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

  • Aftab-e Yazd reports a tense relationship between Ahmadinejad and the parliament after that body blocked the government's economic reform plan. 
  • Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani praises the performance of Supreme Audit Court in its disclosure of irregularities in the National Budget. 
  • Speaking to an assembly of academics and students at the Sixth Zone of the Khuzestan Branch of the Azad [Free] University, Rafsanjani stresses the importance of participating in the presidential elections.
  • Yadollah Tahernezhad, central committee member of the Kargozaran-e Sazandegi [Technocrats of Reconstruction] faction, says his faction has chosen to support Mir-Hossein Mousavi for president: "The assembly reached the conclusion that Mr. Mousavi is committed to realization of the Strategic 20-Year Plan… Mr. Mousavi played the greatest role in supporting the soldiers during the Sacred Defense [Iran/Iraq War] and during that era.” 
  • Agah-Sazi provides background on former IRGC chief Mohsen Rezai who is also running for president.
  • Following presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi's election promise of stopping Gasht-e Ershad ["Patrol of Propagation of Virtue", the moral police] Hojjat al-Eslam Zadsar Jirofti publishes an open letter to Mousavi: "Your Excellency's famous sentence ‘I'll stop the moral police’ which has been welcomed by different so-called reformist groups inside and outside the country made me - as an Iranian citizen - with all due respect - to ask you - who probably will legally and officially run for president -  an important and sensitive question: Your Excellency Mr. Engineer Mir-Hossein Mousavi, could you please explain which center is legally authorized - as explained in the Constitution - to stop the moral police…? Is your statement not yet another unrealizable election slogan like 'civil society' and 'bringing the oil money to the tables of the people' of your predecessors, and is your slogan not doomed to suffer the same destiny as the nonsensical slogans of the others?"
  • Fatemeh Rajabi, wife of government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham, attacks Mir-Hossein Mousavi for engaging in a dialog with satirical writer Ebrahim Nabavi whom Rajabi describes as "exiled counter revolutionary." 
  • Condemnation of the proposal to establish supervisory committees for the ballot as a "foreign plot."
  • Aftab-e Yazd editorializes: "Should the voters get the impression that any attempt to change the president through participation in elections is futile, the voters will join the ranks of those who boycott the elections."
  • (E) The head of Iran's Electoral Headquarters, Kamran Daneshjoo claims that computerized election mechanisms rule out the possibility of electoral fraud.

Economy

  • The Foreign Exchange Reserve to be renamed "National Development Account." 
  • The Parliament's Economy and Finance Committee Chairman Reza Abdollahi says the government is running the country "with a very heavy cost."
  • The Parliament's Budget and Plan Deputy predicts gasoline budget deficit. 
  • Mir-Hossein Mousavi accuses the Ahmadinejad government of "wasting $300 billion during the past four years thereby ruining Iran."
    • Commenting on distribution of free potatoes ahead of Ahmadinejad campaign rallies, Mousavi adds: "Distribution of potatoes has become a symbol.... In anthropology there is a theme about gifts: The recipient of gifts feels obliged to reciprocate."
    • On thee middle class: "When incorrect policies are followed, gradually the middle class becomes thinner and is degraded downwards. Such problems create apathy among the people up to elections."

Trade

Media

Religion, Culture and Society

  • Masoud Dehnamaki's movie Ekhraji-Ha [The Disqualified Ones] about unlikely Iran-Iraq war heroes - including drunkards, playboys and womanizers - becomes the highest grossing movie in the history of Iranian cinema.
  • Tehran bus tickets to be scanable. 
  • 11 hard labor camps to be established to punish drug dealers. 
  • (E) Tehran’s Golestan Gallery will exhibit photos by famous Iranian photographer and filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami beginning on Friday.

Diplomacy

  • (E) President Ahmadinejad to attend the Durban Review Conference in Geneva next week. 
  • Sobh-e Sadegh analyst Ali Rahimi: "One must punish, and not praise the enemy. Less than two years after insults of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten against the holy being of the great prophet, the mind of the Muslims is still wounded. Widespread protests of the Muslims of the world back then left several hundreds killed behind, and in the end it forced then Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to take a stance [in the issue]. But without any shame, he not only abstained from condemning the insult, but even defended it in the name of freedom of expression. In the recent days, Rasmussen has been appointed NATO General Secretary and Mr. Seyyed Mohammad Khatami participated at the Alliance of Civilizations Summit in Istanbul - a Summit in which Rasmussen also participated. At a time when the wounds from the insults of Rasmussen against the great prophet have still not healed, Khatami shook hands with this unmannered and disrespectful person. This is nothing but salt on the old wounds [of the Muslim community]. Unfortunately some media critical to the government claimed 'Rasmussen apologizes to the Muslim community' in order to explain Khatami's deed. But in reality Rasmussen did no such thing. Khatami who was present at the session and had not observed any sign of apology in his words should have abstained from shaking hands with him to humiliate the enemy of the great prophet (Peace be upon him), but unfortunately, the handshake makes him even bolder." 
  • Jomhouri-ye Eslami editorializes: "Whether we want it or not, the U.S. government is our enemy. More than a quarter of century of this enmity was because of direct U.S. intervention in our internal affairs...and during the past thirty years, the enmity has continued with obstructions, sanctions, provocations and various pressures. This all shows the dimensions of this enmity. The first half of it was because of the imperialist nature of the U.S. government and the second half because of the U.S. anger because we severed its plundering hands from the open and blessed table of Iran. In the face of this wounded and vengeful enemy which Imam Khomeini correctly called 'the Great Satan' and 'the Mother of all Corruption of the Century,' one must be realistic. One must consider the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy and act and counter it accordingly. It would be a mistake to overestimate its might which would make us think it is impossible to counter it. But it would also be a mistake to underestimate it and down play it in the public... " 
  • Turkey’s former prime minister Necmittin Erbekan holds meetings with Foreign Minister Mottaki in Tehran. 
  • Former Speaker of the Parliament Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel says "one must see if Mr. Obama is a doer or a speaker." 
  • (E) Tehran is set to host conference of Muslim jurists and international legal experts on putting Israeli leaders on trial for war crimes in Gaza.
  • (E) President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan to discuss mutual interests.

Nuclear Issue

Military and security

Photo of the Day