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: 
  • Ayatollah Kazem Sediqi, temporary Tehran Friday Prayer leader:
    • "If someone does not obey the Guardian Jurist, his faith will not be accepted by God, even if he has spent his entire life living in a temple. It is God's wish for his creatures to obey blindly the vice regent of God and show this in their deeds..."
    • "I am not worried for the Guardianship of the Jurist... God protects the Guardianship through his means. This Guardianship has a protector. No one has managed or will be capable of breaking it..."
    • "We consider the issue of the Guardianship of the Jurist beyond the Constitution..."
    • "Most certainly, the cabinet ministers are first creatures of God and only second cabinet ministers. They are Shiites following the Commander of the Faithful and they emulate His Lordship.  They are subjected to Absolute Guardianship of the Supreme Leader... One of the cabinet ministers told me: 'We believe that if His Lordship [Khamenei] divorces the president's wife from the president, the president's wife would be haram [religiously impermissible] for the president and the president can't touch her."
    • "The Supreme Leader in our society is not only a Guardian Jurist whose powers are absolute, but he is also the source of emulation of millions inside and outside Iran."
    • "The conspiracies of the enemy to abuse our domestic issues will most certainly not succeed.
      • When Sediqi said: "If the Guardian issues a decree, not only our people who pray morning, evening and group prayers, but also the neighborhood strongmen with their religious honor, will not allow a minute of hesitation in execution of the command of that Grandee [Khamenei]," the congregants continuously shouted: "The blood in our veins is a gift to our Leader," and "We are all your soldiers Khamenei, we obey your commands Khamenei."
  • Hojjat al-Eslam Mostafa Aqa-Tehrani describes a conversation between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei in which the Supreme Leader called the president's bluff and accepted Ahmadinejad's resignation.
    • "Two nights ago he [Ahmadinejad] asked [to Aqa-Tehrani] ‘Is it not my prerogative to appoint or dismiss cabinet ministers? Well, you may think it is a good or bad thing that I appoint or dismiss. The parliamentarians have no right to intervene. The choice is mine, be it right or wrong, this is the choice of the president. I dismiss or appoint, and this is what I did.'" 
    • "[Ahmadinejad continued:] 'Yes, His Holiness [Khamenei] must express his blessed opinion and one must adhere to his opinion. He either agrees or disagrees, one of the two. If he agreed, no problem, the individual goes. What if he disagrees? What is my obligation? I bluntly told His Holiness: 'Sir, if your opinion is that he should stay, I can't work with him. Don't I have the right to express criticism? He said yes, even towards me [the right to criticize Khamenei]. I asked: Sir, can I, in case I can't [work with the intelligence minister] even resign? Khamenei said: 'Do so if you desire.' Well, Khamenei gave me a deadline so I could think about resigning, to accept [Moslehi in the cabinet] or not. His Lordship [Khamenei] demonstrated statecraft. Is this opposition to the Guardianship of the Jurist?'"
  • 90 parliamentarians call for impeachment of Ahmadinejad.
  • Parliamentarian Ahmad Nateq Nouri: "Anyone who disobeys the Guardian Jurist has disobeyed an infallible."
  • As Ahmadinejad boycotts the Supreme Leader's annual mourning ceremony, Hojjat al-Eslam Kazem Sediqi, temporary Tehran Friday prayer leader and one of the speakers at the ceremony, along with Mansour Arzi the praise singer, called Ahmadinejad a "hypocrite" who had entered politics as "a man of the Guardianship," but has behaved otherwise.
    • Without mentioning Ahmadinejad, Sediqi said: "Dear gentleman, this country has experienced the transitional government [of Bazargan], has experienced Bani-Sadr.  You are nothing compared to them!"
  • Hojjat al-Eslam Zolnour, deputy representative of the Supreme Leader to the Revolutionary Guards, attacks against Ahmadinejad and Mashaei.
  • Assembly of Experts member Ayatollah Khazali attacks Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei's "school of Iran" ideology.

Diplomacy

• [E] The US and Israel are trying to divide the Syrian nation and government through sparking tension in Syria, Iranian Foreign Ministry announced.
• [E] Iran's Secretary of Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili and Chairman of Pakistan's Senate Farooq Hamid Naik stressed the need for further cooperation between the two neighboring states in bilateral, regional and international fields.
• [E] Ahmadinejad says the West is using the conflict in Libya as an excuse to sell its arms.

Photos of the Day

• Supreme Leader Khamenei presides over religious mourning ceremonies with Hassan Khomeini and Intelligence Minister Hojjat al-Eslam Heydar Moslehi sitting next to him; Ahmadinejad boycotted the ceremony.