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

Politics

• Shargh reports a meeting between "a government adviser" and Rafsanjani, in which the government representative asks Rafsanjani to coordinate his viewpoints with those of the government and Rafsanjani urges the government to listen to his advice.
  • The Ahmadinejad government refutes the report.
• Rafsanjani addresses clerics and university professors: "Those who are providing fuel to deviant movements were not ready to pay any price during the era of struggle but have now found an opportunity to realize their goals."
• Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Saidi, Supreme Leader’s representative to the Revolutionary Guards, responds to Rafsanjani's complaints about disrespectful behavior towards the clergy: "His Excellency Mr. Hashemi [Rafsanjani] should be concerned about clergymen who have parted ways from their previous path and have distanced themselves from the principles of the Imam [Khomeini] in their thoughts and deeds."
  • Sobh-e Sadegh's Reza Garmabedari also criticizes Rafsanjani and warns against "the seditionists."

Diplomacy

• [E] Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani warns that the recent development in Sudan is a new plot with severe negative consequences for the region and the Islamic world, and underlines Tehran's strong support for the African country's territorial integrity.

Military and Security

•  [E] Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar announced that the country had initiated plans to protect its elites and scientists.

Nuclear Issue

• Ahmadinejad addresses scientists and researchers: "It would be very primitive of us to count on and invest in the nuclear bomb in international power equations. Our nuclear bomb is without voice and physical shape, and it moves to dismantle their institutions. Our relative superiority is knowledge, civilization, culture and humanity.”

Trade

• Oil Minister Masoud Mir-Kazemi says the recently discovered oil field of Khayam will bring $50 billion to the country’s foreign exchange reserve.
• According to the World Bank, Foreign Direct Investments in Iran in 2010 dropped to $2.9 billion.
• According to Reza Hamzelou, Petrochemicals Commerce Company executive director, Iran's petrochemicals export to China is around $2.4 billion. India is the second largest market for Iran's petrochemicals export.
• Following the latest plane crash in Iran, the Islamic Republic is seeking joint ventures with foreign airline companies to bypass international sanctions.

Iran in the Afghan Media

• [E] The Afghan government says Iran will release all Afghanistan-bound fuel tankers stuck in the Iran/Afghan borders over the next four days.
• [E] The Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) Tuesday said it suspended part of Afghan investments in Iran. The decision was made in reaction to Iran's fuel transit ban into Afghanistan.
• Hundreds of Afghans in Herat Province protest against Iran’s fuel ban into Afghanistan.
• A spokesman of the Iranian embassy in Kabul says Tehran has banned fuel transit into Afghanistan because it fears the fuel could be used by the U.S. and NATO forces in the country. “We have problems with NATO and their policies. We, therefore, do not want their needs to be fulfilled through Iran,” Gholam Reza Javedan said.
• Hasht-e Sobh criticizes the Afghan government’s “weak” response to Iran’s fuel transit ban. The editorial criticizes the government, particularly the Foreign Ministry, for remaining silent in the face of Iran’s fuel blockade, while dealing with its Western allies with “persistent affront and confrontation”.
• Another article in Hasht-e Sobh accuses the Iranian government of pursuing “secret sanctions diplomacy” against Afghanistan.

Photo of the Day

• Snow in Arak.