PHOTO: Head of Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, and President Rouhani


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Tension is continuing to build within Iran’s regime over the crackdown by the Revolutionary Guards, with arrests of journalists and businessmen, following President Rouhani’s criticism of hardliners on Sunday.

Rouhani said at the Tehran Press Fair:

It is not tolerable that some media are permanently immune from the threat of closure and banning and enjoy permanent security [services] support. So they not only write whatever they please, but also play the role of the secret police in such a way that by reading certain newspapers, one finds out who will be arrested tomorrow, which [newspaper] will be banned and whose honor will be done away with.

See Iran Daily, Nov 9: Rouhani Renews Attack on Hardliners “Acting Like Secret Police”

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the chair of Parliament’s National Security Commission, defended the Guards by saying that “one of [its] missions and responsibilities is to protect the country’s security”. He said the arrests of journalists, including five in the past two weeks, was “not without reason”: “The speculations being uttered that these arrests are political and connected to the JCPOA [the July 14 nuclear deal with the 5+1 Powers] are not fair and realistic.”

Others hit back at the President. Head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani accused Rouhani of “insulting” the judicial authorities by claiming that some media enjoy “immunity” against bans and closure.

Hardline newspapers responded with fury. Kayhan condemned Rouhani for “attacking the critics instead of the infiltrators” and demanded that security services continue to identify those undermining the Iranian system.

Javan, linked to the Revolutionary Guards, boycotted the President’s speech and ridiculed him: “Criticism is good, as long it is others being criticized!”

However, powerful regime figures gave Rouhani support. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani — the brother of the head of judiciary who accused the President of insults — said, “We should not call those who have different views ‘traitors’.”

The head of the Supreme National Security Council, Admiral Ali Shamkhani, went farther by questioning the detentions:

Is any contact with the outside [world] infiltration? We must be vigilant. The worst way of countering infiltration is to make infiltration an instrument in factional [struggles] in an attempt to get rid of rivals. This is what has occasionally happened.

The arrest of some people active in the media field…in the wake of the JCPOA is being presented by some as a settling of political scores….I share that viewpoint.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tried the tactic of saying that the Government is vigilant but wants to ensure effective defense against infiltration, linking this to implementation of the nuclear deal:

We are all mindful of the Supreme Leader and worried about [foreign] influence. The Foreign Ministry considers influence with precision and believes that the best method for opposing influence is having active initiatives. Now is the time for us to seek active initiatives for the best [possible] welcoming of the JCPOA.

Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi held up the positive alternative of cooperation:

The Ministry of Intelligence, the Judiciary, the IRGC [Guards], and our other military units have a role [in countering foreign influence] and, God willing, we have a favorable condition in the realm of “influence” with regards to observation, control, and our actions.

We must try to not use this issue for political issues or for leveling accusations at each other; because this would be unkind to the valuable orders of the Supreme Leader.

Still, the judiciary held its critical line. Spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohsen Ejei, said he had not read Rouhani’s statements but continued with a message to the President: “You said that people should not lose faith in the judiciary. I must say that the people have not lost their faith in the judiciary and their inquiries to the judiciary are proof of that.”


Economic Advisor to Detained Opposition Leader Mousavi is Freed After 6 Years

Ali Arabmazar, the economic advisor to detained opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, has been freed after six years in prison.

Mousavi, who “lost” the disputed 2009 Presidential election to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was put under strict house arrest in February 2011. Fellow candidate Mehdi Karroubi and Mousavi’s wife, the prominent artist and activist Zahra Rahnavard, were also detained.