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

Politics

• Presidential crisis:
  • Ahmadinejad implicitly accuses the Revolutionary Guards of engaging in illicit trade and smuggling: "There is a record of illegal transfer of goods from abroad into the country. Smuggling equates theft from public funds... [The large sums spent on cigarettes] invite all first class smugglers of the world, let alone our own 'smuggler brethren.' [The term "brother" is usually used for members of the Revolutionary Guards]"
    • Revolutionary Guards Chief Mohammad-Ali Jafari responds: "This organization, just like other military institutions, has military jetties but has never used them for commercial activities... This discussion is a deviation and is expressed by partisan elements... These individuals are trying to divert attention of the government and other institutions from areas where the real smuggling takes place..."
    • ISNA News, close to Ahmadinejad, publishes a list of jetties on the Caspian and Persian Gulf shores which are outside the control of customs.
  • Mohammad Karami-Rad, parliamentarian and former member of the Revolutionary Guards: "If His Lordship [Supreme Leader] asks us to bring him a hat, we know what to bring him...  regardless of whose hat it may be." [Reference to the Persian proverb: If the king demands someone's hat, in this case, Ahmadinejad's hat, the king's servants will sever the head of the person wearing the hat and bring it to the king]
  • Hojjat al-Eslam Abd al-Ali Govahi, representative of the Supreme Leader to the Mohammad-Rasoul-Allah Revolutionary Guards unit of Tehran, praised Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf. Govahi also criticized the Ahmadinejad government for "not distancing itself from the current of deviation."
• Amir Mohebian says Ahmadinejad was the editor of the student gazette Jigh va Dad [Scream and Shout] at Iran University of Science and Technology in 1979 which emerged to counter Marxist student papers at the same university.

Diplomacy

• [E] Spokesman of the Iranian foreign ministry blasted London's plan for continuing its military presence in Afghanistan and called on foreign forces to leave the war-torn country and stop undermining stability and security of the region.

Military and Security

• Ali Razmjou, Revolutionary Guards Navy 2nd Operational Zone commander: "In the 2nd Guards Navy operational zone we have the missiles necessary for our mission and we have conducted the tests needed...  A clear example of this is the testing of 14 ballistic missiles..." 
• According to Zahedan News, the people of the Zameran area in Pakistan attacked a Jundallah camp in the area Saturday night.
• Rafsanjani recalls the 1988 ceasefire agreement between Iran and Iraq: "If the Guards had fought as in the past and conflicts had not emerged between themselves, and had they not had problems with resources, the Imam [Khomeini] may not have accepted the ceasefire.”
• [E] A senior Iranian Navy commander announced that the country would continue dispatching submarines to the far seas in future if necessary.
• An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman categorically denied the allegations raised by the US about the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)'s involvement in the supply of weaponries to the Iraqi and Afghan insurgents, calling the claims as "big lies".

Photos of the Day

• Dowlatabad Park and museum in Yazd.