Iran News Round Up

A selection of the latest news stories and editorials published in Iranian news outlets, compiled by Ali Alfoneh, Ahmad Majidyar and Michael Rubin.  To receive this daily newsletter, please subscribe online.
 
(E) = Article in English

Politics

• Islamic Steadfastness Front launches a TV channel, Steadfastness [Paydari], to counter "the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting's boycott of Grand Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi's speeches."
  • Link to the Steadfastness network's website.

Diplomacy

• The Islamic Republic ships 85 tons of humanitarian aid, mostly food items, to North Korea. 
• Mehr News Agency slams the Islamic Republic Embassy's dismissal of the charges against an Iranian diplomat in Brazil who is accused of sexually harassing underage girls at a swimming pool:
  • "One could do anything but argue that the allegations are due to cultural differences, or are inconsistent with the past record of this member of the Iranian embassy in Brazil..."
  • Jomhouri-ye Eslami asks what the Iranian diplomat Hekmatollah Qorbani was doing in a mixed swimming pool in the first place.
• Ayatollah Mohammad Khamenei, head of the Sadra Foundation, praises the "2,500 years Iranian ownership of the Persian Gulf."
  • [E] Iranian parliamentarians plan to introduce a bill for the creation of a new province and tourist resort to be called the "Persian Gulf" province with Abu Musa Island as its capital.
• [E] Supreme Leader Khamenei stressed that Iran is pleased to see Iraq's growing power and clout in the region and the Arab world, and called on the Baghdad government to launch a scientific movement in the country to continue its present trend of growth.

Military and Security

• Oil Ministry Spokesman Ali Nikzad says the ministry has been the target of a cyber attack, but stresses that the ministry is unharmed because of the "separation between the general servers from the main servers. Even their cables are separate and they are not connected to the Internet."
• Supreme Leader Khamenei visits the Islamic Republic of Iran Army Ground Forces, and says: "The Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the only Army which is at the service of the people and in the national interest."
  • Army Commander Ataollah Salehi makes general statements about the devotion of Supreme Leader Khamenei to the regular military.

• Mohsen Rafiqdoust, the first minister of the Revolutionary Guards:
  • "When the Guards was formed, people with all political inclinations entered it. We told the people from the Mojahedin [Khalq] Organization who had come to the guards: 'If you want to engage in politics, don't enter the Guards.' The Imam too stressed that the Guards should not be inclined towards this or that faction, but he said that Guardsmen should understand politics. As someone who claims to be the first members of the Guards, I say that the Guards reports to the first person of the country who is the Supreme Leader and should not be inclined to this or that faction. It should solely follow the orders of the Leader."
  • "The Guards entering [politics] in 1999 [student uprisings] and in the events following the 2009 election was based on the duties of the Guards to safeguard the revolution... In 1999 the Guards engaged in a timely fashion... also in 2009 the Guards lived up to its duty..."
  • "A Guardsman is a guardsman as long as he is not a member of any faction. He should solely follow the orders of the Leader. Should he desire to intervene in politics it should leave the Guards..."
  • [In reply to a question about statements of some IRGC commanders about reformist politicians] "We have two groups of reformists: Reformists who are loyal to the Guardianship, and reformists who are opposed to the Guardianship. Those reformists who have been criticized by the Guards are proven to be regime changers calling themselves reformists... I do not consider opposition to the regime changing reformists as intervention in politics. The majority of the people want the regime despite being critical of many aspects of the regime..."
  • "The administrative cadre of the Basij are Guardsmen, but the Basij members themselves belong to the different classes of the society. Each one of them has the freedom and the right to choose, and to propagate for a particular individual or group of his or her preference. It is possible that some of them support a particular candidate in elections, and others support other candidates... A Basij member is a normal individual with the right to support anyone he or she desires, but a Guardsman votes, but is not allowed to intervene [in politics]. It would be wrong to attribute the activities of the Basij to the Guards..."
  • "I am against the Guards entering the field of non-military industries, construction work and commerce..."
  • "There are absolutely no disagreements between the Guards and the [regular] Army."

Nuclear Issue

• Iran’s negotiations with the 5+1 Group:
  • Said Jalili, Supreme National Security Council secretary and nuclear negotiator, meets with the Prime Minister of Iraq:
    • "The fate of the Baghdad meeting depends on a correct understanding of the national, regional and international capabilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran as an opportunity to cooperate... they must have a correct understanding of the will of the Iranian nation to prove and improve these capabilities."
  • Hojjat al-Eslam Mohammad Saidi, Qom Friday prayer leader: 
    • "It is now the turn of the Western countries to show their good faith... The world should know that it is facing an intelligent, proud and powerful nation and that it should address this nation in an appropriate manner, since the language of force is favorable to our people. We are not like those countries which load their nuclear installations on ships and send them to the United States..."
  • Ayatollah Mohsen Mojtahed-e Shabestari, Tabriz Friday prayer leader:
    • "The positions and language of the West changed in this negotiation... The Iranian nation is not satisfied with the degree [of concessions] which the Westerners have discussed in the Istanbul negotiations... The Iranian nation believes that if the Westerners are telling the truth, they should reconsider all the [United Nations Security Council] resolutions and the sanctions they have imposed because of the nuclear issue and consider them void..." 

Photo of the Day

• Said Jalili receives Nouri al-Maliki.