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

• Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addresses the people of Kermanshah:
  • "In the course of the past 32 years, different political inclinations and tastes came to power. Some of them had even an angle directed against the principles of the regime, but the great popular capacity of the Islamic regime has patiently left all those issues behind..."
  • "The popular presence defeated these two seditions to the degree that five days after the [1999] sedition... there was the great movement all over the country... And in the 2009 sedition, two days after the events of the Ashoura, the great and rare popular movement...materialized. "
• Ahmadinejad addresses provincial governors: "The problems of the country today are because the revolutionary spirit of the era of the sacred defense has been weakened. We are a revolutionary regime whose entire administrative system must be indigenous and not capitalist secularism which is anti-human. This would be contrary to the revolutionary spirit."
• Parliamentarian Ali Mottahari resigns from parliament as he is denied the right to question the president.
• Rafsanjani: "The recent [case of] economic corruption is due to marginalization of the media from monitoring [the government agencies]."

Military and Security

• Revolutionary Guards deputy Hossein Salami dismisses the United States government's accusations against the IRGC concerning the terror plot against the Saudi ambassador to Washington.
• [E] Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi strongly rejected the US accusation that Tehran had plotted to assassinate a Saudi envoy to Washington, and warned the US to avoid a confrontational approach towards Iran over the issue.
• [E] Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani called the US accusations over Iran's alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States "immature".
• [E] Senior Islamic Revolution Guards Corps commanders dismissed the US accusation against Iran and the IRGC as "hilarious" and "baseless".
• [E] An Iranian General warned Ankara to rethink its decision on hosting a NATO missile shield as the move is a direct threat to Iran's interests.

Nuclear Issue

• Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addresses Kermanshah: "The nuclear issue was one of the challenges the regime was facing but the authorities managed to resist enemy threats by relying upon the people..."

Trade

• Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addresses Kermanshah: "Sanctions and economic pressures are not new issues for the Iranian nation since the Islamic regime has managed to transform all those restrictions into opportunities thanks to the patience and insights of the people, especially the youth..."
• Mousa Souri, Pars Oil and Gas Company executive director:
  • "For the time being, the priority and policy of the Oil Ministry is to develop the shared oil and gas fields revolving around South Pars... Development of the independent North Pars gas field comes second... Iran respects all its contracts, but the decision for activities of the Chinese in North Pars was conditioned on their type of activity in development of the 11th phase of the South Pars... Therefore, plans for development of North Pars have been temporarily suspended..."
  • According to Abrar, 27 months after signing the contract with the Chinese CNPCI, this company has delayed development of the 11th phase of the South Pars. Another Chinese company, SINOC has signed a $16 billion project to develop the North gas field but has not yet started the project.
• Javad Owji, deputy oil minister and National Iranian Gas Company director general, says Qatar's oil extraction from the South Pars oil and gas field is 2.5 times that of Iran's.

Photos of the Day

• Supreme Leader Khamenei visits Kermanshah.