Iran News Round Up

Politics

• Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami will lead this Friday's prayer in Tehran.

  • Ahmadinejad will also deliver a speech. 
  • Rafsanjani was earlier rumored to lead the prayer. 
  • According to Parsineh News, Rafsanjani aimed to deliver the Expediency Council's public statement against Israel on the Quds Day Friday prayer.
  • (E) Rafsanjani called for an unprecedented display of Muslim unity on al-Quds day, the last Friday of Ramadan. Every year, a rally is held on al-Quds day to demonstrate Muslim solidarity with the Palestinian population. Hashemi-Rafsanjani’s desperate call for unity stems from his belief that “world powers are ready to add to their crimes by taking advantage of weak alliances among Muslims”

• Ahmadinejad asks the Supreme Audit Court, a supervisory body which has earlier criticized his government, to abide by legislation.

• Former Parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel joins a group of parliamentarians who claim that seven to eight of Ahmadinejad’s cabinet nominees would not have gained the vote of confidence from parliament had the Supreme Leader not offered recommendation.

• According to Parsineh News, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashayi's influence over the Cultural Heritage Organization has not decreased but increased since the appointment of the organization’s new head and since Mashayi was appointed Head of the President's Office.

• Ne'mat-Allah Poustin-Douz, appointed SAIPA car manufacturing firm executive director.

• Iranian politicians offer mixed viewpoints on whether or not refomist leaders Karrubi and Mousavi should be prosecuted.

  • Veteran politician Jalal al-Din Farsi: "Making false accusations against a regime which is based upon [divine] revelations accounts to opposing the Quran."
  • Parliamentarian Hojjat al-Eslam Hossein Ebrahimi asks as to why the instigators of the post-election unrest have not been prosecuted.
  • Member of Parliament Mehdi Kouchak-Zadeh says failing to prosecute Mousavi and Karrubi degrades the country’s legal proceedings in the eyes of the public.
  • Parliamentarian Hojjat al-Eslam Hamid Rasayi: "A slap in the face of Mehdi Hashemi [Rafsanjani] by the regime will put an end to immunity of the elites."
  • Amir-Hossein Mahdavi, a former member of the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution faction, claims the faction's activities are "beyond the legal frameworks" and even its own statute.
  • Ayatollah Dastgheib condemns intervention of the Revolutionary Gaurds and Basij in politics, warning that it it would be "an irreparable mistake" to arrest Karrubi and Mousavi.

Military and Security

• Revolutionary Guards Navy Chief Morteza Saffari:

  • "As the Supreme Leader explained, there were some elites who did not pass the exam in the post-election events...How can we consider some individuals, groups and movements as the followers of the path of the Imam [khomeini] when they, in their speeches, postures and deeds, enchant the United States, the Zionists and all the sworn enemies of Islam and the Islamic revolution?.."
  • "Why have some faces and groups become collaborators of the United States, Britain, the Zionist regime, the monarchists, the secular forces, domestic hypocrites [Monafeghin, a reference to the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization] and other sworn enemies of Islam and Iran?..."
  • "Elite background is not a sign of their infallibility. As the blessed Imam [Khomeini] expressed in his Political Will, what counts is the present state of the individuals. It is because he [Khomeini] knew that men commit mistakes, deviate from the path and fail at exams and may sell out all Islamic goals and ideals to the benefit of the enemies..."

• (E) Saeed Jalili, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, met with the head of the International Maritime Organization to discuss the issue of modern piracy. Alien warships have been discovered in the Persian Gulf and the Oman Sea and Jalili has pressured the regional community to join Iran in taking action. Iran has cooperated with the IMO and has sent multiple fleets of warships to the Gulf of Aden.

Iran in the Afghan Media

• A group of Afghan parliamentarians say Iran is meddling in Afghanistan for political reasons.

  • They say that Iran is politically benefting from instability in Afghanistan, such as Afghanistan’s inability to prevent the waters of Helmand River from freely flowing into Iran and not being exploited inside the country. The parliamentarians say that the discovery of Iranian-made weapons and mines shows Iran is interfering in Afghanistan.
  • Muhammad Naeem Farahi, a member of Parliament from Farah Province bordering Iran, accused Iran of supplying arms and weapons to the government’s opposition in Farah and Herat provinces, and complained that the Afghan govenrment remained silent over the issue. Khodai Nazar Saramchar, a member of Parliament from Nimroz Province bordering Iran, also accused Iran of meddling in Afghanistan.
  • But an Iranian official at Tehran’s embassy in Kabul refuted the accusations, saying Iran was playing a stabilizing role in Afghanistan. “Not only does Iran not interfere in Afghanistan’s affairs, but it is trying to solve the country’s problems.”

• Some Afghan parliamentarians accuse Iran’s border police of invovlement in drug traffickign along the Afghan-Iranian borders.

  • They say that Afghanistan’s fledgling police force is incapable of preventing drug smuggling, but that Iran’s police does not act despite being well-equipped and ready for the job. The western Afghan province of Herat is said to be main transit route for drug smuggling from Afghanistan to Iran and Turkmenistan. General Muhammad Daud, deputy of counternarcotics department at the Afghan Interior Ministry, said:: “At present, 80 percent of heroin is produced in Helmand Province which is smuggled to the province of Herat.”
  • Officials at the Iranian embassy in Kabul refute the allegations, reasoning that Iran has sacrificed 3,000 border guards in the fight against drugs. They stress that over 3,000 Afghans illegally enter Iran on a daily basis and that it is difficult to detect the smugglers amongst them. More, here.

Media

• Shargh may be republished after several years of ban.

Economy

• (E)Iran's OPEC Governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi stated the unparalleled importance of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries for the oil market. Khatabi boldly claimed that "OPEC enjoys enough power to prevent non-OPEC parities' control over the oil market" and dismissed speculation as to the potential effects of Russia’s fierce entrance into the oil market.

Religion, Society and Culture

• (E) Iran is expected to host an Asian canoeing trip in late September of 2010. The trip will be held in the Azadi Lake in Teheran.

• (E) Two Iranian chess players are scheduled to participate in the Sri Lanka Open International Chess Championship in Colombo. The event began on September 13^th and includes 74 representatives from 15 countries.

• (E)One Day after the Tenth Day, a film produced by Iranian filmmaker Narges Abyar, is set to be screened at Georgia’s Batumi International Art-House Film Festival in late September. The 25-minute movie portrays the way an old man bonds with his camel.

Diplomacy

• (E) Manouchehr Moradi, the new Iranian Ambassador to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan has pointed to the common Kyrgyzstan and Iranian attitudes toward various criminal activities including terrorism and drug trafficking. Moradi hopes that Kyrgyzstan will join the Iran-Afghanistan-Tajikistan cooperation trio on energy. Kyrgyzstan’s water resources offer an incredible investment opportunity for Iran.

Nuclear Issue

• (E) An Iranian National Security advisor explained that Iran’s package of proposals presented to the five members states on the UN Security Council and Germany did not address Iran’s nuclear program. The official reiterated that the nuclear issue was left out of the framework discussions because “there had remained no technical or legal aspect of the (nuclear) issue unsolved.”

• (E) Ali Asqar Soltanieh, Iran’s representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency, reported that Iran’s proposal to add a paragraph to the IAEA working agenda prohibiting attacks against “under construction or operational” nuclear installations was approved in the General Committee.

• (E) Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency, met with the head of the Russian energy organization, Sergei Kiriyenko, to discuss plans for bilateral cooperation. The two also addressed the Bushehr Nuclear Plant and discussed future joint-plans for the establishment of new nuclear plants.

• (E) Javier Solana, chief foreign policy executive for the European Union, has said that talks between Iran and the six major world powers will probably take place in Turkey. The date of the event has already been set for October 1, 2009.

Photos of the day

• Qajar era bastinado.

• Khomeini (uneasy?) at meeting Iranian Siamese twins Laleh and Ladan.