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

• Presidential crisis:
  • Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah Yazdi: "In the past I defended some people well known to you [Ahmadinejad] in order to counter a greater evil the regime was facing. Of course, back then, they were the best possible people, but later they themselves became deserters of the revolution...To those who say this person [Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei] is not important enough to organize a deep deviation one must say that the real teacher of the current of deviation is the devil himself who has come to their help with all his capacity and experience."  
    • Haft-e Sobh website close to Ahmadinejad answers to Mesbah Yazdi's allegations: "Mr. Mesbah, how have you discovered this accurate information about the planning headquarters of the devil? What influence do you have in his headquarters? Is your relationship with him so good that they send you the newsletter of this center...? Mr. Mesbah, do you know what the difference between your speech and Mr. Mashaei's speech is? In one speech you mention the name of Satan more than twenty times. Mr. Mashaei mentions the Imam of the Era more than twenty times in his speech."
  • Baz Baran website urges the public to recite specific prayers to immune the Supreme Leader from the sorcery of Ahmadinejad.
• Parvin and Davoud Ahmadinejad, the president's sister and brother, have registered as parliamentary candidates.

Military and Security

• According to Fars News, a certain Mohammad-Reza Madhi, former commander of the Revolutionary Guards, who had allegedly fled to Thailand as his first step to organize the Iranian opposition and reportedly had meetings with Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, in reality was an Intelligence Ministry agent tasked with infiltrating the Iranian opposition abroad.
  • The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting shows a program in which Madhi says the Foundation for the Defense of the Democracies was the planning center engaged in establishing a government in exile, and he explains how he infiltrated the opposition circles. Video.
  • Despite Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting's statements about Madhi being an infiltrator of the Intelligence Ministry into the Iranian opposition abroad, Kayhan and IRNA maintain that Madhi was "a deceived element" and that now he is under arrest in Tehran and that the television program shows Madhi's "confessions."
• [E] Iran plans to equip its Navy with new types of home-made submarines as part of its naval units renovation plan, a senior Iranian Navy commander announced.

Nuclear Issue

• An article in Gerdab website of the Revolutionary Guards entitled, "The day after Iran's nuclear test, a normal day!" wonders what the international headlines would be after the Islamic Republic tests a nuclear bomb in the Iranian desert.
• [E] Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi announced on Thursday that Tehran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it intends to transfer its 20-percent-uranium enrichment installations from Natanz to the Fordo plant near the city of Qom.

Trade

• [E] China's Customs Organization announced in a recent report that the country has increased its oil imports from Iran in the first four months of the current year.

Iran in the Afghan Media

• Hasht-e Sobh explains reasons behind Iran’s support for the Taliban in Afghanistan. The paper says the clerical regime in Tehran sees democracy in neighboring Afghanistan as a threat to its ‘despotic’ rule. The writer argues that Iran’s destabilizing role in Afghanistan is not limited to arms shipments to the Taliban, but that Iran’s soft power influence is more important. The writer also criticizes the international community, especially Britain, for criticizing Iran’s aid to the Taliban but ignoring Pakistan’s support to terrorism in Afghanistan.

Photos of the Day

• Photo essay showing grinding poverty in Iran while "the president thinks about the poor people in other countries."