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]. 

Politics

• Supreme Leader Khamenei appoints Hojjat al-Eslam Ghorban-Ali Dorri as his representative to Markazi province and as Friday Prayer Leader of Arak.
• Hamid Ghafrani discusses expansion of the role of the Office of the Supreme Leader under Khamenei.

Diplomacy

• Mottaki, Foreign Minister, denies having met members of the United Sates Congress during his visit to Iran's Interest Section at the Embassy of Pakistan.
• Hassan Kazemi Qomi, the Islamic Republic's Ambassador to Iraq, announces that Speaker of the Parliament Ali Larijani will travel to Baghdad in order to sign a memorandum of cooperation with the Iraqi parliament.
• Qashqavi, Foreign Ministry Spokesman, says the authorities have discovered large amounts of "antiquities" in cargo of an Argentine diplomat leaving Iran after seven years.
• [E] General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, describes Iran as a “big player” in Afghanistan, adding that the Islamic Republic has had a “positive influence” in Afghanistan.

Military and Security

• Hojjat al-Eslam Hossein Taeb, Basij Chief, is appointed to an undisclosed but "important" position in the Revolutionary Guards.
• In his capacity as Basij Chief, Hojjat al-Eslam Hossein Taeb expresses hope that the Judiciary deals more decisively when facing the opposition and "those who plant discord."
• Firouz-Abadi, Chief of the General Staff, in a reference to alleged crimes of the Rafsanjani family says "freedom means equality of all in the face of the law."
• Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Saidi, representative of the Supreme Leader to the Revolutionary Guards, speaking to an assembly of representatives of the Supreme Leader to the educational institutions of the Guards: "During the hard war - the Iran/Iraq war - the people passed the exam, but during the soft war - the post-election events - some of the elites did not pass the exam."

Nuclear Issue

• El-Baradei to visit Iran to discuss Iran's cooperation with the IAEA.
• President Obama's statements about beginning of a "constructive dialogue in Geneva" make the headlines of Fars News Agency.
• Javan editor Seyyed Nezam al-Din Mousavi accuses the "reformists" to be flirting with the "borders of treason" in the nuclear issue.
• [E] Iran’s Foreign Minister gives an outline of Tehran’s expectations and suggestions for the one month of talks that began in Geneva on Thursday. "We believe that these negotiations have started off in a constructive mood," Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters in New York. "We hope that the other side will all also enter these talks with a serious political will and a constructive approach…We have come to table with a clear work plan," PressTV quoted Mottaki as saying.
• [E] Speaker of Iran’s Parliament Ali Larijani says the country’s “positive attitude” in Geneva talks will lead to rational results. 
• [E] Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili emphasizes that all nations should have the right to peaceful use of nuclear technology, pointing out that Iran will not abandon its nuclear right. "We are committed to our commitment in the framework of the NPT, and at the same time we will go ahead and stick to our nuclear rights in the framework of the NPT," Jalili said after his talks with six world powers.
• [E] China welcomes the “progress” made in the Geneva nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers. "China welcomes the progress made in the Geneva talks and appreciates the flexibility shown by all parties," chief of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Department of Arms Control Cheng Jingye said in a Thursday statement.
• [E] Iran and the six powers agree for talks to continue until the end of October.
   

Photo of the Day

• Jalili, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, meets Javier Solana.