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

Ahmadinejad’s lead over Mousavi reportedly widening after debate; Alef News Agency accuses CIA of helping Ahmadinejad win reelection; Ahmadinejad’s sister urges export of Islamic revolution outside Iran’s boundaries; Central Bank reports of 23.6% inflation refutes Ahmadinejad claim; Mousavi calls on Supreme Leader to stop Ahmadinejad’s “misbehavior”; Rezai pledges to set up international consortium for uranium enrichment if elected president; Guardian Council Secretary welcomes Obama’s admission of U.S. plot against Iran’s elected government in 1953, urges change of American policy towards Israel; Indian company stops exporting gasoline to Iran under American pressure

    Presidential Election: General

• Guardian Council Secretary Ayatollah Jannati speaking at the Tehran Friday prayer: "The enemies have always tried to question the legitimacy of the regime by trying to reduce public participation in elections and they are still doing this, but the people are vigilant...this is only a part of the goals of the enemies to topple the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran...The people must blind the eyes of the enemies by vast participation in elections...I promise you and I guarantee that they election will be healthy...." 
• Alef News Agency releases video of the third presidential debate: Mir-Hossein Mousavi vs. Mohsen Rezai, and fourth presidential debate: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad versus Mehdi Karrubi. 
  • Asr-e Iran analyzes Karrubi's offensive style in the debate which according to the news agency is duplication of Ahmadinejad's own style. 
• News stories related to Ahmadinejad vs. Mousavi debate:
  • Ahmadinejad supporters chant "Ahmadi, Ahmadi, Shahadat Mobarak" [Ahmadi, Ahmadi, congratulations upon your martyrdom" and "Mousavi, Hashemi, Peyvandetan Mobarak" [Mousavi, Hashemi (Rafsanjani) blessed be your marriage.] 
  • Alef News Agency reports a significant rise in voter support for Ahmadinejad from 51 to 63 percent after his presidential debate with Mousavi.
  • Former Tehran mayor and current Karrubi campaign chief Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi protests against Ahmadinejad's allegations against him.
  • The Hashemi clan to file a complaint against Ahmadinejad because of his attacks against them at the presidential debate, but only after the election.
  • Safayi Farahani who was accused of economic corruption by Ahmadinejad, promises to file a complaint. 
  • Principalist faction member Ahmad Tavakkoli urges the candidates neither to paint a black picture of the past four years (with Ahmadinejad) nor the first decades of the Islamic Republic.
  • Qom temporary Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Javadi Amoli urges the candidates not to "play with the honor of the counterpart in televised debates."
  • Former vice president Mohammad-Ali Abtahi says Ahmadinejad's behavior at the presidential debate was like Abbas Palizdar who made similar accusations against senior members of the clergy and asks if the authorities are going to prosecute Ahmadinejad the same way they did with Palizdar.
  • Ansar-e Hezbollah hails the "post-Rafsanjani era."
  • Jomhouri-ye Eslami editorializes: "It is as if no one is allowed to compete with Ahmadinejad."
  • Former Interior Minister Ali Kordan demands the right to appear on television to defend himself "against lies and insults" made against him by Mousavi. 
• Alef News Agency publishes an allegedly secret report of the CIA in which American authorities plan to help reelection of Ahmadinejad.
• Ansar News Agency releases suspect academic degrees of Zahra Rahnavard, wife of Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
• According to Asr-e Iran, supporters of "a certain candidate" attack other campaign headquarters all over Iran.
• Alef News Agency releases the Karrubi vs. Mousavi televised presidential debate. 
• According to Asr-e Iran, following the debate between Karrubi and Mousavi, people in Tehran, including inhabitants of the Martyr Mahallati neighborhood [Ed: populated by war veterans and family members of former members of the Revolutionary Guards] climbed to the roof of their houses shouting slogans in favor of Mousavi after which Ahmadinejad supporters went to the streets shouting slogans in favor of Ahmadinejad. 
• Agah-Sazi republishes a 2005 statement of Supreme Leader in which he demands legal prosecution of those slandering Rafsanjani. 
• Rafsanjani speaking to an independent student group supporting his line says he does not mind the attacks against himself, but he cannot forgive attacks against the revolution. 
•  Motalefeh faction warns Rafsanjani against filing a complaint against Ahmadinejad since "an investigation into the matter could open new cases against Rafsanjani." 
• Tehran Mayor Qalibaf criticizes Ahmadinejad for making allegations against them on his televised debates. 
• Ahmadinejad vs. Karrubi debate had 40 million viewers in Iran. 

Presidential Election: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

• Ahmadinejad's website. http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/
• Al-Ghadir Foundation General Secretary Ayatollah Abol-Ghasem Khazali, speaking to the Azeris in Gorgan: "Some who does not vote, or votes for someone else than Ahmadinejad have helped the reform movement and the monafeghin[Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization]."
• Ahmadinejad speaking at a rally in Isfahan:
  • "Four or five years after the victory of the revolution, a group gradually took over the grand executive leadership of the country and their thoughts and ethics were different and deviated from the path of the Imam...
  • Instead of preferring the revolution, they prioritized their own interests rather than the honor of the nation and a ring was made of executives who did not consider themselves servants of the people, but considered themselves masters and grandees of the country... They preferred the interest of their own and their family's interest to the interests of the nation and this happened simultaneous with gradual formation of circles of might and wealth to the degree that their connection with the masses of the nation was cut...even their way of speaking shows this...This group were either deviated or came and began filling their own pockets and hoarding personal belongings and they thought that the belongings of the revolution was their personal belonging...
  • Do you remember me saying four years ago that you the dear nation entered the arena to break this selfish ring of arrogant executives? Back then you entered the arena and sent your own son into the midst of this ring with your decisive vote. On that very day I declared that it seems that this servant of the nation has entered a no go area of power belonging this close and selfish circuit which has distanced itself from the nation...
  • During the past four years they attempted to crush your vote and your will and when they lost hope they got together in a united front to avoid total collapse of the front of might and power, the bullies who constantly thread upon the rights of the nation...for the past three months the worst insults, allegations and lies [have been dealt to me] only because I resist and don't capitulate the rights of the nation...They should know that such insults don't count and even if you get together hundred times of today and make allegations and insults hundred times worse I am the servant of the great Iranian nation and I have prepared my throat and torso for your insults…
  • They ask why you have mentioned the names of certain individuals and that this deals blows to the revolution. I want to ask this: If the rights of a nation are tread upon, if the dignity of a nation is tread upon, if the existence of the revolution is tread upon, would this not do the revolution harm...? They ask me why you have mentioned certain names. I say it is only the beginning of the path. If you do not stop conspiring against the nation, if you do not stop laying your hands on the belongings of the nation, if you do not stop making troubles for the nation, each and every one of them will be presented to this great nation. They have insulted our nation, they have insulted the noble people of Isfahan. They consider themselves superior to the nation. They want the entire country for themselves. But history records that they during 24 years, with their deeds made the hearths of the nation and the Supreme Leader bleed..."
• Parvin Ahmadinejad, the president's sister: "The issue interesting Imam Khomeini most was that the Islamic revolution should not be entrapped within the boundaries of Iran...the ninth government has managed to realize this goal...Today someone has come to manage the affairs who wants to take Islam into the heart of Europe...In the past there were people who said that religion has nothing to do with freedom, but freedom is within the very core of the religion of Islam..."
• Ahmadinejad explains his debate technique against Mousavi. Video. 
  • Ahmadinejad adds that those criticizing the patrols of the moral police should remember that during Mousavi's premiership, ties of the boys were cut with scissors along with hair of the youth.
• Asr-e Iran releases a letter by Ahmadinejad when he was governor of Ardebil in which he writes "the name of Hashemi Rafsanjani is magnificent in history." 
• Alef News Agency releases Ahmadinejad's second campaign video. 
• Ahmadinejad speaking in Tabriz: "They have warned me to take care. Let me announce it from here. God is witness that we have prepared our throats and our torso for sharp lances of allegations but we will never sign a document against the interests of the Iranian nation...Movement must be in the direction of the revolution. Recently at a television program I mentioned a few names after which some protested against me on why I did so...the problems began when they started sacrificing the revolution for the sake of their own interests." 
• Ahmadinejad promises more disclosures of economically corrupt individuals. 
• The Central Bank's statistics report inflation at 23.6 percent while Ahmadinejad claimed inflation is down to 15 percent. 
• Ahmadinejad campaign condemns the Mousavi vs. Karrubi televised debate which allegedly did not clarify the viewpoints of the candidates, but was used to launch attacks against Ahmadinejad. 
• Parvin Ahmadinejad, sister of the president speaking in Qom says pre-revolution pictures of Zahra Rahnavard, wife of Mousavi, without the hijab in Iran is the work of the Mousavi campaign to give the Ahmadinejad campaign a bad name. 
• Presidential advisor Mohammad-Ali Ramin says disclosure of economic corruption is the path to salvation of the future of the country. 

Presidential Election: Mir-Hossein Mousavi

• Mousavi demands Supreme Leader's intervention in order to stop Ahmadinejad's misbehavior.
• The Mousavi campaign distributes ladies' dresses donated by Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani.
• Mousavi, in Bojnourd, says he is tired of lies.
• Jomhour-ye Eslami reports attack against a cleric riding a motorcycle with a picture of Mousavi.
• Ahmadinejad supporter Zakani demands Mousavi clarify his position with regard to those who raised the anger of the Imam [Khomeini], a reference to Iran Freedom Movement members.
• Shahab News Agency reports a wave of support all over Tehran, Isfahan and Tabriz following his performance at the televised debate with Karrubi in which he attacked Ahmadinejad. 

Presidential Election: Mehdi Karrubi

• Karrubi's website. http://karroubi.ir/
• Karrubi presents his second campaign video.
• Mousavi supporters demonstrate in front of Karrubi's private home to force him to leave the campaign.
• Karrubi to present his cabinet ministers for key portfolios soon.
• Abrar ridicules Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi, Karrubi campaign chief, crying over Karrubi's campaign video and asks why a former mayor who said Tehran was not a city for poor people now cries for the sake of the poor and needy on national television.
• IRNA discloses a Karrubi speeches from the 1980's in which he proudly claims that the Islamic Republic has created a Qods Force composed of 300,000 men ready to be dispatched to the fight against Israel. 
• Karrubi's campaign releases a document suggesting presidential intervention in participation of his sons at the Second Islamic Solidarity Games of 2009. 
• Karrubi's campaign chief Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi says should one be interested in economic corruption and "capture thieves," one should begin with "Ahmadinejad's son and his financial transactions in Kish." 
• Ansar News attacks Karrubi's performance at the televised debate against Ahmadinejad. 
• Mousavi Karrubi visits Tehran University campus. 
• Karrubi threatens to release documents on Ahmadinejad's involvement in illegal smuggling of gasoline to Turkey during his tenure as Ardebil governor. 

Presidential Election: Mohsen Rezai

• Unknown perpetrators attack Rezai's campaign headquarters in Babol.
• Rezai speaking in Yasuj says "the time has passed when some people could fool people with populism."
• Rezai promises to establish an international consortium for enrichment of uranium if elected president.

Politics

• Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's website updated. 

Diplomacy

• Guardian Council Secretary Ayatollah Jannati speaking at Tehran Friday prayer addresses Obama's speech in Cairo: "Obama has shown a few green lights and confesses that America intervened in [the 1953 coup against Mossadeq] and toppled a democratic government and also points at the hostage taking of Americans in Iran and stresses that he wants change in relations... Such things could suggest change, but one of our main issues is the problem of Israel and you must tell what you want to do with Israel's crimes. Do you still want to continue your support…? Do you want to continue with your double standards in the democracy issue: Why do you intervene in Lebanon and send money to this country so its election turns out to the benefit of American interests…? Whenever you say soap and bubbles come out of your mouth, you should now, when you say change [behavior] the hatred of the people will change..." Jannati commenting continued American presence in Afghanistan and Iraq said: "We hope that the Americans gradually come to their senses and listen to our words." 

Military and Security

• Joint Armed Forces Command Council Public Relations Office condemns "release of declarations of support for certain candidates in the name of former commanders of the Revolutionary Guards," a reference to an article informing the public of support of 50 former commander of the Guards for Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Trade

• Indian company stops exporting gasoline to Iran under American pressure.
• Despite the Islamic Republic's claim that it has sold a major oil project to China ,French Total claims it is still active in Iran. 

Nuclear Issue

• Former nuclear negotiator Hojjat al-Eslam Hassan Rowhani defends his record, refutes Ahmadinejad's claims that the previous government "capitulated" to the West in the nuclear issue. 

Photo of the Day

• Mousavi versus Ahmadinejad debate.