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

• Mohammad Hashemi Rafsanjani, brother of the former president: "They say Islam is the religion of the barefoot and Ayatollah Hashemi gave them shoes by creating jobs, and therefore, reduced the number of the army of Islam. What kind of logic is this? Should we let the people starve to remain Muslim?...Whoever finds property belonging to the Rafsanjani family can seize it."

• Sadegh Zibakalam, academic, defends Alireza Beheshti.

• Hojjat al-Islam Hassan Rowhani addresses the crowds at the anniversary of the death of Grand Ayatollah Khomeini's widow:

  • "The society must not become a society where a group of people are allowed to marginalize others..."

  • "At a time when the Supreme Leader stresses upon maximal attraction and minimal marginalization, there are some who desire maximal marginalization and minimal attraction. The even do not attract the minimum and they want to administer the country with a gang. But we must know that in order to achieve perfection, the entire 75 million population of Iran must be together and must not do away with the path of the Imam [Khomeini] or forget it..."

• Ahmadinejad travels to Isfahan.

Friday prayer sermons:

o    Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani, temporary Friday prayer leader in Tehran: "Everyone must conceal the shortcomings...and save the honor of Islam, since many enemies prey on the Islamic revolution and Islam and want to know what shortcomings we have so they can target them... I'm not saying who should preserve Islam and who can speak freely in this regard. Everyone must speak freely, but we should struggle so the deficiencies of the Islamic community of believers are discussed in a secret way so that the foreigners don't abuse it..."

o    Ayatollah Ahmad Alam al-Hoda, Mashhad Friday Prayer Leader: "Our influence in oppressed Islamic societies and nations rests upon the realm of thought, ideas, faith and ideology, and we don't need, and never need or will need terrorism [as a method] in our regime...Imperialism and the West and Western countries in Europe need the terror in order to expand their threats, injustice and physical power of their hegemony… We don't need terrorists and their help since we have God and the Imam of the Era, who commands over absolute divine guardianship and guides us with the help of its finger..."

o    Qalibaf, Tehran Mayor: "There are some who tell me 'you are not a politician. If you were, it was now time for fishing.' But if being [a] political [animal] is this, I desire never to be of this kind… We have no other choice but to remain revolutionaries and live a revolutionary life. Our practice must rely upon Guardianship of the Jurist and the Leadership. This is not only our religious belief, but our rational calculation leads us to this conclusion as well..."

• Ahmadinejad addresses a seminar on job creation:  
  • "The Islamic revolution of Iran is a humane revolution reaching beyond the geographic boundaries of Iran..."

  • "Our second duty is an efficient presence in the international arena..."

  • "How can we work outside the international relations? International relations impact all nations..."

  • "The Iranian nation will never submit to the pressure of the hegemonic powers..."

  • "Wherever we want to travel, the imperialists approach the authorities of that country and pressure them not to invite Iran. Wherever we desire to sign contracts, they go and pressure that country and ask why they want to engage with Iran. They think they can restrict Iran. In the beginning, they said that they had to change the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but after a time they understood that their statements were futile. Afterward they said that the Islamic revolution of Iran had to be contained within a certain geographic region..."

  • "Our existence and our breathing room require that we expand our borders of conflict even closer to the command centers of the enemy. One who sits and waits for the enemy approaching the borders and pressure him will be forced to dress in the robe of misery. We see that they say 'we are concerned about Iran's presence in Latin America, Asia and Africa,' since they have seen that wherever Iran goes, search for justice, dignity, humanitarianism and humane culture rise against their culture of materialism and rebelling against God. They don't want us to be present in international relations and we see that they choose silence in the face of great victories of the Iranian nation..."

• According to Salam, Houshang Amir-Ahmadi, academic engaged in mediation between the United States and the Islamic Republic, is in Iran on the government’s invitation.  

• Houshang Amir-Ahmadi, an Iranian-American academic recently engaged in improving relationship between Washington and Tehran, travels to Iran. 

• [E] All Iranian officials are in consensus about downgrading ties with Britain due to London's interference in Iran's internal affairs and its hostile stances against Tehran in recent months, an Iranian legislator stressed on Monday.

• [E] Iran has decided to open a new consulate office in Afghanistan's southwestern province of Nimruz in the next Iranian year (starts on March 21), a member of the Iranian parliament announced on Sunday.

• [E] Iran is ready to help Palestine’s Hamas and Fatah groups to reach unity, said an informed source in Iran’s Foreign Ministry.
  ·         [E] Minister of Defense Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said Monday that the recent statements of his US counterpart have disclosed Washington’s vicious goals in the region.

   

  Military and Security

• Rear Admiral Morteza Saffari, Revolutionary Guards Navy Chief , speaking at Abshar Mosque in Qom:
  • "During the reform era, they [leading members of the Green Movement] had infiltrated the cabinet, the parliament and even the judiciary. If the country is in some aspects moving slow it is because of the effects of their presence...Whoever revolts against God, God will belittle him like the reform and the green discord..."

  • "The new draft of election law being formed in the Expediency Council aims to weaken the position of the Guardian Council..."

  • "If there is no Guardian Council, enemy infiltration becomes a possibility. One must know that this institution is the preserver of the laws of the country, which is why the late Imam [Khomeini] stressed so much upon the importance and position of this institution..."
    • Gholam-Hossein Elham, Guardian Council member, shares Saffari's concern, adding that the Expediency Council is trying to weaken the Guardian Council's supervisory role in elections.

• The Supreme Leader's decree appointing Mohammad Pakpour the chief of the Revolutionary Guards Ground Forces is released ten months after the appointment.

• Hojjat al-Islam Mir-Taj al-Dini, Vice President, expresses the Islamic Republic's readiness to engage in "any security cooperation" with the Persian Gulf states.  

• Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi says the ministry has discovered "a document from the hands of a son of a member of the elites, which contains strategies, policies and tactics to topple [the regime]."

• Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi addresses the Student Basij of the Petroleum Industry University.

• According to Tehran’s Public Prosecutor, thirty individuals engaged in "cyber crimes" have been arrested.
  • Kayhan publishes an analysis of the Revolutionary Guards Cyber Army's "intelligence superiority" in the fight against "cyber instigators of discord directed by the CIA."

  • Mehdi Boutorabi, former Persian Blog editor, is arrested.

• Kayhan gives coverage to a recent report on Iran by Dr. Mike Eisenstadt, a scholar at the Washington Institute.

• Sharif University students make an unmanned submarine.
  [E] Commander of the Iranian Army Major General Ataollah Salehi reiterated on Monday that Iran's response to any potential threat will be decisive, warning that any enemy aggression will be reciprocated by a crushing response.
  [E] The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Sunday announced that its cyber teams have hacked 29 websites affiliated with the US espionage network.
  Nuclear Issue

• Ahmadinejad addresses a seminar on job creation:
  • "The nuclear issue is a political game. Their aim is to obstruct Iran's path of development..."

  • "For years, they propagated that no country can advance without relying upon them, but now they see that a country is advancing without relying on them and despite even opposing them..."

  • "Therefore they engage in a new game on a daily basis. One day it is the nuclear issue, and the other day it is human rights. Their own professional murderers have invaded certain world centers and behind the mask of such centers they want to create obstacles in the path of development of the Iranian nation. Of course they can't. I'm telling them that you have been wrong for years and you are still wrong."

• Ahmadinejad addresses the crowds in Hormozgan province:
  "In recent times, we had to wait for permission from the West regarding our nuclear activities... Today, Islamic Iran has not only achieved its inalienable right, which is nuclear program in a suitable way, but it has also achieved maximum power in this regard...”
  "Imperialism has during the past months engaged in conspiracies and attempts to poison the regional atmosphere, and has chosen the path of arming the countries of the region with various arms..."

• [E] Director General of Iran's Nuclear Safety Affairs Kamran Sepanlou underlined on Monday that Iran's first nuclear power plant in Bushehr enjoys the necessary safety standards, and reminded that Bushehr, similar to all other nuclear facilities of the world countries, is under the supervision of the IAEA.

Economy

• Minimum wage set at 303,480 rial per month.

• Reports on next year's national budget:
  • Ahmad Tavakkoli, head of the Parliament's Research Institute, warns that the next year’s budget will have inflationary consequences.

  • Ali-Akbar Owliae, parliamentarian: "In the budget, there are many generalizations which are not being discussed in the parliament...In the budget, we see large and small credits for unspecific projects and it is unclear what institutions direct them. Therefore, one must eliminate them to find out based upon which logic these charts are made..."

• Mohammad Khoshchehreh, economist and former parliamentarian: "Next priorities of the government in the economic field are control of inflation, economic stabilization and price stabilization...Attention should be paid next year to investment and reduction of the class gap..."
  Trade

• Agahsazi covers Shell's decision to stop selling gasoline to Iran.

• According to Parsineh, the Islamic Republic is changing its oil policy to further attract Chinese investments in the Persian Gulf region. This policy aims to increase China's incentives to oppose hard sanctions in the United Nations Security Council and to improve Iran's aging oil and gas industry. According to Parsineh, Iran may also reduce or stop its oil and gas exports to Europe.

• Forty percent of the income from the National Iranian Oil Company is earmarked for development of South Pars Gas Field.

• Major oil companies stop transporting gasoline to Iran.

• The Islamic Republic provides Ecuador with a $100 million loan.

• Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar announces establishment of trade zones in Iran's periphery regions.

• Kayhan Hashemi-Nia, deputy chief of planning of Gilan Province, says the current drilling for oil in Western Gilan is important for Iranian and Thai investors.
  Media

• Tabnak releases statistics on internet users and internet access in Iran.

Religion, Society and Culture

• New Year’s eve festivities:
  • Supreme Leader Khamenei criticizes the pre-Islamic Persian festival, Chaharshanbeh Souri: "Not only does it not have any foundation in the religious law, it is also greatly harmful and corrupting. It should be avoided..."

  • Safar-Ali Baratlou, deputy head of political and social affairs in Tehran Province: "In order to increase the town's security during the holidays, the Law Enforcement Forces and the Basij will coordinate their efforts...We don't want to stop the people's happiness during the last Wednesday of the year, but because of the people's wish we want to establish security in the city..."

  • Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi says the Chaharshanbeh Souri festival is "superstitious and baseless, and devout and wise Muslims abstain from it."

• Ayatollah Vahid Khorasani addressing Qom Province' Military Commander: "Girls and boys are raised at a time when most of the people are struggling with poverty. They are in need of a life. Social ills multiply on a daily basis. Stop spread of societal ills and ethical corruption, and God willing, this problem will be uprooted...With the aid of the Law Enforcement Forces, the foundations people’s beliefs must be preserved. And assemblies of propagation of Christianity, Bahaism, Wahhabism, and Sufism and the like, God willing, must be uprooted by the Law Enforcement Forces..."

• [E] Ahmadinejad said on Monday that Isfahan had been the harbinger of arts and architecture in Iran for hundreds of years.

Human Rights

• The Iranian opposition releases statistical information about 109 individuals who have been killed in clashes with the security forces since the presidential election.

   

   

Photo of the Day

• Mehdi Karrubi's residence attacked.

• Alternative fuel for cars.

• Fidel Castro and Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

• Hojjat al-Islam Yaser Khomeini visits Mostafa Tajzadeh, recently released from Evin prison.

  • So do a number of opposition leaders.

• People of Hormozgan write petitions to Ahmadinejad.