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

• Political analyst Sadq Zibakalam says leading reformist figures will be filtered by the Guardian Council should the reformists seek to run for president, and stresses that Ali-Akbar Nateq Nouri is the only person who can form a national unity government.
• Ahmadinejad addresses schoolchildren in Khorasan province:
  • "You go and take take four to five photos [of yourselves] wearing the chafiya [Palestinian scarf of Basij members], which would be good for your future propaganda [in case they should desire to run for a public office in the future]."
  • "In the next session [of the government] with the pupil representatives, the schoolchildren can appear in their local dress. The government will cover the cost."
  • Responding to the pupil's demand for increased budget for the Pupil's Organization Ahmadinejad said: "For the time being our budget is under restrain. the budget has been reduced to zero in many places, or has had a 25% decrease, which helps us understand who is doing what, but we will cover the budget of the Pupil's Parliament... If necessary, we will reduce the salary of the [Education] minister and others and will give you the budget."

Diplomacy

• Jomhouri-ye Eslami attacks the Turkish Prime Minister whom it accuses of war mongering.
• Ali Shams Ardakani, the Islamic Republic's Special Envoy to the United Nations and former ambassador to Kuwait - who for a time also collected the Khums [religious taxes of the pious Shi'a] in Kuwait, says it was Behzad Nabavi who prevented President Mohammad-Ali Rajai from meeting United States authorities at the United Nations in October 1980 in order to discuss release of American hostages in Iran.

Military and Security

• According to Tehran-e Emrooz, the authorities have "neutralized" a "vast cyber attack" against Iran's oil infrastructure.

• Amir-Farzad Esmaeili, Air Defense Force commander, says the Islamic Republic has issued "countless warnings to the U.S. Air Force' AWACS planes."

• Ali-Ashraf Nouri, Revolutionary Guards Political Bureau commander, predicts the events up to the 2013 presidential election:

• "In the economic field, the enemy is concentrating its forces to target the private economy of the public in order to create public dissatisfaction. The people who experience economic hardships will voice demands from the regime, and will look for those responsible for the chaos in the economic system. In the wake of this event, from the bosom of the protests, someone who is a supporter of the West will try to enter the arena with the slogan of rescuing the economic conditions. In other words, it will be argued that if you want the conditions to improve, you must vote for this individual. This is how they will try to impose their preferred option to the public, [a candidate who] under normal conditions, would be notorious well known by the public..."
• In the second part of the interview, Nouri stressed that "one can't accuse an organization [the Revolutionary Guards] by referring to a few personal examples. If one member of the Guards supports someone specific [a candidate] it would be no reason to accuse the guards of intervening in the election." 

• In a separate interview, Ali-Ashraf Nouri, Revolutionary Guards Political Bureau commander, accuses the United States of using members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq as spies operating in Iran.
• The Basij starts the "Ten thousand man large Mohammad Rasoul-Allah wargame" in Qazvin in the presence of Ali Fazli, Basij deputy.
• Former Intelligence Minister Ali Younesi in an interview with Tejarat weekly says Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered the ministry to "close down 100 economic companies."

• Younesi says: "Before joining the Intelligence Ministry I was present in the judicial system of the country and closely watched the security services and was aware of their economic activities. I had prepared myself to deal with this issue. At the first meeting we were present in the company of the Leader of the Revolution - after being appointed - he stressed that we should shut down the economic activities of the Intelligence Ministry... All the institutions in the executive branch of the state were unhappy with the Intelligence Ministry's involvement in economic activities and they supported this policy... Some [of the companies] were handed over [to other institutions] and some were dissolved. More than 100 companies were dissolved..."

• Ahmad-Reza Radan, Law Enforcement Forces deputy, warns against "the enemy's attempts at instigating ethnic conflicts in north western parts of the country."

Economy

• Abrar-e Eqtesadi reports on the state of foreign currency trade at Ferdowsi Avenue:

• "Most exchange bureaus at Ferdowsi Avenue do not trade with the U.S. Dollar despite displaying the price of the Dollar on their billboards... None of them engage in buying or selling the foreign currency and when we talk with them they say: 'We don't have foreign currency.' Presence of the security police in the foreign currency and [gold] mint has made the traders leave the bazaar... One of the traders says that the prices on the billboards reflects orders, but even if someone has the foreign currency, they will not sell at this price..."

• According to Abrar-e Eqtesadi, people with long term saving accounts do not face any difficulties in receiving their interest in foreign currency.
• Kayhan editor Hossein Shariatmadari praises the efforts of the authorities to contain the foreign currency crisis.

Photo of the Day

• The Cyber Crime Unit discloses the most searched photos on Google by Internet users in Kerman province: 1. Photo, 2. Girl, 3. Woman, 4. Girl, 5. Clothes, 6. Hot [in English], 7. Pubes, 8. Naked, 9. Beautiful, 10. Flower.