Iran News Round Up

The Iran News Round Up ran from February 2009-September 2018. Visit the Iran File for the latest analysis.

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

  • Ahmadinejad comments about house arrest of Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karrubi in an interview with Euronews:
    • "All countries have prisons and legal restrictions. Those individual that your question refers to are individuals who have problems with the Judiciary. The Judiciary in Iran is an independent institution and I don't have the right to intervene in the work of the judges. There are also laws which allow individuals to defend their rights. But if you want my personal opinion about this issue, my hope is that nowhere in the world, neither in Europe nor in America, there is any single prisoner or secret prison... In Iran, no one is imprisoned because of expressing his or her opinion since the freedom of speech is enshrined in the legislation of the Islamic Republic of Iran..."
  • Presidential crisis:
    • Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi says Ahmadinejad's planned Nowruz celebration in Persepolis was canceled following Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's orders.
    • Lebanese Hezbollah General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah distances himself from Ahmadinejad:
      • "I have recently seen 'The Emergence is Near' DVD and I was amazed about the lies the DVD had attributed to me. Apart from this, comparison between signs [of emergence] with individuals is not the right thing to do... In this DVD, I have been called the 'Yamani Seyyed' [a figure from the apocalyptic literature] which is not clear since our forefathers have never been to Yemen and I have never said that our roots are Yemeni... About His Lordship [Ali Khamenei], they say he is 'the Seyyed from Khorasan'. We have had an experience in this field: Prior to the passing of Imam Khomeini there were some of our friends who had similar hopes that the Imam [Khomeini] is the Seyyed from Khorasan and that the meaning of Khorasan is Greater Khorasan which encompasses the entire Iran, and that the warriors of Islam would conquer Baghdad and the front of Iraq and Lebanon would lead to the front of Jerusalem which would be conquered, and that we would pray behind the Imam [in Jerusalem]. But we later saw that the Imam ascended to heavens and the [United Nations Security Council] resolution [ending the war with Iraq] was accepted. Baghdad was not conquered and the story ended in a different way... Such comparisons would weaken the belief of the people and society... Our devotion to the Supreme Leader is such that I and my family feel always obliged to pray that God prolongs the life of the Leader."
    • Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami addressing members of the Doctors' Basij "unmasks" the enemies of the Islamic Republic:
      • "The first front is all the monarchists, those who have been slapped in the face and who constituted the ruling elites before the Islamic revolution... The second front is that of hypocrisy which has dealt as many blows to Islam as the front of infidels... In the Quran the current of hypocrisy has been explained as a particularly complicated one... Therefore, it is not implausible that some individuals of today whose slogans are much more enthusiastic than those of the Basij members follow another path [the path of deviation]... The third current is that of the infiltrators, meaning those who slyly... infiltrate the upper echelons of power... Should the infiltrators come [to power] they will create cultural deviation. In appearances they are conformists, but in reality they have not the slightest love for the regime. If you pay attention to their statements of today we will understand everything."
    • Mehdi Abouyi, Counter Smuggling Organization deputy, says Ahmadinejad's statements concerning "invisible jetties" of the Revolutionary Guards addressed the issue of import of duty-free goods which the president desires to regulate through customs.

Religion, Society and Culture

Economy

Photo of the Day

 

TIMELINE
Arrow down red
Sep '11
Aug '11
Jul '11