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

• Recent developments at the Assembly of Experts:

  • Supreme Leader Khamenei addressing the Assembly of Experts: "Personal issues, factionalism and party politics have never had a place in the Assembly of Experts and will never have in future...Now that the enemy has appeared overtly and without any camouflage at the post-election unrest, how can one deny it? Therefore, insight is very important, since it changes our behavior..."
  • Khamenei adds:  
    • "The Islamic regime has thirty years of experience in countering various challenges. But, as the regime makes progress and scores achievements in complicated issues, the conspiracies of the opponents also become more complicated. It is important to understand different dimensions and implications of the conspiracies in order to succeed…"
    • "The current situation is a psychological warfare or a soft warfare. They have come to oppose the Islamic regime. And in this war the main goal of the enemy is to transform the strengths of the regime into weaknesses and vulnerabilities..."
    • "Eighty five percent voter participation in presidential election...is a great strength, which the enemy is trying to turn into a weakness..."
  • The Assembly of Experts concludes the meeting with the statement: "The mantle of leadership is sewn for the stature of Ayatollah Khamenei."
  • Reactions to Rafsanjani's remarks that some of the "elites and charitable individuals are trying to solve the current crisis of the country":
    • Ayatollah Mousavi Jazayeri: "Rafsanjani has not consulted [us] with regard to this scheme."
    • Ayatollah Mamdouhi: "Ayatollah Hashemi's plan was unveiled at his private home...If the Supreme Leader approves it, it will certainly be a good scheme."
    • Hojjat al-Eslam Fallahian: "Ayatollah Rafsanjani’s plan has not been presented to the Assembly."
    • Hojjat al-Eslam Mahmoud Alavi says he has no knowledge of Rafsanjani's plan. So does Hojjat al-Eslam Hosseini Bushehri.
    • Ayatollah Mohi al-Din Haeri Shirazi: "Mr. Rafsanjani’s plan is most probably a lie, since there have been no talks of it in the Assembly."
    • Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami: "Hashemi Rafsanjani's plan is a personal plan."
    • Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Ghareh-Baghi: "No consultation has taken place in the Assembly of Experts with regard to Mr. Rafsanjai's plan... In its latest statement, the Assembly called for legal action against those who have yet to surrender to the legal authorities.  
    • Ayatollah Shafi'i: "Ayatollah Hashemi [Rafsanjani's] statements were in line with the Leadership." Ayatollah Hosseini Shahroudi echoes a similar thought.
    • Hojjat al-Eslam Mojtaba Taheri: "Fundamentally, there has been no consultation about the statements."
  • Ayatollah Ali-Mohammad Dastgheib, addressing the Assembly of Experts, demands that “the constitution be executed” and that no disrespectful acts be committed against “the people who led the revolution to victory.”
    • Khamenei advises against eviction of Dastgheib from the Assembly due to his critical remarks against the Ahmadinejad government.
  • Ayatollah Kazem Nour-Mofidi, a member of the Assembly of Experts, says: "Today, the authorities are engaged in an unsuitable conflict and we must solve the problems and leave it behind us soon."

• Khamenei appoints Ayatollah Hashem Hosseini Bushehri Qom Friday Prayer Leader.

• Ahmadinejad formally appoints Mohammad-Reza Rahimi the First Vice President.

• Interior Minister Najjar appoints Revolutionary Guards commander Mehdi Mohammadi-Far Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Deputy.

• Nature accuses the Islamic Republic's Research and Higher Education Minister Kamran Daneshjou of plagiarism for republishing an article originally written by South Korean scientists in 2002.

  • Majid Shahravi, Kamran Daneshjou's co-author, refutes Nature's accusations.

• Rafsanjani visiting Grand Ayatollah Khomeini's mausoleum condemns "attacks against the household of Imam Khomeini."

• Receiving a parliamentary delegation, Rafsanjani warns against "mysterious hands" which consider "friendship among the high-ranking authorities of the regime contrary to their interests."

• Hojjat al-Eslam Majid Ansari, a member of the Expediency Council: "Monopoly, totalitarianism and attempts to marginalize the true and revolutionary forces must be changed into an atmosphere of political participation and the rights of all political movements and the media in the country must be respected...The counter-revolution is riding on the wave of recent events and is claiming control over internal developments despite the fact that we saw on Quds [Jerusalem] Day that all groups within the regime urged the people to participate at the demonstrations and they chanted the slogan of Palestine. Of course, there were also some who chanted other slogans...There are some mysterious hands that are not unknown to the authorities of the country and the security and intelligence agencies,...but what is important is to deal with them decisively..."

• Seyyed Reza Akrami, a senior member of the Combatant Clergy Association: "As swine flu and mad cow diseases affect our health, there are microbes and viruses in the shape of dogmatic and narrow-minded people that affect ethical, social and political affairs. They see their survival in the existence of crisis… We see more accusations against leading individuals every single day..."

• Ayatollah Jannati is to lead this Friday's prayers in Tehran, seconded by Brigadier General Yahya Safavi, the former Chief of the Revolutionary Guards.

• Tehran Mayor Qalibaf condemns "counter-revolutionary" movements and demonstrations at Quds [Jerusalem] Day.

Diplomacy

• Addressing representatives from the Islamic societies of the United States, Ahmadinejad says: "In our opinion, the language of weapons, bombs, threats, sanctions and political pressure is not a good language for dialogue."

• Iran’s Foreign Minister Mottakki announces expansion of relations with Japan.  

• Hojjat al-Esam Ali-Akbar Naseri is appointed ambassador to the Vatican.

• Ahmadinejad’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly.

  • Alef News Agency releases AEI senior fellow Ambassador John Bolton's critique of Ahmadinejad's U.N. address.

• Ahmadinejad at a press conference in New York:

  • "The Iranian nation considers itself the friend of all nations. Anyone who sincerely extends a hand of friendship, the Iranian nation will shake it warmly..."
  • "The Iranian nation supports constructive dialogue and engagement, but this dialogue must be within the framework of justice and mutual respect. We are waiting for Mr. Obama to transform words into actions...Fundamentally, we do not recognize the Zionist regime and we do not feel the need to engage in dialogue with this regime. We have never recognized a regime which has waged war, killed, terrorized and committed rape in the Middle East since its very inception. The region has not seen a day of calm since then..."
  • Regarding the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad said: "We have formulated a couple of clear questions, which European and French politicians avoid answering. Where did the Holocaust take place and who was behind it? Was it the European countries or the Palestinians? Why should the Palestinian people pay the price? These are questions that they do not want to answer. We recognize the statements of the Europeans that they have committed crimes during the World War II, but who is supposed to pay the price for such crimes? Should it be the people of Palestine, who have not played a role in this issue? If the Holocaust is a historical event, one must allow research about this issue..."
  • "I believe the Europeans share my viewpoint. If not, I support the idea of a plebiscite in those countries, especially France, so the issue becomes clear to everyone..."
  • "The European politicians escape from answering this question clearly. They can't solve the problem. If the French government is so concerned about the well-being of the Zionists, how come is it not ready to give a part of its territory to the Zionists? The European states and the Zionists can make any deal with each other they desire, but they do not have the right to give away the land of others..."
  • "In a report, the IAEA has clearly stated that it has not found any documents on Iran's willingness to use nuclear weapons. This issue has been raised in several official reports of the IAEA and exists as a legal argument..."
  • "We are interested in having good relations with France, but we don't insist upon it. Mr. Sarkozy should not think that the Iranian nation needs him. We are a great and advanced nation and we are capable of administering ourselves. Postures of Mr. Sarkozy are against the interest of the French nation, more than being against the interests of the Iranian nation. I think that following the policies of others is undermining the dignity of the French nation..."

• [E] Speaking to Lebanese president Michel Suleiman on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, Ahmadinejad urged expansion of Tehran-Beirut relations. "I hope Lebanese government and parliament will soon start work and the Islamic Republic of Iran will remain beside Lebanese government and nation," Ahmadinejad said.

• [E] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Tehran later this year for talks on commercial and energy cooperation and joint campaign against terrorism.

• [E] Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili accuses Germany of supporting ‘anti-Iran terrorist group’, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), by allowing the group to have "bases" in that country.

• [E] Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has assured Iran that it will not be left out at any decisions to be made on the status of the Caspian Sea.

Military and Security

• Revolutionary Guards commander Ali Fazli says accepting the U.N. Security Council Resolution 598 ending the Iran/Iraq war was the bitterest experience in the history of the Islamic Republic.

• Report says that Ali Vakili-Rad, who assassinated Iran’s last prime minister during the Shah, Shapour Bakhtiar, will be exchanged with the French citizen imprisoned in Iran, Clotilde Reiss.

• Former Revolutionary Guards Chief Rahim Safavi criticizes members of the elite who "rather than acting as the protective shield of the Leader" are "hiding behind the Guardian Jurist" and serve as pawns of the enemy in "a soft warfare against the Islamic Republic."

• Hojjat al-Eslam Hassan Kameli-Far speaking to members of the Ashoura unit of the Revolutionary Guards says distancing from the line of the Supreme Leader Khamenei is tantamount to opposing the line of Grand Ayatollah Khomeini.

Nuclear Issue

• [E] Geneva will host talks between major world powers and Iran on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

• Rokhdad News releases the Persian translation of a news bulletin by the Associated Press about Iran’s admitting to the second secret nuclear plant.  

• [E] Iran's chief nuclear negotiator says he is cautiously upbeat on prospects for progress at next week's nuclear talks in Geneva, featuring Iranian officials and diplomatic representatives of the five U.N. veto powers plus Germany. "I am traveling with optimism to the negotiations but we are also realists," added Jalili.

• [E] Iran is under intense pressure from world powers after new revelations.

Religion, Society and Culture

• Senior clerics criticize the regime in Iran:

  • Grand Ayatollah Sane'i supports Mousavi's call for defense of the rights of the people.
  • Ayatollah Taheri Esfahani in an open letter to Grand Ayatollah Montazeri says the time has come for pressuring the regime authorities but also to guide them towards Islam.

• Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli criticizes those who allegedly "have a phone in their hands and make a call abroad as soon as there is a problem [in Iran.]"

• Historian Khosrow Mo'tzed criticizes attempts to delete the names of Iranian kings from the history books.

Human Rights

• Aftab-e Yazd's editorial condemns Fars News Agency's statements that the Kahrizak Detention Center scandal and the death of several inmates should not become a central issue.

• Ali-Asghar Khodayari recalls detention at Evin Prison.

• Fifty students at Isfahan Technological University are summoned to disciplinary committee of the university, but are pardoned.

Economy

• A member of the Parliament’s Plan and Budget Committee warns of unemployment reaching 25 percent in certain provinces.

• [E] Iran plans to increase natural gas output by one billion cubic feet per day after inauguration of a new gas platform in the South Pars gas field.

Trade

• Public Relations Department of the National Iranian Oil Company says Malaysia is incapable of investing 10 billion Euros for development of Golshan and Ferdows oil fields.

Iran in the Afghan Media

• The governor of Afghanistan’s western province of Herat accuses Iran of interfering in Afghanistan’s internal affairs – allegations denied by the Iranian authorities. The governor of Herat recently canceled a scheduled trip to Tehran and visited Turkmenistan instead. The diplomatic tension occurs despite Ahmadinejad’s recent message of congratulation to Karzai on re-election.

Photos of the Day

• Baztab News Agency releases photos of "demonstration of counter-revolutionary elements in New York."

• Rokhdad News Agency releases photos of empty seats at the U.N. General Assembly during Ahmadinejad’s address.

• Ahmadinejad on his way to New York.

• Ahmadinejad lands in New York.

• Rafsanjani presides over the Assembly of Experts meeting.

• Former Vice President Mohammad-Ali Abtahi in Evin Prison.