PHOTO: Iranian protesters with an effigy of President Obama, November 2013


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A representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader has declared that people “sympathetic to” US President Obama are trying to overthrow the Islamic Republic.

Hojatoleslam Sadeghi, Ayatollah Khamenei’s deputy representative to the Revolutionary Guards, was speaking at a ceremony for six Iranians killed while fighting for Syria’s Assad regime. He praised the dead for their “anti-arrogance” and continued:

Today a group inside the country is describing the [1979] Revolution as [only] the overthrow of one government and its replacement by another government. Based on this, they are saying that continuing on the path of the Imam [the Islamic Republic’s founder Ayatollah Khomeini] and his ideals is meaningless….

They are sympathetic to [President Barack] Obama because he said that the people of Iran must choose between the slogan “Death to America” and a prosperous economic life.

Another representative of the Supreme Leader, Hojatoleslam Saidi, directed the allegations at former President Hashemi Rafsanjani. Addressing members of the paramilitary Basij, he warned that “some are seeking a new sedition by planning a Leadership Council” to replace Ayatollah Khamenei.

Saidi urged Iranians to “remain vigilant” against such debates.

The comments by the Supreme Leader’s representatives were made two weeks before elections for Parliament and the Assembly of Experts, the body which chooses the Supreme Leader. Hardliners and some conservative factions fear that a centrist bloc around President Rouhani and Rafsanjani, possibly allied with reformists, will gain influence in the vote.

Rafsanjani is seeking to regain the chair of the Assembly, which he held from 2007 to 2001. He has proposed the replacement of the Supreme Leader with a Leadership Council after Ayatollah Khamenei’s death. When he reiterated the opinion in mid-December, he was accused by opponents of fomenting “sedition”.

In an election speech on Friday, the former President cautiously stepped back from the topic. Instead, he said: “From the past until now, we have been satisfied with the election of the Supreme Leader. We don’t see anyone better or better-suited to running the country than Ayatollah Khamenei.”

Rafsanjani did maintain some criticism of the banning of thousands of candidates — the large majority of them centrists and reformists — by the Guardian Council, the 12-member body appointed by the Supreme Leader and the judiciary.

He said that there had been “some problems” with “approvals, disqualifications, the number of ballot boxes, and so on”:

In the past few years, both the republican and Islamic characteristics of our political system have been weakened….I promise that our position in the world will improve by several steps, and truly, we will be known as a civilized, Muslim, progressive, and exemplary country.


Supreme Leader Points to Mounting Iranian Casualties in Syria

The Supreme Leader has again signaled the need for public support of mounting Iranian casualties in Syria’s civil war, with a photo opportunity with the daughter of one of the men who was killed:

Most of the recent Iranian casualties have been in the regime-Iranian-Hezbollah offensive, enabled by Russian airstrikes, in northwest Syria. However, the regime officially says that the troops died in defense of the Sayyeda Zainab shrine, a revered site for Shia Muslims, in southern Damascus.

Iran long denied that it had military forces in Syria, even though it has provided assistance for the Assad regime since 2012. However, earlier this month Ayatollah Khamenei met the families of fighters who died in Syria as well as Iraq.

Since October 7, Iranian media have officially acknowledged the deaths of 191 Iranian soldiers, including at least 10 commanders. Of the casualties, 65 have been since February 2, amid the regime-Iranian-Hezbollah gains north of Aleppo city.

Another senior Iranian officer was killed on Thursday. Reza Farzaneh was the former commander of an army division.


US Insurer: Washington Lifts Restrictions on Iranian Oil Tankers

A US-based insurer says the Obama Administration has lifted restrictions on support for Iranian oil tankers, a step helping Tehran revive exports after last month’s implementation of the July 2015 nuclear deal.

The American Club said, in a February 9 circular on its website, that the Office of Foreign Assets Control “prospectively removed” the restrictions four days earlier.

European insurers are likely to follow in provision for the Iranian tankers.

In July 2012, the European Union banned insurance on the tankers. The step was a major reason why Iranian oil exports fell 40% — and at times up to 65% — from the 2012 level of 2.2 million barrels per day.