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

Hardliners step up attacks against reformist leaders; Iranian forces clash with student protestors; Obama sends ‘harsh message’ to Iran through Turkey; Mottaki calls on U.S. to free Iranian national; UAE Foreign Minister arrives in Tehran for bilateral meeting; Karrubi attacks Ahmadinejad’s claim U.S. trying to prevent return of world savior; Iranian official says negotiations with U.S. not on agenda; Turkey slams IAEA resolution on Iran

Politics

• Kayhan editor Shariatmadari attacks Mehdi Karrubi, whom he accuses of being an accomplice of "the United States, Israel, the Monafeghin [Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization], Bahais, idle wealthy people, the monarchists and the like..."

• Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, Temporary Tehran Friday Prayer Leader, says "some of the leaders of the discord did away with the 30-years honor of the regime with their incorrect behavior in the post election events."

• Industry Minister Aliakbar Mehrabian reportedly close to a vote of no confidence in the Parliament.

• Parliamentarian Hamid Rasai says if Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani does not return to Iran to face prosecution, he should be extradited by Interpol.

• Student Day events:

  • Alef News Agency publishes Supreme Leader Khamenei's speech on the occasion of the Student Day in 2008.
  • Mahmoud Mollabashi, Student Affairs Deputy at the Ministry of Technology and Higher Education speaking on the occasion of the Student Day in Shahr-e Rey commemorates the "martyrdom of the three students who as representatives of all the learned people of the country declared their opposition against the colonialist government of the United States...What we must explain to this society is that these dear ones were martyred in front of Nixon..." Also here.
  • All universities and student dormitories in Tehran were reportedly encircled by plainclothes agents, Basij members and the security forces on the occasion of the Student Day. Within the premises of the universities, the assembled students chanted:
    • "O Hossein, Mir-Hossein"
    • "Political Prisoners Must Be Freed"
    • "Iran Has Become A Detention Center, Evin has Become A University"
    • "We Are The Likes Of Neda And Sohrab, We All Chant The Same Slogan"
    • "Basij Member, Shame on You, Let The University Be."
  • BBC Persian also reports student unrest, arrests, in Mashhad, Shiraz, Kerman, Hamadan, Sari, Sanandaj and Isfahan.
  • Law Enforcement Forces reportedly encircle Tehran, Khajeh-Nasir and Amir-Kabir universities in Tehran from early hours of the morning. 
    • The Law Enforcement Forces were reinforced by "motor cycle forces" patrolling the area.
    • Aboureyhan Avenue was closed by the Police while Vesal and 16th of Azar avenues were under police control.
    • All the stores from Enghelab Square to Vali-Asr Cross were closed and the assembled individuals around the Tehran University were plainclothes agents.
    • On Keshavarz Boulevar Law Enforcement Forces were spaced every 10-20 meters, and more in Vali-Asr Square.
    • 2:32 pm:  fight between students and the Basij militia in front of Tehran Technical University.
    • 2:38 pm: there was an assembly of student activists in front of Shiraz University in central Iran.
    • 2:45 pm: plainclothes agents attacked the students in front of Tehran Technical University with electric batons and tear gas.
    • 2:55 pm: fights between demonstrators and the Law Enforcement Forces in Enghelab Avenue.
    • 3:05 pm: escalation between the Student Basij members and the student activists in front of Tehran Technical University as the two groups use megaphones and sound systems to chant slogans against each other.
    • 3:15 pm: unrest spreads to Amir Kabir University in Tehran, where plainclothes agents throw stones at students within the perimeter of the university and attack the main entry of Petroleum Department
    •  3:20 pm: Law Enforcement Forces stop a group of "non students" which had tried to penetrate the Law Enforcement Forces circle and unit with the students barricaded inside Tehran University.
    • 4:05 pm: the unrest spreads to Science and Research University of Tehran, Science and Technology University of Tehran and Sharif University.
  • Ansar-e Hezbollah vigilantes attacks student demonstrators at Hamadan University.
  • 20 student protesters arrested at Najafabad branch of the Azad Univers
  • ity near Isfahan.
  • Mowj News Agency reports student unrest and clashes between students and the Student Basij in Tabriz.
  • Mowj News Agency reports student unrest in Arak.
  • Students at Shahroud University celebrate the Student Day by commemorating Neda Aghasoltan.
  • Fars News Agency reports arrest of demonstrators by Law Enforcement Forces.
  • Video of student demonstrations at Tehran University (here and here), Mashhad University, and Isfahan University.

Diplomacy

• Parsineh News quoting an expert in Turkish affairs says President Obama has sent a harsh message to the Islamic Republic through Prime Minister of Turkey.

• [E] The United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayid Al Nahyan arrives in Tehran to participate in a joint Iran-UAE economic meeting.

• [E] Iran’s Foreign Minister has called on the U.S. to free an Iranian arrested for alleged arms trafficking, calling his detention a political act. "We call on the U.S. officials to release Mr. Amir Hossein Ardebili and other Iranian prisoners without setting any condition to ease the concerns of their families," Manouchehr Mottaki said in a statement.

Military and Security

• Alef News Agency's commentator complains about the "two rounds of privatization" where the first round in reality is handover of the ownership of public enterprises to the Revolutionary Guards and the second round is the Revolutionary Guards' vending the enterprises to the highest bidder among the private sector actors.

Religion, Society and Culture

• Karrubi attacks Ahmadinejad's statements about the Imam of the Era: "First he claims that the Americans are opposed to the Imam of the Era and his emergence. Secondly, he claims that he has found the documents proving his claims…! Theologians of Islam have always said that the issue of emergence is a serious matter, but one is not aware of how it will take place. Great men of the faith have always stressed that those claiming to know when emergence will take place are liars. What kind of statement is this? How do the Americans want to stop His Holiness? Can they arrest him? Or do they want to assassinate him? What meaning has such low words about the sacred being of His Holiness? What motives are behind such statements?..."

• So does Grand Ayatollah Bayat Zanjani.

Media

• Hayat-e Now is shut down by the media supervisory board.

• Ayandeh website's editor is found guilty of publishing an article insulting Ahmadinejad.

Trade

• [E] Border exchanges between Iran and Turkey have seen a 5-time growth over the last 10 years. "Despite this growth, ground is still prepared for a further development and expansion of economic relations and mutual cooperation," Vahid Jalalzadeh, governor general of West Azerbaijan province in northwestern Iran, said at a meeting in the bordering city of Van in Turkey.

Nuclear Issue

• [E] Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman says holding bilateral negotiations with the U.S. is not on Iran’s agenda. "Negotiations with the U.S. have never been an agenda and the issue is not on our agenda at present either," Ramin Mehman Parast told reporters in his weekly press conference in Tehran.

• [E] Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has slammed the newly approved resolution on Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency, saying that was a "very rushed" process.

Photos of the Day

• The Law Enforcement Forces, riot police and plainclothes agents throw stones at the student demonstrators.