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 says he does not intend to organize a political party after he finishes his second tenure in office.
• A place visited by Supreme Leader Khamenei in Kurdistan develops into a shrine [Ghadamgah]. 

Military and Security

• The Basij praises the Intelligence Ministry for arresting the perpetrators behind the assassinations of nuclear scientists in Iran.
• Mohammad-Hossein Saffar Harandi, cultural adviser to the Revolutionary Guards commander, indirectly criticizes Ahmadinejad:  
  • "He plays all sorts of games not to follow the orders of the Guardian Jurist, and… he deceptively and instrumentally uses the Imams and the Imam of the Era and says: 'When we have the Imam of the Era himself, we do not need his deputy!'"
• Jazayeri, General Staff cultural and defense propaganda commander, says the General Staff will file a complaint against parliamentarian Ali Mottahari, who has publicly accused the Revolutionary Guards of intervening in the latest parliamentary elections.
• The Student Basij Organization interview of Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani in 2006, in which he discusses the United States presence in Iraq. 

Nuclear Issue

• Reports on Moscow negotiations:
  • Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei: "The nations create their destinies by resisting the hegemonic powers."
  • According to Mehr News, the Islamic Republic negotiation team headed by Said Jalili, Supreme National Security Council secretary and chief nuclear negotiator, do not have "any greater hope" for the Moscow negotiations to succeed. According to Mehr News, the pessimism of the Iranian team is based on "behavior of the representative of the negotiating states [Catherine Ashton] in the recent past, experience of the Baghdad meeting, lack of cooperation to arrange preliminary meetings, and not having the necessary powers to present proposals at the negotiation meeting. There is not much hope in the progress of the negotiations." According to Mehr, the Iranian negotiators also believe that "the Westerners have not been honest to the agreed upon principles in previous meetings. Should repetitive statements of the past meetings be presented, the negotiations will most certainly fail."
  • Ali Baqeri, Foreign Policy and International Security director of the Supreme National Security Council, meeting the deputy foreign minister of China visiting Moscow, stresses on the positive role of China in Iran's negotiations with the 5+1 Group. Baqeri also says the 5+1 Group should remain loyal to the Istanbul II agreements and the agreements between Said Jalili and Catherine Ashton reached in the course of a phone conversation.
    • According to Mehr News, China has sent a new representative with greater authority to the Moscow negotiations, and Baqer urges China to use stronger pressure on the West.
  • According to Mehr News, Iranian journalists were not invited to a meeting of Wendy Sherman, United States Undersecretary of State, with journalists in Moscow.
  • Baztab slams the British newspaper The Guardian's disclosure of Indian intelligence reports documenting Islamic Republic involvement in the attempt on the life of the Israeli ambassador to India. Baztab writes that the disclosure is an active attempt at derailing the Moscow talks.
  • Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani says the 5+1 negotiations are not so important that the West can impose anything on Iran.

• [E] Iran's negotiating team in the current talks in Moscow with the six world powers said that Iran will not discuss 20% enrichment if the other side ignores its nuclear rights. 

Photos of the Day

• Said Jalili and Ali Bagheri on their way to Moscow.
• Negotiations in Moscow.