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 subscribe to this daily newsletter, please visit this page, fill out the "New Subscribers" section, and check "Iran News Round Up" listed under "Projects." 
 
(E) = Article in English

Diplomacy

•  Supreme Leader Khamenei addresses regional issues in his Friday sermon:
  • "This 'Ten Days of Dawn' and this Revolution Day have a different spirit because the people after years of holy struggle are listening to the echo of their innocent [but] powerful voice from other regions of the world of Islam..."
  • "Today's events in North Africa, Egypt, Tunisia and some other countries have a special meaning for us the Iranian nation. This is what was always referred to as predictions of Islamic awakening on the occasion of the victory of the Islamic revolution of the Iranian nation which is showing itself today..."
  • "They [the West] adopted a policy for the this region to the effect that in the region there must be states and political units with the following characteristics: First, they must be weak, and second, they must be each others' enemies and adversaries, they should not be able of dealing with each other and be incapable of unity. Therefore you saw a policy of strengthening Arab, Turkish and Iranian nationalism for continuous years adopted by the Europeans and the Americans..."
  • "The West desired the rulers of these countries to be their stooges, and politically subservient to them..."
  • "Economically the West wanted them to be consumers, meaning that they would take the oil out of their hands almost for free, they would use the oil revenue to cover imports and use for consumption so Western countries would flourish..."
  • "The Westerners also desired that the countries should be scientifically backward and they were not allowed develop scientifically..."
  • "Culturally, they wanted that the countries of the region should totally imitate the Europeans and militarily they should be humble, vulnerable and weak. Morally they should be corrupt and entangled in manifold declines..."
  • "The Americans and Europeans wanted that the nations of this region to be religiously superficial and suffice with religion as a private issue and possibly a ceremonial [affair]..."
  • "Through this analysis one understands the behavior of Reza-Khan [Pahlavi], or behavior of Mohammad-Reza [Pahlavi] or the behavior of Mustafa Kamal [Ataturk] and many others..."
  • "Suddenly, a huge explosion took place which totally disordered their entire affairs..."
  • "The Iranian nation created the Islamic revolution and did away with all calculations of the Westerners..."
  • "The next goal of the enemies, when they did not succeed in toppling it, was to change [the nature] of the regime of the Islamic Republic so that the revolution would remain but the nature and spirit of the revolution would disappear. They struggled a lot in this field and the scene of this theater of theirs was the sedition of 2009..."
  • "The director, planner and schemer of this scene was and still outside the borders and there are some who knowingly or unknowingly cooperated with them..."
  • "Throughout the years we have witnessed that these issues are taking place in the minds of Muslim nations, they are growing and maturing and the result can be seen in events of North Africa, Tunisia..."
  • "The Westerners too have committed mistakes indirectly helping the Islamic Republic of Iran..."
  • "The mistake of the Westerners in the nuclear issues was to create mayhem and seven years ago they demanded that the Islamic Republic must withdraw from its nuclear position..."
  • "These issues showed the people of the world that Iran has managed to do unexpected progress in the nuclear issue, and second, Iran, despite all the pressure remains standing, and does not withdraw. These issues have been to the benefit of the Iranian nation..."
  • "They raised the issue of gasoline sanctions... Well, we were and are gasoline importers. They said we want to stop gasoline exports. They made much noise, and their analysts had predicted that the country would rebel and the people would do what not. This made the authorities of the country to think of increasing gasoline production and according to my reports, until Revolution Day, thanks to divine benevolence, the country will be totally independent of gasoline imports..."
  • "According to the reports they gave me we can even engage in gasoline export after the Revolution Day..."
  • "This issue ended as a victory for us..."
  • "The same is the case when it comes to creation of parallel and extremist Islamist movements. They [the United States] created an extremist Islamist current in our neighborhood [Saudi Arabia] in order to weaken the Islamic Republic. Now, that has become a problem for themselves which they even don't know how to solve..."
  • "There were many who in the immediate aftermath of the revolution, when the revolution reached victory, said, now it is enough, let's go and solve the issues with the American. The meaning of this was to do away with the slogan of fighting against injustice..."
  • "Throughout the years they wanted us to go and follow the United States, the one person who is our main enemy. They wanted us to go under his wings, to take refuge at his robe. The meaning of this is to sell out Palestine. The meaning of this is to tolerate the crimes of the United States, to tolerate Afghanistan and the like..."
  • "This means to close our eyes to all the injustice that the United States is doing all over the world, and the injustice it is subjecting the nations to. This means don't protest, well, this is what normalization of relations means that the Iranian nation and the authorities no longer can speak out their mind freely..."
  • "If the Egyptian nation, thanks to divine assistance and blessing, can advance this issue, what will happen to the policies of the United States in the region is a defeat..."
  • "Today, the Israelis are more concerned than fugitive Tunisian and Egyptian officials, Zionist enemies know what great event it would be if Egypt breaks its alliance with them and takes its true position in the region, and that would realize the predictions of our great Imam[Khomeini]. Therefore, the events are extremely important..."
  • "This Un-Mubarak [Unblessed] has humiliated the Egyptian nation..."
  • "In Tunisia too, the fugitive president Ben-Ali was completely dependent on the United States. We even have reports on him being connected to the CIA spy agency..."
  • "For a nation it is very difficult that the president of the nation, someone proud and arrogant and haughty, was official servant of United States agencies..."
  • "As soon as this traitor fled his country and the affairs fell to disorder, female students went to the university dressed in hijab which shows the deep Islamic leanings. But Western analysts want to hide this issue and keep it secret..."
  • "The Americans don't even reward their servants..."
  • "The moment Mubarak - God willing - flees Egypt and goes abroad, most certainly, the first gate which will be closed to him is the gate of the United States. They will not let him in, just like they did not let in Ben-Ali or Mohammad-Reza [Pahlavi]..."
  • "Those who think of friendship and camaraderie with the United States and obeying them should see these examples. They [the Americans] are like Satan."
    • Full text.
    • Khamenei's sermon in Arabic:
    • Audio:
    • Video:

Photo of the Day

• Khamenei leads the Friday prayers in Tehran.