Iran News Round Up

A selection of the latest news stories and editorials published in Iranian news outlets, compiled by AEI Critical Threats Project Iran Analyst Will Fulton. To receive this daily newsletter, please subscribe online.

(E) = Article in English

Politics

• Member of Imam Khomeini Scientific Education Institute Mahmood Nabavian said that the Islamization of universities should be based on a thousand-year religious history:
  • "We copied the Western university [system] and implemented it in our own universities, [and] we cannot call these universities Islamic universities."
• IRGC Cultural Deputy Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi said "From the perspective of internal experts, the sedition of [2009] was the product of enemy preparations but in the upcoming [2013] elections the sedition has no capacity for reappearance."

Military and Security

• BG Abdollah Abdollahi was appointed commander of IRGC Khatam Al-Anbia Construction base.
• Dr. Mohammad Reza Hassani Ahangar was appointed commander of Imam Hossein University.
• Deputy Representative of the Supreme Leader to the IRGC Hojjat al-Eslam Abdollah Hajj Sadeghi said "what advances the revolution and increases its daily growth is the connection between the people and the velayat." 
• Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said Iran is expanding its naval drone capabilities.

Regional Developments

• Fars News reports that the Syrian army is on the verge of expelling Syrian "terrorists" from the city of Ragheh in the northeast and that a popular resistance front has been formed in the city to combat "terrorists."

Photo of the Day

• Representative of Supreme Leader to IRGC Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Saidi inspects the expansion of the shrine of Imam Ali in Iraq.