The Sanction Profiteers Are Angry

The newspapers Etemad, Eshgh, Shargh, Iran, Arman, and Khorasan have all dedicated their front pages to the televised statements of Hassan Rouhani. Etemad describes Rouhani's remarks as 'the discursive achievement of the Vienna agreement' and 'truthfulness against harsh rhetoric,' quoting the President of the Islamic Republic: 'In the same interview I had 777 days ago, I announced that harsh rhetoric will not prevail, and truthfulness will prevail, and we chose the logic and path of truthfulness.' Shargh also quotes Rouhani on its front page: 'The profiteers of sanctions in China and Tehran are angry about the agreement.' Arman, while publishing a photo of Rouhani on its front page, quotes him stating: 'The profiteers of sanctions are angry.' However, the newspaper Quds quotes Rouhani saying: 'No one trades their national security.' The newspaper Javan, while publishing a photo of Rouhani on its front page, quotes him stating: 'Concerns about excessive post-sanctions imports are justified.' The newspaper Kayhan, in its editorial titled 'Beyond the Vienna Agreement,' emphasizes that the implementation of the Vienna Agreement and UN Security Council Resolution 2231 humiliates and weakens the Islamic Republic, and that its overthrow no longer requires 'direct attack and war.' The newspaper Ta'adol reports on 'the tax alignment of guilds against the government,' stating that 'on Sunday, the Chamber of Guilds and trade unions reacted in the strongest terms to the remarks of the head of the Tax Affairs Organization.' The newspaper Javan, in its editorial, reacted to the dispatch of a Ministry of Health inspection team to investigate the detention of 'Forough Razmajooyi, a surgeon at Noorabad Mamassani Hospital,' describing it as 'a purposeless innovation' and interference in the work of the judiciary and law enforcement. This newspaper, close to the Revolutionary Guards, also reacted to reports in the Sunday editions of Arman and Ebtekar about the potential candidacy of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Hassan Rouhani, and Hassan Khomeini, describing it as 'a fabricated triangle from Jamaran to politicize the Assembly of Experts elections.' In its report, Javan accuses reformists of presenting an image of a 'power struggle' in the Islamic Republic by publishing such news. The newspaper also refers to Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, as 'Hassan Mostafavi' and states: 'It is unclear how one day the triangle is among figures like Hashemi, Khatami, Natiq, and another day among Hashemi, Rouhani, and Hassan Mostafavi; the answer lies with the reformist claimants.' The newspaper Siyasat-e Rooz calls for the execution of Mehdi Hashemi and quotes Mohammad Ismail Kowsari, a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards and current member of the ninth parliament, stating: 'It is really questionable why the judiciary does not execute Mehdi Hashemi's sentence, and unfortunately, we must say that despite all the good actions the judiciary has taken regarding his case, we must say that the judiciary has been negligent regarding the execution of the sentence.' The newspaper Shahre Vahdat reports that Behnam Rahmani, the head of the Iranian Scientific Association of General Surgeons, has announced prison sentences for at least 13 surgeons and gynecologists, stating: 'The number of prison sentences for doctors is more than these 13, but in any case, not all doctors are willing to announce this.' The newspaper Shargh reports that 'the Iranian brain that was smuggled out has excited entomologists around the world.' This newspaper writes: Hossein Rajai, a young Iranian student and entomologist, who previously faced strange obstacles in his attempts to be hired at Tehran University, has now been employed in Germany as the director of a butterfly collection and systematic research laboratory. Shargh writes that now 'under an international project that this young Iranian entomologist has led, a new family of butterflies has been discovered.' Rouhani's account of the 'discursive achievement of the Vienna Agreement' Etemad, while dedicating its front page and photo to Hassan Rouhani, describes his televised remarks as 'the discursive achievement of the Vienna Agreement' and 'truthfulness against harsh rhetoric,' quoting the President: 'In the same interview I had 777 days ago, I announced that harsh rhetoric will not prevail, and truthfulness will prevail, and we chose the logic and path of truthfulness.' The newspaper writes: '777 days after one of Hassan Rouhani's most famous televised interviews, he spoke again to the people through the national media. The first time he spoke as an electoral candidate, and this time as the president with two years of experience. The first time he spoke of a bright horizon for resolving the nuclear case, this time he spoke of experiences that opened this case and a brighter future ahead. The only similarity between Sunday night's dialogue and that interview was the presenter of the national media; the same presenter who Rouhani admonished 777 days ago in that live interview became one of the memorable scenes of the June 24 elections; a reprimand regarding this nuclear case.' Etemad points out that Rouhani's words on Sunday night 'were along the same axis and orbit that he has repeatedly insisted upon. Words in response to economic and diplomatic questions,' writing: 'This constant axis, however, gained new branches last night; untold narratives that were freshly spoken by Rouhani. Among them were brief but important details of his phone conversation with Obama. Where Rouhani said: This oppressive and anti-human rights sanction was something I told the leaders of European countries, of course, those five and the one we spoke to on the phone, whether you are serious or not, he said we are serious.' Hassan Rouhani also stated: 'The nuclear issue, which became a problem, was because the other side felt we were seeking to build a bomb; of course, at first, they may have had an argument, and that is that in the initial sampling they conducted in Iran in 2002, they concluded that there were over 70 percent of contaminations in Iran. Contamination in the sense that there were traces indicating that we were enriching above 70 percent. Later it became clear that some of the centrifuges we purchased were second-hand and had been enriched in another country, and that centrifuge was enriched to 75 or less.' Etemad refers to Rouhani's mention of the content of the phone negotiation with Barack Obama as 'the most important sentence' of his televised remarks, writing: 'This was perhaps the most important sentence exchanged in Rouhani's conversation with the President of the United States, a month after the formation of the eleventh government; a conversation that laid the groundwork for nuclear negotiations on a new path, as he himself emphasized at the beginning of his remarks last night that during that trip to New York, the multilateral negotiations and the meeting of the foreign minister with the 1+5 ministers 'were the key that was struck for rapid movement in negotiations.' The newspaper Shargh also quotes Rouhani on its front page: 'The profiteers of sanctions in China and Tehran are angry about the agreement.' According to this newspaper, Hassan Rouhani emphasized that 'the 2013 elections were a kind of referendum on how to move forward and our success regarding constructive interaction with the world and how to behave with the world,' stating: 'Without exaggeration, I say that today's achievement is more than yesterday's expectations, and what we have achieved today is more than what we thought two years ago.' Shargh reported that Hassan Rouhani referred to the Vienna Agreement and Resolution 2231 as 'a great legal-political achievement,' stating: 'The people of Iran know that any country that has a resolution passed against it under Chapter 7 has taken years to get out of this chapter and is usually faced with overthrow. In this regard, we witnessed what happened in Iraq. The recent UN resolution is a great legal-political achievement for the Islamic Republic of Iran, for which I know no parallel. Through the recent UN resolution, we were able to achieve all three of our goals of stabilizing rights, exiting Chapter 7 of the UN, and lifting sanctions without retreating from our principled positions. We did this without war, without begging, and without surrendering to the United Nations, with negotiation, logic, and diplomacy, in a legal manner that made the UN itself take action to change its title and annul its previous six resolutions.' This newspaper also quotes Hassan Rouhani stating: 'In the eleventh government, in strategic weapons and in strengthening the country's defense capabilities, what we have done in the last two years is equivalent to 80 percent of what was done in the previous 10 years, and in these two years, the government has prepared and stocked the necessary weapons and equipment to the extent of 80 percent of what was done in the previous 10 years.' According to the newspaper Shargh, Hassan Rouhani began his remarks by thanking 'critics' and of course the youth, stating: 'Here it is appropriate to thank our dear youth. What they did on social networks. Our youth, even what constructive criticisms they made, what beautiful photos, what beautiful graphics, even beautiful jokes. At one point, some of our agencies wanted to shut down our social networks for some reasons; I have always been opposed and still am, and I say if there is a problem, another solution must be found.' The representative of Khamenei in Kayhan: The Vienna Agreement humiliates the Islamic Republic and makes its overthrow easier The newspaper Kayhan, in its editorial titled 'Beyond the Vienna Agreement,' emphasizes that the implementation of the Vienna Agreement and UN Security Council Resolution 2231 humiliates and weakens the Islamic Republic, and that its overthrow no longer requires 'direct attack and war.' Hossein Shariatmadari, the representative of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic in the editorial of Kayhan, wrote: 'The enemy has included clauses and items in the agreement and Resolution 2231 that result in the 'humiliation' of the Islamic system of Iran,' adding that by accepting the Vienna Agreement, the Islamic Republic 'not only does not exit the agenda of the Security Council, but at least for another 10 years remains under Article 41 of Chapter Seven, which is another humiliation and means that the powerful and advanced Iran, which is a threat to global and regional peace, has been shackled and at least for 10 years has been restrained.' The editorial writer of Kayhan pointed out that 'other clauses that condition the purchase of necessary items for Iran to official permission from the UN Security Council and give the adversary the right to inspect all shipments that are transported to Iran by land, sea, and air,' wrote: 'The grandeur and glory of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its steadfastness against the bullying and coercion of the world's arrogant powers, which friends acknowledge with gratitude and enemies out of necessity in their interpretations and analyses, is one of the foundations of the regime's power, and it is clear that any damage to it can seriously harm this foundation of power.' Kayhan also described 'Islamic movements and the resistance line in the region' as 'another main pillar of the Islamic Republic of Iran's power' and 'strategic rear,' stating that with 'the damage to the prominent position of Islamic Iran,' from now on 'the resistance line, which has taken Iran as a model, will also be severely damaged and weakened. Because the flag of anti-arrogance of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has always been raised high, will be considered, God forbid, half-raised.' The representative of Ali Khamenei in Kayhan also wrote that 'the advanced military defense system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which includes medium-range ballistic missiles and, God willing, long-range ones among these modern weapons, is another pillar of the power of the Islamic Republic of Iran,' but 'Clause 3 of Annex B of Resolution 2231 can clearly - and not secretly - deprive our country of having these advanced and effective weapons. Additionally, it allows inspections of military sites and interrogations of nuclear and military scientists under the guise of deceptive appearances of technical and expert visits.' The editorial writer emphasized that 'accepting the Vienna Agreement can turn Islamic Iran into a weak and second-rate country in military and defense capabilities,' writing: 'Will the Islamic Republic of Iran not lose its main pillars of power if it accepts the Vienna Agreement and implements its provisions and Resolution 2231, which guarantees it? And will the decisive and powerful current of Islamic awakening, which is the strategic rear of our country, not be weakened, disheartened, and without a model? And will the military capability of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is now renowned in all strategic centers of the world, not diminish and trend towards zero?' This newspaper again mentioned 'America and its allies' as countries that have sought the 'overthrow of the Islamic Republic' for three decades, asking: 'Will America, in implementing its long-standing wish, have any doubt if the Islamic Iran has become a weak and helpless country due to the acceptance of the Vienna Agreement?' Kayhan, however, emphasized that 'the answer to this question is unambiguous, and in that case, America will probably not need direct military attack to realize its subversive goals, but launching a proxy war like what is currently happening against Syria, Iraq, and recently Yemen can also be effective for the adversary.' The editorial writer expressed hope that the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic would prevent such a situation, writing: 'With the presence of a wise, revolutionary, and intelligent leader, this enemy's wish will remain unfulfilled as always.' The tax alignment of guilds against the government The newspaper Ta'adol reports on 'the tax alignment of guilds against the government,' stating: 'On Sunday, the Chamber of Guilds and trade unions reacted in the strongest terms to the remarks of the head of the Tax Affairs Organization.'