Iran News Round Up

 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

Diplomacy

• Expressions of support to the attacks against the British embassy compounds and demands for further Iranian action against Britain and other countries:
  • Fars News releases documents on "British meddling in internal Iranian affairs" dating from 1907.
  • A group of parliamentarians demand decisive action against "diplomats who participated in a diplomatic carnival" by visiting the vandalized British embassy compounds in Tehran.
  • Parliamentarian Hossein Naqavi Hosseini: "The British should thank God that nothing more happened!"
  • The Student Basij slams the Foreign Ministry's "passive reactions" to the seizure of the British embassy compounds in Tehran.
  • Parliamentarian Reza Talaei-Nik: "The economic and social instability of Europe is also visible in their foreign policy... The European governments are facing shaky policy options due to the speed and scale of changes in the world of Islam and the domestic situation in the West... The change of the behavior of the Norwegian and other European governments concerning the recent events between Iran and Britain shows their confusion coupled with concern about following the policies of arrogance."
• Criticism of the attack against the British embassy compounds in Tehran:
  • Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, temporary Tehran Friday prayer leader who on Friday embraced the attacks, on Saturday changed his position: "I do not agree with attacks against embassies in Tehran."
  • Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi calls the attacks against British embassy compounds in Tehran "illegal" and adds: "Sensitive youths give pretexts to the enemy with their deeds."
• Return of Iranian diplomats to Tehran:
  • According to Bultan News, the Iranian diplomats hitherto stationed in London "have become British" since none of them chose to accept the "heroic welcome" of the Basij members.
• France has decided to "temporarily" reduce its staff at the embassy in Tehran.
• [E] Iran cautioned that any western attempt to block its oil exports would send global crude prices soaring high above $250 per barrel. http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9007276255

Military and Security

• Authorities report downing a United States drone.
• Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Saidi, representative of the Supreme Leader to the Revolutionary Guards, says many "signs of the emergence of the Imam of the Era" have been realized, and so now "there is need for 100 million Basij members in the region" before the Imam of the Era can emerge. Saidi also says the "model of governance of the Islamic Republic is the closest model to the governance of the Imam of the Era."
• [E] Fars News: Iran's response to US spy drones will not be limited to the country's borders, a military source said after Iranian armed forces shot down another US spy drone yesterday.

Iran in the Afghan Media

• Germany’s foreign minister welcomes participation of Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi in Monday’s international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, Germany.

Photos of the Day

• Iranian diplomats return home from London.