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

• Mir-Hossein Mousavi says Islamic Revolution of 1979 failed to abolish dictatorship in Iran.   
  • "During the first years of the revolution, a majority of the people were convinced that the revolution had abolished all the structures which could lead to authoritarianism and dictatorship. I was one of them, but today I do not believe so. Today, one can identify both roots and foundations that produce dictatorship, as well as resistance against returning to dictatorship..."

  • "Closure of the press, mass imprisonments and merciless murder of people who through non-violent means demand their rights in the streets show that the roots of authoritarianism and dictatorship have remained from the imperial regime. People demand freedom and justice; they know that arrests and executions because of political reasons are contrary to the constitution and to the law..."

  • "The ruthless Friday Prayer Leader [Ayatollah Jannati], who systematically defends discrimination, violence and fraud and who expresses his thanks to the Judiciary [for executing two protesters], does not care about widespread rumors that illegal methods are being used to extract confessions, and it is not important to him if such individuals are at all connected to the election affairs. What is important for him is execution for the sake of terrorizing [the public.] But he is unaware of the effective and gradual power of the blood of the innocent people which accumulates. He does not know that it was the flood of the blood of the martyrs which annihilated the regime of the Shah..."

  • "Authoritarianism in the name of religion is the worst kind of authoritarianism..."

  • "I believe that the interpretation of the Qur’an which calls people plain dirt [Ahmadinejad] and sheep and goats [Ayatollah Alam al-Hoda], and divides the people so one group combats the other is influenced by imperial culture. Instead of executing a couple of youth and youngsters about whose confessions and methods used to extract the confessions there were many rumors, what needed to have been done was to pay attention to these roots..."

  • "Today, the prisons are filled with the purest children of the nation, such as university students and professors and so forth. through old-fashioned methods they are trying to build cases against them, either through economic cases or sexual or those of espionage. This happens while the real culprits and those plundering public funds are free outside the prisons. Rather than to look for the real spies, they accuse decent and devout people..."

  • "I am ashamed of not being among them [in prison]..."

• Pressure grows on Rafsanjani to voice support to the regime:
  • Supreme Leader Khamenei addressing university professors says "some unpleasant, recent events could have been avoided had it not been because of certain individuals’ lack of attention."

  • Former Culture Minister Saffar Harandi: "We miss the Hashemi [Rafsanjani] of the 1980s..."

  • Judiciary Deputy Hojjat al-Eslam Ebrahim Reyisi says the case against Rafsanjani's children has been sent to the Public Prosecutor's Office for preparations.

  • Following Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi's attacks against Rafsanjani, Parleman News discloses that Ayatollah Yazdi actively supported candidacy of Grand Ayatollah Golpayegani as the successor of Grand Ayatollah Khomeini.

  • Davoud Ahmadinejad has reportedly held secret meetings with Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi.

  • Parliamentarian Shahr-e Rezaei says today’s elites should not endanger the revolution or betray its cause with ambiguous statements.

  • Ayatollah Abdul Hassan Mahdavi says it is the "pride" of some elite members that prohibits them from taking a clear position against rioters.

  • Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani says he is hurt by the "silence of some elite members."

• Fars News Agency accuses the Mosharekat [Participation] reformist party of trying to "Vaticanize" the principle of absolute guardianship of the jurist.

• Commander Khorshidi, father-in-law of Ahmadinejad's daughter, criticizes Ahmadinejad for listening to sycophants.

• The city of Karaj becomes the capital of the newly-established province of Alborz.

• Hassan Khomeini visits Ali-Reza Beheshti, who is under house arrest.

• Hojjat al-Eslam Mohammad-Ali Lavasani says the National Front has sent a signed copy of the Qur’an to terrorist leader Navab Safavi and promised him to govern Iran in accordance with the principles of the Shari'a, but they did not do so during Dr. Mossadeq's short-lived premiership.

• Fars News Agency runs a story about Supreme Leader’s ascetic lifestyle.

• Passive Defense Organization Secretary Davoud Ahmadinejad attacks Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, calling him an "infidel."
  • Mashaei in a secret letter to Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting demands the right to participate in several television programs to defend himself.

• Ayatollah Emami Kashani and Tehran Mayor Qalibaf will be this Friday's speakers at Tehran Friday Prayer.

Diplomacy

• Ahmadinejad's Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei travels to Switzerland.

• Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottakki in Ethiopia: "Mrs. Clinton’s attempts to return the United States to the era of the Bush administration’s failed policies will have no benefit to the people and the new administration of this country...It was such policies which led to elimination of Clinton from the presidential race [in the Democratic Party]...We hear different voices from Washington, which is one of the usual U.S. foreign policy problems. But Clinton’s position seems to differ fundamentally from other voices...Clinton seems so engaged in one-sided thoughts that she ignores the discrepancies between the foreign and domestic policies of the United States government. While the U.S. government is stressing the need for clean energy as a priority for itself, it describes this strategy harmful when it comes to others…"

• Crown Prince of Qatar visits Iran.

• [E] Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi on Tuesday hailed the friendly and brotherly ties between Iran and Qatar, and called for the expansion of bilateral relations between the two Muslim states.

[E] Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki left for Turkey on Tuesday afternoon for Tehran-Ankara 21st economic commission meeting.
[E] After U.S. assails China for not agreeing to impose fresh sanctions on Iran, Beijing calls for continuation of talks to resolve the nuclear standoff.

Military and Security

• Kayhan hails cyber attacks against Radio Zamaneh, based in the Netherlands.

• Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani addressing commanders of the Law Enforcement Forces, the Revolutionary Guards and Basij members says "supporting the Guardian of the Jurist amounts to preparation of the re-emergence of the Imam of the Era."

• Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Saidi, Supreme Leader’s representative to the Revolutionary Guards, answering a question regarding Ahmadinejad’s support to his Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei: "You pray to God to cleanse this love from Ahmadinejad's heart!...We must convince him that this [Mashaei] is not a desirable element."

• Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mehmalnparast says the Thai authorities have made no references to the intercepted airplane allegedly carrying North Korean arms to Iran. “More fundamentally, with our military advances, we don't need this kind of things and the issue must be one of psychological warfare and soft warfare against us."

• Colonel Naser Arab-Beygi, Revolutionary Guards Ground Forces Self-Sufficiency Organization Chief, boasting about the Guards' anti-tank and anti-helicopter missiles which would be used in case of "United States aggression against Iran," says the Imam Hossein Brigades of the Guards will be armed with weapons required in any engagement they take part, and demands the world recognize the Islamic Republic as a rising world power.

• Sadegh Kharrazi, former Iranian ambassador to France, says ballistic missiles in the Persian Gulf would be considered as an act of provocation.

• Information Technology Minister Taghipour says Iranian-made satellites will be shown on the occasion of the Ten Days of Dawn festivities commemorating the Islamic Revolution in Iran.  

• Passive Defense Organization Secretary Davoud Ahmadinejad: "Presence of the Iranian nation in various arenas has always led to the defeat and hopelessness of the enemies. On February 11, the awakened and vigilant nation of Iran must once again bereave the enemy of hope...Despite the fact that the enemies are constantly conspiring to harm the revolution and the regime, no special event will take place inside the country on February 11...We must expect everything, despite no special events taking place on February 11, 2010."

• The Law Enforcement Forces declares total readiness for the February 11th Revolution Day festivities.

• Chief Inspectorate Head Hojjat al-Eslam Pour-Mohammadi says "combatants against the regime must be hanged...When the Supreme Leader says something one must obey...Our revolution was an explosion of light..."

• Commander Hossein Hamedani, Mohammad Rasoul-Allah Revolutionary Guards unit chief of Great Tehran, says "If anyone protests on February 11, he is not part of the Iranian nation, and I can say clearly that he is a foreign agent...We will not allow anything called the green wave to manifest itself. Of course, all our people are part of a green wave, but we will not allow an alien green wave to show itself..."

• Hojjat al-Eslam Hadi Ghaffari, a recent critic of Supreme Leader Khamenei, denies knowledge about arms found in the cellar of the Al-Hadi mosque, where he preaches.

• [E] Iran has designed a new kind of surface-to-air missiles to bring down the United States' much boasted Apache choppers, an Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) official announced on Tuesday.

• [E] Iran Builds Air, Coast Command-and-Control Defense Systems.

• [E] Minister of Defense and Logistics Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said on Tuesday that the countries in the region should play an active role to maintain security and stability of the sensitive Persian Gulf region as well as Hormuz strait.

• [E] After the U.S. began beefing up its military presence and war paraphernalia off the Iranian coast, Iran's Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani warns against the U.S. political ploy in the region.

Economy

• Tehran Stock Exchange releases the names of top 50 companies registered.

• Tabnak reports severe economic problems and budget deficit in Iran's Social Security Organization.

Trade

• Parsineh reports on a management crisis in Iran’s largest commercial port, Shahid Rajayi Port.

  
  

Religion, Society and Culture

• Ahmadinejad's cultural adviser Shamghadari is quoted as saying that the Hejab should not be mandatory.

Nuclear Issue

• Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mehman-Parast: "We have expressed our readiness to exchange nuclear fuel and some discussions are underway...I hope our counterparts show greater realism with regard to the desirable conditions so the job can be done...”
  • [E] Mehman-Parast adds that producing twenty-percent enriched nuclear fuel is among Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) members' recognized rights.

[E] Mehman-Parast blasted the remarks by the new EU foreign policy chief on referring Iran's nuclear dossier to the U.N. Security Council, and stressed that the UNSC is not the legal body to discuss Iran's nuclear issue.

Media

• Turkey plans to start a Persian language television.

Iran in the Afghan Media

• [E] Afghanistan’s government has lambasted Iran's border security forces for killing five Afghan civilians on Friday and asked Iranian embassy to explain the incident. [Current news stories are only available to Pajhwok subscribers, but will be accessible the next day]

Photos of the Day

• Ahmadinejad renews allegiance to the ideals of the late Grand Ayatollah Khomeini.

• Inauguration of Towhid Tunnel in Tehran.

• Supreme Leader’s ID card.