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 addresses the crowds in Yasouj:
  • "Until today, we have obtained a fourth of this money [previously lent to ‘influential people’] during the past couple of years, and returned it to the public treasury. And thanks to divine benevolence, the government will not stop until the last rial has returned and the government will not retreat because of their pressures..."
  • "If there is no justice, Iran can't be rebuilt..."
  • "One of the great deeds in order to achieve justice is the execution of the subsidy reform law. If there are no obstacles in this path, and God willing there won’t be any problems, the proper implementation of this law will make entire Iran blossom. With the execution of this scheme, there will not be a single poor person in Iran..."
  • "The government is decisive when it comes to severing the arms of those who have taken tens of millions of tomans from the public funds and are not returning the money shamelessly..."
• Kayhan editorializes: "Yesterday's support from the leaders of the discord to terrorists, whose hands are stained with the blood of innocent people and the children of the nation, shows that there is no return for such individuals and the hope that they will correct themselves is an immature thought. Now that everything is over, no explanation suits the heads of the discord better than the statement that a few individuals have been added to the counter revolutionaries and the terrorists. Congratulations gentlemen!"
• Fars News Agency releases the book Dadgah-e Hashtad Va Hasht [The Trial of 2009] which includes legal documents related to the show trials in Tehran.
• Ministry of Agricultural Jihad is to be relocated outside Tehran.
• Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani addresses commanders of Khatam al-Anbia Construction Base, the contracting arm of the Revolutionary Guards:
  • "We sometimes think that some people erroneously believe that the policy of the United States has changed and one must deal with it in a different way…I believe it is possible that the United States changes its tactics but their strategy is most certainly not [to see] that the Islamic Republic is a source of pride for awakening of the Muslims...In the [past] three years you can see what the United States has done in defense of the people of Palestine. Rather than defending the Palestinian nation, we see that Zionist settlements grow on a daily basis and still more Palestinians are subjected to attacks. This shows that their statements [of change in U.S. foreign policy] were wrong. There is more struggle as the Muslims in Palestine are awakened."
• Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi criticizes the theory of collective leadership in the Islamic Republic: "This scheme may be a satanic scheme, so that an individual who knows he will not become Leader [Rafsanjani] thinks if there is a council [of Leadership], he will be present in that council... How can decisions be made with regard to important and fundamental issues of society in case there is a leadership council?... Individual leadership has always been accepted. In the tradition of the wise and followers of the sacred law, people always sought an individual to rule not a council...Governance issues can’t wait, and in many issues the leader must take a decisive and final decision...If we have several commanders in a war, how can decisions be made about [military] operations? Until now, only one collective leadership has been formed in the world, which was the Soviet Union. It had a leadership council, but at top of the council there was one individual and his opinion was final. In Islam we have consultation, but consultation is different from decision-making."
• Rafsanjani addresses reformist journalists: "When caring individuals are imprisoned because of their disagreement and criticism, a large group around him or her including friends, neighbors and relatives begin thinking and they become aware of the circumstances. This awareness is generally constructive."
• Alef News Agency's columnist condemns Mir-Hossein Mousavi's denunciation of the recent executions in Iran as "open declaration of support for terrorism."
• Intelligence Minister Hojjat al-Eslam Moslahi says the list of individuals owing the banks great amount of money includes "sons of the grandees" who will be prosecuted.
• Hojjat al-Eslam Sedighi leads this week's Friday prayer in Tehran.

Diplomacy

• Ahmadinejad speaks about his latest visit to New York to the members of the families of the war veterans and martyrs from the Iran/Iraq war in Kohkilouyeh va Boyer Ahmad:
  • "In an interview with a journalist, I said that today the Islamic Republic of Iran is the mightiest state in the entire world..."
  • "The Middle East is the most important region in the world, and the state which has the final word in the Middle East has also the final say in the world. It is therefore that all the powers who desire to control the world must first have a firm foundation in the Middle East. This is why the imperialists established the Zionist regime so that they can control the Middle East and through the Middle East control the world. Any empire which has emerged in the world has first established its base in the Middle East and then has taken over the world. In the recent history both the United States and Britain have done so..."
  • "I asked this journalist how the situation in the Middle East was at present. Is it possible for any power to advance its agenda without Iran, without the benevolence of Iran, without cooperation and will of Iran? Everyone knows that today they can't do anything in the world without Iran. Not that Iran is a military power or is a military aggressor. Iran is a cultural and human power and the hearts and minds of the nations are with the Iranian nation...You saw what mayhem and noise they made prior to the trip to New York; what some of the senators did; what kind of money they spent; and what noise was created so that the words of justice of the Iranian nation should not get published. But the benevolent God, for the sake of self-sacrifice and blood of the martyrs, suppressed them with their own hands. With all the noise they made they actually created public attention about what this person wants to say!"
• Tabnak News editorializes: "Obama has now adopted a policy where he signs a nuclear treaty with Russia, and his forces parade on the Red Square. It seems that the George Kennan telex has become the cornerstone of Obama's diplomacy towards Iran and one of the principles of the containment policy is doing away with conflicts with Iran's friends and possibly allies."
• The Iraqi Prime Minister sends Hussein Shahrestani, Iraqi petroleum minister, and Tareq Najm, his chief of staff, to a secret mission to Tehran.
• Mardomsalari editorializes: "…Russia’s double-edged policy [towards Iran’s nuclear issue] shows that they want to extract great concessions from both parties [Iran and West]. Firstly, the rejection of a proposal for fuel exchange between Iran and the West with the Russian mediation unmasked the Russian diplomacy, as it joined the West to threaten Iran with sanctions, but as a face-saving gesture called on the parties to show moderation. Of course, the new beginning between Russia and the West, which some describe as honeymoon between Kremlin and Washington, as well as military and commercial deals with Europe, had their effects. But against this backdrop, Iran's diplomacy disturbed some of those equations. Iran announced it was ready to engage in fuel exchange with the West through mediation of Turkey and Brazil... It is not very pleasant for the Russians to see other countries cooperating with Iran. They still desire to play the key role in Iran's nuclear issue and constitute the sole channel of communication between Iran and the West. On the one hand, Russia pressures Iran to accommodate the West, and on the other hand, through behind-the-scenes diplomacy with some partners, is abandoning Iran. Despite the Russians seemingly not desiring a fourth round of sanctions against Iran, an isolated Iran with no relations with the West and even engaged in a verbal confrontation would be most desirable for the Russians."
• Kazem Jalali, National Security and Foreign Policy Committee spokesman of the Iranian parliament: "The Islamic Republic welcomes a greater regional and international role played by Brazil and Turkey as two important states since this issue prevents unilateralism and the monopoly of a few powers to play this role..."
• [E] Iranian foreign ministry blasted the recent claims raised by the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah on Iran's three Persian Gulf Islands, describing the trio as an indispensible part of the country.
• [E] Ahmadinejad said Thursday that Iran has become a shelter for the world’s justice-seekers and a source of reliance and encouragement for all nations.

Military and Security

• Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani addresses commanders of Khatam al-Anbia Construction Base, the contracting arm of the Revolutionary Guards:
  • "The position of Khatam al-Anbia is not one of competition with private companies, and it must not be such, so that the private companies should not think that they can't access the projects. The Khatam Base must open the path for various talents to blossom in the field of economy..."
  • "The work of the Khatam Base is not the same as normal contracting firms and one sees the spirit of the Sacred Defense [Iran/Iraq war] in these projects..."
  • "There are some who are telling me that the Guards is in the field of defense, participates in the realm of culture and is now also seizing the economic field. I remembered the words of the Imam [Khomeini]. I told him that the Guards wants to stage a coup and the Imam [Khomeini] said it is good that the Guards stages a coup. The Guards is of the same material as of the people. Khatam Construction Base does not want take anyone's place and compete with minor companies, but desires to create the foundation and to help the private sector...We in the Islamic Consultative Assembly [the Iranian parliament] will help you and hope that in the path of the construction of the country good deeds are done and we all know that development of the country does not take place without participation of the people."
    • Rostam Ghasemi, Khatam Al-Anbia Construction Base Chief, welcoming Larijani: "With the new structure of the construction base we have managed to enter great projects. Where we needed foreign companies, for example in South Pars, we have replaced Shell and Total and have accepted up to fifty percent of the projects in the region."
• Hojjat al-Eslam Mojtaba Zolnour, Supreme Leader’s deputy representative to the Revolutionary Guards, addresses the Student Basij at Martyr Beheshti University: "The heads of the discord are now imprisoned and the people are their prison wards. The regime has been wise not to have arrested them, which could make them heroes. Now they have become politically dead...Now these individuals are at a dead end. Their arrest will make them come out of it...Mousavi Khoeiniha, one of those individuals, says he was against the war during the era of the Imam [Khomeini] but did not dare saying so out of fear of the greatness of the Imam...Mr. Sanei abandoned the Imam...If Hashemi [Rafsanjani] approves of her statements [Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani's] it is deplorable and if he does not approve of it he must condemn it, but he has not done so yet...It is the same about Mehdi Hashemi, son of Hashemi Rafsanjani. At a time when everyone says “Mehdi come”, Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani announces “Mehdi don't come”. If he has no issues, why does he not return to Iran? If he does have, then he must come to Iran so one can address to the problems of Mehdi Hashemi."
• Revolutionary Guards Chief Mohammad-Ali Jafari addressing the Guards and Basij members in Ilam says the Guards is fully prepared to face any soft threat of the enemy.
• Pakistan's ambassador to Tehran reportedly survives an assassination attack by an Afghan citizen in Iran.
• [E] Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated that the country needs no advice by the United States on the sale of the anti-aircraft S-300 missile system to Iran.

Trade

• Anzali Port Facility doubles its capacity.
• A member of the Parliament’s energy committee says all foreign companies have left South Pars Gas Field.
• Hassan Shabanpour, a member of Parliament’s Energy Committee, says before the end of this fiscal year, a number of unfinished oil development projects, due to lack of investments, especially those concerning shared oil fields with other states, will be reactivated. According to Shabanpour the projects will be financed by domestic Iranian banks.
• Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, National Iranian Oil Company deputy, says Iran is readying itself to export gasoline.
• Executive Director of the Company Distributing Oil Based Products warns of depletion of the gasoline reserve.
• Iran, Saudi Arabia and Angola are the main oil exporters to China.

Economy

• [E] Efforts by Iranian researchers in utilizing ceramic nanoparticles to synthesize zirconia/steel composite created beam of hope for mass-production of this composite type for aerospace industries.

Religion, Society and Culture

• Supreme Leader visits Tehran International Book Fair.
• Grand Ayatollah Khalil Mobasher Kashani says "due to the benevolence of Her Holiness Zahra, Tehran will be safe from earthquake" and that Her Holiness' prayers will "keep Tehran safe."
• Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Hosseini says he will purge ministry employees who served his predecessors Mohajerani and Masjed-Jamei.

Iran in the Afghan Media

• Hundreds of men and women in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar Province stage a protest rally denouncing Iran’s “mistreatment” of Afghan refugees.
  • Chanting anti-Iran slogans, the protestors condemned executions of Afghan and Iranian citizens in Iran.
  • The demonstrators also criticized the recent expulsion of 80,000 Afghan refugees by the Iranian government.
  • Kabul residents have also held protest rallies in front of the Iranian embassy in the capital.
  • Iran’s foreign ministry linked the Kabul protests to “supporters of Jundallah” militant groups, and added that such actions were aimed at damaging friendly relations between Kabul and Tehran.

Photo of the Day

• Supreme Leader Khamenei visits Tehran International Book Fair.
• Iranian military exercises.