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

• According to Jahan News, Ayatollah Hadi Ghazanfari Khansari, the "spiritual leader of Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei" and "the source of emulation of Ahmadinejad's team" has been convicted to 10 years of imprisonment.
• Ayatollah Khansari's biography and publication list.
• Dolatema [Dowlat-e Ma] website, close to Ahmadinejad: "The real current of deviation can be found in the Guards and at the seminaries."
• Mohammad-Javad Ebtahi, parliamentarian and a member of the Islamic Resistance Front, says those who depict the front as an appendix to Ahmadinejad are like "cows."

Diplomacy

• Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses the armed forces in Kermanshah: "Repetition of stupid and futile methods of helpless and confused Western politicians in order to spread Iranophobia will once again fail and once again they will taste the bitter taste of defeat... The arrogant regime of the United States is entangled in problems and swamps resulting from the mistaken policies and performance of this regime... The path of salvation of the United States from swamps such as Afghanistan is not the materialist approach, an arrogant outlook and a violent spirit. The solution is the method of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is that of logics, reason and spirituality..."
• Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi: "Should the Americans embrace a policy of opposing Iran, they will receive a slap [in the face] the consequences of which will be most dire for them."
• [E] Head of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi stressed that the US accusations that Tehran intended to assassinate a Saudi diplomat in Washington is a "big lie".
• [E] A senior member of the Iranian parliament on Friday said that the recent claim raised by Washington to link Tehran to a terrorist plot in the US was part of the attempts made by the White House to spread Iranophobia.

Military and Security

• IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari addresses the people of Khorramabad: "Today, the Islamic revolution of Iran is facing foreign and domestic enemies in its divine path. Therefore we must safeguard the achievements of this revolution... Of course, these enmities against Iran are natural and the holy warriors, the revolutionaries, and the devout must struggle hard in the path of God and this revolution..."
• Ahl al-Bayt News Agency reports "police brutality" in Qom against a theological student riding a motorcycle without a license.

Nuclear Issue

• [E] Iran would like Russia to construct more nuclear power stations after the completion of its first Russian-built atomic plant, said Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast.

Trade

• [E] South Korean Ambassador to Iran Park Jae-hyun said trade volume between Tehran and Seoul has reached $10 billion in the first half of 2011.

Economy

• [E] The National Iranian Offshore Oil Company announced plans to begin the development of six new offshore natural gas fields in the Persian Gulf, whose reserves are estimated at 25.7 trillion cubic feet.

Photos of the Day

• Execution of "perpetrators of corruption" in Khomeinishahr.