Iran News Round Up - July 13, 2018

Artesh Ground Forces Brig. Gen. Kiomars Heydari participated in a meeting between Artesh Ground Forces and a visiting Chinese National Defense Ministry military delegation on July 4. The delegation consisted of 16 special operations officers from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Ground Forces, Air Force, and Navy. Armed Forces General Staff (AFGS) International Affairs Deputy IRGC Brig. Gen. Ghadir Nezami Pour, and Artesh Ground Forces 65th (NOHED) Airborne Special Forces Brigade Commander Brig. Gen. 2C Cyrus Amanollahi all met with the Chinese delegation during its visit. (Tasnim News Agency) (Tasnim News Agency) (Defa Press)

Artesh Navy Commander RADM Hossein Khanzadi met with IRGC Navy Commander RADM Ali Fadavi on July 8 to discuss cooperation between the Artesh and IRGC navies. Khanzadi and Fadavi may have discussed contingency planning in the event that Iran moves to close the Strait of Hormuz. The meeting comes after senior IRGC officials emphasized support for the closure of the strait if the U.S. successfully persuades global partners to cease Iranian oil imports. (Defa Press)

An oil tanker allegedly traveling from Kirkuk, Iraqi Kurdistan to Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province in western Iran crashed with a passenger bus, killing 11 people on July 11. Local Kurdish citizens began to protest following the crash. Unconfirmed social media reports claim that the protests began because the regime initially responded to the scene of the crash with Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) anti-riot police rather than dispatching aid. Videos disseminated on social media confirm that protesters set fire to at least one police vehicle and caused significant damage to two other police vehicles. Other social media reports claimed that the oil tanker was an IRGC tanker transporting oil purchased at a reduced cost from Iraq. Sanandaj County Mayor Mohammad Ebrahim Zarei denied IRGC involvement with the oil tanker. (Instagram) (Instagram) (Instagram) (Instagram) (Radio Farda) (Tasnim News Agency)

Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) Kazeroun County Commander IRGC Col. Mohammad Ebbadi Nejad announced on July 12 that one protester died after LEF officials and protesters clashed near Kamaraj, Kazeroun County, Fars Province. LEF officials were dispatched to collect unsanctioned water pumps. Several local citizens resisted and allegedly threw rocks toward the LEF in response. LEF forces shot at protesters using pellets and injured several, resulting in the death of one protester. Ebbadi Nejad also noted that several LEF officials were injured after the protests. Videos of the protests have not surfaced on social media. Kazeroun County was the scene of the deadliest protests since the late-December 2017 Protests when regime security forces killed at least three protesters in mid-May 2018. (ISNA)

Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the Supreme Leader Ali Akbar Velayati met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 12 in Moscow, Russia. Velayati relayed messages from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani during his meeting with Putin and discussed regional security, nuclear-related, and economic issues. Velayati also noted that Russia would continue its investments in Iran’s oil economy and that Russian companies could serve as a replacement to European firms leaving the Iranian market following the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal on May 8. Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanaei, Velayati’s Chief of Staff Ali Asghar Fathi, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also participated in the meeting.

Velayati’s meeting follows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s June 11 meeting with Putin. An unidentified Israeli source claimed that Netanyahu proposed that Russia work to remove Iran’s military presence in Syria so that Israel “won’t take action against” Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s regime. Iranian regime officials have reiterated that Iran will not remove its “advisory presence” in Syria as long as the Assad regime requests Iranian assistance. (Jerusalem Post) (E) (Al Alam) (Reuters) (E) (Defa Press) (Alef) (Reuters) (E)

Nicholas Carl explains the implications of the expansion of Iran’s protest scene to include urban merchants in “Iran’s Hardliners Will Be the First Winners of the Protest Movement.”

Mike Saidi discusses the recent deadly protests in Khorramshahr in “Iranian Protests Turn Deadly Again.”