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:
  • Tamasha News, close to Ahmadinejad, warns Mohammad-Reza Bahonar against pursuing plans to have parliament impeach Ahmadinejad.
  • Most sites report that Hojjat al-Eslam Heydar Moslehi, intelligence minister, did not attend the cabinet meeting (see photos of the day).
    • Bultan News refutes rumors that Moslehi did not attend Wednesday's cabinet meeting.
  • Aeen News refutes reports on arrest of Azadeh Ardakani, Iran-e Bastan Museum director, who is close to Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei.
  • Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, Tehran Prosecutor General, says Ali-Akbar Javanfekr, Ahmadinejad's media adviser, has been summoned to the court. Dowlatabadi said he has "received some reports about the wife of Dr. Hossein Fatemi," Prime Minister Mosaddegh's foreign minister executed in 1953, but that the case is "under investigation." Fatemi's widow has earlier met with Ahmadinejad.
  • According to ATY News, close to Tehran Mayor Qalibaf, the Intelligence Ministry is hunting down Hossein Nowbakhtian, "the grand master" of pro-Ahmadinejad websites.
  • Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah Yazdi: "One can't learn about religion from exorcists."
  • Parliamentarian Ali Mottahari says Ahmadinejad supporters "claim a minor emergence [of the Imam of the Era] has taken place and "we don't need the Guardian Jurist."
  • Revolutionary Guards Chief Mohammad-Ali Jafari indirectly calls Ahmadinejad government "domestic devils and evil spirits," warns that "the people will not follow the path of deviation."
  • Parviz Sarvari, parliamentarian and former Revolutionary Guards commander, says "Ahmadinejad is against the Guardianship of the Jurist."
  • Javad Tajik, Wayfarers of Light Central Bureau secretary, criticizes Mashaei for preferring Cyrus the Great to war veterans and families of the martyrs.

Diplomacy

• [E] Ahmadinejad downplayed enemies' attempts to block Tehran's progress in different scientific and technological fields, saying that the Iranian nation's advancements have defused the plots hatched by the enemies against the country.
• [E] Oman's Sultan Qaboos Bin Saeed in a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi in Masqat praised Iran for its major role in the establishment of peace and security in the region.
• [E] Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi in a meeting with Pakistani Senate Chairman Farooq H Naik on Thursday stressed Tehran's willingness to further boost its trade relations and economic cooperation with Islamabad.

Economy

• [E] Iran will begin exploitation operations in phases 17 and 18 of the South Pars oil and gas field in the second half of the Iranian year (started on March 21), an Iranian oil official announced.

Photos of the Day

• Intelligence Minister Hojjat al-Eslam Heydar Moslehi missing at Wednesday's cabinet meeting.