Iran Threatens Saudis Over Media Coverage of Anti-Regime Protests
Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Hossein Salami has threatened Riyadh over the coverage of nationwide protests in Iran by the media it allegedly controls.
Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Hossein Salami has threatened Riyadh over the coverage of nationwide protests in Iran by the media it allegedly controls.
Salami claimed that Saudis are trying to provoke the Iranian youth, threatening that if they do not control their media the consequences will be unavoidable.
Speaking at a wargame staged by the IRGC ground forces near Aras region in the northwest of Iran, he said Saudis are seeking to “deceive Iranian youths by some media.”
“This is our last warning, because you are interfering in our internal affairs through these media, we told you, be careful,” added Salami.
He further said that Iran’s policy with neighbors is based on “friendship and good neighborliness” as well as “correct political interaction,” but if the neighbors endanger the security of the Iranian nation and country, Tehran’s policy will change too.
Salami’s statements are the last among several threats by the Iranian regime officials against the Persian-speaking media based outside the country like the BBC Persian, Manoto TV, Iran International and the VOA.
This comes as the clerical regime is constantly threatening families and relatives of the correspondents of these networks who reside in Iran and jams satellite television signals to limit access to their programs.
Many journalists and media activists have also been arrested in Iran after the new wave of anti-regime protests in a move to suppress the circulation of information.
An early and extended furlough to Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the sons of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has been cited as evidence to support the conjecture.
Yasser Hashemi Rafsanjani, the youngest son of the former president who for years was a kingmaker in the Islamic Republic, revealed the information about his brother’s unusual furlough in a Clubhouse discussion on Sunday.
He said that his brother Mehdi – who is serving a 10-year sentence over financial corruption in Evin – was usually let out of the prison on Wednesdays on a two-day leave and had to be back in the prison on Fridays. But this week, he was sent home early and told not to come back until after Saturday, when the fire broke out in the prison.
This has added to speculation that the prison blaze might have been an intentional act by the government, although others believe it could have been a coincidence.
Sources in Tehran told Iran International Sunday morning that four of the inmates had been seen in body covers after the incident, a report later confirmed by Iran's judiciary. Over 60 inmates were also injured in the incident, four of them in critical condition.
Human rights advocate and lawyer Mostafa Nili, in a tweet Sunday said some of the inmates have been removed from Ward Eight, where both political and financial prisoners are held. According to Nili and others, political prisoners in Ward Four were only affected by tear gas and none have been taken away.
