Official Recognition of Iran's Advisory Presence in Yemen for the First Time

At the same time, the newspaper Jahan San'at dedicated the front page of its Saturday issue to the Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), with the headline "Confession of the General," describing Mohammad Ali Jafari's statements on Thursday about providing "advisory assistance to Ansar Allah in Yemen" as "official recognition of Iran's advisory presence in Yemen for the first time." According to the newspaper, the IRGC commander emphasized in his press conference on Thursday that "Iran's support for the resistance front in various countries is consistent, and wherever there is oppression, the Islamic Revolution will also be present." He stated, "In Yemen, at the request of the people and the independent government of that country, if there is a need for assistance, such help will definitely be provided by Iran." Jahan San'at also reported that Mohammad Ali Jafari mentioned, "Today, the government in Yemen is in the hands of Ansar Allah," and said, "The requests that the Iranian front can respond to are limited to advisory and spiritual assistance, which the spiritual front needs more. Since the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a defensive system, we are ready to go to war against our enemies for future plans and conspiracies." The newspaper reminded that "Saudi Arabia and the West have repeatedly accused Iran of arming the rebels in Yemen, and Iranian officials have denied these accusations many times. An example of this was in the second week of Aban when Saudi Arabia announced that the long-range missile of the Houthis (Ansar Allah) was a direct military action from Iran targeting the main airport of Riyadh, although Iran also denies sending missiles to Yemen and claims that the missile fired towards Riyadh was from the Yemeni army, which the Houthis were able to enhance its range." Jahan San'at emphasized that "the next point of Iran's power display in the region will be Yemen," stating: "The end of ISIS's presence in Syria and the liberation of large parts of this country with the help of Iran and coalition forces supported by this country, along with the trilateral meeting of the presidents of Iran, Russia, and Turkey, indicates that Iran has been able to implement its policies in Syria and Iraq and is seeking to apply the same strategies in Yemen. The newspaper Shahrvand reported on its front page an estimate of "5600 billion tomans in damages" to the earthquake-affected areas of Kermanshah province, stating: "According to the announcement of the Kermanshah governorate, seven cities and more than 77.5 percent of the villages in Kermanshah, about 1,940 villages, have been devastated by the earthquake. The Kermanshah earthquake has caused approximately 5,632 billion tomans in damages to the Iranian economy, while the annual budget of Kermanshah province is about 500 billion tomans, thus the earthquake has swallowed nearly the entire budget of this province for 11 years at once." This comes as the statistics and estimates announced regarding the earthquake damages are preliminary, and the figures considered, according to managers from various sectors, are minimal or baseline. Now, the heavy cost that the Kermanshah earthquake has imposed on Iran effectively sets back the development of a province by more than a decade. A province that has previously been mentioned as a deprived border province and whose budget has been among the lowest in provincial budgets. The newspaper Shahrvand pointed out that during the Sarpol-e Zahab earthquake, "about 15,000 homes were almost completely destroyed, and another 15,000 houses suffered between 20 to 70 percent damage," quoting experts from the Kermanshah Housing Foundation's damage assessment: "Estimating the exact amount of damage is very difficult and time-consuming, as it depends on the extent of damage to the houses, area, etc., but initial estimates indicate that the total damage to residential, commercial, and service units is estimated at 2,600 billion tomans." Additionally, "1,000 billion tomans in damages were inflicted on 7,000 business units," "water and sewage facilities in the earthquake-affected areas also suffered 230 billion tomans" in damages, and in addition, during the Sarpol-e Zahab earthquake, "agriculture and animal husbandry in Kermanshah suffered 800 billion tomans in losses." At the same time, journalist Hediyeh Kimayi from the newspaper Qanoon, after more than five years since the Varzaghan earthquake in East Azerbaijan province, visited this city and its surrounding villages and reported with the headline "The Story of Pain on Day 1932 in Varzaghan," stating: "The mournful gaze and troubled eyes of the people of Varzaghan city and its surrounding villages tell the untold story of sleepless nights and suffering. The unfinished buildings in the eastern corner of Varzaghan's main square and the ruins that have turned the southern side of the square into a deserted area all convey this message." The newspaper wrote that "the youth of Varzaghan and the surrounding villages are mostly unemployed," and while "the Sangun copper mine is considered one of the main assets of this land, there are few young people who have set foot in this mine for work," adding that "after the earthquake, the people of Varzaghan became less talkative and depressed and have been forgotten. They remember the days when people from southern cities came to help them and expressed their affection," but "now no one even asks about them." In the report by Qanoon, referring to the poor reconstruction status of the earthquake-affected villages of Varzaghan even after five years, it was mentioned that a loan of 16 million tomans, of which 4 million was a grant, was paid to contractors instead of households, and now some villagers say: "The contractors bought the lowest quality materials from the market for us. This area experiences earthquakes frequently. The materials are so poor that when we sit inside the house, suddenly a piece of the ceiling cement falls off and drops down." Residents of these villages, some of whom the Qanoon reporter described as still half-destroyed and abandoned, spoke about their newly constructed homes, saying: "These houses were built at the cost of our people's blood. If one day these bricks could speak, they would tell the pains and hardships of these people." The newspaper Kayhan reported on its front page that the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic stated during a meeting with "participants of the conference on the lovers of the Ahl al-Bayt and the issue of Takfiris": "We clearly declare that the Islamic Republic of Iran will assist wherever there is a need for presence to confront disbelief and arrogance, and we do not consider anyone's opinion in stating this matter." However, the newspaper Javan, close to the IRGC, focused on another part of the commander's remarks, quoting Mohammad Ali Jafari as saying: "We are currently exercising restraint against Saudi Arabia" and "we do not want to engage directly with them; we advise them to stop these actions, otherwise they will be on the opposite front of the revolution and will receive the shrapnel from it." The newspaper Jama'at-e Farda published a report on "the sidelines of the women's futsal match between Iran and Italy," stating: "Two important matches of the women's futsal team were held in the past two days, and there were few photos of it in the media and online networks, as female journalists and photographers who went to cover these two matches at the Azad University Sports Hall in the West Town said that the security of this sports hall collected all mobile phones before the match started and did not allow journalists and photographers to cover the news and images of the Thursday program." The newspaper pointed out that on Friday, for the second match, "the situation changed somewhat, and Masoumeh Ebtekar, the Vice President, attended among the spectators of the match and live-tweeted images and videos of the game," but stated: "The reality was different, and the main issue was that in the first match, the Italian women's futsal team arrived at the Prophet Akram Sports Hall at Tehran Central University to play but stated that according to global regulations, they were not willing to play while adhering to Islamic dress code," and based on the Italian team's decision, "the sports hall security also decided to prevent the entry of any communication devices, effectively placing journalists and photographers at the forefront of confrontation with officials." Jama'at-e Farda also wrote: When "the second match ended with a score of two to one in favor of Iran, officials forced the losing team to pose for a souvenir photo while observing hijab, and this photo is one of the few images that has been officially published." The newspaper Te'adol reported on its front page about the "auction of coins" to reduce their price in the Tehran market, stating: "On Thursday, following the news of the sale of coins in packages of 20 at the Bank Kargoshai, the Tehran market saw a decrease in coin prices, with the new design coin dropping by 42,000 tomans to 1,388,000 tomans." The newspaper noted that "the old design coin decreased by 1,000 tomans, and half a coin by 2,000 tomans, while the quarter coin increased by 1,000 tomans, and the gram coin remained unchanged at 264,000 tomans," quoting currency and coin market experts as saying: "Although the sale of coins at the Bank Kargoshai can somewhat control the demand in the coin and currency market and the liquidity in the gold and currency market, since the market is influenced by the interest rate in the second half of the year and external developments, we will witness an upward trend in coin and currency prices again after a while." The newspaper Hamdeli also has a field report from pharmacies in Tehran, stating: "Some people and pharmacists say that free treatment services for holders of health insurance cards have recently become chargeable." The Hamdeli reporter visited several pharmacies in Tehran and asked the pharmacy staff about the suspension of health insurance, and some pharmacies confirmed this issue and even said: "Such a directive is a reality. The reality is that the health transformation plan needs defined and specific funding, and currently, health insurance cannot cover the costs of this plan. What we are witnessing now is that the free nature of health insurance has been suspended, and it has been decided that from now on, the head of the household covered by health insurance must pay 250,000 tomans to the government account to change their insurance from health insurance to Iranian insurance to be able to benefit from the health transformation plan." One pharmacist also told the Hamdeli newspaper: "I think with the issuance of such a directive, they want to cover part of the large costs of the health transformation plan, which is indeed a good plan, because the reality is that health insurance can no longer meet its costs," and "the change from health insurance to Iranian insurance is a nominal change, and since collecting money from people must have a legal and public justification, they have raised this change of name from health to Iranian insurance."