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

  • Letters to the editor published in Kayhan warn Hassan Khomeini not to get involved with "the enemies of Islam and the Imam [Khomeini.]" One letter reads: "Tell Seyyed Hassan Khomeini that the people who prevented you from delivering your speech were the shanty town dwellers whose lives the Imam [Khomeini] preferred to those of the palace dwellers. Grandson of the Imam must be the defender of the Imam’s main legacy, which is the absolute guardianship of the jurist, and must not align himself with the heads of the discord whose betrayal against Islam, the Imam, the Islamic revolution and the guardianship is clear to all."
  • [E] Supreme Leader Khamenei said on Tuesday that sincere cooperation between government and Parliament should go beyond political inclinations.

Diplomacy

Military and Security

  • A video clip of Shahram Amiri, nuclear scientist, was shown on Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting in which the scientist said he was kidnapped by Saudi and CIA agents in Medina. Amiri said he was being held captive in Tuscon, Arizona, where his American captors have tried to convince him to "spread lies about Iran's nuclear program."

o   [E] An Iranian scholar who went missing in Saudi Arabia last year unveiled CIA and Saudi intelligence agency's role in his abduction, and said he had been tortured in US jails.

o   [E] Iran moves to reject the possibility of his swap with three detained American hikers.

Economy

  • Central Bank Director General Mahmoud Bahmani says "decline in inflation does not mean declining prices."
  • The government receives parliamentary endorsement for withdrawal of 130 trillion rials from the 2010 budget to finance cash handouts.
  • Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani: "According to the Article 44 [of the constitution] state-owned institutions must be handed over to the private sector...but this handover has not been performed correctly and we have only witnessed a mild competition. If we want to correct this issue we must encourage fierce competition...Those who believe one can create justice with a socialist viewpoint are wrong...There has been 670 trillion rials worth of privatization within the framework of Article 44, but 340 trillion rials of it has been 'justice shares.' In other words, 52 percent of the privatization has been 'justice shares,' but it should have been 40 percent at its maximum so we could have had the ideal situation...There has been 80 trillion rials worth of privatization of the [Iran] Telecommunication, which can't be called transfer of ownership to the private sector... I am opposed to transfer of ownership to other sectors, but if one thinks that one can bring about qualitative change by changing the banners one is mistaken since the executives will remain public service executives."
  • Answering parliamentarian Mostafa Kavakebian's questions about privatization of Iran, Telecommunications Economy Minister Shams al-Din Hosseini says "we have acted according to the law." 
  • Ahmad Pour-Fallah analyzes the consequences of denying subsidies to the industrial sector, and concludes that the government will be forced to subsidize the industry regardless of the plans to reform the subsidy system.
  • Foundation of the Oppressed purchases five percent of the shares of Saderat Bank.
  • [E] Iran plans to cut rationed subsidized gasoline by March 2011 after the implementation of an economic reform plan to cut food and energy subsidies.

Trade

Nuclear Issue

Religion, Society and Culture

Iran in the Afghan Media

Photos of the Day

·         Child labor.

 

 

(E) = Article in English