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].

Death of cleric sparks fierce clashes in Iranian cities; plainclothes agents attack mourning ceremony of late Montazeri in Isfahan; Ahmadinejad fires Mousavi from Academy of Arts; Ahmadinejad demands war reparations from Allies; Jalali blames foreign occupation for prevailing problems in Afghanistan; trial of French national to be continued; Ahmadinejad terms Iran ‘most important country in Middle East’; Iran to unveil new generations of satellite; Iran’s assets in foreign banks suffer 12% decrease; Iran planning to expand bilateral trade with Afghanistan

Politics

• Plainclothes agents attacked Grand Ayatollah Sanei's office in Qom to avenge Sanei's support for the Green Movement.

  • Head of Grand Ayatollah Sanei's office says pro-Ahmadinejad demonstrators attacked the Grand Ayatollah's office, while the police and the Law Enforcement Forces did not intervene.

  • Plainclothes agents attacked a mourning ceremony of the late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri at the Seyyed Mosque in Isfahan. While the mourners were reciting the Quran, the plainclothes agents came to the gate of the mosque and used tear gas and pepper spray against the assembled mourners, and roughed up the people, especially Hojjat al-Eslam Adib, a member of the Mosharekat [Participation] reformist front. Adib, who is also the head of Mir-Hossein Mousavi's campaign headquarters in Qom, was speaking to the mourners. According to Parleman News the people had tried to encircle Hojjat al-Eslam Adib, shouting "we will not allow insults against the clergy," which only led to further use of force by the agents and the arrest of Adib. Other arrested individuals were photographers and journalists from Isfahan newspapers. In protest against the plainclothes agents, the mourners who escaped from the Seyyed Mosque made a procession to the private home of Ayatollah Jalal al-Din Taheri Esfahani, a close friend of the late Montazeri. Ayatollah Taheri addressed the crowds with tearful eyes and expressed deep sorrow, and said: "It was me who urged the people to assemble. I am deeply sorry to hear this is the way they treat the memorial service of a source of emulation."

  • According to Emrouz, a group of people have left their native cities of Isfahan, especially Najaf Abad, and are on their way to Qom to protect the homes of the late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri and Grand Ayatollah Sanei against plainclothes agents.

• Alef News Agency releases a 1988 open letter by Mehdi Karrubi to Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, in which Karrubi publicly distances himself from Montazeri at the time when Grand Ayatollah Khomeini dismissed Montazeri as his successor-designate.

• Mir-Hossein Mousavi is dismissed as Director of the Academy of Arts.

• An unnamed source says Ahmadinejad will be appointed First Vice President after the end of his presidency. The source adds that rather than Tehran Mayor Qalibaf or Parliamentary Speaker Larijani, an "unknown individual from Ahmadinejad's circle" will become president.

• After Ahmadinejad said he would demand war reparations from the Allies due to their breach of Iran’s neutrality during the Second World War, he now calls for monetary compensation from the Allies because of the First World War as well.  

  • Parliamentarian Kavakebian says Ahmadinejad should seek war reparations from Iraq because of the country’s invasion of Iran in 1988, rather than to demand compensation for the world wars.

Diplomacy

• [E] Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili during his trip to Japan said that problems in Afghanistan should not be resolved through resort to military means. "Presence of the occupiers has brought no security to Afghanistan but multiplied production of drugs in the country so the Islamic Republic of Iran believes that Afghanistan's problem has no military solution." If occupiers had brought tractors instead of tanks to Afghanistan, many problems in the country would have already been resolved, he said sarcastically.

• [E] Trial of the French national Clotilde Reiss, who is currently on trial on charges of action against Iran's national security, will continue for one more session, her attorney Mohammad Ali Mahdavi Sabet announced on Wednesday.

• [E] Ahmadinejad says Iran is the most important country in the Middle East. "Today all politicians and all people who want to have a say in the world need the Iranian nation." He added: "The Middle East is the most important region in the world and the Islamic Republic of Iran is the most important country of the Middle East."

 Military and Security

• Yadollah Javani, Revolutionary Guards Political Directorate Chief, in a leading article in Sobh-e Sadegh accuses the Green Movement of trying to "eradicate Islam, the revolution, Guardianship of the Jurist and Imam [Khomeini] from the [political] arena."

• The Revolutionary Guards launches internet websites for three of its internal journals: Payam, Hosoun, and Morabian.

• According to Sobh-e Sadegh the Revolutionary Guards successfully conducted a seminar with the participation of Balouchi tribal leaders in Sarbaz.

• Abd al-Reza Abed, Engineering and Passive Defense Deputy of the Revolutionary Guards: "More than seventy percent of development projects are carried out in partnership with the private sector and less than thirty percent by the internal institutions of the Guards and engineering groups...There are 62 supervisory bodies monitoring the activities...led by 318 on-site supervisors... A number of 310 engineers...are engaged in various developmental fields..."

• Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi says a new generation of satellites will be launched next year.

• Abdollah Eraghi, Revolutionary Guards Ground Forces Deputy, says the "footprint of those countries that supported Saddam [during the Iran/Iraq war] is visible in the post- election unrest in Iran...and terrorist acts..."

Nuclear Issue

• Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani visiting Egypt says uranium enrichment must take place in Iran.

Economy

• [E] Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has announced that the country's assets in foreign banks have showed a 12 percent decrease. According to the statistical figures issued by the CBI, Iran's assets in foreign banks have reached $77.8 billion by August from $ 88.5 billion at the same time last year. Government's obligations to the Central Bank rose by 2 percent to about $13 billion, the CBI report said. The central bank's foreign exchange debts decreased by 28.7 percent to about $15 billion, it added. The report added that the debts of Iranian banks to the Central Bank fell by 5 percent to reach $19.7 billion form 20.8 last August.

Trade

• Total’s executive director says his company is negotiating with Chinese CNPC for the development of the eleventh phase of South Pars oil and gas field.

• [E] Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has called for an increase in his country's investments in Iran's oil and gas sectors, and welcomed endorsement of a bilateral free trade agreement between the two states.

 Iran in the Afghan Media

• Afghan border guards have arrested three Iranian nationals with weapons and narcotics in Herat Province.

• An article in Hasht-e Sobh says, “Iran has maintained good relations with Kabul despite its growing influence in western Afghanistan.” The author notes that Afghanistan voted against the recent U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning Iran’s human rights violations, and Afghanistan was one of the first countries congratulating Ahmadinejad’s win in the ‘rigged elections’. The article points out that although the United States repeatedly report on the Iranian support to the Taliban, it is not yet known to what extent the Islamic Republic and the Taliban are aligned. While acknowledging Iran’s support to insurgent groups in Afghanistan, the writer criticizes the United States for ignoring other countries playing a destabilizing role in Afghanistan and Iraq, especially Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, because the two are Washington’s allies.

• Afghanistan and Iran are trying to expand bilateral trade cooperation, especially in providing conditions for Iranian businessmen to invest in the private sector in Afghanistan. Trade between the two countries has now reached $850 million a year, and over 30 Iranian companies are operating across Afghanistan.

• Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman says the ministry is considering an invitation by Britain to participate in the upcoming conference on Afghanistan slated for next month in London.

 Photos of the Day

• Burial of the late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri in Qom.