Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps condemned Tehran terrorist attacks on Wednesday in a statement and pledged retaliation for the attack.

Hinting Saudi was behind the event in which at least 12 people were killed, the IRGC statement says Tehran attacks, only a week after US U.S. president’s visit of Saudi Arabia is “meaningful”.

“This terrorist attack happened only a week after the meeting between the U.S. president (Donald Trump) and the (Saudi) backward leaders who support terrorists. The fact that Islamic State has claimed responsibility proves that they were involved in the brutal attack,” said the statement.

Brigadier General Hossein Salami, IRGC deputy commander also promised retaliation for the attack. “Let there be no doubt that we will take revenge for today’s attacks in Tehran, on terrorists, their affiliates and their supporters,” he said, as cited by the news agency Mehr.

The post Iran Guards Blames Saudi, Pledges Revenge for Tehran Attacks first appeared on .

There are conflicting reports on the number of casualties but some unofficial sources have announced 9 security forces and civilians dead in parliament shootings.

The assailants armed with two AK-47 and a handgun are still said to be inside the Parliament. It has been reported that a suicide bomber blew himself up in the parliament building.

In the other attack, three gunmen opened fire at the Mausoleum of Imam Khomeini, the founder of Islamic Republic, in southern Tehran wounding a number of people and killing one. According to Ilna, one of the assailants has been arrested, one has killed himself by taking cyanide, and the third detonated her vest. A suicide bomber’s vest found around the mausoleum has also been deactivated.

Security forces have now surrounded the two sites of the terror attacks and the situation is said to be under control, with normal traffic reported in other streets of the city.

Although ISIS has reportedly taken the responsibility of Tehran terror attack, security experts and analysts in Tehran believe the attack are carried out in a way similar to MKO’s former terrorist operations. A security source told Iran’s View that evidences show Saudi Arbia’s intelligence entities directly working along with the MKO agents in carrying out the terror attacks. Jihadi militias controlled by Saudi Arabia have been making connections with the MKO for almost a year now.

Security forces could arrest alive one of the terrorists who attempted to kill herself with cyanide. Unlike Daesh, the MKO typically uses women in carrying out its terrorist operations.

Security observers in Tehran say the terrorists have planned for other attacks as well. Security forces are fully prepared to counter any other possible attack.

Earlier in May Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud, the kingdom’s defense minister talked of his country’s efforts to take the battle inside Iran.

“We know that the aim of the Iranian regime is to reach the focal point of Muslims [Mecca] and we will not wait until the fight is inside Saudi Arabia and we will work so that the battle is on their side, inside Iran, not in Saudi Arabia,”he said.

In 2016 Saudi Prince Turki AlFaisal attended an MKO meeting in Paris, announcing a new round of his country’s cooperation with the terrorist organization. In that meeting a number of western leaders and politicians accompanied Maryam Rajavi, the head of the MKO, including US formal official John Bolton, Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani .
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir said Iran must be punished for its interference in the region and support for terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda, Al Arabiya News Channel reported him as saying early Wednesday.

Updates:

Following the twin terrorist attacks in the Iranian capital, the country’s Interior Ministry has released a statement giving the details of the deadly incidents.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also will hold his scheduled meeting with the student unions delegations today despite the attacks in Tehran. It is expected he makes his first statements on the attacks in his today speech.

The full text of the statement released by the Iranian Interior Ministry on the Wednesday terrorist attacks on Tehran is as follows:

On Wednesday, two terrorist teams simultaneously tried to conduct blind terrorist acts in the vicinity of the Mausoleum of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, and also in Iran’s Parliament.

The first terrorist team consisted of two people who entered the Imam Khomeini Mausoleum at around 10:30 a.m. One of them blew up her vest and the second was killed in a fire exchange with security forces.

The second team was composed of four people, who concurrently with the first team, tried to enter the administrative building of the Parliament. Facing reaction from the security forces, one of them detonated his vest and the three others were killed in a shoot-out with the police forces while trying to reach the upper floors of the parliament building.

Based on reports, 12 people have been killed and 42 other injured in these two incidents.

At the moment, both events are over and everything is fully under the control of security and military forces. Further news of these events will subsequently be published.

To verify the details and exact dimensions of the two incidents, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council will hold a meeting chaired by the Interior Minister later on Wednesday.

In order to prevent the spread of false news, it is advised that all the media outlets avoid publishing unofficial news.

The post Iran Attacks: MKO, Saudi behind Parliament, Khomeini Shrine Shootings first appeared on .

For Iranian reformists, the twin parliament and Assembly of Experts elections on February 26 were also a chance to blow new life to their presence in the power circle of the Islamic Republic which they lost after their rejection of the results of the 2009 presidential elections, leading to street riots and months of chaos in the capital city of Tehran.

Almost six years after those days, Reformists are cheering the election gains and are ecstatic about their unexpected wins in the ballot boxes and sweeping Principalists off parliament seats in the Tehran constituency.

However, the results in the other cities are different and both Principalists and Reformists have enough seats to be influential in the next parliament and the Assembly of Experts, but the fact that almost all of the Principalists’ prominent figures in Tehran failed to find their way into the Parliament (and in case of the Assembly of Experts, only Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati was elected ranking 16th out of the 16 seats reserved for the Tehran constituency) is a major blow to them which had the upper hand over the course of the past decade.

Though Reformists’ gain in the elections is also a result of their coalition with government supporters, known as the Moderates, as well as some moderate Principalist figures such as Ali Motahhari which led them to support coalition lists for the twin elections, the fact that Reformists could gain such a major support from the people is an undeniable reality for the political power sphere of the Islamic Republic and on the other hand this victory poses, at the same time, an opportunity and a threat for the winning Reformists.

Will Reformists seize the opportunity?

After 2009’s post-election disputes and street riots, many Reformist leaders were arrested and many of their aides who spurred the public into street riots had to flee the country; subsequently, the leadership in Iran lost its faith in the movement and to loyalty of prominent Reformist leaders. This lack of confidence in the Reformist movement and absence of its leaders and forces beside consecutive defeats in the national and local elections pushed reformist figures out of the political scene, minimizing their role.

After Hassan Rouhani won the 2013 presidential election, he tried to pave the way for the return of Reformists to the country’s political circle, while, he himself is not a Reformist and even was a serious critic of them while he served as the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.

The full participation of the reformists in the recent elections (even Reformists’ leaders under house arrest invited their supporters to participate in the elections) and then the results of the recent twin elections and especially the landslide victory of the Reformists in Tehran showed that the movement is coming back into the political sphere of the country and will revive its status as a legitimate game-changer.

Now, it’s about time for Reformist leaders to engage in direct talks with the political leadership of the system and to iron out misunderstandings and address the existing issues with them. Overestimating their reemerging power and making the same mistake of playing the role of staunch opponents of the Islamic Republic can lead them to a process which will not have better results than they gain in recent years. But a negotiated resolution not only will recreate the confidence and trust of the Islamic Republic to them but will secure their return to highest levels of the power in the country.

Dangers of a victory

If one was to study the voting pattern of the Iranians in last three decades, they would see Iranians mostly (if not always) make pragmatist decisions and never support a particular group because of their theoretical aims and promising rhetoric. Iranians evaluate the records of an official and after providing them enough time, they would decide to whether continue their support or terminate it. Unexpected victories of the Former reformist President Mohammad Khatami in 1997 and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005 presidential elections are good examples of how different choices Iranian people can make due to their experience of the incumbent officials.

For this reason, Rouhani’s government- which turned to be a facilitator for the return of Reformism – will have a critical time for the rest of its tenure. Now the Parliament is also in line with the government and in case the government fails in fulfilling its promises, Principalists cannot be blamed as being the trouble makers! While people are hoping for a better economic situation after giving Rouhani more than two years to reach a nuclear deal, possible excessive concentration of Reformists on their political causes may undermine their ability to make significant and tangible changes in the life of ordinary people and so lose their votes in future Presidential elections, after less than two years.

In the words of the senior reformist leader Mohammadreza Aref during his campaign for the 2013 Presidential election, each time both government and the parliament was controlled by one party the outcome was not satisfactory.

Another threat to the Reformists is their inability in understanding the ordinary and the lower-classes especially in the small cities. They are the sources that provided Ahmadinejad with enough vote to win two Presidential elections against the robust rivals from the Reformist and Conservative circles. Today’s threat to Reformism is to make their usual mistake of confusing Tehran and large cities’ political tendency with national sentiments and ignoring lower- classes and ordinary people for who politics is not a priority.

Next presidential elections will be the scene of a critical completion between the Moderates/ Reformists who were controlling two important sources of power for at least two years and the Principalists who were out of power for the same period. I believe it will be the incumbent government’s economic record that will determine the next winner.

The post How Iranian Reformists’ Victory Can Turn Into Defeat? first appeared on .

A helicopter carrying Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a number of officials had an accident on Sunday, but the pilot managed to land the aircraft safely, Iranian president’s website reported.

Ahmadinejad was not injured in the incident.

Ahmadinejad was to inaugurate the longest road tunnel project of Iran in Alborz province. After the inauguration ceremony Ahmadinejad returned to capital city of Tehran by car.

 Gholam Hossein Elham a spokesman of the government said president Ahmadinejad usually travels by Helicopter for visit provinces and projects around the country.

“Ahmadinejad logged 3000 hours record of traveling by Helicopter until 2010,” he said in an interview with the president’s website.

The post Iranian President Ahmadinejad Safe After Helicopter Makes Emergency Landing first appeared on .

“Since Dr Jalili entered the election race his popularity rate has been on the rise. We think the rate would continue to rise until the election day,” said the spokesman of parliament’s National Security and foreign policy commission about Jalili’s popularity.

Responding to a question about the possibility of Jalili forming a coalition with other fundamentalist candidates (Ali Akbar Velayati, Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf), Naghavi said Jalili has entered the race as an independent fundamentalist candidate and doesn’t represent any party or political group, adding that he will continue his independent way.

He said Jalili doesn’t feel any threat from the reformist and independent candidates, believing that he would win the election at the first round. “We don’t think about the run off voting or even the possibility of the victory of a reformist candidate at all.”

According to Naghavi, Jalili is more devoted to the discourse of the Islamic Revolution, compared to his rivals, as he believes in resistance against the west rather than compromise or submission.

Jalili also believes that religious democracy should be propounded in the world as a political system and that Iran should reduce its dependence on hegemonic systems.

Foreign groups and the enemies of Iran do not have a positive view towards Jalili, Naghavi explained further. “The hegemonic powers and the groups that have been in war with our nation since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution are frightened by Jalili’s candidacy and thus continue the character assassination against him.”

They however had a similar negative view towards Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the tenth presidential election in Iran. Until then, Mr. Ahmadinejad seemed to take positions in accordance to the preferences of the head of the country but after winning the election he did things that suggested he was at odds with the supreme leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei. This has made some political activist think that Saeed Jalili might follow Ahmadinejad in this regard.

But Naghavi rejects this possibility.”Dr. Jalili believes the final word is the Leader’s; not based on the status that the constitution regards for Wilayat al Faqih (the guardianship of the jurist), but because of his personal belief and faith.”

The head of Saeed Jalili’s presidential campaign in Tehran also rejected the claims about Jalili being “the government’s candidate”, arguing, “In the seventh presidential election similarly many claimed that Nategh Noori was the government’s candidate but people voted for Mohammad Khatami and he became the president for two terms. Today also the government considers all of the candidates approved by the Guardian Council suitable for presidency and it is the people who should vote and elect the best candidate as president.”

The post “World Powers Afraid of Jalili’s Candidacy”, Says Campaign Aide first appeared on .

“He left Tehran after he was informed that he was disqualified as a candidate by the Guardian Council,” the source said.

Iran’s interior ministry announced today (Tuesday) the list of qualified candidates for the presidential election. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and president Ahmadinejad’s controversial aide, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei were disqualified by the Guardian Council for being competent to take responsibility of the presidency.

“Mr. Hashemi is to meet some of Qom’s top clerics,” the source said.

Hashemi may be seeking the support of powerful Ayatollahs in Qom to appeal the decision of removing him from the presidential election race.

Although some other observers suggest that chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council, Hashemi Rafsanjani left Tehran as a “sign of pain”.

“His disqualification makes a very bad impact on his public image, he may stay in Qom and not return to Tehran,”an observer who is familiar with Hashemi said.

The post Hashemi Rafsanjani Disqualified Leaves Tehran, Miffed or Fighting? first appeared on .

The two countries had agreed to settle bilateral trade in rupees after it became difficult for India to route payments to Iran because of the sanctions.

India is Iran’s second-biggest oil client after China.

While Iran is pursuing diplomacy through negotiations with so-called P5+1 group consisting United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, to settle longtime dispute with west over its nuclear program, US is using unilateral sanctions to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear program, which the West believes is aimed at making a bomb but Iran insist is for civilian use.

India exported goods from Iran worth $3.36 billion in 2012-13 while its imports were $ 11.6 billion, prompting New Delhi to look for more items to sell to the country.

“We visited Iran and suggested sectors they could look at including engineering, power, steel, auto and pharma. They are keen on automobile and pharma for now,” said a commerce ministry official, adding that the country did not appear keen on a larger trade agreement.

Under the rupee arrangement, India makes part payment into a rupee account maintained with UCO BankBSE 0.06 %. Iran uses this account to import goods from India, reducing the need for routing dollar payments through third country.

A delegation led by Indian commerce secretary SR Rao had visited Iran last month when India presented many import options to Iran to reduce the $11 billion trade deficit it ran with the country last year.

Automobiles and pharmaceuticals are India’s biggest exports adding up to $18.4 billion and $14.6 billion in 2012-13. Currently, India’s exports comprise mainly of agriculture and processed goods and more recently, pharma. Iran had rejected Indian wheat citing quality issues.

The arrangement suits Iran, which was importing most of the automobiles and auto components from EU, but after the sanctions were imposed is facing some difficulty. Indian automakers already meet the stringent quality norms and are in position to meet Iranian demands.

The Iranian industry is working at one-third lower capacity due to problems in importing auto parts. Iran has most European and Japanese, South Korean brands of cars, trucks and buses. India enjoys competitive advantage as it is being driven by R&D, said FIEO.

The post Iran Imports Vehicles, Medicines From India to Bypass US-led Oil Sanctions first appeared on .

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili advised the so-called P5+1 group (Consisting of the USA, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany) to seize the opportunity to reach an agreement on nuclear talks with Iran.

Jalili was talking to journalists after a dinner meeting with the EU foreign policy head Catherine Ashton on Wednesday, he recalled the 2010 Iran–Brazil-Turkey deal to swap Iranian uranium stockpiles as an opportunity that the west failed to seize.

“Tehran’s declaration was about the supplying of Tehran’s medical reactor with 20% uranium but instead of seizing the opportunity they [the west] issued resolution 1929 [against Iran]” Jalili said.

Iran signed a joint declaration with Turkey and Brazil on May 16, 2010 to ship 1,200kg of low enriched uranium to Turkey for a later exchange of 120kg of enriched isotope for its medical nuclear reactor in Tehran.

 But within hours after the deal was announced by Brazilian and Turkish leaders the US rejected that and pushed ahead with sanctions.

 After the swap deal failed, Iran which was in need of 20% enriched uranium for its medical reactor developed its nuclear program to produce 20% uranium itself.

 “[After Tehran’s declaration failed] , Iran supplied itself with 20% enriched Uranium (According to the rights of NPT memebers) and [the P5+1] lost the opportunity opened up by the Tehran declaration. Then they [after three years] in Almaty-I asked to talk about 20% enrichment,” said Jalili in a press conference on Thursday morning.

 “The Iranian nation [never] retreats from its rights. I hope this time they study our proposals in the Almaty-II talks to avoid later regrets,” he said as a warning that Iran would go further on its nuclear program if the west continues to ignore Iran’s proposals.

EU foreign policy head Catherine Ashton and Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili had a dinner meeting in Turkish city of Istanbul, on May 15. The meeting was a follow up to last round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 held in Almaty, Kazakhstan on April 5-6.

Speaking at a press conference after the Almaty talks, Jalili said that Iran provided a comprehensive operational plan to the P5+1 and it is now up to the group to decide on how to respond to the Iranian proposals.

The post Jalili to the West: Seize the Opportunity or Iran’s Nuclear Program will accelerate first appeared on .

With fears the war, now in its third year, could turn even deadlier, diplomatic efforts have been ramped up, with Russia and the US last week renewing joint efforts to find a solution to the crisis.

Salehi told Spiegel his country was willing to take part in an international conference on Syria proposed by the US and Russia, which could take place later this month.

Salehi said he was “confident” that progress was being made in the conflict, which is estimated to have killed 70,000 and displaced millions more internally and in neighboring countries.

Iran’s foreign minister also condemned the use of chemical weapons and appeared to offer to mediate in the Syria crisis.

“We condemn chemical weapons,” Ali Akbar Salehi told 

Iran, a strong Damascus ally, was itself a victim of chemical warfare during its conflict with Iraq in the 1980s, Salehi recalled.

Tehran is “categorically against all weapons of mass destruction”, he said.

Damascus government accused militant opposition groups of using chemical weapons against Syrian people and called for a UN probe to investigate the file.

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday said there was “strong evidence” the Assad’s forces had used chemical weapons against militiamen, but the UN said there was no incontrovertible evidence yet.

The post Iran to Launch Talks Between Syria’s Government and Opposition: Salehi first appeared on .

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post In Photos: Iran’s Presidential Election Candidates Registration first appeared on .