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

• Ali Mottahari, parliamentarian, addresses the Tehran University Islamic Student Association:
  • "Independence and intellectual integrity of the students was damaged during the seizure of the British embassy."
  • "The students must, through thinking, contemplation and logic, be free to choose religion... If someone, according to his belief, reaches the conclusion that he does not believe in religion, he will, as martyr Mottahari has said, not be punished in the next world."
  • "Non-Islamic parties should have freedom of speech and their thinking and beliefs should not be ignored... If such parties stage demonstrations, they should do under their own banner and act on the basis of Marxist ideology."
  • "If a student believes that there has been electoral fraud, he should not be subjected to indoctrination..."
  • "[Mir-Hossein] Mousavi, [Mehdi] Karrubi and Ahmadineajd should all be tried in public."

Diplomacy

• Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says Said Jalili, Supreme National Security Council secretary's visit to Moscow is not related to the U.S. drone.
• According to ISNA, Intelligence Minister Hojjat al-Eslam Heydar Moslehi's visit to Saudi Arabia coincides with the British defense minister's trip to the kingdom.
• According to Al-Quds al-Arabi, the Islamic Republic has invited "Syria's reformists to Tehran" to meet with "high ranking Iranian officials."

Military and Security

• Gholam-Reza Jalali, Passive Defense Organization commander:
  • "If the Americans and the Israelis could attack our nuclear installations and damage them, they would most certainly have done it by now..."
  • "Of course, if necessary, we will transfer the uranium enrichment centers to safer places..."
  • "One of the issues which may protect the Bushehr nuclear plant is the international protocols and regulations which prohibit attack against this type of centers... [Apart from this] since the Bushehr nuclear plant is located in a border area, any attack against it would also threaten the security and health of the neighboring countries..."
  • "Since we experienced a cyber threat against our nuclear installations last year and managed to respond to it, we can also do so now..."

Iran in the Afghan Media

• [E] Iranian border guards kill three Afghans trying to enter Iran.

Photos of the Day

• Ali-Akbar Velayati at the Assembly of Islamic Awakening press conference.