https://mobile.twitter.com/onlymehdi/status/385867659470200832/photo/1?screen_name=onlymehdi&
Domestic Politics
This category relates to all Iranian Domestic Politics related news
Where is Quds Force Commander Qassem Suleimani?
Excerpts from the article “Where is Quds Force Commander Qassem Suleimani?” which appeared in Iran Tracker AEI on 04/09/2013
– The Iranian media’s coverage of Quds Force Commander Qassem Suleimani’s purported speech on “regional events” in front of the Assembly of Experts has been remarkably limited.
– Suleimani was scheduled to address the 14th Assembly of Experts (AE) meeting in Tehran on September 3. By the end of the day, Iran’s various official and semi-official media outlets only published one report covering Suleimani’s speech, published verbatim by all outelts.
– There are a few possibilities as to why Iran’s media has not published photos of Suleimani’s presence:
1.) Suleimani did not show. This could be for any number of reasons, the most likely being that he was preoccupied and possibly out of the country.
2.) Suleimani gave his speech but no media was allowed to attend.
3.) Suleimani gave his speech and journalists attended, but officials have prevented them from publishing photos or excerpts.
– Why is something seemingly so trivial important? Because it is the only real aberration in Iran’s official response during the Syria crisis. Overall, Iranian officials’ rhetoric has been predictable and relatively muted, most likely reflecting genuine concern (in and of itself noteworthy). It has been business as usual with Tehran’s propaganda machine. Not this, though. Suleimani directs and oversees Iran’s Syria policy, reporting directly to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. But Iranian media cannot or will not publish even a single photograph of his speech on Syria? It borders on the absurd. Of course, photos may turn up making this all moot. But even that delay raises questions about this event.
Reference: http://www.irantracker.org/analysis/fulton-suleimani-speech-sept-04-2013
American Friends of the MEK write to John Kerry
Excerpts from the article “American Friends of the MEK write to John Kerry” which appeared in Iran Focus website on 03/09/2013
– PR Newswire/ Members of the American Friends of the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK), a group comprised of thirteen former senior government officials and military officers, have written an open letter to Secretary of State John Kerry in reaction to Sunday’s attack on Camp Ashraf in Iraq.
– “Yesterday, at least fifty-two of these people were murdered. Some had their hands tied behind their backs and were executed. All of them were defenseless, and shared these things in common: each of them was disarmed by the United States in exchange for “Protected Persons Status,” and each was living in Ashraf under the terms of an agreement that we negotiated at the urging and acceptance of the United States Government.”
– “Something must be done, and it must be done now.”
Video Shows Iran’s Ex-President Criticizing Damascus Over Chemical Attack
The video, posted on the website Bolaghnews.com, shows Rafsanjani speaking last weekend in Savad Kooh in Mazandaran Province.
He says, “People are being subjected to chemical attacks by their own government and also have to wait for American bombs to fall.”
Rafsanjani’s remarks were first quoted verbatim by the semiofficial Iranian Labor News Agency on September 1. The news agency later amended its report to remove Rafsanjani blaming Damascus. Iran’s Foreign Ministry claimed on September 2 that the original quote had been “distorted.”
Video shows troops attacking Iranian exile camp in Iraq
A video posted on the internet on Monday showed suspected Iraqi military forces brutally assaulting a camp in Iraq occupied by Iranian dissidents, killing dozens of them.
Footage of the attack on Camp Ashraf, situated in Iraq’s Diyala province bordering Iran, shows soldiers shooting at what appear to be the camp’s occupants, while armored Humvees drive around the camp, running over unarmed civilians.
In one clip, the camp’s occupants are seen carrying away the wounded, while in another, a man is shot while running away from gunfire.
Many of the camp’s approximately 100 occupants are members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) group, which was originally founded to oppose the Iranian Shah, later taking up arms against Iran’s clerical rulers after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Supporters of the camp’s exiles allege that 52 people were killed in violence by Iraqi security forces, and that another seven were taken hostage.
Iraqi officials have announced lower death tolls and differing accounts of the incident, some saying the violence began with infighting amongst the camp’s members.
Rafsanjani blamed Syrian President Bashar Assad for using chemical weapons
Excerpts from the audio tape
– The Syrian people have had more than 100 thousand dead and eight million displaced inside and outside. The prisons are full of people [and] have no more space, some have taken stadiums and are filled. Bad circumstances rule the people. On one side, the people are chemically bombarded by their own government and from another side, today, must await American bombs.”
– Retraction: “America had prepared everything earlier and they themselves announced that they knew three days earlier that chemical materials were to be used.”
– “I see a cloud of sedition over the region.”
– “All diplomatic capacities must be used, because if the region heads toward war, all of it will burn in this war’s fire.”
– “It is possible that individuals have penetrated the Syrian Army and they did these measures.”
Reference: Iran Tracker, AEI, Iran News Round Up, 03/09/2013
Qods Force chief to give speech on Syria today
The commander of the Qods Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps will deliver a speech on the first day of the meeting of the Assembly of Experts which is scheduled to be held in Tehran on Tuesday and Wednesday.
According to IRNA, Major General Qasem Suleimani’s speech will be about the current situation in the Muslim world, particularly the political crises in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon.
Iran’s president appoints new head of central bank as nuclear program sanctions eat at economy
Excerpts from the article “Iran’s president appoints new head of central bank as nuclear program sanctions eat at economy” which appeared in Fox News website on 25/08/2013
– The report Sunday said President Hasan Rouhani picked Valiollah Seif to run the country’s financial regulator. It said Seif will replace outgoing central bank head Mahmoud Bahmani.
– Seif ran the private Karafarin bank in Iran. He also supports independence for the central bank and a floating rate for Iran’s currency, the rial, against foreign currencies.
قائد «الحرس» يزور مضيق هرمز: سنردّ بحزم على تهديد مصالح إيران
Excerpts from the article “قائد «الحرس» يزور مضيق هرمز: سنردّ بحزم على تهديد مصالح إيران” which appeared in Al Hayat Newspaper website on 26/08/2013
– تفقّد قائد «الحرس الثوري» الإيراني الجنرال محمد علي جعفري قواته في مضيق هرمز الحيوي لنقل النفط في العالم، مشدداً على أن بلاده «ستردّ بحزم على أي تهديد لمصالحها».
– وشدد على أن «الحرس الثوري سيرصد التحرّكات المهددة، بعيون ثاقبة أكثر مما مضى»، مضيفاً: «لم نعتدِ على أي دولة، ولكن ايران ستردّ بحزم وقوة على أي تهديد لمصالحها، مباشر أو غير مباشر، إذ نعتبر الدفاع حقاً مشروعاً لنا».
– في غضون ذلك، أعلن وزير الدفاع الإيراني الجنرال حسين دهقان أن بلاده «ستسعى، من خلال التنسيق مع السياسة الخارجية للحكومة، إلى تكريس التعاون مع دول الجوار بالدرجة الأولى، ثم مع سائر الدول في المجال الدفاعي وتبادل الخبرات، بينها تصدير معدات دفاعية».
– إلى ذلك، عيّنت ايران رضا نجفي مندوباً جديداً لدى الوكالة الدولية للطاقة الذرية في فيينا، خلفاً لعلي أصغر سلطانية الذي تنتهي مهمته مطلع الشهر المقبل.
– في غضون ذلك، اعتبر رئيس مجلس تشخيص مصلحة النظام هاشمي رفسنجاني أن الإيرانيين انتخبوا حسن روحاني رئيساً لـ «تجنّب حرب».
– وأفادت وكالة «فارس» بأن الجمعية العامة للمصرف المركزي الإيراني التي يرأسها روحاني، عيّنت ولي الله سيف حاكماً للمصرف خلفاً لمحمود بهمني.
وأشارت إلى أن سيف كان المدير التنفيذي لمصرف «كرافارين» وتولى رئاسة مجلس إدارة «بنك المستقبل» وكان مديره منذ عام 2004.
– وأعلن ولي الله سيف وجوب إن تتناسب معدل الفائدة المصرفية مع معدل التضخم، مضيفاً: «يجب مراجعة أسعار الفائدة، بحيث تكون أقل من معدل التضخم». واعتبر أن سعر صرف الريال في مقابل الدولار الأميركي في السوق الحرة، البالغ 32 ألفاً للدولار، «ليس غير طبيعي». ورأى وجوب «تعديل أسعار صرف العملات الأجنبية سنوياً، على أساس معدل التضخم».
Reference: http://alhayat.com/Details/545101
Iran adds to atom capacity, holds down stockpile growth
Excerpts from the article “Iran adds to atom capacity, holds down stockpile growth: diplomats” which appeared in Reuters on 26/08/2013
– A report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog is expected to show that Iran is pressing ahead with its nuclear program by further increasing its capacity to enrich uranium, diplomats said on Monday.
– On the other hand, the diplomats said this week’s report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is also likely to include data showing that Iranis limiting growth of its most sensitive nuclear stockpile, a step that could buy time for negotiations with major powers.
– It is expected to say that Iran has continued to install both first-generation IR-1 centrifuges and advanced IR-2m machines, the Western diplomats said.
– A U.S. security institute (they mean ISIS) last month said it believes that Iran will by mid-2014 will have the capability to produce, without being detected, sufficient weapons-grade uranium from its declared low-enriched stock for a nuclear explosive.
– Iran plans to commission the heavy-water research reactor in the first quarter of 2014. Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed power, has bombed such constructionsites in the region before – in Iraq in 1981 and in Syria in 2007.
Reference: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/26/us-iran-nuclear-iaea-idUSBRE97P0JY20130826
Blog-Iran 