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 subscribe to this daily newsletter, e-mail [email protected].  

 Politics

• Former Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Hossein Saffar-Harandi comments internal dynamics of the ninth cabinet:
  • "My main issue during that cabinet session was the issue of Mr. [Esfandiar Rahim-] Mashaei remaining as first vice president. This was contrary to the viewpoint of the Leader and the meeting was not legitimate... Then the president left the meeting and we started protesting. After this, prior to the next cabinet meeting, I and one of the other cabinet ministers were called and we were told 'your successors have been found, ready yourself to deliver the position. But since the cabinet would lose its majority, Mr. Ahmadinejad changed his opinion and I was approached in order to ignore what had been said before and since I was in favor of the government, I chose to remain in the cabinet to the end of the tenure..."
  • Commenting on the merger of the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization with the Cultural Heritage Organization Saffar-Harandi said: "Mr. Ahmadinejad committed a mistake and we said that we know the Lord's [Khamenei] viewpoint would be against it. But he did not listen. In reality, if I must speak of his weak points in these regards, he did not listen to well wishing advice..."
• Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, Ahmadinejad's chief of staff, appoints Abbas Masjedi as his representative in dealings with the cabinet and the parliament.
• The Student Basij at Amir Kabir University demands Rafsanjani to "deliver his son to the Judiciary."
  • Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani threatens "disclosures" in case the "character assassination" against him and his family continues.
• [E] Iran’s First Vice-President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi said on Thursday that oil is the key to victory of Muslims in the Middle East.

Diplomacy

• Kim Yong-nam, North Korea's number two, is planning an official visit to Iran.
• Ahmadinejad arrives in Zimbabwe to sign trade and cooperation agreements with President Mugabe.
• [E] Ahmadinejad in a phone conversation with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad conferred on ways to boost all-out cooperation between the two Muslim states.
• [E] Khamenei deplored the US President's recent nuclear threat against Iran and other states, and called on the international community to hold Obama accountable for such warmongering remarks.
• [E] Election of an Iranian for membership in the human rights committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) defused the “western plots” to portray Iran as a violator of human rights, a senior Iranian lawmaker said on Wednesday.
• [E] A spokesman for the Hamas movement says the administration of US President Barack Obama lacks credibility as a mediator in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Military and Security

• Sobh-e Sadegh editorializes: "For some time, circumstances in the Persian Gulf region have been abnormal and suspicions are being detected. Visits of military and security officials of foreign countries to this sensitive region, questionable war games, movements of United States military equipments and those of the Zionist regime, activation of American and French bases in UAE and Saudi Arabia along with cooperation of some countries of the Persian Gulf with foreign powers evolving around the United States, are all signs of abnormal circumstances in the Persian Gulf. It seems as if the Americans are following several goals by activating the Persian [Gulf] region:
  • 1. Intimidating Iran...
  • 2. Strengthening Iranophobia...
  • 3. Giving assurances to the Arabs...
  • 4. Preparedness for possible attacks..."
• Former commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad-Bagher Zolghadr is appointed societal security and crime prevention chief of the Judiciary.
• Yadollah Javani, Revolutionary Guards Political Bureau Chief, stresses the "revolutionary obligations of the Judiciary regarding the discord of 2009."
• Sobh-e Sadegh warns against "tactics of the Green Movement" which includes: Spreading the rumor that Ahmadinejad is a Jewish convert to Islam, character assassination of the Basij, character assassination of the authorities by spreading rumors against them, accusing Ahmadinejad of being a Communist, infiltrating cultural centers, recruitment of well educated people, and mobilizing the student groups.
•  [E] Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has unveiled a native sonar-evading vessel dubbed Ya Mahdi in the initial phase of a new Persian Gulf military drill.
• [E] The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) staged a series of wargames in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz to boost vigilance and combat preparedness of its naval forces.
• [E] Iranian Deputy Defense Minister General Ahmad Vahid Dastjerdi warned the country's enemies against an invasion of Iran, stressing Tehran's preparedness to give a crushing and quick response to all types of threat and aggression.
• [E] A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) announced on Wednesday that the country is prepared to stage joint drills with its southern neighbors in the Persian Gulf.
• [E] A prominent retired Pakistani Army General said that the US attempts to portray Iran as a "defeated country" would never produce results.
• [E] Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi dismissed Israel's ability to wage a war on Iran and confront the country's mighty military forces.
• [E] Iranian intelligence forces have disbanded seven rings involved in drug-trafficking activities in the country's southern province of Hormozgan during the last one month.
• [E] Iranian intelligence forces disbanded a terrorist group that planned to carry out several attacks in Iran's western province of Kurdistan and across the county, Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar announced.
• [E] Hezbollah has censured the latest report by the inspector of UN Resolution 1559, Terje Roed-Larsen, saying it constitutes a flagrant tutelage on Lebanon.
• [E] Recent breaches of the Lebanese border and rising violations of the country's airspace by Israeli forces have prompted warnings of renewed Israeli aggression.

Nuclear Issue

• Supreme Leader Khamenei:
  • "None of the nuclear powers abides by international treaties regulating nuclear arms. They don't act according to them and they visibly lie, but when other states pursue nuclear technology they are accused of not abiding with international treaties because these powers do not want any rival...We have said on numerous occasions that we do not want to use weapons of mass destruction but the Iranian nation will not capitulate in the face of such threats and bullying behavior and will force them to their knees..."
  • "With what right does the president of the United States make nuclear threats against the Iranian nation? This threat is a threat against international peace and security and the humanity. No one in the world must be allowed even to express such threats..."
  • "The Iranian nation will not allow the Americans once again to reestablish their infernal hegemony in Iran with such threats..."
• Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says "Iran is the place for exchange of nuclear fuel."
• The Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi says the Bushehr nuclear plant is scheduled to come on stream this summer.
• Ahmadinejad outlines five steps for global de-nuclearization.

Trade

• Foreign Minister Mottaki receives Turkey’s Foreign Minister: "If certain European countries do not desire to engage in trade with us, we don't insist upon it."

Religion, Society and Culture

• Sobh-e Sadegh's analyst writes that Akbar Ganji has received the $500,000 Milton Friedman Prize for "insulting the principle of Imamate."
• Sobh-e Sadegh warns society of spread of Satanism due to widespread use of disposable air fresheners with an "X" painted on them which according to the Revolutionary Guards' weekly is one of the symbols of the Satanists.

Iran in the Afghan Media

• Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed the execution of six Afghan citizens in Iran.
• The recent executions of dozens of Afghan citizens in Iran have drawn angry reactions from Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission and the Afghan parliamentarians. 
• Kabul and Tehran are working on an agreement for exchange of prisoners.
• Afghanistan National Assembly’s upper house has called on the government to send a senior delegation to Iran to probe cases of Afghan citizens facing death penalty in Iran.
• [E] The bodies of two Afghans executed in Iran have been transferred to the capital of western Nimroz province. Haji Rozi, an Afghan trader in Iran, said around 11 Afghans had been put to death in that country over the past few days. Iranian border guards also shot and injured four Afghans trying to sneak into Iran for work without travel documents.

Photos of the Day

• Tehran metro.
• Supreme Leader Khamenei receives Iranian nurses.