PHOTO: Head of Iran’s army, General Ahmed Reza Pourdastan: “Saudi Arabia sponsors Takfiri terrorism”

LATEST

UPDATE 1530 GMT: Without naming Saudi Arabia, President Rouhani has reinforced Iran’s latest rhetorical offensive in his address to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Rouhani said “any divisive move” is unacceptable: “No message which would fuel division in the Islamic Ummah should come out of the conference.”

However, the President offered the conciliatory statement, “It is crystal clear that neither Saudi Arabia is regarded as Iran’s problem nor Iran is regarded as Saudi’s problem. The main issue is ignorance, prejudice, and violence which are now regarded as the main hurdle and root cause of discord in the Islamic world.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Iran’s diplomats and military commanders renewed criticism of Saudi Arabia on Thursday, with no signs of easing of regional crises and economic tension.

The head of the Iranian Army’s ground forces, General Ahmed Reza Pourdastan, said in an interview with English-language Press TV:

We know that some reactionary regimes of the region, including Saudi Arabia — which sponsors Takfiri terrorism and sort of supports the terrorists both financially and spiritually — and its puppets, who all enjoy help from the US and Israeli intelligence services are planning to get terrorist groups into our neighboring countries.

Pourdastan said Iran had defined a 40-kilometer perimeter around its borders as a “red line” against “terrorists”.

Meanwhile, at a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Turkey, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Saudi Arabia was using’ the meeting to attack the Islamic Republic and Lebanon’s Hezzbollah.

Zarif said Riyadh had pressed for four paragraphs in a draft declaration were against the “spirit of Islamic solidarity” and could only serves Israeli interests. He said the Saudi maneuvers were similar to those of Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.

Syria and Oil

Pourdastan and Zarif’s statements were made amid the latest escalation in Iran’s involvement in the Syrian civil war, in which Tehran is propping up the Assad regime and Saudi Arabia is supporting the opposition-rebel bloc.

Last week, the Iranian military effectively confirmed its leading position on some Syrian battlefronts. It said Revolutionary Guards units were being joined for the first time by units from the Iranian Army, including special forces.

Officially, Iran says the commanders and troops are in “advisory” roles, a statement repeated by Pourdastan on Wednesday. However, scores of Iranian soldiers and Iranian-led foreign militia were reportedly killed on Monday and Tuesday in failed attempts to take rebel-held territory south of Aleppo.

See Syria Daily, April 13: Rebels-Nusra Defeat Iranian-Led Force on South Aleppo Front

As Tehran invests more forces in Syria, it is facing pressure from the Saudis over attempts to raise oil revenue after the easing of sanctions. Riyadh said earlier this month that it will not allow Iranian tankers to use Saudi ports, a step quickly followed by Saudi Arabia’s ally Bahrain.

Iranian officials shrugged off the restriction as largely symbolic. However, they are being challenged on a more important front, with Saudi Arabia leading efforts to freeze OPEC’s production amid the sharp fall in global prices.

Iran has held out against the measure, which would challenge its goal of raising exports by more than 40% in the near-future. However, it was dealt a blow earlier this week when Russia declared, after a meeting with the Saudis, that it would maintain support for the freeze.

Government: We Are in Control of the Economy

Facing pressure from the Supreme Leader and Parliament, the Rouhani Government has assured that it is in control of economic policy.

First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri said on Wednesday, during an exhibition on petrochemical products:

Some people accuse the administration of not having done anything in the context of the Resistance Economy. The Supreme Leader has solved this. He has ordered that command of the Resistance Economy be in the hands of the administration and the First Vice President.

Last month, at a speech for the Iranian New Year, Ayatollah Khamenei warned the Rouhani Government over its pursuit of a “JCPOA 2” for economic recovery, following implementation of the July 2015 nuclear deal, formally titled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The Supreme Leader said that the US was undermining the agreement, thus exposing the weakness of the Government’s foreign policy of “engagement”, and that Iran should plan for self-sufficiency with the “Resistance Economy”.

See Iran Daily, March 21: Supreme Leader Warns US & the Rouhani Government

The Government has yet to submit its 2016-2017 budget, which was due in December, and its 2016-2020 National Development Plan for approval by Parliament.

On Wednesday, the Majlis — still dominated by hardliners and conservatives until run-off elections are completed in late April — cancelled support payments to 24 million Iranians.

While the measure is seen by analysts as necessary for reconstruction of Iran’s crippled economy, the timing of the measure could add to complaints over the Government’s handling of economic affairs.

“This move is unfair and will create problems for most of the people,” President Rouhani’s senior advisor Mohammad Bagher Nobakht said.

Under new criteria, monthly cash payments of about $12 per person will be removed for many civil servants, members of the armed forces, paramilitary volunteers and groups who already receive social welfare.

The payments were introduced by the Ahmadinejad Government in December 2010, covering reductions in subsidies on items such as bread and gasoline.

Hardliners Blast Detained Karroubi — “You Would Have Been Hanged Under Khomeini”

Hardliners have struck back at an open letter by detained opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, saying that he is lucky just to be under strict house arrest and not executed.

On Sunday, opposition sites published Karroubi’s letter to President Rouhani, in which the Green Movement leader said he wanted to stand trial so he can speak about the regime amid the disputed 2009 Presidential election.

Karroubi criticized Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who “won” the election, and implicitly blamed the Supreme Leader for Iran’s political and economic problems.

Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, both candidates in 2009, and Mousavi’s wife Zahra Rahnavard have been detained since February 2011.

Javan, a newspaper affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, responded with the article, “Be Thankful for House Arrest”. It said that if Karroubi had expressed these sentiments when Ayatollah Khomeini led the Islamic Republic, he would have been hanged “with a few words”.

The newspaper’s website accused Karroubi of trying to relieve pressure on the Rouhani Government over economic arena by creating “a parallel political atmosphere” and an alternative to the Supreme Leader’s “Resistance Economy”.

Abdollah Ganji, the managing editor of Javan, speculated that the letter is a reaction to the possible candidacy of Ahmadinejad in Presidential elections in 2017. Reza Sarraj, an analyst affiliated with the Guards, invoked conspiracy theory in calling for more protection for Karroubi — he asserted that reformists might be planning to murder the leader and then blame the regime.

There was also ridicule. Mehdi Mohammadi, a member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team under Ahmadinejad, called Karroubi “a funny guy”. He backed the request for a public trial because it would provide a chance to witness “unequalled comic moments” that would recompense millions of people for “the lunatic delusions of a bunch of criminals”.

Other hardline sites called on Rouhani and the Intelligence Ministry to react by finishing off the “sedition” — the label for the mass protests after the 2009 election — once and for all.