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

  • Mohammad Hashemi Rafsanjani, brother of the former president: "They say Islam is the religion of the barefoot and Ayatollah Hashemi gave them shoes by creating jobs, and therefore, reduced the number of the army of Islam. What kind of logic is this? Should we let the people starve to remain Muslim?...Whoever finds property belonging to the Rafsanjani family can seize it."

  • Sadegh Zibakalam, academic, defends Alireza Beheshti.

  • Hojjat al-Islam Hassan Rowhani addresses the crowds at the anniversary of the death of Grand Ayatollah Khomeini's widow:

    • "The society must not become a society where a group of people are allowed to marginalize others..."

    • "At a time when the Supreme Leader stresses upon maximal attraction and minimal marginalization, there are some who desire maximal marginalization and minimal attraction. The even do not attract the minimum and they want to administer the country with a gang. But we must know that in order to achieve perfection, the entire 75 million population of Iran must be together and must not do away with the path of the Imam [Khomeini] or forget it..."

  • Ahmadinejad travels to Isfahan.

Friday prayer sermons:

o    Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani, temporary Friday prayer leader in Tehran: "Everyone must conceal the shortcomings...and save the honor of Islam, since many enemies prey on the Islamic revolution and Islam and want to know what shortcomings we have so they can target them... I'm not saying who should preserve Islam and who can speak freely in this regard. Everyone must speak freely, but we should struggle so the deficiencies of the Islamic community of believers are discussed in a secret way so that the foreigners don't abuse it..."

o    Ayatollah Ahmad Alam al-Hoda, Mashhad Friday Prayer Leader: "Our influence in oppressed Islamic societies and nations rests upon the realm of thought, ideas, faith and ideology, and we don't need, and never need or will need terrorism [as a method] in our regime...Imperialism and the West and Western countries in Europe need the terror in order to expand their threats, injustice and physical power of their hegemony… We don't need terrorists and their help since we have God and the Imam of the Era, who commands over absolute divine guardianship and guides us with the help of its finger..."

        

o    Qalibaf, Tehran Mayor: "There are some who tell me 'you are not a politician. If you were, it was now time for fishing.' But if being [a] political [animal] is this, I desire never to be of this kind… We have no other choice but to remain revolutionaries and live a revolutionary life. Our practice must rely upon Guardianship of the Jurist and the Leadership. This is not only our religious belief, but our rational calculation leads us to this conclusion as well..."

Diplomacy

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Human Rights

 

 

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