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 subscribe to this daily newsletter, please visit this page, fill out the "New Subscribers" section, and check "Iran News Round Up" listed under "Projects." 
 
(E) = Article in English

Politics

• Mahramaneh News, close to Ahmadinejad’s aide Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, calls Supreme Leader Khamenei "Imam al-Moslemin" [Imam of the Muslims].   
  • The news agency also publishes a photo of Mashaei with Khamenei.
• According to Tehran-e Emrooz, parliamentarians are preparing a formal refutation to Ahmadinejad's accusations against the parliament.
• Ayatollah Abbas Ka'bi, member of the Association of Professors at the Theological Seminary of Qom, criticizes Rafsanjani for "not listening to advice."
• According to Mahramaneh News, Mehdi Karrubi has suffered a stroke and is hospitalized.
  • Shafaf News says the photos are several years old.

Diplomacy

• [E] Caretaker of the Iranian Foreign Ministry Ali Akbar Salehi and German Deputy Foreign Minister Wolf Ruthart Born in a meeting in Tehran reiterated the two countries' firm resolve to further strengthen the bilateral relations between Tehran and Berlin.
• Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci underlined further reinvigoration of bilateral relations with Iran, and urged rapid implementation of agreements between the two countries.
• [E] The rotating presidency of the Group of 77 was officially handed to Iran for the first time since the victory of the Islamic Revolution.

Military and Security

• Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Saidi, representative of the Supreme Leader to the Revolutionary Guards:
  • "The crime of those who opposed Ali [the first Imam of the Shi'as] is heavier than those who opposed the prophet. Therefore, one can't hide the truth that the crime of those who opposed Seyyed Ali [Khamenei] is much greater than those who opposed Ruhollah [Khomeini]. Those who facilitated, mobilized forces and arms, and provided money, websites, and buildings to the usurpers, the infantry and the mercenaries of injustice, those who through smiles, phone calls, messages and talks gave hope to the enemies of guardianship, they are all agents of injustice and world imperialism."
• Islamic Republic of Iran Army Chief Major General Ataollah Salehi says Iran's air defense system will be reformed during the next five years.
• [E] Presence of the Iranian fleet of warships in the high seas and international waters is of paramount importance and indicates the country's might and power, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said.

Nuclear Issue

• Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh, the Islamic Republic's envoy to the IAEA: "The process of enrichment in Iran can't be stopped with resolutions, sanctions, threats, virus or even military strikes."
• [E] Iran will never bow to the West's pressures and will continue the path of progress and development, especially in nuclear technology, irrespective of all difficulties and sanctions, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Akhoundzadeh underscored.
• [E] Iran's nuclear program is peaceful and falls within the rules and activities of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stressed.

Economy

• The Ahmadinejad government still has not presented the next year’s national budget to the parliament with less than two months into the beginning of the Iranian New Year.
• Welfare Minister Sadegh Mahsouli announces that the second transfer of cash handouts to the public will take place on February 17, 2011.

Iran in the Afghan Media

• Afghanistan’s Chamber of Commerce demands compensation from Iran for loss suffered by Afghan traders as a result of Tehran’s fuel transit ban into Afghanistan over the past month.
•  Afghan President Karzai says he will not allow his country to be used against neighboring Iran and Pakistan.
• Afghanpaper says Afghan citizens living in Iran are suffering more hardship as a result of Iran’s recent subsidy reforms.

Photo of the Day

• Iran’s media raises Ashton’s neckline.