PHOTO: Iran Supreme Leader to Israel: “You will not see 25 years from today”

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The Supreme Leader has marked the advent of the Iranian New Year with the exaltation of the “destruction of the Zionist regime”.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s office proclaimed on Thursday that the “Iranian people” had chosen the “most important” Khamenei quote from the past year, selecting this extract from a speech in September 2015:

You [Israel] will not see 25 Years from today! By Allah’s favor and grace, nothing called “the Zionist regime” will exist 25 years from now.

Iranians also supposedly voted for the Supreme Leader’s assurance that, as the “great people of Iran threw [the] Great Satan out of the country”, they would not allow him to return.

The Supreme Leader’s vitriol against the “Zionist regime” has stood in sharp contrast to the language used by President Rouhani and his advisors like Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. While not daring to recognize Israel, Rouhani and Zarif broke new ground in September 2013 by wishing all Jews a “blessed Rosh Hashanah”.

The Iranian New Year begins on Monday.

Revolutionary Guards Deface Instagram Pages of Fashion Models

IranWire reports that the Revolutionary Guards are blocking or defacing the Instagram pages of fashion models, boutiques, women’s hairdressers, and film and photography studios.

A message on the pages declares that “Operation Spider 2″ is enforcing the law over publication of “obscene images” and incitement of others to commit “immoral acts”.

In late January, seven fashion models were arrested. One subsequently left the country.

The Center for Organized Crime in Cyberspace, part of the Revolutionary Guards, first mentioned “Operation Spider” last year. It said that it had arrested several Facebook users for promoting “moral corruption”.

Concern Over Detained Journalist Chitsaz

Reporters Without Borders has expressed concern over the detention of journalist Afarin Chitsaz, a reporter for the daily newspaper Iran.

Chitsaz was arrested with three other journalists last November by the Revolutionary Guards.

She is being held without any official charges, reportedly in Evin Prison’s Ward 2A, under control of the Guards’ Intelligence Branch.

Reporters Without Borders also notes that another four female journalists — Rihaneh Tabatabai, Roya Saberi Negad Nobakht, Narges Mohammadi, and Atena Faraghdani — are also serving prison sentences.

The international organization notes, “With a total of 36 journalists and citizen-journalists currently detained, Iran is still one of the world’s five biggest prisons for media personnel.”