A selection of the latest news stories and editorials published in Iranian news outlets, compiled by the AEI Critical Threats Project's Iran research team.
Nuclear Issue

• Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) head Ali Akbar Salehi said domestic critics of Iran’s suspension of near-20% enrichment should “show us the place to use 20% fuel so we can produce [more of it].” Salehi also spoke about the current state of Iran’s nuclear program:
  
  
  
  • “We have 19,000 centrifuges, of which 9,000 are active.”
  
  
  • “Our contract with the Russians will expire after eight years. We must be prepared to secure our own fuel…We are negotiating with the Russians regarding four other reactors.”
  
  
  • “Every year, we need 27 tons of 4.1% uranium oxide for the Bushehr reactor.”
  
  
  • “Enrichment activities have not ceased.”
  
  
  • “The criticism that the dear critics have about this accord is not that they have not accepted our enrichment practically and de facto. Rather, they say that it is been stated in the accord that our enrichment capacity and volume must be accepted by the sides at the last stop.”
  
  
  • “They say that the Arak heavy water reactor produced the element of plutonium that can be used in the construction of nuclear weapons. Why are they sensitive towards enrichment and plutonium? [Both] enriched uranium higher than 90% can…be used in the construction of weapons and [so can] an element created in heavy water reactor called plutonium.”
  
  
  • “Under normal situation, we would have needed at least two to three years to advance Arak confidently…We accepted in the Geneva Accord not to install some major equipment in these six months. In return, we will work on equipment quality and review.”
  
  
  • “Some say that Arak reactor activities have ceased. The Arak reactor has not been in operation for it to cease.”
  
  
  • “In the Geneva Accord, the matter of ceasing heavy water reactor activities has not been included whatsoever. They have induced public opinion in a way that the populous believes heavy water activities must cease.”
  
  
  • “Currently, we are not after establishing reprocessing facilities. Of course, this does not mean that we recant this right forever. The important matter is that [IAEA] cameras are constantly inspecting our nuclear sites. They record fuel movement.”
  
  
  • “We announced that we are ready to ‘redesign.’ We will redesign to reduce the level of plutonium production and take it to the least [amount] instead of ten kilograms. They received this proposal. We will use the opportunity and upgrade the reactor to expand the field of research. The current design is based on previous years and we have upgraded our information.”
  
  
  • “We will preserve the nature of the reactor as heavy water [based], but will design it in a way that will alleviate false concerns that they have created from a technical perspective.”
  
  
  • “Our advice is not to even discuss the number of centrifuges, rather to discuss the unit isolation power. It is possible for some centrifuges to be different type than others.”
  
  
  
  

• Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Commander Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari discussed IRGC policies “to fulfill the slogan of Culture and Economy with National Determination and Jihadi Management issued by the Supreme Leader”:
  
  
  
  • “In the economic arena, the IRGC and Basij are prepared to perform an active and effective role. The honorable administration, however, must request this matter from us and lay the groundwork, and make a demand in reality.”
  
  
  • “In the current situation, the Basij has a massive capacity in various economic arenas, especially in resistance economy. It can perform a fundamental role in the arena of resistance economy and making the economy populist.”
  
  
  • “The Corps has been present in the arena of culture for some years. Appropriate planning must take place with attention to the Supreme Leader’s emphasis on the category of culture and provide depth to previous works…”
  
  
  
  


• Law Enforcement Forces Commander Brig. Gen. Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam announced that Iran has yet to have “clear evidence” that Jaish al-Adl has executed one of the five kidnapped border guards.


• Head of the Foundation for the Preservation and Publication of Sacred Defense Works and Values IRGC Brig. Gen. Bahman Kargar wrote a letter thanking the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for his “exuberant” presence in the remembrance ceremony of the rahian-e noor, “An attempt to keep alive the memory of [the Iran-Iraq] war.”


• Supreme National Security Council Secretary IRGC Maj. Gen. Ali Shamkhani stated “Our security forces are undertaking good planning to organize the eastern borders and prevent the repetition of such terrorist events. We will [destroy] terrorist groups like Jaish al-Adl soon.” Shamkhani added that “We officials must return Khorramshahr, this city of martyrs and resistance, to its former glory.”


• Head of the IRGC Mohammad Rasulollah (Greater Tehran) Public Affairs Office Col. Kurosh Fattahi announced the “Holding of cultural camps of thought to explain the rahian-e noor and convey the message of the martyrs to the youth. More than 80 percent of the young people are interested in the culture of sacrifice, jihad and martyrdom.”


• Head of the Basij University Students Organization Mohammad Heidari announced readiness to “perform [its role] in the cultural and economic arenas” with attention to the organization’s experience in “establishing jihadi camps towards facilitating development of aiding the deprived.”

• Interim Tehran Friday Prayer Leader and Assembly of Experts member Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami criticized Pakistan, the US and “a regional Arab government” and announced that “resistance economy” means a move away from a statist economy. He then warned the Islamic Guidance and Culture Ministry and added “I tell Judiciary officials to act in a way that the perpetrators of monkar [evil] know that the environment is not safe for them and the avoiders of monkar are safe”:
  
  
  
  •  “For [Pakistan’s] ambassador to say that they do not have them in the country is erasing the issue. You must answer and set aside your failure in preserving the lives of these four individuals. The Pakistani government must not be a safe haven of terrorists.”
  
  
  • “The next point is that an American official said that they are closely following the events. We say that even if we look at the surface, we see the hands of a regional Arab government that is waist deep in the blood of the oppressed. These are your allies and you are partners of their crimes in Iran, Iraq and Syria.”
  
  
  • “Officials must adjust their plans within [the Supreme leader’s economic and cultural] framework…In this matter the goal is making the economy resistant and standing on our own feet. Resistance economy is not state economy, rather it is people-centered.”
  
  
  • “The Guidance Ministry does not have the right to give the treasury to books, newspapers and weeklies that undermine the people’s beliefs.”
  
  
  
  


• Religious Seminaries Director and Qom Friday Prayer Leader Ayatollah Hashem Hosseini Bushehri criticized Pakistan and discussed the Supreme Leader’s “resistance economy” policies in his Friday prayer address:
  
  
  
  • “We consider the Pakistani government responsible and have a serious charge against them. They must not allow our soldiers to be taken captive like this. We also request the Interior Ministry to take more serious measures, and we hope for their release.”
  
  
  • “The Supreme Leader’s intention in discussing the economy is resistance economy. An economy that is based on justice and knowledge. The intention is not a state and mathematical economy that isolates us in the world. It uses the country’s internal capacities and human capital to economically advance us.”
  
  
  
  


• National Security and Foreign Policy (NSFP) Parliamentary Commission Member Mohammad Hassan Asfari stressed that Pakistan is responsible for the lives of the five kidnapped border guards and “If the lives of the Iranian border guards are compromised, [we] will deliver a strong response to the terrorist groups responsible.” Asfari added his commission has offered to visit Pakistan “to work on necessary diplomatic solutions with Pakistan for the release of the Iranian border guards.”


• Advisor to the Representative of the Supreme Leader to [pro-Khamenei think tank]Universities and Ammar Base  Central Council member Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Reza Panahian announced “Making [culture] resistant must be achieved at any cost” and that “it must be separated from the political environment.” He added “I think that the Supreme Leader is sensitive regarding the consolidation of society’s cultural growth with the emphasis that he has placed on the matter of culture.”


• Assembly of Experts member Ayatollah Abbas Ka’bi said “officials must know” that “Cultural secularism leads to cultural liberalism. Therefore, university and seminary intellectuals must take the responsibility of cultural contents.”


• Assembly of Experts member and former Intelligence Minister Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Fallahian stated “The gravitation of resistance economy is confrontation [with the West and sanctions]…”


• Head of the Islamic Sects Approximation Global Association Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Taskhiri claimed that the Islamic Republic is “also responsible” for the spread of “extremism among Shi’as” by  “not creating the spirit of interaction” in the Islamic world. Tashkiri noted, however, that “The main agent is the West, meaning Global Arrogance and international Zionism…”


• Friday prayer leaders throughout the country relayed the Supreme Leader’s economic and cultural concerns and emphasized that “the enemies of the Islamic Republic have chosen the arenas of culture and economy to confront Iran” and that “the jihadi management of officials and the responsible participation of the people is the strategy to confront this widespread attack.”


• Islamic Revolution Self-Sacrificers Association member Mojtaba Shakeri said “The martyrdom of the Iranian border guard is a small example of America’s anti-human rights policies. American officials must answer for their support of terrorist groups that commit such atrocities.”