A selection of the latest news stories and editorials published in Iranian news outlets, compiled by Ali Alfoneh, Ahmad Majidyar and Michael Rubin.  To receive this daily newsletter, please subscribe online.
 
(E) = Article in English

 

Politics

  • Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei:
    • "Under present circumstances, the political system is a presidential one and the president is directly elected by the people, a good and efficient method. But if, in a possibly distant future, it was felt that a parliamentary system for appointment of the authorities of the executive branch was better, there is no problem in changing the current state of affairs..." 
    • "Leadership is value-based strategic management which is different from executive management and the direct responsibilities of the three branches of the government. By monitoring performance of the authorities, it safeguards the general movement of the regime and does not allow them to, due to any reason, force the Islamic regime to show unnecessary elasticity..."
  • 120 parliamentarians attend Ahmadinejad's speech on current affairs.
  • Ahmadinejad opposes the official theory of "cultural onslaught" of the Western civilization, saying, "I don't believe in cultural warfare." Ahmadinejad also criticizes the Cyber Army of the Revolutionary Guards: "One must not give culture a militarized color and scent. The nature of culture is to uproot military conflict from human interaction. Culture means that human relations should not be based upon strength and power, but based upon humanity..."

Diplomacy

  • Khamenei addresses the people of Paveh and Orumanat:
    • "The main goal of the hypocritical attempts of the enemies of Islam and Iran is to prevent the successful Islamic Republic becoming the role model in the eyes of the nations... Instigating discord between Shi'a and Sunni in the world of Islam and inside Iran is the strategic line of the foreigners..."
    • "We Muslims, both Shi'a and Sunni, have deep and expansive matters in common, both religiously and ideologically. We also have evidently common interests, but the enemy, by dismissing or underestimating these commonalities...is trying to realize its evil hegemonic goals..."
    • Addressing the Muslim nations, Khamenei stressed: "Resist the enemy firmly, just like the Iranian nation. Otherwise, they will become bolder and after dividing the Shi'a and Sunni they will most certainly try to create divisions and instigate discord between different branches of Sunni [Islam]."
  • Commentary on the terror plot affair against the Saudi Ambassador to the United States:
    • Ali Larijani, parliamentary speaker, at a press conference in Bern, Switzerland: "I don't think the Americans will do such a stupid thing [attacking Iran]. They are still experiencing the aftershocks of problems created during the Bush era in the region. It may be some domestic problems in the United States and their need to create theories to dilute public attention at election times which has made them make such accusations. Because of the problems they have they want to create an enemy in the public opinion so they can advance their agenda..."
    • Said Jalili, Supreme National Security Council secretary: "The United States can't escape from [its] domestic crisis by fabricating lies about the Qods Force."
    • Nosratollah Tajik, former ambassador to Jordan, says the Saudi ambassador to the United States may himself have been entangled in relations with Mexican drug cartels.
    • [E] Iran on Tuesday called on Saudi Arabia to show a "responsible" reaction to the United States' “baseless” claims about Tehran's involvement in a terrorist plot to assassinate a Saudi diplomat in Washington.
    • [E] Tehran on Tuesday once again asked Washington to present corroborative evidence and documents to substantiate its recent allegations that Iran intended to assassinate a Saudi envoy to Washington.
  • [E] Ahmadinejad in a telephone conversation with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh congratulated the Palestinians on their victory in the prisoners swap deal with Israel which, he described as, a fruit of strong and continued resistance against the Zionist regime.

Military and Security

  • Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, says the battleship Jamaran performed well in the Sea of Oman and added that the battle Jamaran II will soon be added to Iran’s fleet.
  • Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan, Army Ground Forces commander: "Today, the United States is so destabilized that it is incapable of even thinking about attacking Iran, but the Army and the Guards are side by side ready to repel any enemy invasion on the shortest possible notice... The goal of the military presence of the Americans as military advisers in Iraq [reflects] their futile attempt to prevent the Islamic awakening in the region... The United States has always pursued the policy of externalizing its problems outside of its borders. Wherever it faces problems it hurriedly externalizes to other countries, particularly the Islamic Republic of Iran..."
  • Intelligence Minister Hojjat al-Eslam Heydar Moslehi: "The enemy has made its greatest investments in order to create distrust among schoolchildren towards the regime... By creating an atmosphere of mistrust, satellite networks pursue the goals of the enemy... These sects propagate their thoughts as well on the satellite channels as on the Internet..."
  • [E] Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast on Tuesday reiterated Tehran's international right to deploy its fleets of warships in the high seas in a bid to protect the country's interests and security.

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