Iran News Round Up

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

• Jomhouri-ye Eslami's editorial says Hosni Mubarak, "the Zionist Arab leader" is dying and is so weak that "he can even not make his son the hereditary president of Egypt."
• Azad University opens a branch in Kabul.
• Ali-Akbar Velayati, the Supreme Leader's adviser in international affairs, says "Iran does not trust the government of the United States because the Americans constantly show contradictory behavior."
• [E] Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki arrived in the Syrian capital on Wednesday to confer with Syrian officials on bilateral relations.
• [E] Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi: "Maintaining vigilance and awareness among African countries is the only way to save the African continent from disputes and pressures of big powers."
• [E] Cambodian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation arrived in Iran on Tuesday to discuss the expansion of ties.

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

• Foreign Minister Mottaki says Iran is ready for negotiations with the Vienna group.
• [E] Despite its initial “nay” vote to the recent UN Security Council resolution on Iran’s nuclear program, Brazil has signed the decree.
• [E] Head of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency is reportedly ready to visit Iran in late August to attend the inauguration of the country's first nuclear power plant at Bushehr.
• [E] Russian Deputy Foreign Minister has reiterated Moscow's opposition to US and EU unilateral sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program.
• [E] Talks between Iran and the Vienna Group over the supply of nuclear fuel for the Tehran research reactor are expected to take place within the next two weeks.
• [E] Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday that Iran has no plans to enter into direct talks with the US over its nuclear program.

Trade

• Ahmadinejad says the Islamic Republic a couple of years ago established a working group to counter the sanctions regime. Ahmadinejad also says "Iran is a $900 billion economy and Iran's trade with Europe is only $24 billion. Nothing will happen because of their sanctions... Should the sanctions work the impact will be five or ten years from now and will not be during the Obama presidency. The sanctions will have an impact. They will indeed make the Iranian economy blossom, will strengthen it and consolidate it."
• Shams al-Din Hosseini, the government's economics spokesman, says the Islamic Republic is moving its assets out of foreign banks in order to invest in Iran.
• The Islamic Republic establishes a chamber of commerce in Iraq to bolster trade.
  • [E] Iran plans to open a trade center in Iraq's northern city of Sulaymaniyah tomorrow.
• Fars News Agency boasts of increased trade between Iran and South Asia.
• Kayhan boasts of increased trade between Iran and the European Union.
• [E] Iranian and Ghanaian officials in the fourth meeting of the two countries' Joint Economic Commission discussed ways to expand mutual cooperation.
• [E] Toyota has halted shipments to Iran indefinitely beginning in June.  Said Toyota spokeswoman: “We made the decision after taking into account the international situation including sanctions by the US and the UN on Iran.”
• [E] Turkey’s gasoline exports to Iran decreased 73% in July.
  • [E] London-based think-tank Energy Market Consultants (EMC) has predicted that by Iran will become a gasoline-exporting country by 2015.
• [E] The managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) reported that Iran's gas exports have witnessed a 54% increase in the first four months of the current Iranian year over the same period last year.

·         [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

• [E] Iran's inflation rate is expected to drop below 9% by the end of the current Iranian month, down from over 10% in March, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) says.
• [E] Amidst safety concerns, Iran Air plans to replace its existing aircraft with new planes.
• [E] Iran is to issue $500 million in bonds this summer to finance the development of South Pars gas field, the Head of Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) says.

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

• Ahmadinejad gives retired Harvard professor Richard Frye a villa in Isfahan.