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

• JARAS writes that elevation of Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi tobe  a source of emulation is a sign of "the commanders of the Revolutionary Guards preparations to replace Rafsanjani as the head of the Assembly of Experts."
• Ayatollah Mohammad-Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi: "Some of those who made a career thanks to the revolution and self-sacrifice of the martyrs… are ungrateful and deny everything. One can't imagine greater sacrilege.
• Parliamentarian Emad Afrough ridicules Ahmadinejad's transformation from "Rajaei of the era" into "Cyrus of the era."

Diplomacy

• Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Ahmadineajd accuses the United States government of perpetrating the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Military and Security

• Fatemeh Karrubi says all the phone lines to the Karrubi residence have been cut.
• Commander Yadollah Javani, Revolutionary Guards Political Bureau chief, addressing theological students in the IRGC’s Imam Sadegh Brigade says: "One must prevent the activities of Hassan Khomeini in the seminary. He should not become a famous cleric and his lessons must stop because he is dangerous for the future."
• Intelligence Minister Hojjat al-Eslam Heydar Moslehi says the terrorist act in Mahabad "is just like other events which imperialism plans in order to do away with Shi'a unity, especially in a city like Mahabad on a day when a parade is taking place to commemorate the Sacred Defense... the network which has perpetrated this act has been identified by the Unknown Soldiers of the Imam of the Era."
• JARAS reports conflicts between the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Organization and the Intelligence Ministry following the Intelligence Ministry's discovery of IRGC listening devices in the homes of political activists.
• Shokri, former deputy minister of intelligence and an ally of Ahmadinejad's chief-of-staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, is suddenly hospitalized.  JARAS reports Shokri was dismissed by Khamenei.
• Intelligence Minister Moslehi warns against "infiltration of the theological seminaries" by foreign intelligence services and their attempt at "establishing Zionist Shi'a groups."
• Tabnak News releases details of the Revolutionary Guards' rescue operation freeing 5 soldiers taken hostage by the Jundallah.

Media

• Tabnak slams a BBC Persian documentary accusing Iran of mistreating Iraqi prisoners in Iran.

Human Rights

• Family members of political prisoners in Iran in a letter to the U.N. Secretary-General call for human rights inspectors to visit Iran.
• Mostafa Tajzadeh, former parliamentarian, reacting to Ahmadineajd's claims that there are no political prisoners in Iran, says "Ahmadinejad's lies are only comparable with [judge] Mortazavi's."
• Daughter of martyred war commander Hamid Bakeri of the Revolutionary Guards, a supporter of Mehdi Karrubi, says her mother was badly beaten by the security forces and her brother arrested as they tried to pay visit to Karrubi.
  • Asiyeh Bakeri talks about being the daughter of a famous martyr:
    • "The only benefit I had being the daughter of a martyr was the quota to enroll at the university for which I am being criticized by many friends and various people..."
    • "I still don't believe that such things happen in the country for which my father gave his blood... If my father was here he would not allow lies to be said, and would not allow a liar tell lies. Wherever there was injustice he would resist... I am convinced that if he was here he would be among those arrested."

Trade

• According to JARAS, the Revolutionary Guards has formed a committee to plan circumvention of the sanctions regime. JARAS' report also mentions that sanctioned equipment are being smuggled into Iran labeled as medicine. Revolutionary Guards companies engaged in this trade include Pars Darou, Daroupakhsh, Pakhsh-e Razi, and Farabi.

Photos of the Day

• "Resistance Symphony" at Azadi Square.