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

• Rafsanjani speaking on the occasion of the international day of communications says "censorship of news and presenting false news is senseless."

Diplomacy

• Supreme Leader Khamenei receiving the president of Zimbabwe says "the interventionist nature of the [world] powers is the great calamity upon mankind and the only way of dealing with it is more cooperation between independent states and nations."
• Hojjat al-Eslam Mohammad-Bagher Kharrazi, head of the Hezbollah of Iran, demands establishment of "Greater Iran" or "a United Islamic States" in the Middle East. Kharrazi has also called for the presidency to return to clerics in Iran, and has also earlier said that it was ready to purchase Manchester [the football club?] just in order to rename it Kheybar.

·         [E] Ahmadinejad and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez in a phone conversation underlined the need for the two countries' cooperation and coordination on all international scenes.

Military and Security

• Rafsanjani addressing former provincial governors questions the role of the Revolutionary Guards in Iran's economy: "Back then [at the end of the war with Iraq] all the industrial logistics were in the hands of the Guards. It was not possible to employ those capacities after the end of the war by any other means. My tactical move was to free a great part of national resources which were blocked in the hands of the Guards without any reason. Now, let's say that it was so [that Rafsanjani himself called upon the Guards to take part in post-war reconstruction]. What is the reason behind strong presence of the Guards in the economic field now…?"
• Commander Ali Fazli, Basij deputy, says at the very least 2 million Iranians will participate in the anniversary of Khomeini’s death.
• Hassan Firouzabadami, chief of the general staff, accuses BBC Persian of waging a cultural war against Persian language and calls Ferdowsi, the poet behind Iran's national epic, a "holy warrior" for the cause of Persian language and religion.

Nuclear Issue

• Mehr News Agency releases the text of the nuclear agreement between Iran, Turkey and Brazil. Article 5 of the agreement obliges the Islamic Republic to send 1200 kilogram low enriched uranium to Turkey for stockpiling. Article 6 of the agreement says the agreement will await answer from the United States, Russia, France and the IAEA in order to prepare a detailed plan for delivery of 120 kilogram nuclear fuel for Tehran research reactor, which according to Article 7 should take no longer than one year. Should the articles not be respected, Turkey will return the entire stockpile to Iran without any preconditions.
  • Ahmadinejad expresses hope that the 5+1 Group "enters the negotiations with sincerity, respect and justice, pay attention to the great deed done in Tehran and follow this path which has opened up for humanity..."
  • Kayhan editor Hossein Shariatmadari stresses that this document is a "declaration" and not a legally binding "agreement."
  • Ali Zakani, parliamentarian, says the agreement and Iran's diplomatic initiative has eviscerated Western countries’ excuses.
  • Ahmad Tavakoli, parliamentarian, attacks the agreement for not safeguarding the national interests of Iran against "ever demanding Western counterpart."
  • The German government announces that the agreement can't replace an agreement between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the IAEA.
  • The European Union's Lady Ashton calls the agreement "a step in the right direction."
  • [E] Moscow declines to express any opinion about the agreement before officially receiving the text of the agreement. Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said on Tuesday that Tehran would ship its low enriched uranium batches to Turkey once the Vienna Group state their official approval of the deal.
  • [E] Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili underscored the significant role of Iran's active diplomacy in materializing the nation's nuclear rights and attracting the other countries' support for Tehran's nuclear stances.

·         Supreme Leader Khamenei receiving the president of Algeria: "The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to provide the Islamic countries with its experiences and capacities in various fields."

Economy

• 100,000 rial bank notes soon to enter circulation.
• Labor Minister Abd al-Reza Sheikh al-Eslami says there is no "wave of factory closures" in the wake of reform of the subsidies system.

·         [E] Iran on Tuesday announced that it plans to make $125 billion to $200 billion dollars of investment in upstream oil and gas projects in the framework of the country's fifth Development Plan.

Human Rights

• Ahmad Yazdanfar, Mir-Hossein Mousavi's chief bodyguard, is arrested.

Trade

·         [E] Iran says a recent decrease in Iran's oil supplies to China has not resulted from the sanctions imposed by the West on the Iranian oil sector over the country's nuclear issue.

·         [E] Iran's non-oil exports to eastern and western neighboring states witnessed a remarkable increase last year, an Iranian trade official announced on Tuesday. "Iran's non-oil exports to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey have increased 49, 58, 45 and 11 percent during the last year, respectively," Director-General of the Public Relations Office of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI) Ahad Amir Mohammadi said.

Photos of the Day

• Supreme Leader Khamenei receives presidents of Algeria and Zimbabwe.
• Iran, Brazil, Turkey nuclear summit in Tehran.