Rabiei: Arresting individuals in the presidential institution is a complete lie

The government spokesman called the news of the arrest of several people in the presidential institution in connection with the case of Ruhollah Zam, the director of “Amadnews,” false. This news was published by a representative from Mashhad in the parliament, whom Rabiei calls one of the “record holders of slander.”

In response to a claim by a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly about the arrest of several people in the presidential institution and in connection with Ruhollah Zam, the manager of the Telegram channel Amadnews, Ali Rabiei denied it.

The government spokesman said in a press conference on Monday, October 19: "Some people are record holders for publishing slander, and publishing this material causes public trust to decline."

According to IRNA, he expressed hope that judicial authorities in the Amadnews case will seriously address the "baseless accusations that are causing concern to the public mind."

The IRGC's Public Relations Department announced on Monday that it had arrested Ruhollah Zam in a "smart and multifaceted" operation.

According to some reports, Iraqi security agents have arrested the director of the Telegram channel Amadenews, who was residing in France, after traveling to Baghdad and handed him over to Iranian agents.

Aftershocks of Ruhollah Zam's arrest

There have been many conflicting reports about how and where Zam was arrested, and some Iraqi security officials have even denied that he entered the country.

Some internal government news was also published on the Amed News channel, and it is said that by extorting a confession from the director of this channel, many of its information sources would be revealed.

Javad Karimi Ghoddousi, a representative from Mashhad and a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Parliament, claimed in a Twitter message on Sunday that individuals in the presidential institution have been arrested in connection with the Ruhollah Zam case.

The government spokesman sarcastically told Karimi Ghodousi in a group of reporters: "We cannot confront Amadnews with Amadnews' methods. Amadnews means disinformation, mind-bending, and mental collapse. The highest function that Amadnews wanted to have was this issue, which we also saw in January 2017 in the anti-JCPOA movement. Therefore, considering what Amadnews is, we must try not to move in the direction of that unsavory phenomenon."

Karimi Ghoddousi's accusations did not end with the aforementioned tweet, but also reached other members of the government, including Mahmoud Vaezi, former Minister of Communications and current Chief of Staff to Hassan Rouhani, and Hesameddin Ashena, advisor to the President.

In response to the message from the Mashhad representative in parliament, Hesameddin Ashena called him an "agent of the anti-government psychological operations room" and wrote on his personal Twitter page that Karimi Ghoddoosi's role in the Amadnews affair should be considered.

In part of his press conference on October 19, Ali Rabiei referred to this year's Arbaeen ceremony, which he said the government has made great efforts to hold "as magnificently as possible."

The government spokesman says that during Arbaeen, more than three and a half million people from Iran traveled to Iraq, and for nearly a month, "all infrastructure in the west and south of the country" was put at the service of pilgrims.

A gift for the “5 percent” pilgrims

According to Rabiei, a total of nearly 113 million meals and snacks and 150 million bottles of drinking water were distributed among the pilgrims, and more than 1,100 ambulances and 44 equipped ambulance buses have been deployed at four border crossings with Iraq to take care of their health.

Masih Mohajeri, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Jomhuri Eslami, wrote in an editorial on Sunday, referring to the “highly publicized Arbaeen procession,” “Has the dramatic and leapfrog increase in paying attention to appearances in recent years been able to increase the level of adherence of people, especially the new generation, to the content of religion and the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt, especially the school of Imam Hussein (peace be upon him)?”

He says that despite the extensive publicity and the increase in the number of participants in the Arbaeen ceremony, the number of pilgrims is less than five percent of the total population of Iran. Mohajeri added: "Certainly, the actions, behavior, and thoughts of 5 percent of a society cannot be generalized to the entire society. It is also certain that the other 95 percent cannot be considered as opposed to these 5 percent."

The editor-in-chief of the Islamic Republic newspaper believes that the reality of Iranian society today is better reflected not by the participants in the Arbaeen ceremony, but by "the divorce rate in our society, which is increasing every day, the economic corruption that is increasing day by day, social anomalies, addiction, theft, the upward trend of cases entering the courts, and the spread of immorality and disputes."

The facilities and excessive costs spent on Arbaeen programs, some of which Rabiei mentioned, come at a time when not only residents of deprived areas in the west and south, but also many Iranian citizens are in distress due to the sharp increase in prices, the collapse of the national currency, economic recession, and unemployment.

The United States sanctions against the Islamic Republic, which have intensified in recent months, have worsened Iran’s economic situation. A government spokesman expressed happiness that this year’s Arbaeen celebrations were held with “vigor and enthusiasm” “under conditions of crippling and astonishing sanctions unprecedented in history.”

Source: DW