Iran News Round Up

Politics

• Mehr News Agency releases a backgrounder about the "Lunar Headquarters of the Office of the Supreme Leader" which determines the beginning and end of the month of Ramadan.
• Opposition leader Mehdi Karrubi addressing the press: "I told them [mobs attacking his residence for the fifth consecutive night] I am not willing to leave my home under any circumstances, and I am ready to pay any price including my life for the sake of defending the rights of the people... What disturbed me more than insults against me and my family was that the attackers started reciting the Quran in front of our destroyed home after having used the fiercest insults against me and my wife."
  • Ayatollah Sanei expresses his solidarity with Karrubi and Ayatollah Dastgheib, whose mosque in Shiraz was also attacked by Basij members. 
  • Hojjat al-Eslam Abdollah Nouri condemns the attack, and asks: "Is this the government of justice of [Imam] Ali?!"
• Academic Ahmad Ghabel urges Supreme Leader Khamenei to "rediscover the path of justice."

Diplomacy

• Tehran to host more than 20 African cabinet ministers.

Military and Security

• Jalal Sayyah, alien citizens security affairs deputy of Sistan va Balouchestan province, says 180,000 foreign citizens have been expelled from south western parts of Iran.

• Commander Ebrahim Jabbari, the chief of Ali Ibn-e-Abitaleb Revolutionary Guards unit in Qom, says 2,000 Basij members are being trained in production of blogs and cyber warfare.
• The Law Enforcement Forces establish an internet police department.
• Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Saidi, representative of the Supreme Leader to the Revolutionary Guards:
  • "The Leader’s mere existence is not enough to guarantee power; the people also must support him. The responsibility of the people is to create power..."
  •  "Today, Iran is the center of Islamic awakening and preparations for emergence of the Imam of the Era, since the Iranian nation has popular presence in all affairs."
  • "In every age, people are obliged to rally around the Leadership. Otherwise the Islamic society will collapse."
  • "If we want emergence of the Imam of the Era we must answer the God's question about what we have done with the 11 Imams now that we want the 12th Imam, so that we do not desert him or let him face the propaganda of the imperialism alone. The vice regent of that holiness, which is the Guardian Jurist, must be supported by us so we can prepare the ground for his emergence."
  • "A nation which wants to be the master and lord must pay a price. If it wants nuclear energy it has a cost... A revolutionary nation is not afraid of the cost."
  • "We not only need a courageous leader, but the heads of the powers must also be brave."
• Mansour Arzi, religious singer, warns against "attempts to plant discord among members of the Basij... No good news comes out of the meetings in Jamaran. We are fully aware of what happens at the Jamaran gatherings."
• [E] Iran's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Mohammad Khazaei has praised Iran’s role in combating drugs trafficking, especially at its border with Afghanistan.
• [E] Iranian parliament’s deputy speaker Shahbeddin Sadr has described Israel's war rhetoric against Tehran as "psychological war", but meantime warned that Iran would retaliate to any aggressive move with a crushing response.
• [E]Iranian Armed Forces Deputy Chief of Staff for Cultural Affairs and Defense Publicity Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri says that there is strong evidence that the September 11 incident was staged by the then U.S. government and their Israeli agents.

Nuclear Issue

• Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast: "Iran's cooperation with the IAEA is in the best of conditions... The obligations under the safeguard agreement are being respected and all the peaceful nuclear activities of our country are supervised by the agency's cameras 24 hours a day..."
• [E] Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu underscored on Thursday that Iran's nuclear standoff with the West should be settled through dialogue and diplomatic means.
• [E]Ahmadinejad has underlined that the pressures exerted by the permanent UN Security Council members on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have rendered useless the efforts made for global nuclear disarmament.

Trade

• Ministry of Commerce rations rice to boost domestic rice production. 
• Ministry of Agriculture bans import of various fruits and milk products.
• [E]Iranian Economy Minister Seyed Shamseddin Hosseini traveled to China to visit the 14th China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) and commemorate the 'Iran Day' in the country.

Religion, Society and Culture

• "Iran Ey Sara-ye Omid." [Iran, the house of hope] by master singer Shahram Nazeri, 1980.
• [E]Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpayegani, one of Shiite's senior clerics, condemned the decision by a U.S. preacher, Terry Jones, for burning the holy Quran, cautioning against its dire consequences.
• [E]Iranian and Tajik authorities announced their readiness to develop cultural and social ties between the two countries by holding the first Iran-Tajikistan Youth Friendship Week in Dushanbe.

Photo of the Day

·       Iranian mountaineers in Tajikistan.

·       Iran’s Red Crescent provides relief aid in flood-hit areas in Pakistan.