LATEST: Principlists Warn Against “Sedition”, Rule Out Ahmadinejad Return

Iran has boosted its PR offensive through the hosting of representatives from 21 countries at the 28th annual Islamic Unity Conference.

The Supreme Leader, accompanied by President Rouhani and other high-level officials, addressed delegates on Friday about conflicts in the Middle East. He said that divisions between Shia and Sunni Muslims were fostered by “enemy intelligence services”, including the CIA and Britain’s MI6.

The regime is using meetings on the sidelines of the conferences to further its positions. Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met Jamal Issa, a member of the Palestinian organization Hamas, and said afterwards that the issue of Palestine has always been “the most pressing concern” for the Islamic Republic.

Amir-Abdollahian added that Iran “will deploy its full capacity to counter acts of aggression by Israel”.

Sheikh Naim Qassem, the Deputy Secretary General of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, praised the Supreme Leader: “We in the Islamic world have faith in the leadership of Ayatollah Khamenei and his correct policies.”

The regime also portrayed Shia-Sunni unity inside Iran:


Principlists Warn Against “Sedition”, Rule Out Ahmadinejad Return

A meeting of leading political and clerical figures has warned of “sedition” while ruling out a return to prominence by former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ayatollah Alamalhoda said, “Infiltrators of the Sedition Current are trying to turn the Government into their tool”; however, he said of Ahmadineajd, “He was a person who went astray and his period is over….He stood against the Supreme Leader and that’s where he failed.”

Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, the former Speaker of Parliament and a member of the Supreme Leader’s inner circle, was more diplomatic in his remark, “Our goal should be the victory of the Principlists in the next election.”

Representatives of the Combatant Clergy Association, the Islamic Coalition Party, theIslamic Re volution Stability Front, and former members of the Ahmadinejad Cabinet attended the meeting.

Head of Guardian Council Maintains Pressure on Former President Rafsanjani as “US Agent”

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, has maintained the hardline pressure on former President Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Jannati spoke about the impending election for the leadership of the Assembly of Experts: “The enemy is planning to ensure that in future a Supreme Leader acceptable to them is selected.”

The Assembly chooses the Supreme Leader and nominally can replace him.

Rafsanjani was head of the Assembly from 2007 to 2011 but lost his bid for re-election to Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani, who died in October. The former President is expected to stand for the post, prompting hardliners to warn of “sedition”.

Last month the Supreme Leader’s brother, Seyed Mohammad Khamenei, accused Rafsanjani of being an agent for the Americans in the 1980s, with the US scheming for the assassination of Ayatollah Khomeini.

See Iran Analysis: Battle Within The Regime — Tehran Friday Prayer Accuses Ex-President Rafsanjani of “Sedition”

Jannati also implicitly challenged Iran’s nuclear talks with the 5+1 Powers: “The US wants a master-and-servant relationship with us. The US never considers a negotiation where both parties’ requirements and conditions are fairly addressed.”

Appeals Panel Defies Supreme Court, Upholds 10-Year Sentence of Physicist Kokabee

An appeals court has upheld the 10-year prison sentence of physicist Omid Kokabee, despite a Supreme Court review that found there was no evidence of wrongdoing.

The physicist, a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas, was accused of cooperation with an enemy state, but the Supreme Court found that Iran was not in a state of hostility with any country.

Iran Prosecutor General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei said that the case will again go to the Supreme Court. If the Court maintains its finding against the sentence, the Insistence General Committee will rule on the sentence.

Kokabee was arrested in January 2011 at Tehran’s international airport as he was returning to the US after visiting family in Iran. He was sentence in May 2012 after a show trial with 12 other defendants. The physicist subsequently wrote that he was detained after refusing to cooperate with security services on a military research project.

In September 2014, eighteen Nobel laureates wrote an open letter to the Supreme Leader asking for Kokabee’s release.

Nuclear Talks With US Secretary of State Kerry & With Russian Foreign Ministry Next Week Before Plenary With 5+1 Powers

Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has set out the schedule of next week’s nuclear talks, including a bilteral with US Secretary of State John Kerry, before a plenary session with the 5+1 Powers (US, Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia).

Araqchi said Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov will visit Tehran on Monday. Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif will see Kerry in Geneva on Wednesday, followed by three days of bilateral discussions between Iran and the US.

Iran and the 5+1 Powers will then gather on January 18 in the Swiss city.

The two sides, having failed to reach a comprehensive agreement in November, are seeking to close the gap on key issues such as Iran’s number and level of centrifuges for uranium enrichment.