Iran News Round Up

Diplomacy

• Old video of Ali Khamenei visiting American diplomats taken hostage in Iran in 1979, features his conversation with U.S. diplomat John Limbert.

• Supreme Leader Khamenei receives a delegation of Iranian students on the occasion of the Pupil's Day:

  • "The motivations of the youth today are not different from the very first day when a group of young people went and seized the American Embassy which had become the center and a bastion of conspiracy against the revolution, their motivation may even be stronger. The reason is clear..."
  • "This generation is receptive of the experiences...Let me tell you this: Should an event like the imposed war which occurred in 1980 take place today the wave of the youth volunteers to face the enemy will be even greater than in 1980 or 1981..."
  • "The United States of America is an imperialist power in the true sense of the word. It is not only an issue for us, but an issue for the world, the world of Islam..."
  • "In Iraq, the plan of the United States is to establish [military bases] and remain there 50 to 100 years. And in Afghanistan - since Afghanistan is a place where - should they have bases there – they can achieve superiority over the countries in South West Asia, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Iran - they are trying to establish permanent bases and remain. This is the meaning of imperialism..."
  • "From the very first months [after the revolution], they showed us their naked sword and the Embassy became the center of conspiracy, the Den of Espionage, a suspect center for provocation of this and that person, so that they could defeat the Islamic Republic. This was the big mistake of the Americans. After this they did whatever they could with the Islamic Republic, with our dear nation and with our country. One example is the attack against Tabas. Another example is the downing of our passenger flight where they killed around 300 people in the Persian Gulf... Another example is attack against our oil platforms...Another example is all out help to the villain Saddam so that they could make him victor in the war against us and deal a blow to the Islamic Republic..."
  • "This new President of America said beautiful things. He sent us messages constantly, both orally and written: 'Come and let us turn the page, come and create a new situation, come and let us cooperate in solving the problems of the world.' It reached this degree! We said that we should not be prejudiced, that we will look at their deeds. They said we want change. We said, well, let us see the change. On March 21, when I delivered a speech in Mashhad, I said that if there is an iron fist under the velvet glove and you extend a hand towards us we will not extend our hand. This was the warning I made eight months ago. During the past eight months, what we have seen is contrary to what they orally express and pretend. On the surface the issue is this: Let us negotiate. But besides negotiation, there is threat. If the negotiation does not reach a desirable result, we will do this and that! What kind of negotiation is this? Is it not the wolf and sheep relationship where the Imam [Khomeini] said 'We don't want the relationship of the wolf and the sheep'? 'Do come and negotiate with us at the table about this issue', for example the nuclear issue, 'but conditioned upon the negotiation reaching this particular result!' For example abstaining from nuclear activity. And if this end is not reached 'we will do this and that.' Threats. I am amazed. Why don't they learn from the past? Why don't they want to know our nation…?"
  • "When the United States abandons imperialism, the day it abstains from intervening without any reason in the affairs of the nations it will be a state like all other states and it will also be a state like other states for us. But as long as the Americans are longing for returning to Iran and renewing events of the past, and want to change history and bring the time back and want control us they will not by any means force our nation to retreat, and they should know this. They should not rest their hopes in the unrest which happened after the election. The Islamic Republic is stronger than such things. It is deeper than this. It has greater roots than this. The Islamic Republic emerged victorious from much more difficult events. Now, four people - either simpletons, with or without a certain motive - or bad and ill wishing and with evil intents, coupled with simplicity and naive understanding of affairs tried to challenge the Islamic Republic. They can't roll out the red carpet for the United States in our country. They should know this. The Iranian nation resists."
    • The school children listening to Khamenei chanted "Death to America", "Death to England" and "Death to the hypocrite."

• Mohsen Armin, former hostage taker and reformist theoretician, praises seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran.

• Speaker Ali Larijani travels to Iraq Wednesday as the head of a high ranking parliamentary delegation.

• Asgharzadeh, Bitaraf and Behzadian retell the tale of the 1979 seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran.

• (E) Iranian officials threatened Saudi Arabia with retaliatory measures if Saudi officials continue to fingerprint Iranian hajj pilgrims to Mecca and Medina. According to Ezatollah Yousefian, a member of the parliament's Planning and Budget Commission, Saudi Arabia must distinguish between Iranian nationals visiting the country and religious pilgrims embarking on their annual ritual. Iranians visiting Medina in the past two days were forced to wait on long lines at the airport for Saudi security.

• (E) Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani arrived in Baghdad to discuss parliamentary cooperation and bilateral ties with his counterparts in Iraq. Larijani was welcomed by the head of Iran-Iraq Friendship Group Saleh Sayyad and a number of Iraqi legislators.

• (E) During their trip to Sri Lanka, an Iranian parliament delegation met with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka and to discuss issues of mutual economic interest and expressed hope that the countries continue to collaborate on financial issues. The Iranian delegation also emphasized that improving the state’s relationship with South Asian countries was a priority for the state.

• (E) In a meeting with Australian Ambassador to Tehran Marc Innes-Brown, Secretary of Iran's Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei declared that Iran is always in pursuit of peace and stability in the region. Rezaei said “we have not pursued any aggressive policy toward other countries while defending our rights." He attributed the foreign policy conflicts between Iran and the West as stemming from a general misconception regarding Iranian foreign policy, designed to protect the country’s national interests.

Politics

• Commemoration of the 1979 seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran:

  • Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri: "The seizure of the American Embassy in the beginning of the victory of the revolution was supported by most revolutionary classes and the blessed Imam Khomeini, also approved by me. But the negative side effects and the extreme sensitivity created between the people of America and Iran the effects of which still remain, showed that it was not the right thing to do."
  • Line of the Imam [Khomeini] reformist faction complains why the "heroes" from the seizure of the American Embassy in 1979 are imprisoned today.
  • Masoumeh Ebtekar, spokeswoman of the hostage takers from 1979: "Why are the students whom the Imam [Khomeini] called 'national heroes' in prison today?"

• Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami: "Any act of discord tomorrow [November 4th] would be a service to imperialism."

• Mohamamd-Hassan Haeri Shirazi urges establishment of a position called the Spokesman of the Supreme Leader to represent the Beit-e Rahbari [the Office of the Supreme Leader].

• The last three cabinet ministers of the Ahmadinejad government expected to receive a vote of confidence from the parliament on Wednesday.

• Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei appointed head of the Economic Free Trade Area zones.

Military and Security

• Commander of the Revolutionary Guards Mir-Feisal Bagherzadeh announces establishment of a museum called "The Museum of the Great Miracle of the Century" on the site of the crash of U.S. helicopters sent to free American hostages in Iran.

• Abd al-Hamid Rigi, brother of Jundullah terrorist group leader Abd al-Malek Rigi, hanged in Zahedan.

Nuclear Issue

• Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani: "Sending enriched uranium out of the country is not in the interest of the country."

• Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Parliament reacts to Mir-Hossein Mousavi's criticism of the Ahmadinejad’s nuclear diplomacy: "Mousavi is always engaged in destruction of the image of the regime and weakening the national security in the country and his questioning of the foreign policy of the country and the nuclear policy is following the same aims... Mousavi questions the foreign policy and nuclear achievements of the country in circumstances when the majority of the Iranian nation and even international forum confess to the progress of the country in the nuclear field..."

Economy

• (E) Iran is opening another bank in Belarus in an effort to advance Tehran-Minsk economic collaboration. A Ministry of Commerce spokesperson said that trade with Belarus is a priority for Iran and noted that the number of trade exchanges between the two countries doubled between 2006 and 2008.

Culture, Religion, and Society

• (E) Director of the Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC) Saeed Sarkar spoke at the opening ceremony of the second international exhibition on nanotechnology titled 'Iran Nano 2009’ that began in Tehran.

• (E) Eight Iranian films are scheduled to be screened at theCopenhagen International Film Festival this coming week. The Road of Dreams, Basiji, No One Knows about Persian Cats, and Tehran without Permission will be the first among the films to be showcased.

• (E) Iran's Peykan defeated Brazil's Cimed 3-1 at the 2009 FIVB Men's Club World Volleyball Championship in Doha, Qatar. Peykan is set to face Poland’s PGE Skra Belchatow and Qatar’s Al-Arabi as the competition continues.  The top two teams of each group will progress to the semifinals and the eventual champions will receive $250,000 out of the total prize money of $750,000.

• (E) Two consecutive earthquakes measuring 4.9 and 3.3 on the Richter scale jolted the city of Bandar Abbas in Iran's Southern Hormozgan province. Reports indicate that the earthquake injured 269 people damaged 31 buildings. 

• (E) Rallies marking the 30^th Anniversary of the US Embassy takeover in Tehran were staged in the capital and in other cities throughout the Islamic Republic. Citizens referred to November 4^th as the National Day against “Global Arrogance” and openly chanted anti-US and anti-Israel rhetoric.

Health

• (E) Eleven Iranian citizens died from the swine flu last week, increasing the national death toll to 33. While Iran has advised its population to take precautionary measures, Iranian Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi predicted that 30 percent of Iran will be infected with swine flu in the next two years.

Photos of the Day

• Supreme Leader Khamenei addresses school children.

• Embassy seizure, November 4, 1979.