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

Diplomacy   

  • Parsineh accuses Russia of having usurped the Park-e Atabak, which serves as the Russian Embassy in Iran.
  • Kayhan editor Hossein Shariatmadari writes:
    • "Obama… is undoubtedly and most certainly one of those savage American statesmen...Obama...has in his recent speech, indirectly, but overtly, threatened the Iranian people with a nuclear attack. The short account of the savage crimes and dreadful bombardments of Hiroshima and Nagasaki taken into consideration, how do you feel about Obama? Don't you see a predatory, wild and loose animal without the slightest resemblance to human being and humaneness behind those artificial smiles?"
    • "His stupidity is much greater than his savage character...Obama knows - or has at least been told - that according to His Holiness the Imam [Khomeini] 'The United States can't do a damned thing.' More than being expressions of bully behavior, his statements show his fear of the Islamic Republic's might..."
    • "Obama's threats show that: The enmity of the United States is against the Iranian nation..."
    • "In his latest statements Obama also confesses that all the conspiracies and investments of the United States and its allies to counter Islamic Iran have been defeated, including the discord of 2009..."

Military and Security

Nuclear Issue

  • Supreme Leader Khamenei addresses the general staff, condemns Obama's nuclear statements:
    • "Today, the true war mongers are those who speak of peace. These very individuals do not cherish human life but speak of human rights..."
    • "Some states and their heads of state use violation and methods such as creation and support to terrorist organization in order to advance their political goals, but in the face of the world opinion they assume a calm and humane face and use seemingly balanced words..."
    • "An example of this is the latest statements of the United States president who indirectly threatened the Iranian nation with the use of nuclear weapons..."
    • "This is a very strange statement and the world should not just let it pass since the 21st century is the century of claimants of support to the human rights and the war against terror while the head of a state threatens [another state] with a nuclear attack..."
    • "The meaning of such statements is that the United States government is a rogue and untrustworthy government..."
    • "In the recent years the Americans have struggled a lot to depict the Islamic Republic as untrustworthy in the nuclear issue, but now it has become clear that untrustworthy states are those states that possess nuclear weapons and shamelessly threaten others with the nuclear bomb. Therefore, the statements of the United States president are scandalous..."
    • "Under such circumstances the most important thing is military preparedness, along with psychological and spiritual preparedness, in other words the capacity of a nation to resist in the face of such a hurricane..."
    • "Consolidation of a regime is based on the capacity to resist, an unshakable determination and not being fooled by nice statements..."
  • Rafsanjani commenting on Obama's nuclear statements calls them "irresponsible and unfitting, below the dignity of the head of the one of the biggest states in the world."
  • Brazil, Russia, India and China discuss Iran's nuclear program in Brazil.
  • Ali-Akbar Salehi, Iran Nuclear Energy Organization Director, says the new generation of centrifuges will enter mass production phase in the next few months.
  • Hossein Derakhshandeh, Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant director, says the last round of tests of Bushehr have begun.
  • Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi addresses the seminar Praising Epics of the Army:
    • "The enemies declare 'we will use nuclear deterrents with regard to Iran's nuclear policy.' This shows they are rogues and criminals. Those very same [people] who say 'we are the symbol of democracy' are using nuclear deterrents against a nation which is insisting upon its beliefs." 
    • "They claim that the have the most superior weapons of the world when it comes to performance and precision, but they are so weak in the face of this resolve [of the Iranian nation] that they make such statements. They have filled the world with nuclear capacities. For example, they have 2100 tons of nuclear materials with which they can produce 120,000 nuclear bombs. What do they want all these bombs for? This shows strengthening of the Islamic Republic and weakening of our enemies."
  • Ali-Akbar Salehi, Iran Nuclear Organization Director:
    • "If a country like Kuwait is concerned about this [Bushehr nuclear plant] it should ask the Agency [IAEA] if this plant is secure or not. In addition to this, Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE have decided to build nuclear plants for themselves. Therefore, we are allowed to ask the same question [of them]. But we don't, since we believe that building such plants according to international standards and are under international control. Such concerns are politically motivated and are not at all technical..."
    • "If that is their source of concern [that Bushehr could be attacked] let them make their protest to states who make such threats..."
  • Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, Ahmadinejad's senior assistant, addressing students at Allameh Tabatabaei University:
    • "The United States is threatening the Iranian nation with nuclear invasion just because [Iran] is trying to defend its rights and because American statesmen want to make a show out of such statements...Such threats are no longer possible in the world of today..."
    • "Such statements made by heads of the United States are a strategic mistake and all the institutions and organs of the regime agree in this with the nation..."
  • Mehdi Karrubi condemns "nuclear threats of the United States" but also condemns Ahmadinejad's reaction to Obama's speech:
    • "Unfortunately, the vocabulary used in the latest Urumiyeh speech of the head of the executive is not worthy of a president. Interestingly, his behavior and performance leads to creation of new enemies which has a very high price for the nation. This they call 'politics' and 'strategy'! They are engaged in all sorts of radicalism to the degree that one day they send a letter [to the United States], the next day they send a middle man to arrange for negotiations and today by using a cheap language... They insult the thousands years old civilization of the Iranians..."
  • [E] Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad Khazaee describes the US threat of using nuclear weapons against other countries as state terrorism.
  • [E] Iran's envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog says the US nuclear policy which allows the use of nuclear arms against Tehran is a clear violation of the UN Charter.
  • http://presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=123170&sectionid=351020101[E] Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim has stated that Brasilia prefers diplomacy for solving the dispute over Iran's nuclear program rather than tough measures.
  • http://presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=123157&sectionid=351020104[E] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says there is no evidence indicating that Iran's nuclear activities include efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon.
  • [E] Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi said on Tuesday that Iran is ready for nuclear swap deal of one ton of 3.5 percent enriched uranium for 100 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium if provided tangible guarantees.
  • [E] An official from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) announced that the country will join the world nuclear club within a month in a bid to deter possible attacks on the country.

Human Rights

  • Emad al-Din Baghi, imprisoned press freedom activist: "With our imprisonment, they have only proven our righteousness..."

Economy

  • Iran Khodro and SAIPA shares to be privatized tomorrow.

Media

  • Sharghhits the kiosks again.
  • 22nd issue of Setareh-ye Sobhpublished.
  • Fars News Agency condemns visa for former American journalist Barbara Slavin who the news agency accuses of being involved "in the discord."

Iran in the Afghan Media

  • Afghan parliamentarians say the Iranian government has executed 45 Afghan refugees on drugs charges over past three days and transferred their dead bodies to Afghanistan.
    • Qazizada, a lawmaker from Herat, said: “The slaughterhouse is in Taybad. It is not only 45 or 47 people. We have information that they have brought more people to Taybad…”
    • Orfanullah Orfan, a senator from Takhar Province, confirmed the report, and expressed the worry that all 3,000 Afghans facing execution in Iran will die unless the Afghan government takes a tough stance on the issue.
    • An Afghan parliamentary delegation traveling to Iran recently reportedly that some 3,000 Afghan citizens were facing execution in Iran.
    • The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, has confirmed the execution of only three Afghan citizens.
    • Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has expressed grave concern over the executions and called on the United Nations, international human rights organizations, and the Afghan government to pay attention to the issue. Farid Hamidi, a commissioner at AIHRC, says Afghans are executed in Iran without having the right to a defense lawyer.
    • While most Afghans facing death penalty in Iran are charged with drugs smuggling, some are reportedly imprisoned for alleged involvement in post-election unrest in the country.
    •  Also, here.
  • A railway project connecting Afghanistan’s Herat Province to Iran will be completed in six months.
  • President Ahmadinejad has called on U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to set up an inquiry into the aims of U.S. military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Photos of the Day