'Iran has built a second Hezbollah in Syria' - IRGC

IRGC Brigadier General Hossein Hamadani, former commander of Mohammad Rasulollah Corps for Greater Tehran, has been quoted by Fars News Agency as stating Iran has built a "second Hezbollah in Syria," meaning it now possesses a projected line of defense at both southern Lebanon and Syria.

Hamadani also confirmed Iran's role in providing training and urban warfare tactics, employed with success on the battlefields of Syria. He went on to state "Today we are fighting for and defending the interests of the Islamic Revolution in Syria, we are at war," further claiming a large number of militiamen trained and deployed for the conflict in Syria.

Fars News Agency later rescinded the story and substituted an edited version. Below is a video grab of the original report (h/t BBC Persian): 

 

There is a tone of triumphalism beyond the usual rhetoric among senior IRGC leadership, over its tactical successes in the Syrian conflict. Recently, Armed Forces General Staff HQ Deputy IRGC Maj. Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid candidly stated Iran had modeled the NDF (militia forces allied with the Syrian government) on Iran's Basij.

Evidently, IRGC leadership is buoyed with what it regards as successful intervention in Syria, seeing for itself and allies positive implications for related conflict within the wider region.

Fars Denies Report on Enrichment Suspension

Divisions Over Handling Devastating Sanctions

Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency quoting an unnamed senior official reported today that the country’s 20-percent uranium enrichment program will continue as before. Earlier today a member of the national security committee of Majlis, the Iranian parliament, was quoted by another semi-official news agency, ISNA, as saying that Iran has suspended its program of enriching uranium at 20-percent purity as a confidence building measure and a gesture of good will toward the West. Mohammad Hassan Asafari, the national security committee member, had added that Iran expects the West to lift all sanctions in return.

Note: The conflicting reports by top news agencies in Iran reflect deep divisions among the country’s senior leadership on a possible compromise with the West to end the debilitating economic sanctions.

Morsi’s Office to Sue Fars News Agency

The office of Egyptian president-elect Mohammed Morsi will file a lawsuit against Iran’s Fars News Agency for making up an interview with him hours before the final results of the presidential election were announced.

“President Morsi was never interviewed by Iran's Fars news agency. The interview was fabricated and his presidential office has begun taking legal action against the news agency," Yasser Ali, a presidential spokesman said. (Reuters, 27 June).

Fars had quoted Morsi as saying that developing good relations with Iran “will create (new) strategic balance in the region” and that was “part of his renaissance program.”

The office of Egyptian presidency, as well as Mr. Morsi’s campaign organization, immediately denied such interview had ever taken place, but Fars continued to claim that it did take place and produced an audio claiming to capture the conversation between Mr. Morsi and the agency’s correspondent in Cairo. Morsi’s office denies that the voice in the tape is that of the new president and now it has decided to bring legal action against Fars.

Ahmadinejad’s Remarks Generate Controversy

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday had held a meeting in Tehran with the members of the cabinet and their principle deputies. The content of his speech at the gathering has become a subject of dispute in the media and has raised tensions with the office of the supreme leader. The question is whether he implied that the country’s senior executives should ignore religious leaders, which presumably include Khamenei, and do what is best for the country.

The first reports of the speech carried by some of the newspapers on Thursday contained this passage: “You have to work for God; even if everyone or any religious guide disagrees with you, don’t pay any attention to them. God will take care of them and will sweep them into the dustbin of history.”

Today, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported that the passage quoted should have read: “We hesitate before we take any action, What would that person say? What would that religious guide say? God is not like us… God does not have these considerations… and will sweep anyone (not performing his duties) into the dustbin of history.”

The reference to ignoring a religious guide in performing one’s duties, however, still exists in the new interpretation offered by Fars, and is the heart of the newest controversy surrounding the president.

The ‘Deviationists’ Accused of Smuggling Cigarettes into Iran – Fars News

The semi-official Fars News Agency on Sunday quoted an unnamed “senior official” accusing the Deviationists of controlling the trade in contraband cigarettes in the country.

“Some 45% of the cigarettes sold in the market are contrabands that are smuggled into the country illegally from Iraq and Pakistan… The Deviationist Group has formed companies in (those) countries to facilitate the illegal entry of the contrabands into Iran” [Fars News Agency, 6 June].

The Fars story, titled, ‘The Footprints of the Deviationists in Smuggling Zionist Contraband Cigarettes into the Country,’ is probably the first step by the conservatives to bring criminal charges against their political opponents, the group close to President Ahmadinejad and led by Mashaie. The reference to “Zionist Cigarettes” was also the first for the country’s semi-official news agency and the voice of conservatives in classifying tobacco based on the ideology of the cigarettes.

The Deviationists

The managing director of Iran’s semiofficial Fars News Agency Hamid Reza Moqadam-Far today offered a detailed description of the ideological and political beliefs of the “deviationist” group, used to describe an inner circle of politicians and thinkers around president Ahmadinejad, led by his chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie. Below are the highlights of Moqadam-Far's speech (to read the complete speech in Farsi, click here).

• The Deviationist views are based on ancientism (the belief that Persia’s ancient times were better than the present); Iranism and the Iranian school (as opposed to Islamism and the Islamic school); Norouz (Persian new year) celebrations; and nationalism.
• The Deviationist understanding of the concept of velayat (Islamic governance) is void of Velayat-e Faghih (wherein senior Islamic scholars exercise temporal authority) and the obligations to follow the Vali Faghih (supreme leader).
• The Deviationist group uses Mahdaviat (the belief in and efforts to prepare for the Mahdi, the Shia’s Hidden Imam) for its own advantage and offer a weak and simplistic understanding of the belief in the Hidden Imam and the concept of waiting and preparing for his arrival.
• The Deviationists ignore the importance of Marjas (senior ayatollahs) and offer a belief in Islam without the clergy. The group’s deviations on this issue are manifested in their political, social and cultural behavior.
• The Deviationist group believes in “humanist Islam,” centered on the individual, as opposed to a religion centered on God and the Islamic faith.
• The Deviationist group believes in social justice centered on equality. They also offer a positive interpretation of modernity as opposed to traditionalism.

Moqadam-Far said the group’s deviationist line is unprecedented in the history of the Islamic Republic. He emphasized their lack of belief in velayat faghih and the supreme leader during the preparation period for the imminent arrival of the Mahdi and their ideological belief in gaining the ultimate political power in the country.

Blogger Note: The expressions “deviationist” was first used in Stalinist era and later by Mao in defining the “left” and “right” deviationists.

IRGC: No US Troops Detained

IRGC denied a report that they had detained seven US soldiers and their two translators in Iranian Baluchistan.

Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency and pro-government news website Raja News had reported the US troops and their Iranian guides were arrested on Sunday by IRGC frontier guards near the border with Pakistan.

UPDATE: In Washington, Captain Ryan Donald, a Pentagon spokesman, said: "Reports by state-run Iranian media that seven U.S. soldiers were detained after crossing into Iran are false." [Reuters, 19 September].

Fars News Agency Shut Down

The Iranian authorities today shut down the Fars News Agency. Fars was an influential, conservative and the oldest news agency in Iran.

Fars last posted a news item at 00:17 on Monday 2 June, Iran’s time [15:43 EST, Sunday]. IRNA, the official Iranian news agency, broke the news of Fars closure at 00.22 on Monday.

IRNA quoted an official of Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance as accusing Fars of publishing “lies” and “disturbing public opinion.”

This is disturbing news for the community of Iranian journalists.

UPDATE (2 June): Reports from Tehran indicate that Fars will be re-opened on 5 June.

On Sunday night, Fars published a report on upcoming changes in Ahmadinejad’s economic team, including sacking of newly-appointed governor of Central Bank. Ahmadinejad reportedly wanted to force the governor to cut the interest rate that commercial banks charge their customers to 9.5%, amid resistance from the Central Bank due to current high inflation, with a rate twice as high.

After pressure from government, Fars deleted the news from its site and published a new report denying that the central bank governor was going to be ousted, at 00:17 Monday morning. Apparently this was not enough. It is now reported that Fars would resume its activities on 5 June.

Correction: IRNA broke the news of Fars closure at 22:29 Tehran time on Sunday. Fars continued posting news items on its site until Monday morning. It suspended operations after it received a written confirmation of its suspension from the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance.