Iran News Round Up

 A selection of the latest news stories and editorials published in Iranian news outlets, compiled by Ali Alfoneh, Ahmad Majidyar, Brianna Rosen and Michael Rubin.  To subscribe to this daily newsletter, e-mail [email protected].

Speculation rife over Ahmadinejad’s new cabinet; Khatami, Karrubi join Mousavi’s new party; Karrubi accused of ‘dictatorship’, ‘bribery’; Supreme Leader’s representative to IRGC emphasizes Guards’ role to save Islamic Revolution; Israeli President says Moscow to reconsider advanced missile sales to Iran; Syrian President visits Tehran; Iranian ocean liner launch-ready

      Politics

• (E) As Wednesday deadline for cabinet announcement passes, speculation continues over appointments.
  • An "informed source" claims Ahmadinejad has presented his cabinet ministers to the Parliament: 
    • Education Minister: Mrs. Sousan Keshavarz
    • Intelligence Minister: Hojjat al-Eslam Moslehi
    • Culture and Islamic Guuidance Minister: Mohammad Hosseini
    • Trade Minister: Ghazanfari
    • Communications and Information Technology Minister: Taghi-Pour
    • Petroleum Minister: Masoud Mir-Kazemi
    • Roads and Transportation Minister: Hamid Behbahani
    • Energy Minister: Mohamamd Ali-Abadi
    • Housing and Urban Development Minister: Nikzad
    • Agricultural Jihad Minister: Bour-Bour
    • Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Minister: Vahidi
      • (E) Conflicting reports on Minister of Defense appointment.
    • Health Minister: Mrs. Marziyeh Vahid Dastjerdi
    • Cooperatives Minister: Mohammad Abbasi
    • Welfare Minister: Mrs. Fatemeh Ajorlou
    • Industry and Mines Minister: Ali-Akbar Mehrabian
    • Foreign Minister: Manouchehr Mottakki
    • Science, Research and Technology Minister: Kamran Daneshjou
    • Interior Minister: Mohammad Najjar
    • Economy and Finance Minister: Shams al-Din Hosseini
    • Labor and Social Affairs Minister: Abd al-Reza Sheikh al-Eslami
    • Justice Minister: Either a certain Montazeri or Morteza Bakhtiari
• Tabnak News Agency praises Rafsanjani's "magnanimous" presence at the inauguration ceremony of Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, new Judiciary Chief.
  • Tabnak News Agency publishes biographic details about the Larijani family.
• Mohammad Khatami and Mehdi Karrubi join the central committee of the Green Path of Hope party formation of Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
• Vatan-e Emrouz publishes front page interview with Fahimeh Saberi, wife of the late Morteza Palizvani, who condemns "Karrubi's dictatorship in the Martyr Foundation."
  • Mrs. Saberi claims that Karrubi bribed employees of the Martyr Foundation not to complain, and should they complain, they would be dealt with by the Committee of the Foundation [Komiteh-ye Bonyad] which disciplined dissidents. According to Mrs. Saberi, Karrubi even arranged trials in the cellar of the headquarters of the Martyr Foundation and transferred those guilty of badmouthing his institution to Evin Prison and several other detention centers in Tehran.
  • Mrs. Saberi also discusses a scheme of the Martyr Foundation called Cities of the Martyrs [Shahrak-ha-ye Shahid] built by the Martyr Foundation for family members of those killed in the Iran/Iraq war. According to Mrs. Saberi, the family members were forced to leave their places of residence and move to the social housing built by the Martyr Foundation which functioned as a place where widows of the martyrs would be approached by male family members of other martyrs, and marriages were directed by Karrubi's office. Mrs. Saberi also claims that should the widows marry someone else than recommended by the Martyr Foundation, Karrubi would preserve the right to remove the children of the widows from home since the foundation considered itself the "guardian" of the widows who were treated as "minors."  More.
• Hassan Rahim-Pour Azghadi, member of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, speaking to an assembly of Basij members engaged in cultural work says "a secularist movement" has "infiltrated the ranks of the political class" and warns that they "have a religious look" but in general "prefer this-worldly inclinations."
• Article in Kayhan, entitled “Need for Change in the Judiciary,” highlights shortcomings in the Judiciary system and urges the new leadership to address them. The author writes:
  • From an Islamic perspective one of the most sensitive, the most important, and of course the most dangerous social position is the position of the judiciary.
  • In spite of all the [past] struggles and endeavors in respect to eliminating defects and [promoting] the growth and prosperity of judicial authority, the expectations of the people from this authority have still not been met and their concerns and apprehensions have not been resolved in a complete way. The people know that the campaign against economic corruption is one of the main ways of achieving justice… They hope that such issues will be resolved under the new leadership of this power [the Judiciary].  
  • The people hope that the new head of judicial authority, with a spirit of initiative and innovation, will eliminate the defects [in the system] and begin a flourishing era of the country's judiciary.

Military and Security

• Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Saidi, Representative of the Supreme Leader to the Revolutionary Guards in an interview with Raja News [Link available upon request due to U.S. State Department blocking of emails with Raja links]:
  • "If the Islamic Revolution wants to survive, the Guards must be ready to act in three realms: One is the realm of hard threats, despite the fact that the threat of a military attack is not great, one must preserve preparedness at all levels of the government, especially among the armed forces and the Guards.
  • The second realm is that of semi-hard threats, which means threats at regional level, or activation of ethnic, sectarian and racial groups - something which has always been utilized by the enemy and calls upon the attention and vigilance of the Guards and the Basij.
  • The third realm is that of soft threats which today are the cornerstone of the enemy's attempt to topple the regime. One of the issues of perpetual interest to the enemy is that of elections. Most of our elections are in the orange field of threat because there is always the possibility of secular individuals and parties not devoted to the religious principles entering the arena of election and this is illegal. Those who do not recognize the sovereignty of religion, those who do not match with the Guardian Jurist and do not accept its rules should not be allowed to enter the cycle of competition for power."
• The Law Enforcement Forces urge the public to denounce those who do not abide the fast during the month of Ramadan to the authorities.
• (E) Israeli President Shimon Peres says Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promised to reconsider sale of anti-aircraft missiles to Iran in Tuesday meeting.
• (E) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari told fellow IRGC commanders that “soft threats” can be combated with “preventative measures,” and the IRGC “cannot sit aside.”

Diplomacy

• Syria’s President Assad visits Tehran.
• (E) Iranian ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Kazemi Qomi met on Tuesday with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who expressed concerns over Iran blocking flow of water to Iraq’s rivers.
  • Tabnak releases news of the secret travel of members of the Gha'emat al-Iraqiyat party to Iran to discuss the parliamentary elections in Iraq with Iranian authorities.
• (E) Senior Parliamentarian Esmail Kowsari praised “the spirit of resistance” that characterized President Ahmadinejad’s first-term foreign policy.

Human Rights and Labor

• A parliamentary committee to meet with imprisoned politicians and journalists Behzad Nabavi, Isa Saharkhiz, Mohammad Ghouchani and Mohammad-Ali Abtahi.
• Head of the Justice Administration of Kahrizak says the inmates of Kahrizak Detention Center have been moved to the prisons of Karaj, Evin and Ghezel-Hesar.

Economy

• (E) The first of five Iranian-made ocean liners scheduled to be built is launch-ready.
• Religion, Security and Culture                                                     
• (E) Parliament’s detainee abuse committee will visit the Kahrizak detention center, which Supreme Leader Khamenei shut down in July for “nonstandard” conditions.
• (E) Following Supreme Leader Khamenei’s order, Tehran’s governor Hossein Tala promised compensation to victims of post-election events.
• (E) The International Holy Quran Exhibition being held in Tehran from August 16 to September 14 features a miniature Quran studded over 9,000 different gems.

Media

• Rumors that Mehdi Karrubi trying to launch a satellite TV transmitting to Iran from a "Middle Eastern country."

Photo of the Day

• Assad and Ahmadinejad