Iran News Round Up

Politics

• Asr-e Iran's editorial attacks Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati's claims that "the heads of the discord" have received money from Saudi Arabia, demands Jannati document his claim or faces a legal case.
• [E] Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani: "Hezbollah nurtures the original ideas of Islamic Jihad.”

Diplomacy

• Ahmadinejad plans a visit to Lebanon before the month of Ramadan.

Military and Security

• Basij Chief Mohammad-Reza Naghdi says the Basij will establish 7000 bases, 100 of which will be in Zanjan province, by March 2011.
• Basij Chief Mohammad-Reza Naghdi says "Many of the elites of the country acted without insight last year... but the nation passed the exam."
• Three drug smugglers are hanged in Karoun prison of Ahwaz.

Nuclear Issue

• Turkey’s Foreign Minister says the Islamic Republic is ready to stop 20% enrichment of uranium should certain conditions be met.
• [E] The European Union might include Turkey and Brazil in discussions over Iran's nuclear program, a spokesperson for the EU's foreign affairs chief says.

Economy

• Ahmadinejad urges the public to establish micro banks.
• [E] Managing Director of Iran Civil Aviation Organization announced that Iranian experts have overhauled the Airbus plane model A300-600s.  This comes in the wake of an EU ban on many Iran Air jets from its airspace because of safety concerns.
  • [E] Iran Air is to purchase as many as 100 new aircraft to renovate its fleet of foreign-built jetliners, a project to be financed by trading shares on the Tehran Stock Exchange.
• [E] Ahmadinejad expressed gratitude for the "exemplary participation" of Bazaar merchants and businessmen in filing their income statement with the National Tax Administration.

Trade

• Intelligence Minister Hojjat al-Eslam Heydar Moslehi says "the only thing we see concerning sanctions is a lot of senseless noise made by the enemy, but this bunch are incapable of doing anything against Iran in practice."
• Turkey's Finance Minister says Turkey will "completely adhere to the United Nations Security Council Resolutions" but "will not engage in additional sanctions against Iran." He also said the ports of Trabzon and Mersin will "replace Iran's trade with Dubai."

Religion, Society and Culture

• Mohammad-Ali Ramin, press deputy at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, addressing students in Qazvin: "The Guardian Jurist must as the vice regent of the Imam of the Era - may God hasten his return - in the first place unify the disunited and dispersed Shi'a of the world and create unity among them... The third step following establishment of the Islamic government is removing the obstacles for emergence of the Imam for the Imam of the Era in the Islamic countries of the world and preparing the world for emergence of the Imam of the Era... The Imam [Khomeini] did not present an Islam for the Iranians, Islam is not for the Shi'a and he [Ayatollah Khomeini] does not consider Islam the monopoly of the Muslims. Islam is a religion for salvation of man... We must devise a strategy for the Guardianship of the Jurist to administer the world."
• Hojjatiyyeh Charitable Society asks for permit to reestablish itself as a legal religious organization.
• Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Mohammad Hosseini says no Los Angeles-based Iranian singer has been given permit to perform in Iran.

Human Rights

• Ali Malihi, Bahman Ahmadi Amouyi, Hossein Nouraninezhad, Abdollah Moemeni, Ali Parviz, Hamidreza Mohammadi, Ja'far Eghdami, Babak Bordbar, Zia Nabavi, Ebrahim Nader Babayi, Kouhyar Goudarzi, Majid Dorri, Majid Tavakkoli, Keyvan Samimi, Gholamhossein Arshi, and Peyman Karimi Azad start hunger strike in response to transfer to solitary confinement and mistreatment in the hands of prison authorities.
• Alef News reports 350 documents from the 90,000 leaked U.S. documents about Afghanistan concern Iran and none of them "document Iran's intervention" in internal affairs of Afghanistan.

Iran in the Afghan Media

·         Najibullah Kabul, a member of Afghanistan’s parliament and head of Imroz private television, says the Afghan government has banned his television network under pressure from the Iranian government. He also accuses Afghan Shi’a leaders of implementing Iran’s agenda in Afghanistan.  

Photos of the Day

• How to cheat police cameras.