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 Ali Khamenei's address to the Assembly of Experts:
  • "The Guardianship of the Jurist means flexibility of the system of guardianship. This means that the entire decision making bodies at the helm of which the leader presides continuously change themselves by choosing whatever is more correct and perfect and by completing the state building to move the country forward...
  • They [critics] say absolute guardianship means that the state must move according to the inclination of the just jurist. However, a just jurist can't act according to his inclination... The dangerous interpretation which one must avoid is mistaking flexibility with deviation and retreating in the face of external pressure... One must not retreat from any principle and foundation because of the political/propaganda pressures of sworn enemies of Islam and Iran in any case, not move in Western frameworks since this means renewed assessment and deviation and not flexibility."
• Hojjat al-Eslam Saqqa-ye Bi-Ria, clerical affairs adviser to Ahmadinejad, discusses divisions within the Ahmadinejad camp:
  • "They say the meaning of 'the school of Iran' is an ideology exported from Iran and Iranians make it known to the world audience. I had discussions with these gentlemen and said: 'the school of Iran' issue of yours will not be effective in Egypt because the name of Iran is on the ideology. 'The school of Iran' will be repellent. I also reminded them of the ways and words of His Holiness the Imam Khomeini and Imam Khamenei who always speak of Islam through which Iran has become endeared. These gentlemen have no answer to this argument and the logic of the Imam and the Leader. Of course, there were also some other individuals in the cabinet who did not share [this] logic. This is all the work of [Esfandiar Rahim-] Mashaei... Mashaei has this idea that 'had it not been for the Iranians, Islam would have been buried in Arab nationalism.' This is like saying: 'Iranians salvaged Islam and gave Islam a new face.' Such interpretations make Islam indebted to Iran, and the current of deviation and Mashaei use such interpretations."
  • "I have heard from the mouth of Mr. Ahmadinejad that 'Iranians have never been idol worshipers,' 'have always been monotheists', and that the Iranian character is 'more elevated and more deep rooted' than Islamism."
  • "The mentality of the current of deviation is humanist, nationalist and anti-clerical. These elements are shared elements between the reformists and Mashaei, but expressed through different means. Reform means transformation from tradition to modernity and the current of deviation wants to preserve the thought and the format which is emptied from within... In the end they say that the school of Iran is strengthening of the Iranian character so that it remains and Islam goes away. Therefore we see that 'the school of Iran' is propagated and the Cylinder of Cyrus in its wake, the essence of Iranian character is talked of and all this is deviation."
  • "In practice, Mashaei ignores the issue of the hijab...and says such matters are not important and that the issue of interest rates in the banking sector... is more important than the hijab issue..."
  • "What one sees in the moves of the current of deviation is its goal to marginalize the clergy and the guardianship of the jurist. They say 'we recognize the guardianship of the jurist,' but they recognize a type of guardianship of the jurist which is suited for the era of occultation and claim now that we are in the era of minor emergence [so that] there is no need for the guardianship of the jurist..."   
  • "The Supreme Leader stressed that Mr. Ahmadinejad should not mention names of individuals [thereby launching personal attacks during the 2009 presidential election televised debates], but Ahmadinejad used names. Later he said: 'The only person who said I should mention the names of the individuals was Mashaei. Now, it is not clear to us how Mashaei persuades Ahmadinejad to do so. In short, Mashaei says: 'I was in a spiritual state and was convinced that the Imam of the Era wants Ahmadinejad to name the individuals. In reality this is the meaning and words of the Bab [Bahai] movement which is being expressed in the face of the Guardian Jurist."
• Parvin Ahmadinejad discusses Ahmadinejad's youth on Borna News: the Ahmadinejad family had four daughters and three sons; the late father of the family used to prepare breakfast during the month of Ramadan and treated his children with the greatest affection.
  • The mother of the family is illiterate and devout.
• Kayhan editorializes: "The Supreme Leader is against elections in which the result is known beforehand."

Diplomacy

• Grand Ayatollah Nouri Hamadani expresses his support to "the Muslim people of Bahrain" and the "holy combatant scholar Sheikh Isa Ahmad Qassem."
  • Qassem Al-Hashemi, Bahraini political activist:
    • "As opponents of the regime, we have 18 out of 40 seats in the parliament which is unjust. The electoral constituencies have not been divided in a just way. One individual is representative of 30,000 Shi'a in the parliament, but on the other hand 2,000 Sunni can have a representative in the parliament. This shows that 8 Shi'a count as much as one Sunni while both are citizens of Bahrain..."
    • "Our most important demand is one man, one vote... But after the killing of the people, their demands increased and for the time being the people demand a vote to decide their destiny, to decide the governmental system of their country, be it a republic or kingdom. I personally no longer desire monarchy, because they killed and imprisoned the people. They do not have the competence to administer the state."
• [E] The US cannot attain its goals in the upcoming international conference on Afghanistan in Germany and it will, thus, attempt to rock the boat and hinder the confab from gaining success, a senior Iranian foreign ministry official cautioned.
• [E] The Iranian presidential office in a statement on Monday condemned certain foreign media outlets for “fabricating” President Ahmadinejad's remarks and stances on Syria, underlining that the Iranian president strongly condemns foreign intervention in Syria's domestic affairs.

Military and Security

• Basij Chief Mohammad-Reza Naqdi: "Not all interventions should be Western; we are also prepared to intervene in the internal affairs of these countries when needed."
• Yadollah Javani, Revolutionary Guards Political Directorate chief: "Any movement" which corresponds with the "revolutionary discourse and Principalist thought" also corresponds with the policies of the Revolutionary Guards.
• Mahmoud Loqmani, Zone III natural gas transportation director, says the Law Enforcement Forces and the Basij will "guard" the natural gas pipelines.

Nuclear Issue

• [E] Head of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) Sergei Kiriyenko announced that Iranian and Russian officials have signed two protocols on nuclear cooperation.
• [E] Iran has joined the pioneering states in nuclear-related technologies after its first nuclear power plant in the Southern port city of Bushehr started operation and joined the country's national grid, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said on Monday.

Photos of the Day

• Second phase of the Devotees of the Realm of Guardianship wargame.