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].

(E) = Article in English

Politics

• New appointments:
  • Rumors that Parviz Fattah Gharebaghi is appointed First Vice President.
  • Judiciary Chief Larijani appoints Ayatollah Mofid and Ayatollah Dorri Najaf-Abadi senior advisors, Ayatollah Mohseni Gorgani Head of Administrative Court, and Hojjatj al-Eslam Mohseni Ezheh-i Supreme Prosecutor General.
    • Ezheh-i, the former Intelligence Minister, says he is the personnel of the Judiciary and "God willing" will "be there." Ezheh-i also says the Prosecutor General's Office may be his next place to work.
  • Hojjat al-Eslam Kazem Seddighi is appointed Temporary Friday Prayer Leader of Tehran, but the Friday Payer Leaders' Headquarters stresses that Seddighi has not replaced Rafsanjani.
• Reactions to Ahmadinejad's candidates for cabinet positions:
  • Ahmadinejad defends his decision to include three women in his cabinet: "Among 313 followers of the Imam of the Era [at the time of his reemergence to start a world revolution], there are 50 women."
    • Hojjat al-Eslam Alam al-Hoda, Mashhad Friday Prayer Leader, says the account of 50 women being among the followers of the Imam of the Era is a "rumor" and considers equality between men and women "an innovation."
  • Mehdi Sanayi, parliamentarian, condemns Ahmadinejad's presentation of six of his cabinet ministers on live television before they were presented to the parliament: "Ahmadinejad announces that he pays special attention to the parliament, but he must show it in his actions... In practice we see that Ahmadinejad, by announcing his candidates for ministerial positions on television, ignores the important role of the parliamentarians and the parliamentarians feel that their role is only ceremonial and they also doubt that there is belief in them..."
  • Parliamentarian Hojjat al-Eslam Mohammad-Taghi Rahbar claims a large number of sources of emulation and Shi'i scholars including Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani and Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi have "theological objections to appointment of female cabinet ministers."
  • Chairman of the Energy Committee of the Parliament says he has doubts about Mir-Kazemi's abilities as Oil Minister.
  • Parliamentarian Javad Arian says five of Ahmadinejad's candidates for cabinet positions are not likely to get a vote of confidence.
• Raja News Agency republishes an old interview with Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who as Prime Minister had attacked Iran Freedom Movement's questioning of the health of elections in Iran and demanded a committee be set up to safeguard the vote. [Link upon request]
• Karrubi has not yet accepted to meet with the Parliament’s special investigations committee tasked with investigating allegations of prisoner abuse, as he demands a meeting with the heads of the three powers [judiciary, legislative and executive].
• Head of the President's Office Esfandiar Rahim-Mashayi has told an assembly called "the followers of the sun" that Rafsanjani has tried to challenge the authority of the Supreme Leader.
• The fourth session of the Tehran show trials will take place tomorrow, Tuesday.
• Soccer fans chant slogans in favor of Mousavi at a match in Tehran. Video. Also here.
• A number of 293 political activists and journalists in an open letter demand the sources of emulation, Rafsanjani, Mohammd Katami, Mousavi and Karrubi unite "in opposition to the coup, now or never!"
• E'temad discusses the different signals sent by Qom and Tehran Friday prayer sermons. Ayatollah Jannati, Tehran Temporary Friday Prayer Leader, indirectly labeled Mousavi, Karrubi and other reformist leaders as the heads of the unrest and demanded prosecution of them, while Ayatollah Amini in Qom demanded dialogue among the elites in order to free innocent people from the prisons and apologize to those who have been wronged. Amini also defended the leaders of the reformist movement as people who have served the Islamic Republic for decades.
• Rafsanjani tells the Expediency Council: "Abiding by the guidance of the Supreme Leader is the requirement of current time.”
  • (E) Former President Rafsanjani called on Iranian authorities to follow Supreme Leader Khamenei’s guidelines by embracing “moves based on wisdom and principles.”
• Presidential Advisor Javanfekr, commenting on why imprisoned former Vice President Mohammad-Ali Abtahi has lost so much weight during his imprisonment, says: "Obesity is bad for health and it is quite natural that when someone is imprisoned, he thinks about health among other things and uses the opportunity to lose some weight."
• Raja News republishes the last will of the late Evin Prison Ward Assadollah Lajevardi who warns against the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization and calls them Monafeqin [hypocrites] of the Islamic Revolution. [Link upon request].
• This Friday's prayer in Tehran to be led by Hojjat al-Eslam Kazem Seddighi.

Human Rights

• Zeinab Hajjarian, daughter of Said Hajjarian, the Intelligence Ministry’s co-founder now in jail, says Hajjarian's doctor has been denied visiting him over the past two months.
• Blogger Sommayyeh Towhid-Lour bailed out of imprisonment.
• Parliamentarian Farhad Tajari says a parliamentary committee is investigating the deaths of 30 individuals since the presidential election, "most of whom are members of the Armed Forces."
  • Nowrouz News reports about graves in a section of Behesht-e Zahra cemetery outside Tehran in which "martyrs" of the post-election clashes have been buried anonymously.
• Imprisoned political activist Arab-Sorkhi is hospitalized.
• Mohammad Maleki, former Tehran University Dean arrested.
• (E) A bill allocating $20 million to efforts to expose the US’ “breaches of human rights” passes in the Iranian parliament in a vote of 189 to 21.

Diplomacy

• In response to Argentinean authorities’ criticism against appointment of Ahmad Vahidi as Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Minister, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qashqavi urges Argentine not to intervene in Iran's internal affairs and to search for "the true perpetrators of this terrorist act. [A reference to the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires]"
  • (E) An official Argentine statement calling Ahmad Vahidi's defense ministry nomination, "an affront to Argentine justice and the victims of the brutal terrorist attack" on the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, was "clear interference in the Islamic Republic of Iran's internal affairs," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi says.
• Raja News reports that the French government has acknowledged its intervention in the internal affairs of Iran when it bailed Clotilde Reiss out of prison. [Link upon request].
• (E) Yemeni officials report seizing Iranian-made weapons from Shia rebels, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi claims Iran has "good relations with Yemen" and calls the recent fighting Yemen's internal affairs.
• The health of Iraqi Shi'a leader Abd al-Aziz Hakim, currently hospitalized in Iran, is reportedly deteriorating.

Nuclear Issue

• Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qashqavi says the Islamic Republic will continue its peaceful nuclear efforts within the frameworks of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Qashqavi refused to make comments on the IAEA’s forthcoming report.  

Military and Security

• Masoud Jazayeri, the deputy chief of staff of the Armed Forces for cultural and defense publicity: "The public opinion is impatiently waiting to see the relevant authorities, including the Judiciary, deal with the traitors of the revolution and the regime, who engaged in a soft coup and planned unrest and chaos in Tehran...We are not in a situation to wait much time to prosecute the rioters. The national security of the country dictates that the rioters should be punished as soon as possible...Those individuals whose acts of betrayal are widely known should not call for establishing parties and groups...As the main layers of the soft coup remain relatively untouched, one cannot be optimistic that we will not face similar threats and crises in future. Therefore, before these movements reorganize , the intelligence and judiciary institutions must answer to their historical, Islamic and legal call...These individuals, with the help of foreigners, are trying to prepare the ground for making the crisis permanent and take the time and place of the next operations under their control..."
• Revolutionary Guards Chief Mohammad-Ali Ja'fari speaking in Sari: "Creating doubt about the election result was meant to execute orders issued from counter revolutionary centers and centers of espionage outside the country. And some people inside the country were tasked to execute the plans...The philosophy of the Guards and the Basij is the permanence of the revolution and its Islamic content. This is a reality which we have inherited from the teachings of the infallible Imams. And in order to achieve these goals we must establish lines of defense in suitable places..."
• Revolutionary Guards Ground Forces Chief Mohammad Pakpour says the IRGC operational and intelligence forces located at the Hamzeh Seyyed Al-Shohada Base have killed 26 members of the PEJAK group in northwestern Iran.
  • More details about the IRGC operation.
• Ansar News reports fierce Shi'a resistance in the Sa'deh province of Yemen in the face of government forces' advances into the province.
• Ahmadinejad, speaking on a live television program about his cabinet for the second time, criticizes former Intelligence Minister Mohseni Ezhehi, whom he said handled post-election unrest weakly.
• Hassan Shah-Safi, Islamic Republic of Iran Army Air Force Chief, says Iranian strategic fighters can reach 3,000 kilometers. Shah-Safi also said Iranian aircraft are capable of refueling in air and said "One day, we will force the enemy out of the Middle East region." Shah-Safi continued: "Under circumstances where many politicians thought there was a serious threat against the country preparedness of the Armed Forces deterred the enemy from engaging in operations..."

Religion, Society and Culture

• On the occasion of the month of Ramadan, Asr-e Iran publishes a backgrounder on clerical garbs, estimating the price of various qualities.
• An anonymous group called "Theologians and Scholars of the Theological Seminary of Qom" publish an open letter to Grand Ayatollah Sanei in which they urge him to "repent in the face of God and apologize the President and the Revolutionary nation" in order to "avoid anger of the nation" following Sanei's criticism of Ahmadinejad. (Link upon request).

Economy

• According to Sarmayeh,only 6 percent of Iran's airports are economic.
• Gholam-Reza Heydari Kord Zangeneh, Executive Director of the Privatization Organization, says Iran needs $80 billion worth of Foreign Direct Investments on annual bases in order to achieve the goals of the 20 Year Development Plan.
• (E) The Iranian oil ministry hopes to exploit a newly discovered oil field after a discovery of 8.8 billion barrels of crude oil.

Trade

• Ahmadinejad in Bandar Abbas: "Those who chant the slogan of sanctions don't know what is happening in the world. Their talk of sanctions is a proof of their political backwardness...Our industry has reached a point where we - during only a week and by changing production lines - can produce all gasoline needed. By utilizing Setareh Refinery of Bandar Abbas during the next couple of years we will become one of the largest producers of gasoline..."
• €178 million investment in Zagros Petrochemical Plant in Assalouyeh to produce 12 percent of the world’s ethanol needs.
• Fars News Agency claims that India, the largest exporter of gasoline to Iran, has no plans of increasing gasoline price. 
• Responding to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's threat of "further sanctions" against Iran, Qashqavi says "sanctions are futile and won't prevent Iran from pursuing its legal rights."

Media

• Kayhan claims Voice of America- Persian has "fired some good for nothing counter revolutionary elements" including "Ahmad Batebi, Kourosh Sehati and Hassan Zare'zadeh Ardeshir" because of allegedly declining audience numbers in Iran.

Photos of the Day

• Rafsanjani and the Larijani brothers at the Expediency Council.
• Hojjat al-Eslam Seddighi, newly appointed Temporary Tehran Friday Prayer Leader.
• Preparation of Zoulbia & Bamiyeh on the occasion of the Ramadan.
• Ramadan