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

• Sobh-e Sadegh reports that Supreme Leader Khamenei visited Ayatollah Mohammad-Taghi Mesbah Yazdi during his latest visit to Qom.
• A parliamentary investigation into the February 15, 2011 anti-government demonstrations concludes that "Mousavi and Karrubi are traitors and deserve to be dealt with."
• Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani in a veiled criticism against vigilante attacks against Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani: "There are some lawbreakers who attribute their opinions to the Guardian [Khamenei]."
• According to Shargh, Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani has not yet announced his candidacy for the head of the Assembly of Experts.
• Ayatollah Javadi Amoli urges the public not to express their criticism in public since "it will be a source of concern to friends and would please the enemy."

Diplomacy

• Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani: "We do not have any secret relations and publicly declare that we support the revolutions in the region and that our position is against the dictators of the region and the United States. This is the honorable life the blessed Imam [Khomeini] taught us... Iran is not in need of secret relations. Our international networks openly defend the revolutions, which shows that our support is not clandestine."
• According to Vatan-e Emrooz, "the United States has once more failed to spread unrest in Tehran."
• Sobh-e Sadegh editorializes: "There are only two parties. Mankind is either monotheist and a God worshiper or a polytheist and infidel. An issue is either correct or incorrect. A [political] party, movement, group or political individual is either revolutionary or counterrevolutionary... Issues which have taken place during the past couple of years - especially the sedition of 2009 - demonstrated that within the family of the revolution, because of various reasons, a counterrevolutionary movement has been formed. This movement has, because of its counterrevolutionary nature, is bound to well known counterrevolutionary movement such as the monarchists, monafeghin [Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization], members of the Tudeh [Communist party], the Wahabis, Bahais and the rest on the one hand, and is bound to external enemies of the revolution, especially the evil triangle of the United States, Britain, and the Zionist regime on the other hand."
• [E] Ahmadinejad blames foreign powers for the recent unrest in the country.
• [E] Pakistani Foreign Minister Salman Bashir in a meeting with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Ali Fathollahi underlined his country's enthusiasm for the further consolidation of the bilateral relations with Tehran.
• [E] Iranian Commerce Minister Mehdi Qazanfari submitted a message of invitation from Ahmadinejad to his Lebanese counterpart Michel Suleiman to take part in Norouz celebrations in Iran.

Military and Security

• Khamenei inspects the Intelligence Ministry.
• Mohammad Bagheri, General Staff Intelligence and Operations deputy, addresses the Revolutionary Guards' seminar on martyrs of the Revolutionary Guards intelligence units.
• [E] The Iranian Navy's training and operational fleet of warships is now sailing through the Suez Canal towards the Red Sea after Iranian officials secured the passage of the fleet through contacts with Egyptian authorities.

Economy

• [E] Head of Iran's Customs Office Abbas Me'marnejad announced that the country's non-oil exports surpassed $29bln in the first 11 months of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2010 to February 20, 2011), showing a 25% growth in comparison with the same period last year.

Photo of the Day

• Ahmadinejad visits Lorestan.