LATEST: Journalist Azarpeyk Arrested

Lieutenant Commander Hossein Salami (pictured) has put out the Revolutionary Guards’ latest declaration of the demise of America, saying its status and positions throughout the world have grown increasingly weak:

Today there is nowhere in the Muslim world where anyone will roll out a red carpet for American officials….This shows that the US Empire in the world is coming to an end.

Meanwhile, Iran was growing stronger in its defense and economy, Salami proclaimed:

Any enemy formula will entail an unexpected ending for him and this is due to the Iranian nation’s reliance on religious and Islamic beliefs.

Today the revolution has changed the balance of power to such an extent that no security and political equation in the Muslim world is possible without winning Iran’s satisfaction.

Salami also proclaimed that the “political process” of the Presidential elections in Iran’s ally Syria “shows the swift defeat of the terrorists and their supporters”.

Journalist Azarpeyk Arrested

Journalist Saba Azarpeyk was arrested in Tehran on Wednesday morning, as she worked in the offices of the weekly Tejarat-e Farda.

Azarpeyk, who also writes for Etemaad, was among 11 journalists detained in February 2012. She had reported for Baztab-e Emrooz on arrests and beatings carried out by security police in Tehran’s Vanak Square in the run-up to the disputed 2009 Presidential election.

Azerpeyk also published an article on the death of Sattar Beheshti, the Iranian blogger allegedly abused and killed by prison officials in November 2012.

Azarpeyk’s report was mentioned on the floor of Parliament, drawing attention to the case.

However, the reason for Azarpeyk’s detention may be her recent articles examining efforts by hardliners to undermine the Rouhani Government. She interviewed Mohammad Sadegh Kooshky, a University of Tehran professor supporting the “We Are Worried” movement, and piqued him with her challenging questions — the professor delcared, “You are a little dictator.”

Rouhani Advisor: Inflation Down to 28.4%

Senior Presidential advisor Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht said on Wednesday that inflation has fallen to 28.4%.

Nobakht said the rate for April 21-May 20 was a 2% decline from the previous month.

He said point-to-point inflation was even lower at 17.2%.

The advisor’s statement came amid assurance that, despite subsidy cuts, the government has no plans to increase prices of consumer goods.

The Rouhani Government inherited an inflation rate of more than 40% when it took office last August.

Leading MP Warns of “Societal Shock” of Extent of Corruption

In another sign of concern over the extent of illegal political and economic activity, MP Gholam Ali Jafar Zadeh, a member of Parliament’s Investigations Committee, has said that the committee is “reluctant to publicly reveal the widespread corruption” of the Ahmadinejad Government — in office from 2005 to 2013 — for fear of arousing “societal shock”.

Earlier this week Iran Prosecutor General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei said the judiciary was investigating “individuals at the most senior executive levels in banks, a deputy of the head of the judiciary branch, the head of the intelligence protection unit of the judiciary, and a number of other Majlis (Parliament) representatives”. Of the more than 500 individuals under scrutiny, more than 200 of them were among senior executives and managers in banks, the President’s office, the Majlis, and the judiciary.

See Prosecutor General — There is Corruption Throughout Government

Last weekend, Iran executed Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, the billionaire at the center of a $2.6 billion bank fraud which has rocked the political establishment.