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

• Mojtaba Vahedi, U.S.-based spokesman of opposition leader Mehdi Karrubi resigns. Addressing Karrubi, Vahedi writes:
  • "The truth is that some time ago I reached the conclusion that I couldn’t operate within the old framework in order to pay my debt to my compatriots. The information I received indicated that although you recognized the ruling authoritarian regime in Iran neither Islamic nor republican, you believe that the Islamic Republic as defined by Ayatollah Khomeini is the cure for our beloved Iran... a viewpoint I do not share... I believe that after thirty years of cooperation... it is a proper opportunity to cut my official relationship with you, but along with millions of Iranians wish you honor in your path..."

Diplomacy

• Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addressing a Quran recitation ceremony slams "the silence of the world" in the face of "massacre of Muslims in Myanmar." 

Military and Security

• Ramezan Sharif, Revolutionary Guards Public Relations commander dismisses Al-Arabiya and "Zionist media's" reports on "martyrdom of Commander Qassem Suleimani," at Wednesday's National Security building blast in Syria. 
• Hamid-Reza Moqaddamfar, Revolutionary Guards cultural deputy:
  • "The position of the reformists today resembles the [Iran] Freedom Movement and nationalist/religious groups in the first decade of the revolution and the era of the Imam [Khomeini]... The Freedom Movement and the nationalists/religious [groups] were despised by the people because of their betrayal in the theoretical and practical political fields and the Imam repelled them... The extremist reformists and followers of the Second of Khordad [Khatami supporters] engaged in acts similar to the Freedom Movement and the nationalists/religious [groups] and tried to overthrow the regime... In the sedition of 2009, the reformist front in its entirety joined the hegemonic front against the revolution and started street rebellions and made allegations against the regime... One wonders that the extremist current of this movement shamelessly expresses its readiness to participate in the next presidential election and some of them even make conditions for that... The reformists should not abuse the benevolence of the regime against them... The benevolence of the Islamic Republic to this current is to allow those reformists who were not present in the sedition and were not effective to participate in the election and be active..."
• Commander Yadollah Javani, adviser to the Representative of the Supreme Leader to the Revolutionary Guards:
  • "The economic sanctions of the West against the Islamic Republic of Iran have reached their peak and have entered a new phase which one can call 'economic warfare...' The final goal of this war is not to stop Iran's nuclear activities, but to stop the fast spinning wheel of Islamic Iran in all fields. By stopping the wheel of progress of the Iranian nation, the enemies want to avoid Islamic Republic becoming a role model for other nations, in particular Muslim nations in the region. Therefore, the West has intensified the economic warfare so that in the end the Iranian people will rise against the regime of the Islamic Republic. Although the sanctions have produced the opposite result and in some instances accelerated self-sufficiency, the question now is how to prevail in this economic warfare, now that the enemies have intensified the sanctions and the pressure on the people's economy has also intensified... We must consider the imposed economic warfare as a reality... Everyone must act according to his or her duties in this war conditions... Everyone must help the government of the Islamic Republic to break and bypass the sanctions... One must deal with the profiteers like the fifth columnists of the enemy... All the capabilities of the state must be in the hands of those who have a spirit of economic Jihad... One must ask for divine assistance in this economic warfare..."
• Ali-Ashraf Nouri, Revolutionary Guards political deputy, warns the bazaar: "Any tension in the bazaar is a move in the direction of and playing into the hands of the enemy..." 
• Twenty four years after the end of the war with Iraq, RAJA News releases then Intelligence Minister Mohammadi-Reyshahri's letter to Grand Ayatollah Khomeini in which Reyshahri warns that "a large group within the [Revolutionary] Guards, the Basij and the Intelligence Ministry..." believe Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani "forced the Imam [Khomeini] to drink from the chalice of poison." 

Economy

• [E] The Iranian oil ministry said it has just finished the initial designing of the country's first home-made gas refinery.

Photo of the Day

• Caricature on the plight of the Muslims in Myanmar.