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

• Reports on increased tensions between Ahmadinejad and legislative and judicial arms of the government:
  • In a circular to all executive bodies of the Islamic Republic, Ahmadinejad dismisses interventions of Ali Larijani, parliamentary speaker, and the parliamentary majority in executive affairs as "illegal." Ahmadinejad also writes that passing of laws in the parliament and publication of the text of those laws in the Official Gazette [Rouznameh-ye Rasmi] do not mean the executive bodies need to abide by them.
  • Attending the "Improving the Health of the Bureaucracy Seminar," Ahmadinejad criticizes the role of the supervisory bodies in the Islamic Republic, particularly the parliament. "The parliament should not act beyond the limits of the law. The law is our red line."
  • Expediency Council member Morteza Nabavi says the Supreme Leader is not opposed to accountability of public institutions, including those directly reporting to the Office of the Supreme Leader. 
  • Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani accused the executive branch of the government of violating the law, particularly the $3 billion embezzlement case.
  • Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, Expediency Council members, intervenes on behalf of Mohammad-Sharif Malekzadeh, a foreign ministry deputy, who was about to face a parliamentary vote of no confidence due to his relations with the "current of deviation." Malekzadeh was previously arrested on charges of financial irregularities he allegedly committed as the head of the Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei led "Expatriate Iranians Conference" initiative. According to Baztab-e Emrouz, parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani resisted Shahroudi's intervention.
    • Ayatollah Shahroudi appoints Malekzadeh as his executive deputy.
• Islamic Steadfastness Front officially supports Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel to become parliamentary speaker.

Diplomacy

• Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli: "On the planet earth, coexistence with the Zionist regime is not possible." 

Military and Security

• Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Saidi, Representative of the Supreme Leader to the Revolutionary Guards, addresses guardsmen on the occasion of the Political-Ideological Week of the Revolutionary Guards:
  • "There are those who say the Guards should not intervene in politics, but Imam [Khomeini] did not say that the Guards should not engage in politics... Imam [Khomeini] said party politics is prohibited and the Guards should not enter the realm of [political] parties and members [of the Guards] should not create their own parties... We monitor this issue entirely so that there is no conflict between the interests of the parties and interests of the Guards..."
  • "Members of the Basij and the Guards wait for the Representative of the Supreme Leader to the Guards and the Commander of the Guards to express their opinion so they can find their own position. The duty of the Basij is not only warfare at night; it is among the people and should clarify daily affairs to them..."
  • "The Guards participates in political programs of the year under its own banner while no one has such expectation from the [regular] Army. Of course, intervention in election is prohibited, meaning that the Guards should not present a list [of candidates] and this has not happened. However, if intervention means countering currents of deviation and the counterrevolution, it should intervene. We should say that if people distance themselves from the principles, they become deviant..."
  • "[Commenting on the duality within the principled fronts in the run-up to the recent parliamentary election, Saidi said:] We, too, did not find the issue of duality agreeable. This was not suitable particularly because of the unpleasant impact it had among the population... I have witnessed at times unsound competition... Both Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani and his co-workers,... and individuals, particularly Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, are among capitals of the regime. But some of their supporters, contrary to the viewpoints of the grandees of this sound rivalry, changed it into unsound competition... In this case, the Guards had an independent path and we could not prefer one party to the other. Therefore, the Guards tried to provide general guidance and clarify the criteria rather than mention individuals."
  • [Commenting on Ahmadinejad’s participation at the meeting of the Expediency Council after a long absence] "Ahmadinejad is an unpredictable individual... But the recommendation of the Supreme Leader may also have worked."
  • [Commenting on Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi's claims that the Guards should not distance itself from the sources of emulation]: "The Guards has to a very high degree sensed the relationship with the sources of emulation, and this relationship has been established... There is so much demand among the Guardsmen to meet Ayatollah Makarem that we feel we are annoying him. The level of meetings of the Guardsmen with the sources of emulation can't be compared with [representatives of] other groups... We consider the sources of emulation as the backers of the regime and the foundation of the Guardianship of the Jurist. These issues are due to the wrong information which some problematic elements discuss with the sources of emulation. We will certainly visit him and solve the issues... The Supreme Leader has recommended that we always have a relationship with the sources of emulation and the theological seminaries. There are no boundaries between Guards and those sources of emulation who defend the regime, but of course, the Guards has a word to say to those sources of emulation who oppose the regime..."

• [E] Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi hailed the country's engineers and experts for building a new model of Iran-140 planes for sea patrolling, and said the progress proves that the western sanctions against Tehran have been ineffective.
• [E] Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi cautioned that the basing of the US Raptor strike aircraft in the United Arab Emirates is detrimental to regional security. 

Nuclear Issue

• [E] A senior Iranian official announced that the Russian contractor of the Bushehr nuclear power plant will deliver full control of the facility to Iran by the end of autumn. 

Economy

•  Khamenei visits the pharmaceutical industry:
  • "Smuggling and abusing national capital and bank reserves belonging to the people are among examples of economic sabotage... Receiving vast banking assistance for particular purposes but using those funds elsewhere amounts to treason and theft from the public funds, and these individuals should be dealt with."

Iran in the Afghan Media

• Qayyum Bashir Herawi, an Afghan writer and poet, writes a lengthy letter to Supreme Leader Khamenei, detailing the Iranian government’s discriminatory policies against the Afghans and urging Tehran to address the Afghan refugees’ problems.

Photo of the Day

• Caricature: Chinese products and an Iranian worker.