LATEST: Jaish ul-Adl Insurgents Kill 8 Guards Near Pakistan Border

WEDNESDAY FEATURE

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After days of apparent criticism of the nuclear framework through their media outlet, the Revolutionary Guards appear to have given a high-profile endorsement of Iran’s negotiators and their talks with the 5+1 Powers (US, Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia).

The message came on Tuesday from Guards commander Mohammad Ali Jafari (pictured):

With God’s grace, the revolutionary children of Islamic Iran have succeeded in defending the rights of the Iranian nation and the Iranian nation and the Revolutionary Guards appreciate their honest political efforts….

The Iranian nation and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps thank these dear negotiators for their honest attempts and political battle, and for their resistance on the defined red lines.

In line with other regime support of the framework, Jafari presented it as a victory of Iranian strength over Washington: “The US, which once sought to change Iran’s behavior, now changes its political behavior of the past. They were forced to forget the options on the table and to prefer a diplomatic option and solution for the nuclear issue.”

Fars News Agency, linked to the Guards, had sniped at last Thursday’s framework on its English-language website. It featured the warnings of MPs to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that Iran must insist on the immediate termination of all sanctions against Tehran as soon as a comprehensive agreement is signed and that Parliament might not approve adherence to the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It also ignored Zarif’s 2-hour interview last Saturday attempting to clarify the terms of the framework and the next steps in the negotiations with the 5+1.

However, this morning Fars’ English-language site pulls back from the criticism by saying nothing at all about the nuclear issue. The warnings of MPs have been replaced in Iranian media by statements of support and a poll by State news agency IRNA — which has supported the Rouhani Government throughout the nuclear discussions — that 96% of people in Tehran approve of the framework and 83% “expressed happiness, hope and relief on hearing about the nuclear agreement achieved in Lausanne, Switzerland”.

Some public demonstrations have been held against the negotiations, including a group of 150 people outside the Parliament building on Tuesday. However, images of the protests have disappeared from Fars’ featured coverage, while political observers in Tehran claim:

These people protesting the deal are a small, doomed group of losers who do not understand that the perceptions of the establishment have changed. They can shout ‘Death to America’ all they want, but nobody in the government or in the establishment is in the mood for these sorts of actions.

The Supreme Leader has made no public statement about the nuclear framework. However, in a probable sign of his supports, clerics across Iran used Friday Prayers to congratulate the Islamic Republic’s negotiators.


Jaish ul-Adl Insurgents Kill 8 Guards Near Pakistan Border

The Sunni insurgency Jaish ul-Adl has again hit Iranian security forces, killing eight border guards near the Pakistan border.

Iranian media admitted on Tuesday that the guards were killed the previous day in Sistan-Baluchistan Province, where Sunni insurgents have operated for years. The Iranian reports claimed three insurgents also died and two were wounded.

On Monday, Iranian officials had declared — without admitting any casualties among their forces — that they had broken up a “terror team affiliated to foreign spy services”.

Jaish ul-Adl, which arose in 2012, has carried out a series of deadly assaults on Iranian forces. In October 2013, it killed 14 troops and border guards in one operation, and in March 2014, it kidnapped five guards and took them into Pakistan, killing one of them before releasing the others after weeks of negotiations.