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

• Ahmadinejad addresses the Iranian community in Kazakhstan: "No one is in need of his daily bread in Iran."
  • Answering Ahmadinejad's statements, Shafaf News releases a photo essay on poverty in Iran with the headline: "Mr. President, have you seen these pictures?"
• Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, temporary Tehran Friday prayer leader: "Political sin is worse than individual or social sins... Those who take away hope from the people or depict progress in various fields as small are the people who commit political sins."

Diplomacy

• Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, temporary Tehran Friday prayer leader: "The criminal Saudi occupiers will doubtlessly leave Bahrain... The Khalifa dynasty is undoubtedly a passing phenomenon as well... Statesmen who mercilessly pressure the people will most certainly not survive..." Addressing the people of Bahrain Khatami said: "Be sure that the dictators will go, just like the Shah from Iran and the criminal dictator Saddam from Iraq."

Military and Security

• Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, temporary Tehran Friday prayer leader:
  • "One of the faces of the soft warfare of the enemies is their expansive satellite networks. There are 200 million Persian speakers in the world for whom 2,000 satellite networks broadcast. Among them, 100 are Iranian and 50 of them are dedicated to anti-cultural and immoral programs... 13 satellite networks produce and broadcast enmity towards the Islamic revolution and their general position is fighting against religion, fighting against the moral values of religion, doing away with the stigma of immoral relations, propagation of Western culture, taking away hope from the Islamic revolution inside Iran and all over the world, giving hope to the counter-revolution, and in short, fight against Islam, the Islamic revolution and the great nation of Iran."
• Law Enforcement Forces chief Esmail Ahmadi-Moqadam: "Towards the end of 2011, import of narcotics into Iran - by ground - will be impossible.

Trade

• Emad Hosseini, parliamentary oil committee spokesman: "Contrary to promises made, producing natural gas from the 15th and 18th phases of the South Pars oil and gas field is not possible [until March 2012]. Unstable management of the Oil Ministry and appointment of non-experts have had negative impact on the joint South Pars [oil and gas] field as well... We are ten years behind our partners meaning Qatar."

Photos of the Day

• Car show in Isfahan.