deaths.” Judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei stated that 25 people died in the protests, but that the bullets used to kill protesters do not match ammunition used by law enforcement and military personnel and suggested that the protesters were killed by fellow protesters. (Radio Farda) (ISNA)

170 parliamentarians called for the creation of domestic alternatives to foreign messaging applications in an open letter. The parliamentarians claimed that Iran’s enemies used foreign messaging applications to incite unrest during the protests, and demanded that the government increase efforts to prevent users from circumventing government blocks on certain websites and applications. The government reportedly lifted restrictions on the popular messaging application Telegram on January 13 after blocking it during the protests. (Radio Farda) (E) (Asriran)

Mashhad Friday Prayer Leader Hojjat ol Eslam Ahmad Alam ol Hoda dismissed claims that he played a role in sparking the recent anti-regime protests in Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi Province on December 28, 2017. Executives of Construction Party head Gholam Hossein Karbaschi claimed that the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) summoned Alam al Hoda in order to investigate his role in directing an anti-Rouhani protest on December 28, 2017 which then inadvertently devolved into mass widespread protests across Iran. In a letter to SNSC Secretary Ali Shamkhani dated January 17, Alam ol Hoda claimed that he was not in Mashhad when the protests began, but instead in Sabzevar, Razavi Khorasan Province. Sabzevar experienced protests on December 29, 2017, one day after the first day of protests. Alam ol Hoda accused the media of repeatedly targeting him with false allegations. Alam ol Hoda also accused unnamed “political figures” in Mashhad of provoking anti-regime protests. (Fars News Agency) (Twitter) (E)

Interim Tehran Friday Prayer Leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami criticized a recently released BBC Persian video revealing that the Assembly of Experts intended for Ali Khamenei to hold the position of Supreme Leader only temporarily until a referendum elected a permanent successor to the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Khamenei argued in the video that he was constitutionally unqualified for the position and did not have enough experience to lead. Khatami called the video “incomplete,” and claimed that a second video exists that is more complete, and dismissed Khamenei’s remarks as a sign of modesty. (Fars News Agency)

Former President and popular reformist figure Mohammad Khatami called on all government institutions to “accept their share of the blame” for the recent wave of anti-regime protests in a statement on January 15. Khatami acknowledged that “economic, political, and social shortcomings” played a role in igniting the protests. Khatami advocated for a political environment where citizens can safely express criticism and government institutions can reform without “humiliating the people.” (Jamaran) (Radio Farda) (E)

Tehran Friday Prayer Leader Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi called for the allocation of additional budgetary funds for religious institutions on January 12. Sedighi said the increase was necessary in order to “spread religion.” Sedighi also called for greater budgetary funds in order to help support Iran’s “feeble societal layers,” a reference to Iran’s poor and economically disadvantaged. The allocation of hundreds of millions of dollars to Iran’s religious institutions and billions of dollars to Iran’s armed forces, likely at the expense of cash and non-cash subsidies, may have played a role in sparking the recent wave of anti-regime protests and may be cause for additional future protests. (ISNA)

The Foreign Ministry announced the appointment of new deputies and the implementation of structural changes. The Foreign Ministry is adding two new deputyships - Political Affairs and Economic Affairs. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced on December 24, 2017 that the Foreign Ministry’s changes are designed to make Iran’s diplomatic apparatus more agile. The Foreign Ministry has dissolved all region-focused deputy positions, such as Deputy for European and American Affairs and Deputy for Arab and African Affairs. Zarif made several appointments as well. Abbas Araghchi, who previously served as Deputy for Legal and International Affairs, will serve as Deputy for Political Affairs. Gholam Reza Ansari, who previously served as Ambassador to India, will serve as Deputy for Economic Affairs. Gholam Hossein Dehghani, who served as Deputy for Political and International Security, will serve as Deputy for Legal and International Affairs. The newly-appointed deputies began their new responsibilities on January 21, 2018. The Foreign Ministry also announced the retirement of several prominent Iranian diplomatic officials. (ILNA) (MFA) (Alef)

Frederick Kagan and Marie Donovan write that the regime’s preparations for anti-regime protests and the absence of a centralized leadership of unarmed protesters did not threaten the regime’s survival in, “Don’t Be Fooled: the Iran protests won’t overthrow the regime.”

Frederick Kagan states that the United States and its partners must take action in order to weaken Iran’s position in the region in the wake of the protests in, “Iranian protests give America chance to advance freedom.”

Marie Donovan discusses the political background of Iran’s newly-sanctioned Judiciary Head Sadegh Amoli Larijani in, “Why Did the U.S. Sanction Iran’s Sadegh Amoli Larijani?”

Mike Saidi demonstrates how the recent protests highlighted weaknesses in the readiness of Iranian security forces in a dataset using videos submitted by Iranian protesters. View the dataset here and the graphics here.