PHOTO: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani


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Escalating the fight within Iran’s regime, President Rouhani has challenged the Revolutionary Guards by criticizing the recent arrests of journalists, businessmen, and others.

In video of his remarks at a Cabinet meeting, posted on his Instagram account, Rouhani said, “Let us not go and arrest one person here, another there, based on an excuse and without any reason, and then make up a case and aggrandize it, and finally say this is an infiltration movement.”

In the last week, the Intelligence Unit of the Guards has arrested five journalists, including prominent correspondent Isa Saharkhiz, a former Deputy Culture Minister who was imprisoned from 2009 to 2013; Ehsan Mazandarani, the head of the Farhikhtegan daily; and Saman Safarzaei, a member of the editorial board of the monthly publication Andisheh Pouya.

Lebanese-American businessman Nazar Zaka has also been detained, while Iranian-American executive Siamak Namazi was arrested last month.

State broadcaster IRIB said on Tuesday that the Guards had “arrested members of an infiltration network in the media working for the enemy”. An “analyst of the IRGC Intelligence Unit” told IRIB by phone on Wednesday that the arrested journalists were linked to foreign and domestic opposition activists and receiving money from foreign institutions connected to European ministries. He said the journalists were trying to “soften the image of America, raise the issue of human rights, and prepare the ground for America’s official presence in Iran”.

Hamid-Reza Moghadamfar, a media expert in the Supreme Leader’s office then told IRIB that the dangerous elements “include people who have pro-Western world views and in a sense represent America without having [direct] connections to it”. He implicitly criticized the Government with the claim, “They are active in various areas of decision-making and the creation of attitudes among people and officials.”

Moghadamfar cited the fast food chains Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald’s as symbols of the Western cultural infiltration in Iran and said the Internet was being used by “Western infiltration networks” who give scholarships to young people to promote their goals.

The “4th Sedition”

The detentions are linked to Monday’s declaration by the head of the Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, that Iran is facing a “fourth sedition”. The commander said the crisis followed the 1980s Iran-Iraq War, the 1999 Tehran demonstrations, and mass protests in 2009 after the disputed Presidential election.

The Supreme Leader had already stoked tensions and disputes within the regime with his own declarations that the US is using the July 14 nuclear deal to undermine the Islamic Republic. On Tuesday, he linked the allegation to celebrations of the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy: “The Americans, at the height of the [revolutionary] movement and the victory of the Revolution, were conspiring against the Islamic Republic — that is what America is”.

See Iran Feature: Supreme Leader — US is a “Den of Espionage” Conspiring Against Us
Iran Feature: Supreme Leader — US is a “Den of Espionage” Conspiring Against Us

The “sedition” charge has long been used by critics to challenge the Rouhani Government, including its attempt to open political and social space in the Islamic Republic. The fight has grown more intense with the approach of February’s election for Parliament and the Assembly of Experts.

On Monday, Guards commander Jafari attacked Government officials “who trust liberalism and the West”:

We consider negotiations equal to infiltration. It is unfortunate that some domestic officials do not understand this.

Unfortunately, some officials say that we can reach a resolution with the enemy and keeping saying: “Now that we have reached an agreement with America in the nuclear matter, there is the possibility of other discussions.” The danger is here and we must be careful.

Rouhani was more cautious in the response on his official website, which omitted the remarks about the arrests. However, the site quoted his call for security and intelligence authorities to stop “toying with terminology” used by the Supreme Leader about the “enemy’s plots to infiltrate the country”.

“The people are well aware of the meaning of infiltration, and know about the arrogance, the history and the wrong attitude of the U.S.A., and can understand what the country’s future and national interests are,” Rouhani said.


Iranian Officials Declare Continuing Support for Assad Regime — Situation “Better Than Before”

A series of high-level Iranian officials declared their continuing support for the Assad regime on Wednesday.

The Supreme Leader’s top aide, Ali Akbar Velayati, met Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Feisal al-Mikdad in Tehran and then denied any division with Russia over the future of the regime and Hezbollah’s role in the conflict:

Iran and Russia’s relations are very clear and friendly, and cooperation between [these] two countries will increase….Iran supports the government and nation of Syria and the person of Bashar al Assad, and just as the Supreme Leader ordered, the final decision about Syria’s fate is [with] the people of this country, without foreigners’ intervention.

See Syria Analysis: Is Russia Preparing to Dump Assad?

Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani also met Mikdad and insisted that Syria’s condition appears to be “better than before, and based on predictions, God willing, the situation will become even better”. Hardline politician Saeed Jalili, a Presidential candidate in 2013, proclaimed, “We should not allow America to create a conspiracy to destroy the heart of the resistance.”

Meanwhile, more Iranian commanders and troops are being killed in Syria amid Tehran’s escalating involvement in offensives by the Syrian military, supported by Russian airstrikes, Hezbollah, and Iranian-led Iraqi, Afghan, and Pakistani militias.

The funeral ceremony for Revolutionary Guards Colonel Ezatollah Soleimani, slain last week in Aleppo Province:

IRAN COLONEL FUNERAL

The latest confirmed casualties are Mohsen Fanousi, a member of a combat engineering brigade killed on Tuesday, Basij member Ruhollah Ghorbani, and fighters Ghadir Sarlak and Ali Karimi.

More than 40 Iranian commanders and troops have been slain since October 7.

(Cross-posted by Syria Daily)