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

• Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's televised New Year message:
  • "We called the year 1389 [2010/2011] the year of Added Struggle and Added Work and fortunately the slogan was realized throughout the year... The executive branch engaged in great works during the past year, among other things the sensitive and great issue of reforming the subsidies..."
• Supreme Leader Khamenei will address the people of Mashhad on Nowruz.
• Ahmadinejad promises to create 2.5 million jobs in the fiscal year 2011/2012.

Diplomacy

• Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's televised New Year message:
  • "Of course, bitter events which take place against the people in certain countries - against the dear people of Bahrain, in Yemen and in Libya - do not make our New Year pleasant and makes one not fully enjoy it. We hope that God almighty provides them with hasty relief and punishes the enemies of the nations."
  • "With the movement which has taken form in the world of Islam, one feels that this decade will be the decade of progress and the decade of justice."
• Fars News Agency releases the late Grand Ayatollah Khomeini's August 3, 1987 message condemning the murder of Iranian pilgrims in Saudi Arabia in which Khomeini condemned the "treacherous heads of Saudi Arabia who are the lackeys of the United States."
• The Foreign Minister of Syria says he was trying to mediate between Iran and Bahrain during his latest trip to Tehran.
• "Iranian students" demonstrate in front of the Embassy of Bahrain in Tehran in "solidarity" with the "innocent people of Bahrain."
• Zohreh Elahian, parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee member: "The New Year’s message of Obama to the people of Iran shows the depth of concern of the United States with regard to regional developments... As the Western and Zionist regime authorities have announced on several occasions, they are deeply concerned that the regional developments lead to the victory of the Muslim people and Islamists which - whom they [the West and Israel] consider as inspired by the uprising of the Iranian nation."
• Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast dismissed Clinton’s claims about Iran's interference in Bahrain's internal affairs, and deplored Washington's support for dictators in the region.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi called on the Bahraini regime to end the crackdown on popular demonstrations in the country, and stressed the necessity for an immediate withdrawal of foreign forces from the Persian Gulf island.

Military and Security

• Turkish authorities force a second Islamic Republic of Iran cargo plane en route to Syria to land in Turkey to inspect its cargo.
• Asr-e Iran proposes establishment of a Bahraini Hezbollah militia to liberate the people of Bahrain from "injustice of the rulers."
• Members of Islamic student associations volunteer for missions in Bahrain.
• Islamic Republic of Iran authorities release Ebrahim Yazdi, imprisoned Iran Freedom Movement General Secretary.

Photos of the Day

• Supreme Leader Khamenei's New Year address.