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:
  • An explosion takes place killing four workers and wounding many others as Ahmadinejad inaugurates a new gasoline producing unit at Abadan oil refinery.
  • Parliamentarian Ali-Reza Zakani: "The deviant group desired to create a deviant unit within the Intelligence Ministry... Some of these individuals have heavy files and they wanted to take those files out of the ministry, discover some other files and make deals with some judges... This current is heavily involved in economic issues under investigation..."
  • Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, Guardian Council secretary warns against "the deviant current's attempt at dominating the parliament."
• Interior Minister Mohammad-Mostafa Najjar says June 30, 2011 is the deadline for registering as parliamentary candidate for the March 2012 parliamentary election.
• The Principalist Faction re-elects Ali Larijani as the faction's candidate to be speaker of parliament.

Diplomacy

• Ahmadinejad addresses workers at the Abadan oil refinery: "The world is awakening and those who have established a government in the land of Palestine are puppets, even the president of the United States is nothing but a puppet. The real players are behind the scenes, we know them and at the right time we will introduce them to the nations."
• Said Jalili, Supreme National Security Council secretary, addressing students at Tehran University: "I urge Islamic thinkers to study recent statements of Obama, the president of the United States. We could not have described deception and helplessness of the United States better than these statements... Obama wants to present itself to the people of the region with expressions such as freedom and the war on terror, but the people of these countries know the United States through Guantanamo and instigating wars in Iraq and Afghanistan... Historical memory of the people of Bahrain will never forget that the killing of the population of this country began a day after an American authority's visit to this country."
• Mehr News reports on increasing number of Iranian students at universities in India.
• [E] Iran's Deputy Commerce Minister Massoud Movahedi underlined Tehran's resolve to expand and bolster ties with Africa.
• [E] Iran on Wednesday deplored escalating violence in Yemen, and urged Sana'a to avoid violence and bloodshed seriously.

Military and Security

• Major General Qassem Suleimani commemorates martyrs of the Haqqani Theological Seminary:
  • "Yesterday there was Palestinians with stones, but today there is Palestine armed with missiles. This is why Clinton advised Netanyahu to appreciate the timing. She knows well that as time passes, winning over Palestine will be impossible... The events provide our revolution with the greatest opportunities. Today, Iran's victory or defeat no longer takes place in Mehran and Khorramshahr. Our boundaries have expanded and we must witness victory in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. This is the fruit of the Islamic revolution."

Photo of the Day

• Ahmadinejad at Abadan oil refinery.