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

Diplomacy

• Asr-e Iran's analyst concludes: Obama will have the same destiny as Jimmy Carter because of Obama's inability to stop Iran's nuclear program.

Military and Security

• Ali Pour-Tabatabaei ridicules the televised confessions of Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, accused of espionage for the United States.

• [E] Former Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Electronic Warfare Division Ali Asqar Zare'i stressed Iran's giant advancement in electronics, and said the country can and will make drones much better and more advanced than the US RQ-170 Sentinel that it downed on December 4.

Economy

• Alef News accuses the government of not preventing freefall of the rial against the U.S. dollar. 
  • Ahmadinejad says he is not "in favor of the rising [foreign] currency." 
  • Finance Minister Shams al-Din Hosseini defends the government's economic policies.
     
• Shafaf News slams the Ahmadinejad government's delay in presenting next year's national budget to the parliament. Also criticizes the decreasing value of the rial against the U.S. dollar.  The exchange rate now is 15,000 rials to the dollar. 
   
• [E] Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi dismissed sanctions against Iran's oil and refining industries as ineffective, and said the country is paving its ways towards progress and success steadfastly and powerfully.

Trade

• Parliament arranges a closed session to discuss the impact of the international sanctions regime on Iran.
   
• [E] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad underlined Iran's self-sufficiency in producing the nation's needed gasoline, and said Tehran will turn into a major gasoline exporter in the world by next year.

Religion, Society and Culture

• The Timurid-era Amir Chakmaq mosque complex in Yazd threatened with destruction. 

Photos of the Day

• Ahmadinejad posing.