Politics

  • Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi addressing commanders of the Revolutionary Guards attacks Ahmadinejad's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, for "shamelessly talking of the school of Iran instead of the school of Islam."
    • Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, Ahmadinejad's chief of staff, to female journalists: "God has endowed man with the capacity to become God... Man is meant to be God and replace God. In history, man has remained small, because he has not followed the program of God and his command and the divine option. This is the essence of the conflict between justice and untruth, Satan and man, evil and beauty and light and darkness... "
    • Parliamentarian Ali Mottahari says Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei is "voicing the words of the enemy."

Diplomacy

Military and Security

  • Sobh-e Sadegh of the Revolutionary Guards features the latest article in the Middle East Outlook series of American Enterprise Institute: "Iranian Influence in Afghanistan: Imam Khomeini Relief Committee."
  • Commander Kazemi, Revolutionary Guards Counter Espionage chief stresses the importance of religious values.
  • Yadollah Javani, Revolutionary Guards Political Bureau deputy, says an attack against Iran will lead to "dissolution of the United States."
  • The National Iranian Gas Company tasks Khatam al-Anbia Construction Base and SEPANIR companies of the Revolutionary Guards with developing the 270 kilometer Peace Pipeline.
  • Intelligence Minister Hojjat al-Eslam Heydar Moslehi:
    • "A protestant movement... is engaged in propagation of Christianity among school children... this is the latest soft warfare against the Islamic Republic."
    • "During the past 25 years, more than 80 foundations, institutes and assemblies have been formed in the West to wage soft warfare against our country. Their budget has been $2 billion on annual basis."
    • "Last year more than $17 billion was used to counter the Islamic Republic, especially after the election. This is only the visible numbers used to combat the Islamic Republic and there are also secret funds used by secret services."
    • "A counter revolutionary formation abusing the name of the teachers is engaged in acts against the regime. Just on one occasion it received $315000 from the enemies and according to the documents the imperialism is focusing on the educational system and especially the school children in its soft warfare."
    • "One of these sects is the Bahai sect which is trying to impact the next generation by establishing nonprofit schools and kindergartens..."
    • "If anyone thinks that this discord was just an electoral argument he is badly wrong. This event has been planned for years."
    • "Some of the Iranian state stipends sent abroad during the government of the reform era [the Khatami presidency] have become agents of the intelligence bureaus of the enemy and analyzing the documents one feels that these individuals were sent to study abroad for very this purpose."
  • Abbas Dowlatabadi Ja'fari from the Tehran branch of the Revolutionary Tribunal says some of the individuals who were found guilty of conspiracy against the regime and imprisoned in the aftermath of the June 12, 2009 presidential election - some of whom were bailed out - are again engaged in subversive activities.
  • Jomhouri-ye Eslami reports an unsuccessful Jundallah assassination attempt on the Sunni Friday prayer leader of Sarbaz in Sistan va Balouchestan province.
  • Hassan Nasrallah, Lebanese Hezbollah leader, says "the Zionists" assassinated Rafiq Hariri.
  • Hassan Firouzabadi, Chief of the General Staff, attacks Mashaei: "We are proud of our Iranian nationalism, but I consider this kind of statements, said by an individual called Mashaei, as deviation and a crime against national security and an attack against the foundations of the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic and the Islamic revolution... It is as if he is unbridled. Once he said one can go to  paradise through mathematics. Which divine man of learning has ever said such a thing?"
  • [E] The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) introduced dozens of new Zolfaqhar class speedboats, capable of launching missiles and torpedoes, to its naval fleet.

Nuclear Issue

Trade

·         [E] Tehran’s Governor-General announced that his province is interested in starting joint investment projects in Sudan, especially in the capital city of Khartoum.

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Economy

Iran in the Afghan Media

  • Tehran plans to hold an international summit on Afghanistan to seek ways out of the current stalemate in the country and boost President Karzai’s authority. Iran has already begun talks with India, Pakistan and Tajikistan about the conference. Video.

Photos of the Day