PHOTO: 10 US Navy personnel during their brief detention by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
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- Journalist Tabatabaei Begins 1-Year Prison Sentence
- Sources: 900+ Parliamentary Candidates Have “Withdrawn”
SATURDAY FEATURE
Developing: Implementation of Nuclear Deal to Be Declared Today
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have continued to boast of their brief detention of 10 US Navy personnel this week, celebrating a victory over Washington and its “weeping” sailors.
Fearing that implementation of the July 2015 nuclear deal — and thus the removal of US and European sanctions would be delayed — the Rouhani Government worked with the US State Department for the quick release of the sailors on Wednesday, seized the previous day when their two boats entered Iranian territorial waters after a navigational error.
However, the Guards sought a PR victory at home and abroad by releasing photographs and videos of the sailors at the moment of their detention and as they were being held for interrogation. The commander of the Guards navy, Admiral Ali Fadavi, declared that Iran’s missiles had pushed back a US aircraft carriers and helicopters from intervention.
See Iran Daily, Jan 14: Revolutionary Guards Celebrate After 10 US Navy Personnel Released
On Friday, the Deputy Guards Commander, General Hossein Salami, boasted:
No country in the world has been able to detain an American soldier since World War II. Yet when these soldiers entered our waters, small Iranian vessels…surrounded and arrested them. These ten sailors surrendered to five or six young [Guards] members.
Salami said that, as the US despatched its aircraft carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman, “We heard the trembling voice of this superpower” as Iran’s naval units threatened that “if you make smallest movement, you will receive a crushing response from Iran.” He continued:
During the investigation we carried out, we also understood that these sailors had unintentionally entered our waters… These sailors were weeping after their detainment, but the kindness of our IRGC caused them to calm down.
Basij Paramilitaries: Iranian Media Should Not Feature US-Iran Cooperation
Meanwhile, the Basij paramilitary organization criticized the sections of Iranian media who preferred to highlight the US-Iranian cooperation that resolved the incident.
Basij head General Mohammad Reza Naqdi chided, “Some of the media in Iran, instead of referencing the power of our fighters, paid attention to how Secretary of State [John Kerry] thanked Iran…[but] his soldiers erred by entering the Persian Gulf.”
Naqdi said some Iranian outlets were “seeking to beautify the face of America” as they published headlines about how Iran “must strengthen its relations with the Western world”.
Journalist Tabatabaei Begins 1-Year Prison Sentence
The well-known reformist journalist Reyhaneh Tabatabaei has begun serving a one-year prison sentence.
Tabatabaei surrendered at Evin Prison on Tuesday. She has also been banned from journalism for two years, but has continued to write on her Facebook page.
The journalist, who has written for several reformist newspapers, was arrested in November 2014, and sentenced a year later for “propaganda against the state”. She was first detained in December 2010 and imprisoned for 36 days.
Tabatabaei’s mother said the latest prosecution was for her daughter’s member in reformist youth headquarters in the 2013 Presidential campaign and criticism of two conservative candidates, Saeed Jalili and Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf.
Sources: 900+ Parliamentary Candidates Have “Withdrawn”
“Unofficial sources” have told Tasnim News that more than 900 candidates for February’s Parliamentary elections have “withdrawn”.
No further explanation was given for the withdrawals. The sources said that authorities have so far approved about 300 candidates for the February 26 ballot.
A record total of more than 12,000 people applied to stand for the election of 290 MPs.
The Rouhani Government has publicly challenged the power of Iranian bodies, notably the Guardian Council, to vet and disqualify candidates on political grounds.
