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

• Ahmadinejad addresses his supporters at a closed session in Tehran:
  • "They say 'You have deviated.' If the path of righteousness is what the opponents of the government say, we deviated from the very beginning and we told them 'we don't accept [your way]'." 
  • "Without previous announcement, I visited an underprivileged village in South Khorasan. As soon as I arrived, I hoped the earth would open and devour me. We are in government and there is this poverty? Simultaneously there are those who are on the verge of explosion because they have overeaten..."
  • "Inside the country, there are many problems and dissatisfaction. In the 2009 elections 14 million people voted for the opponents who discussed the problems. We were saying the same thing, and the people sensed that they [the opposition] were not sincere."
  • "Prior to the election of 2009 we - through the Hezbollahi kids in their [the opposition's] headquarters - found out that there is a complex current trying to topple the regime. They had prepared safe houses, motorcycles and even arms..." 

Diplomacy

• Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses the Great Hajj Congress:
  • "The West and the United States and Zionism are today weaker than ever."
• Ahmadinejad addresses his supporters at a closed session in Tehran:
  • "The West has mobilized all its forces to finish the job. It is crystal clear that NATO is just waiting to attack Iran."
  • "The conditions are not normal; we are reaching the point of the final clash. Of course, this clash is not necessarily military. It could be political or something of the sort..."
  • "We are reaching the apex [of power] but if we are not vigilant, we will receive a blow which does not allow us to rise again for 500 years..."
  • "They wanted to attack Syria. I told the [United Nations] General Secretary: 'Tell everyone: If NATO sets a foot in Syria, the entire region will explode.'"
• Mohammad Karami-Rad, parliamentarian:
  • "We have heard that 500 students - from the family members of the authorities of the country - are residents in Britain and some have dual citizenship - but [delay in severing the diplomatic relations between Britain and the Islamic Republic] is surely not motivated by this."
• [E] Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi is due to visit Armenia on Tuesday.

Military and Security

• Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi: "Iran has not abstained from deploying a flotilla to the Atlantic Ocean... Deploying this flotilla is among our future plans and whenever we find it expedient the deployment will take place..."
• Sa'dollah Zare'i, international affairs expert: "One cannot under any circumstance accept that Israel should have a plan to attack Iran or even participate in an attack against Iran. The regional conditions and the capabilities of Israel taken into consideration, one reaches this conclusion... Four Iranian missiles will make a million Zionists refugees."
• Reactions to "statements made by American authorities concerning assassination of commanders of the Guards":
  • Maj.-Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of the General Staff: "There will be retaliation, if they are capable of doing so."
  • Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi: "This self-sacrificing force is the vanguard in the fight against terrorism, and is a thorn in the eyes of the Zionist occupiers."
  • Interior Minister Mohammad-Mostafa Najjar: "The Guards are a popular institution and threatening the Guards means threatening the Iranian nation. But of course, the Iranian nation does not fear such threats."
• A website close to Ansar-e Hezbollah accuses Ahmadinejad "and his team" of "assassinating Qassem Suleimani... and Hossein Taib" in order "to weaken" the Revolutionary Guards.
• [E] Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the US and Israel against their hostile rhetoric against Tehran, saying that a military strike against Iran over its nuclear program would be a serious mistake with unpredictable consequences.

Nuclear Issue

• Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi calls the latest IAEA report on Iran's nuclear activities "baseless and without foundation": "If they insist upon releasing the documents, well, let them do so... We don't have any trouble with releasing the documents, but we believe their documents are baseless and without foundations. If the IAEA truly is impartial it should advance its work in a professional way and should not work under pressure from others..."

Photo of the Day

• Eid prayers.