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, please visit this page, fill out the "New Subscribers" section, and check "Iran News Round Up" listed under "Projects." 

(E) = Article in English

Politics

• Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati at Tehran Friday prayers:
  • "We must repent our sins and we must pray to Imam Hussein. And we should know that whatever calamity falls upon us is because of the sins we commit. Now we have drought. From a religious and Quranic point of view, the calamity which falls upon you is because of your deeds... Therefore, I strictly recommend the entire nation use the month of Muharram to cry and pray to Almighty God and Imam Hossein in order to repent your sinc. In such a case God will send the blessing of rain..."
  • "[Last year's Muharram and anti-government protests] were a great lesson which history taught the Iranian nation. What happened was bitter and hard, but thanks God it had also blessings. The honor of Hussein helped the people who until then thought such individuals [the Green Movement] were following a correct path and were ready to help them understand that they were mistaken."   
• Ahmadinejad visits Mashhad.
• Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei addresses artists in Arak:
  • "When I say something they say 'he is blasphemous.' But there are some who don't understand music and they say music is religiously impermissible..."
  • "There are those who pray so much that they become unaware of God..."
  • "There is a danger called mysticism at the end of which there is no God but illusion. It is at that point when they say 'we have seen the light'..."
  • "You are praying facing the wrong Kaaba and you don't understand music either because you are incapable of comprehending the world of poetry and arts. Poetry is the peak. Because I am an engineer myself, I say that engineering is the sea bed of the arts."
• Former president Mohammad Khatami meets Muqtada al-Sadr and other members of the Sadr family in Qom.

Diplomacy

• First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi says Iran will accept students from Djibouti.

Military and Security

• Revolutionary Guards Navy Chief Ali Fadavi commemorates "martyred students" at the Bandar Abbas branch of the Azad University: "The United States has not the capacity to counter Iran... For the time being, the Revolutionary Guards Navy has complete superiority in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, and can pursue its goals in a different way than before."
• Basij Chief Mohammad-Reza Naghdi says the Basij will "erect scaffolds to revenge the blood of the martyrs, especially Martyr Dr. Shahriari. Scaffolds made by Muslims for American and Zionist generals. We will mark them and clarify which scaffold is for the blood of [which] martyr."
• According to a Tehran Municipality functionary, 3,641 people have died in Tehran because of pollution.
• The Basij asks the people to pray for rain to get rid of pollution.

Nuclear Issue

• Geneva Negotiations: According to Mashregh News, William Burns "was tripping for half an hour behind Dr. Jalili's door to be granted a meeting, but the Supreme National Security Council did not accept this request."

Religion, Society and Culture

• Hojjat al-Eslam Ebrahim Soude Hachaki, educated at the Theological Seminary of Qom, will perform commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein in Tokyo, Japan.
• The city of Qom commemorates the passing of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri.
• Supreme Leader Khamenei appoints Hojjat al-Eslam Mohammad Saidi as caretaker of the Masoumeh shrine in Qom.

Human Rights

• Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is reportedly freed from imprisonment.
• Blogger Hossein Derakhshan is released from the Evin Prison after 26 months of imprisonment.

Photos of the Day

• School children in Isfahan pray for rain.