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

Mousavi criticizes government for Student Day crackdown; Rafsanjani reiterates concern over state of affairs in country; Supreme Leader cautions against words of discord; Ahmadinejad warns of Western plot to ‘annihilate’ Iran; Supreme Leader describes Britain, U.S. as Iran’s ‘most evil enemies’; Iran steps up clampdown on media ahead of Student Day march

Politics

• Neither Ahmadinejad nor his minister of higher education will deliver speeches on Student Day, December 7, 2009.

• Mir-Hossein Mousavi issues a Student Day statement and says: "You don't tolerate December 7th at the universities. What will you do on December 8th and December 9th? In the minds of the people your fortifications are collapsing one after the other."

• Office of Consolidation of Unity calls on the public to participate in Student Day demonstrations: "As Student Day gets nearer we are witnessing that the security/judicial apparatus in unprecedented arrests of student activists, by continuously summoning the students to disciplinary committees  and by threats and through communication of harsh viewpoints, they are trying to dissuade the students from demanding the rightful demands of society. Needless to say that increased violence against the student does not necessarily result in control of the students and will only ignite further acceleration of the student movement...The Office of Consolidation of Unity...warns that perpetrators of violence may face unpredictable reactions to their deeds...The Office of Consolidation of Unity demands release of all imprisoned student activists...The Office of Consolidation of Unity urges the students not to give any excuses to the coup makers [a reference to Ahmadinejad’s government] to suppress them..."

• The Green Movement's student organization responding to the Revolutionary Guards' claim that they will "distribute flowers among the students" says the students know that "a majority of the members of the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij are deeply concerned about the state of affairs in society" and that it will answer their roses by giving "green head scarves" to them.

• AUT News reports nightly chants of "God is Great" at student dormitories in Hamadan.

  • Similar student actions in Shiraz.

• Rafsanjani addresses university students in Mashhad:

  • "I'm not silent, but we are now in circumstances where speaking is not tolerated and is considered harmful for society...I expressed my viewpoints at my [last] Friday prayer and I also stressed that it was based upon the Quran...Our revolution was based upon Islam and the Quran but there are some principalists who do not recognize such things and believe vote of the people is only cosmetic..."
  • "There are some friends who with certainty say fraud has taken place [in the election] but I have my doubts. But later I was criticized for making such statement. I believe that the right thing to do was to react to the doubts, and because of my fifty years of [political] experience I proposed that the prisoners should be released and those harmed should be consoled..."
  • "The government has money, forces, and is capable of assembling people in the streets. But it is not right to mobilize the Basij and the Guards to face a bunch of professors, students, workers and artisans..."
  • "Nowadays information is not like the past. Even the smallest statements will be released very fast. Is it good [for the regime] that the people get their news from satellite channels and the Imam and Islam are blamed for the affairs?...Today the news from foreign broadcasters finds its way to the people than from the national media...Censorship does not work in our society. If the press is free and people are satisfied they will no longer assemble in the streets..."
  • "My viewpoint is that the experts should convene and discuss matters of contention so the people listen to them and decide upon it. A society which three to four million students can't be administered through deception..."
  • "At gatherings and demonstrations one can't deal violently with the women and I fear that such demonstrations also proliferate among the women..."
  • "Today the majority of our society listens to reason. What grieves me is why the government and some immature propagandists make their statements in the name of the Supreme Leader...Who is responsible for political prisoners? The [Revolutionary] Guards says we follow the Supreme Leader, but they execute the decree in the way which pleases them and not as the Supreme Leader has stated..."

• Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, Temporary Leader of Tehran Friday Prayer: "Those who commit treason will be punished. The very same way the people forced out the Monafeghin [MKO], these people will also be exiled and they will learn that war against the regime will prove very expensive for them...Some individuals were followers of the line of the Imam, but today we see that they have abandoned this path and have joined the opponents of the Imam and this makes us understand that one must not trust the future, and one must pay attention to how people behave today...”

• Ali Larijani, Speaker of the Parliament: "Those who use every single excuse to insult others" are showing "treacherous behavior."

• Supreme Leader Khamenei: "One must be aware that the enemy abuses any word or deed which smells of discord and is energized by it...Some people should answer to God should they engage in work which the enemy interprets as internal conflict and which in turn emboldens the enemy..."

• Speaker of the Parliament Ali Larijani, addressing Sunni and Shi'a Friday Prayer Leaders in Golestan: "Those who act against the Constitution and the Leadership should not expect support...The Guardianship of the Jurist is a blessing for us and one should not act in a way to harm it..."

• Rafsanjani says the legal claims against his son Mehdi are nothing but rumors, that the Judiciary has no active process against him and that his son does not intend to return to Iran since he is in Lebanon, and will travel to Armenia and Tajikistan in order to establish branches of the Azad University after which he will be doing his doctoral studies.

Diplomacy

• Donya-ye Eghtesad: "The Moscow way of diplomacy and Russia's engagement with Tehran has gradually developed into a serious challenge as Russian duplicity has become totally clear for Tehran. Moscow has always been interested in extracting concessions from Washington with the Iran card, or extracting concessions from Iran by playing the Washington card. Nowadays the question being heard in Tehran is: 'Should Iran not redefine its relations with Russia?' Time has shown that Russia's dealings with Iran lack strategic depth and Moscow has always chosen a zero sum game in its engagement with Tehran. Those critical of the stick and carrot diplomacy of the United States against Iran have finally discovered that the northern neighbor exploits the international atmosphere against Iran in the very same fashion that Washington has. But of course, with the difference that in the hands of the comrade from Moscow one does not even see any carrot! Was investment in Moscow's position after all not a naive one…?" Link upon request.

• Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, Temporary Tehran Friday Prayer Leader: "At Student Day one must not do anything which will delight of the enemies and the United States, since such behavior would be contrary to the path of the martyred students...Can one smile at such enemies and extend them a hand of friendship or give them a green light to exert influence in the country?...Those inside Iran who think they can cleanse the hearts of the Iranian people from enmity and hatred against the United States are wrong. This is impossible..."

• Ali Larijani, Speaker of the Parliament, says he has not seen any change in the foreign policy of the United States.

• Ahmadinejad, in Isfahan: "We have found evidence documenting that they believe that one of the members of the household of the Prophet has emerged in this region and will uproot all injustice in the entire world. All their plans [of the United States] aim at stopping the emergence of his Holiness, and they know that the Iranian nation is preparing the ground for this matter and will be the fellows of this government [of the Imam of the Era.]...To our East and West there is fire and in the South we see the navy of the enemy and in the North we are witnessing the propaganda of the enemy. Iran is a rose garden in the middle of fire. They have planned to annihilate Iran. But all the policy makers and analysts consider Iran the true winner of the Middle East. The United States is imprisoned in Afghanistan like a donkey [in the mud.]"

• Supreme Leader Khamenei: "Imperialists of the world are perfectly aware that the Iranian nation, resting upon the spirit of guardianship and through establishment of an Islamic order, has realized the hopes and aspirations of all caring Muslims and all the intellectuals of the world of Islam. Therefore, they try to depict the great Shi'a populations as outsiders in the world of Islam...the United States and Britain are among the most evil enemies of Iran...the Zionists, the Americans and other imperialists, fear the Iranian nation becoming the role model of the Islamic community of believers.

• Vahid Jalalzadeh, West Azerbaijan Governor, says 40 percent of the Iraqi visitors to Iran visit Iran to receive medical treatment.

Military and Security

• Commander Ali Fazli Seyyed al-Shohada, Tehran Province Revolutionary Guards Chief, says the Revolutionary Guards will "hand out flowers to the students" on the Student Day.

• Nuclear Issue

• Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi addressing the senior members of the armed forces in Isfahan says Iran's trust in the IAEA has been harmed by the latest ruling of the Board of the Governors of the IAEA.

• Mashhad Friday Prayer Leader Ayatollah Alam al-Hoda says the ruling of the IAEA Board of Governors proves that "the enemies of God have united themselves" against Iran.

• Ali Shirzadi, Iran Nuclear Energy Organization Spokesman, says the Bushehr Nuclear Plant will do a series of tests and will soon be ready for operations.

• Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei: "As we have said before, the Iranian nation is pursuing science needed for the country in the nuclear issue and it believes that should Iran not achieve this knowledge and know-how, tomorrow, when the entire economic wheels of the world will be running on nuclear energy, will be too late for this matter...Today, the Iranian nation is struggling to achieve nuclear know-how so that twenty to thirty years from now, the children of Iran and the next generation of this country will not reach their hands out to the Westerners [for assistance] but the Westerners, through mayhem and a campaign of lies, desire to obstruct realization of this national goal...Be alert and have insight. The imperialists of the world are using all their political and propaganda efforts to bereave the Iranian nation of its inalienable right to nuclear energy..."

• Ali Larijani: "We made a request to satisfy the need for nuclear fuel for the Tehran reactor, but they were deceptive. The Islamic Republic of Iran found out and stopped them. Therefore, their screams [of protest] are not at all rational...The Western countries have threatened us so much that we established this site [near Qom] in a secure area. The Westerners, due to our development into a great power, engage in such acts [of protest.]"

• Aliakbar Salehi, Iran's Nuclear Energy Organization Director, says Iran is in need of 20 more uranium enrichment centers to provide for its domestic nuclear fuel. Salehi added: "The Western powers want to force Iran to leave the NPT but Iran will not do so."

Economy

• Industry Minister Aliakbar Mehrabian meeting industrialists from Isfahan refuted claims that only 40 percent of Iran’s industrial capacity is used. Mehrabian also attacked those who by "spreading lies against the government" raise doubt about competence of Iranian industrialists. The industrialist who had raised the criticism pointed out that it was Ahmadinejad who had shared this information during the televised panel debates.

• Ali Larijani says Ahmadinejad has not yet presented the Fifth Development Plan and next year's budget to the parliament.

• Iran Khodro and SAIPA soon to be privatized.

• Trade

• Tehran Chamber of Commerce releases commercial and economic information of 40,000 Iranian enterprises on its website. http://dir.tccim.ir/english/

• GAZPROM joins the peace pipeline.

• Iran/Oman Trade Center is delayed.

• India signs a contract purchasing 40 percent of the 12th Phase of South Pars Gas Field.

• Pakistan increases its natural gas imports from Iran.

Religion, Society and Culture

• The Shi'a community of Caracas, Venezuela, celebrates the Qadir religious fest.

• Grand Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani warns against proliferation of "Satanism" and "Bahaism."

Human Rights

• Mother of Neda Aghasoltan protests against the Student Basij' street theater which depicted "British agents" as the murderers of the Iranian teenager in the post election demonstrations and says: "I warned my daughter against going to the demonstration but she said: 'If I don't go to the demonstration, if you don't no one else will do so.'"

• Plainclothes agents and female police members arrest more than ten members of "Mothers in Grief" who had gathered in Laleh Park in Tehran to publicly mourn killing of their sons and daughters in the hands of the security forces in the course of the post election unrest.

• According to Donya-ye Eqtesad,Behzad Nabavi, imprisoned veteran politician of the Islamic Republic, is transferred to Khatam al-Anbia Hospital. Link upon request.

  • According to Emruz News Agency Nabavi returned to Evin Prison after a few hours.

• Mehrnoush E'temadi, women rights' activist and member of the "One Million Signatures Campaign" in Isfahan, is still under arrest.

  • So is Hayedeh Tabesh, also from Isfahan.

• Said Kalanaki and Said Jalalifar, both members of the Human Rights Reporters for the first time make a phone call to their family members and reveal that they are imprisoned in Evin.

• Two thousand citizens of Sirjan in an open letter to the Judiciary demand release of Zeidabadi and Assadi, political activists from Sirjan.

Media

• On the occasion of the Student Day, Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry withdraws all issued permissions to foreign journalists to report from Iran and restricts access to internet websites.

Photo of the Day

• Protests in front of British embassy in Tehran.