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

• Anniversary of the contested presidential election:
  • Ahmadinejad:
    • "This great and memorable epic [the 2009 election] immortalized the revolution and ushered in a new phase in a global mission..."
  • JARAS reports anti-government demonstrations at Sistan va Balouchestan University.
  • Crowds chanting pro-Mousavi slogans at demonstrations. Video.
  • Anti-government demonstrations at Sharif University in Tehran.
• Basij controls the crowd. Video.
• Ali Larijani, speaker of the parliament:
  • "There are some people in society who promptly accuse others of being opposed to the guardianship of the jurist as soon as they commit the slightest deviation. Such a behavior is not right and we should not create enemies."
• The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting screens a "documentary" slinging mud at Ataollah Mohajeriani, president Mohammad Khatami's first minister of culture and Islamic guidance and culture who has been residing in London for some years. Video.
  • Following the personal attacks, Mohajerani discloses the personal literary tastes of Supreme Leader Khamenei and Khamenei's personal involvement in closure of newspapers:
    • "I became the Minister of Guidance based upon your recommendation as you yourself said bluntly at the first meeting of the president and the cabinet. Of course, my honeymoon ended when you asked me to close newspapers and specifically Salam. I preferred to resign from the Guidance….
    • When Mr. Masjed-Jamei, cultural deputy and tasked with the job of arranging the 20 years of fiction conference told me that you were against the fest, and Mr. Reza Rahgozar said that the festival should stop. I talked with you at length about the writers. We discussed each author and their work, especially about Mahmoud Dowlatabadi whose Kalidar you are sensitive about and called it a lie at a Tehran Friday prayer! We also talked at length about Simin Daneshvar and Moniro Ravanipour. Luckily you were convinced in 19 cases and accepted that we should give a prize. Your point of opposition was the novel Madar-e Sefr-Darajeh [Zero Degree Circuit] by Ahmad Mahmoud which accidentally was chosen as the [best] novel of the Conference. I'll never forget the wondering and sad look in the face of Ahmad Mahmoud. All the members of the jury knew that Madar-e Sefr-Darajeh is the star of the Fictional Literature Fest. You probably remember that you said 'this novel is anti-war.' I asked: 'Are you not against the war? War is an inevitable evil, not a necessary virtue...'"
• Rafsanjani criticizes attacks against Hassan Khomeini.
  • Adds Supreme Leader Khamenei has never kissed Hassan Khomeini in front of the people and that those chanting slogans against Hassan Khomeini should understand its significance.

Diplomacy

• Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, parliamentary National Security Committee member: "Iran must move towards separation from Russia and China's umbrella because these countries have sold out their relations with Iran in the negotiation bazaar with the West."
• Ala al-Din Boroujerdi, parliamentary National Security Committee chairman:
  • "Agreement to send representatives to Gaza has become operational because of Egypt's acceptance."
• Ahmadinejad on live television discusses the United Nations Security Council vote imposing a fourth round of sanctions against the Islamic Republic:
  • "Among the five members of the [United Nations] Security Council, there are five status quo members whose vote is not valid. They want to keep the nuclear issue as their monopoly and defend their own interests rather than order and global security..."
  • "Among the remaining ten members there were three whose vote was negative and among the seven remaining members including Japan they are all in the capitalist camp and the United States has military bases in those countries and they do not have an independent vote." 
  • "Three members told me themselves that they are under pressure."
  • "This vote has been achieved by begging. Mr. Erdogan told me that Obama was on the phone with him for an hour and half and said that Turkey should abstain so he [Obama] could solve his problems in the United States Congress."
  • "In that conversation Obama had also said to Erdogan: 'You know there is nothing in that resolution; also help Lebanon. If Lebanon votes against it Lebanon will be in trouble. You try and mediate so that they abstain from voting."
  • "They [the United States] did the same thing with Brazil. What they did was begging for votes in the Security Council. Is this not a mercy shot against the Security Council?"
  • "A government which once made decisions for the world is now begging and bribing a couple of countries like Russia with concessions in order to pass a resolution which they themselves have previously confessed will not have any effect on Iran. This resolution is a being which has been born dead."
• [E] Tehran will adopt reciprocal measures against those countries—including China and Russia—that voted for the new UN Security Council resolution against Iran, an Iranian lawmaker cautioned.
• [E] Ahmadinejad underlined the decline in US power and influence in the world, and called on European states to distance themselves from Washington.
• [E] Deputy Foreign Minister for Consular, Parliamentary and Iranian Expatriates' Affairs announced on Sunday that the US is holding 63 Iranian nationals under detention for no good or legal reason.
• [E] Iran announced its plans to dispatch a convoy of humanitarian aid to Gaza next week.
• [E] Ahmadinejad asked for the deepening of ties with each of the new ambassadors to Tehran from Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Cyprus.
• [E] Head of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, in a meeting with Armenian envoy to Tehran, underlined Iran's resolve to develop relations with Yerevan.

Military and Security

• Greater Tehran Law Enforcement Forces chief Sajedinia says 91 people were arrested on the anniversary of the contested presidential election.
• Law Enforcement Forces chief Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam admits that several million Mousavi supporters participated in last year's elections protests.
• [E] Saudi Arabia categorically rejected The Times Online’s report claiming that it has opened its airspace for an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
• [E] A senior Iranian Army commander announced Sunday that a number of unmanned choppers designed and produced domestically started operation for the Iranian military.

Nuclear Issue

• Member of Parliament Mostafa Kavakebian says "We can't defend our nuclear rights by boasting... The parliament should have been involved in nuclear diplomacy so we could have avoided the sanctions."
• Hojjat al-Eslam Ahmad Khatami, Tehran temporary Friday prayer leader:
  • "The latest act of Satanism has added to the crisis of American respectability. "
  • “By issuing the new [U.N. Security Council] resolution the United States was isolated because the Council could not reach consensus and 120 countries of the Non-Aligned Movement agreed to a declaration supporting Iran.”
  • “This recent event revived the saying of the Imam [Khomeini] from the first years of the revolution that 'America is the great Satan' and also proved the Supreme Leader's prediction that under the velvet gloves of the United States a cast iron fist is hidden...”
• Mohammad-Javad Larijani, Human Rights Headquarters secretary addresses representatives from the Non-Aligned Movement in Geneva:
  • "I have the right to doubt about Obama's intelligence. If he truly was an NPT supporter he should have mentioned that some countries are not members of the NPT, but have achieved nuclear weapons and receive American and Western support."
• [E] Iran's Representative to the IAEA Ali Asqar Soltaniyeh underlined Tehran's firm resolve to continue nuclear progress and uranium enrichment activities, especially to supply fuel for its nuclear power plant at Bushehr.
  • [E] Parliament Speaker Larijani: "The negative reaction shown to the Tehran declaration by the international powers demonstrated that they are not after a settlement of Iran's nuclear issue. They seek to form a kind of nuclear monopoly on the scene of international interactions.”
  • [E] Iranian legislator: "Despite sanctions, we can even buy many sanctioned goods through intermediaries and we shouldn't be concerned in this regard."
• [E] EU Foreign Policy Chief Baroness Catherine Ashton wrote a letter to Iran's Chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili inviting him to talks on the country's stand-off with the West over its nuclear program.
• [E] Indonesia's Minister of Foreign Affairs underlined Iran's right to access nuclear technology, criticizing the UNSC resolution against Iran.

Religion, Culture, and Society

• Ahmadinejad on live television:
  • "Before Islam, Iran was a very advanced nation and during the era of Islam they were much more advanced than the Arabs who called upon Iranians to embrace Islam. But in Islam they [the Iranians] saw a truth and accepted it voluntarily. Had the Iranian nation not voluntarily embraced it, no one could have imposed it on the Iranian nation, just like now that the United States can't impose anything upon the Iranian nation."

Photo of the Day

·         Drug addiction on Iranian streets.