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

• According to the Ensan-e Kamel website, Ahmadinejad writes a short letter to Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah Yazdi: "It was God who brought the ninth cabinet to power. Ahmadinejad was just the compass. Should anyone think that it was Ahmadinejad who brought this government to power, God will at some point avenge this and show that Ahmadinejad was a nobody."
• Effat Marashi, Rafsanjani's wife: "We see Mr. [Mohammad] Khatami's family and his wife, but we have not met Mr. Ahmadinejad's family. But I have met and know his wife." 
  • Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president's daughter, leaves Iran for London. 

Diplomacy

• Receiving people on the occasion of the birth of Imam Hassan, Rafsanjani praises the Imam's pragmatic "peace" with enemies.

Military and Security

• Regular Navy Commander Habibollah Sayyari commenting on presence of United States mine sweepers in the Persian Gulf says, "Management of the Strait of Hormuz and total control of the region is in the hands of Iran." Sayyari also said: "Countries in the southern parts of the Persian Gulf should know that they can't become powerful by going hand in hand with the Global Arrogance. It is better for them to rely on their own forces and their own people." 
• News related to developments in Syria:
  • Iranian press reports on defection of Syria's Prime Minister Riad Hijab to Jordan. 
  • Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of the General Staff:
    • "The al-Saud clan, Qatar and Turkey are responsible for the bloodshed in Syria... Syria's neighbors should not help advancing the goals of the war mongering Great American Satan... These countries should know that if they accept this premise, after Syria it would be the turn of Turkey and other countries... Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar should not become victims of propagation of al-Qaeda. We are warning our friends in this regard..."
  • According to the Islamic Republic's Arabic language Al-Alam Television, Tehran hosts a seminar "investigating the situation in Syria" this week. 
  • Al-Arabiya, showing exclusive footage of 48 Iranian citizens abducted in Syria, says the captured individuals are members of the Revolutionary Guards. Video:
    • Reactions to the abduction of 48 Iranian citizens in Syria:
      • An "informed source" in the Foreign Ministry dismisses that the abducted Iranian citizens were "military personnel."
      • Asr-e Iran quoting Syrian authorities writes that the bus driver of Iranians who were on their way from the Shi'a shrine to airport was cooperating with the Free Syrian Army.
      • Following Al-Arabiya's release of the footage of abducted Iranian citizens in Syria, Aftab News slams Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya's attempts at "showing a dark picture of the affairs in Syria."
• Akbar Fotouhi, Yazd Revolutionary Guards commander, says the reformists, the Green Movement and Ahmadinejad's team constitute "an evil triangle" which is "helping to advance the goals of the global infidels."

Economy

• The U.S. dollar was traded at 20,660 rials.
• Khorasan reports a $7 billion embezzlement case at the Martyr Foundation (Bonyad-e Shahid). 

Iran in the Afghan Media

• Iran plans to establish a union for Afghan journalists in Kabul.

Photo of the Day

• Iran’s nuclear negotiator Said Jalili pays homage to deceased Lebanese militant leader Imad Mughniyah during a visit to Beirut.