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

• Renewed polemics about Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei:
  • Ayatollah Alam al-Hoda, Mashhad Friday prayer leader and Assembly of Experts member:
    • Mashaei is a deviant and his deviation is evident... He is playing with what is divine has declared what is and is not permissible. He is playing with the prophets of God, he is manipulating the sanctity of God. Well, such a person can't be [a] seditionist... In one of his speeches he has said: 'the religious society is not the ideal society.'"
    • "Mr. Ahmadinejad is not infallible. It is possible that among his 100 good deeds there are also some deviations. This is tolerable, but if these things should become the discourse of Mr. Ahmadinejad... we will take a position against him."
  • Hojjat al-Eslam Mehdi Taeb: "How come the one and same individual expresses his opinion about music, about the prophets and another occasion about the tourism industry? What is the expertise of this person?"
    • Taeb adds he does not believe that Ahmadinejad and his group are capable of orchestrating sedition against the regime.
  • Hamid Baghaei, Ahmadinejad's Middle East adviser:
    • "Statements to the effect that Mashaei is in connection with the other world are all baseless allegations. I have known Mr. Mashaei for years. We have family connections with him... They say Mr. Mashaei established a connection with spirits in India. This is deviation from piety and humanity. In history there have been many such allegations."

Diplomacy

• [E] Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast strongly condemned Israel’s air raid on the Gaza Strip, which killed at least 10 Palestinians, including four children, and injured more than 50.
• [E] Tajik President Emomali Rahmon is due to visit Iran on Saturday at the head of a high-ranking delegation to attend the International Nowruz Celebrations in Tehran from March 26 to 27.
• [E] Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast lambasted Washington for passing a resolution on Iran's human rights conditions, describing it as "biased and unfair".

Military and Security

• Mohammad-Reza Yazdi, Revolutionary Guards legal deputy:
  • "We need to live with the [budgetary] limits and means of the country... We have seen deficiencies in the attention to the armed forces in the planning for the past five years, but God be praised, the parliament had a positive view towards the armed forces this year..."
  • "Many of our employees have still not managed to get paid for their service during the Sacred Defense."
  • "Government debts to the Revolutionary Guards go back to the years of the Sacred Defense and before... Every year the government has tried to pay for the debts in its national annual budget, and I hope that it will finish during the first year of the five year plan."
  • "During the governments of Hashemi [Rafsanjani], Khatami and Ahmadinejad, the government has asked the Guards [to engage in development activities] because of the capabilities of the Guards..."
  • "These contracts were not signed on the basis of profiteering or looking for a surplus, but were meant to export the revolution, provide help to the needy in the country and in order to provide help to the world on behalf of the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran... A number of these countries owe money to the government and to the Khatam al-Anbia Construction Base, but this base has lived up to its contractual obligations and they are happy with the result."
  • "The economic activities of the Guards are based upon an instruction of the Supreme Leader. In all fields of activity we act in a completely transparent way. This is evident since most of the contracts that the Guards signs are with the government, and the parliament passes the budget. The representatives of the audit court and the chief inspectorate can analyze the Guards’ activities.."
  • "Should someone claim that the economic activities of the Guards are not transparent, they are either ignorant or ill wishers."

Photos of the Day

• Hassan Khomeini visits a Zoroastrian fire temple in Tehran.