Page 9 - IRANRptMay19

comments against Israel and the US.
Salami served as deputy head of the IRGC for nine years and is a veteran of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. He also led the Guards’ air force before becoming the second-in-command, according to AFP.
"The Supreme Leader has appointed Salami as the new commander-in-chief of the Guards, who will replace Mohammad Ali Jafari," state TV said. Jafari had held the post since September 2007.
Tehran retaliated to the FTO designation of the IRGC by naming the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) as a terrorist organisation and the US government as a sponsor of terrorism.
On 13 April, Salami was cited by Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency as saying that he and the IRGC were proud of the FTO designation.
Salami said in January that Iran's strategy was to wipe "the Zionist regime" off the political map, Iran's state TV reported.
"We announce that if Israel takes any action to wage a war against us, it will definitely lead to its own elimination," Salami said after an Israeli attack on Iranian targets in Syria in January, Iranian media reported.
Fars news agency reported that Salami in October advised Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "to practice swimming in the Mediterranean because soon you will have no choice, but flee into the sea."
2.7 Polls & Sociology
Iran drops six places to 170 on latest World Press Freedom Index
Iran has placed 170th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index 2019 compiled by Reporters Without Borders, six places down on where it finished in the previous year’s ranking.
The decline has coincided with the sanctions-led economic attack which the US launched last year to strangle Iran's economy to force concessions on its Middle East policies. Analysts say this has given hardliners in Iran the upper hand in many areas of Iranian society which were previously starting to liberalise as economic growth rates improved in line with the multilateral nuclear deal. Since the US walked out of that deal and imposed its heaviest sanctions ever on the Islamic Republic, the country has found itself pushed back into recession.
In a short summary put out with the latest ranking, the Reporters Without Borders said: “Iran has been one of the world’s most repressive countries for journalists for the past 40 years. State control of news and information is unrelenting and at least 860 journalists and citizen-journalists have been imprisoned or executed since 1979.
It added: “The Islamic regime exercises extensive control over the media landscape and its harassment of independent journalists, citizen-journalists and independent media has not let up. They are constantly subjected to intimidation, arbitrary arrest and long jail sentences imposed by revolutionary courts at the end of unfair trials.
“The media that are still resisting increasingly lack the resources to report freely and independently. As a result, it is the citizen-journalists on social networks who are now at the centre of the battles for freely- reported news and information and for political change in Iran. The regime has extended its fight
9 IRAN Country Report May 2019 www.intellinews.com