Iran News Round Up

A selection of the latest news stories and editorials published in Iranian news outlets, compiled by Ali Alfoneh and Ahmad Majidyar. To receive this daily newsletter, please subscribe online.

(E) = Article in English   

Politics

• Bultan News quoting Arman reports that Rafsanjani will run for president in 2013.
• News stories about arrest of Rafsanjani's children:
  • Judiciary Spokesman Hojjat al-Eslam Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ezhehi says the  arrest of Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani show that "the Judiciary has enacted the law concerning the people who should have been dealt with and this will also happen in the future in a decisive and non-preferential manner."
  • According to Fars News Agency's analyst, Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani's return to Iran was due to an impending legal case against him in Canada by a certain Houshang Bouzari.

Diplomacy

• [E] Ahmadinejad mocked Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's bomb diagram, saying that it was an insult to participants at the UN session.
• [E] Ahmadinejad said Tehran has made continued efforts to find a negotiated end to the Syrian crisis through talks between the Damascus government and the opposition groups, adding that the best solution to the Syrian crisis is holding free elections in that country.

Military and Security

• According to the Kanon-e Towhid Association in London, Mohsen Rezaei, former Revolutionary Guards commander, will address the association in London this week. It is not clear if Rezaei will be in London in person or will make the address through the internet.
• Revolutionary Guards Navy Commander Ali Fadavi says the "cyber forces" of the Guards have "easily accessed the most secret intelligence of the enemy."
• Former vigilante leader Hossein Allah-Karam discusses the plainclothes vigilante groups whom he divides into ten groups: Security forces, rogue elements, journalists, governmental people and students, the media, unorganized spectators, active unorganized spectators, representatives of the foreign media, and the plainclothes forces.
• Farda News runs a short backgrounder on the Ansar al-Sharia terrorist group.

Economy

• Iran’s currency rial declines to 36,500 to one U.S. dollar, but stabilizes around 32,600 in the late afternoon.
  • At a press conference in Tehran, Ahmadinejad blames sanctions and "psychological manipulation of the domestic atmosphere" for sharp fluctuations in the value of the rial.

Photo of the Day

• Ahmadinejad’s cameraman seeks asylum in the U.S.