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

• Ammar Press, close to Ahmadinejad, criticizes arrest of Ali-Asghar Sijani, director of the movie Zohour Besyar Nazdik Ast [Emergence is Very Close].

Military and Security

• Sa'dollah Zare'i, a Revolutionary Guards analyst, says the West is ready to accept a peaceful nuclear armed Iran:
  • "In my opinion, the Leader [Ali Khamenei] has wisely put the West at a crossroad to choose between a peaceful nuclear Iran and an Iran which defends itself against any attack with all its capacities. And most certainly, the Westerners will choose the former, as there was no elaboration on the latter scenario."
  • "In our strategy... we consider Israel as a creation of the United States, and not the United States as a creation of Israel. This means that we believe what Israel does in the region represents the United States. Therefore, our reaction naturally to Israeli actions would not only be directed against Israel, but will target the command post, which includes the United States. Both the Israelis and the Americans know this. That is why the Americans insist Israel has no plan to attack Iran."
• According to Fars News, the Islamic Republic would give "practical responses" to the West's threats and that the "complexity and severity of those attacks" would be "harsher than the amateurish" operations against the Israeli embassies in India and Thailand. 
• The Revolutionary Guards reports skirmishes between the IRGC and a "terrorist team" in southeastern Iran. 
• Intelligence Minister Hojjat al-Eslam Heydar Moslehi warns against enemy "conspiracies to infiltrate theological seminaries."
• According to Young Journalist's Club, the Student Basij has 2,500 representatives at Iranian universities. 

Trade

• Royal Bank of Scotland freezes the assets of the owner of a Greek tanker transporting Iran's oil to India.
• The pipeline project to transfer Iran's gas to Pakistan is essential to solve Islamabad's energy crisis and it will develop different industries in the country, Pakistan's information and broadcasting minister said.

Nuclear Issue

• [E] Using peaceful nuclear technology is Iran's inalienable right and Islamabad supports it, Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan Seyed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari reiterated in a meeting with Iranian Envoy to Islamabad Alireza Haqiqiyan. 

Iran in the Afghan Media

• The upper house of Afghanistan’s National Assembly denounced Ahmadinejad’s speech in Tajikistan on the U.S. policy in Afghanistan. The Iranian president had accused foreign troops of killing innocent Afghan civilians and promoting terrorism and drugs trafficking in the region. Nesar Ahmad Hares, a senator from Kabul said: “Iran now tells us that we should receive war reparations from the United States. But was it not Iran and Pakistan which destroyed our country in the civil war? Why do they not pay compensations?”

Photos of the Day

• Ahmadinejad receives Bashar al Assad's envoy.
• Intelligence Minister Moslehi visits Medina, Saudi Arabia.l