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

• Ahmadinejad supporters manage to intimidate the parliament to withdraw its support for the transformation of the Azad University into a waqf outside government control.
  • Tabnak News editorializes: "Such mobilization of forces against legal institutions threatens the republican element of the regime."
  • Mohammad-Javad Larijani, Human Rights Committee secretary: "Nothing is sweeter for the enemy than the principalists fighting among themselves."
• Hamshahri-ye Mah analyzes members of the Assembly of Self-Sacrificers faction: Lotfollah Forouzandeh Dehkordi, Reza Rousta Azad, Masoud Soltanpour, Ahmad Nejabat, Masoumeh Abad, Eshrat Shayegh, Fatemeh Alia, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Alireza Ali-Ahmadi Jashfaghani, Abolhassan Faghih, Abbas Darvish Tavangar, Ali-Reza Sarbakhsh, Amir Sayyah, Mojtaba Tavangar, Ali Darabi, Mehdi Fazaeli, Bizhan Moghaddam, Jalal Fayazi, Ramezan Mousavi Moghaddam, and Ali Yousefpour.
• Four daughters of the late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri in an open letter deplore government agents' attacks against the households of sources of emulation in Qom.

Diplomacy

• Ahmadinejad addresses Basij of the University Professors: "Bullying powers think they can stabilize themselves by attacking the region or by changing their masque, but during the past year they disclosed their true nature. The resolution which was issued against Iran is in reality an announcement of defeat of the policies of the United States government and the capitalist order...This resolution means that Iran has become a great power and those who chanted the slogan of change in the world were deceiving..."
• Ahmadinejad addressing Friday prayer leaders:
  • Visit to China was necessary after the Security Council issued the resolution against Iran and continued: "With their shortsightedness and base thoughts they take the stick but we assure you that the Iranian nation will annihilate you and your sticks...!"

Military and Security

• Commander Hassan Shahvarpour, Khuzistan Vali-ye Asr Revolutionary Guards unit chief, in an open letter to the parliamentarians says "members of the Basij are most concerned about plans of the parliament to turn Azad University into a charity."

Nuclear Issue

• Ahmadinejad, addressing Friday prayer leaders:
  • "By issuing the resolution, they have made their move and now it is our turn... We have a plan and a design to change the unjust order of the world in order to establish a just order. One of our plans is to say that the Security Council is unjust and must therefore change. The resolution against our country proves our words. Therefore we are happy that they are playing a role in our plan... Next week we will announce the conditions for negotiations...."
• Sadegh Zibakalam, an academic:
  • "As opposed what some of our authorities propagate, the discussion is not that the West desires to create obstacles in the path of Iran achieving advanced technology. The discussion is about the West having problems with the issue of [uranium] enrichment. The various pressures imposed upon the Islamic Republic in the shape of sanctions aim to prevent the Islamic Republic from achieving enrichment technology..."
  • "Now one must ask the question: Is achieving enrichment technology worth paying this heavy price or not. In my opinion the answer to this question is negative. But some others - for reasons of their own - believe that we must master enrichment technology and pay whatever price for this issue... "
    • Esmail Kowsari, parliamentarian on the other hand accuses the West of conspiring against the Islamic Republic:
      • "The Westerners did not act according to the agreements signed during the era of the revolt against God [reference to the pre-revolutionary regime] and abandoned the project after the revolution. Therefore, we could not tell the people that you who sacrificed lives of the martyrs and engaged in the revolution should abstain from doing anything. The people expected from us and desired progress of the country and [Iran] achieving the technology of the day..."
      • "We told the IAEA in writing that we are in need of 20% enriched uranium for the Tehran reactor, but they have forced us into a political game. How come they delivered this amount of uranium to us in 1994 but are not ready to deliver that much to us today…? We gave them two months, but they made all sorts of games, wanted to waste time and [wanted us] to extend a hand [of begging] towards them like an orphan. We did not do so, and we achieved what we wanted through our own effort. One can't trust the words of these countries. Despite the fact that we have now achieved the technology, they do not allow us to enter the club of countries with nuclear energy."
• [E] The Russian Consul General announced that Iran's first nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr will start operation within the next two months.

Trade

• Deputy Oil Minister Alireza Zighami says Iran will "reach gasoline self-sufficiency in two years."

Photo of the Day

• Argument in parliament.