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

• Soulat Mortazavi, Parliamentary elections staff chief, says the Iran Freedom Movement, Mosharekat reformist movement and the Mojahedin-e Enqelab-e Eslami reformist party are not allowed to participate in the parliamentary election.
• 74 parliamentarians try to summon Ahmadinejad to the parliament for "questioning."
• Fararu News analyzes the role of parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani in defeating the vote of no confidence in Finance Minister Shams al-Din Hosseini.
• Emad Hosseini, Member of Parliament, complains of the government's intensified lobbying to persuade parliamentarians not to present votes of no confidence to cabinet ministers: "Sometimes the cabinet ministers themselves pressure you, sometimes their deputies, and even some governors... Sometimes the pressure upon the parliamentarians is really unbearable."

Diplomacy

• Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addressing school children to commemorate the "Day of Struggle Against the Global Arrogance" – the anniversary of the seizure of the United States Embassy in Tehran - threatens to create a scandal in the United States:
  • "We have one hundred unquestionable documents on the role of the United States in directing terror and the terrorists in Iran and the region and by presenting these hundred documents, we will do away with the honor of the United States and those who claim to [support] human rights and the fight against terrorism, in the international public opinion."
  • "The United States is now defeated in Afghanistan and in Iraq and has no other way but leaving these two countries, just as it has been defeated in North Africa..."
  • "The Americans did not manage to preserve Hosni Mubarak and Ben Ali in Egypt and Tunisia because the nations prevailed and in Libya it is the same. Despite secret relations with Qadhafi before his humiliating death, they couldn't preserve him."
    • Said Jalili, Supreme National Security Council secretary, says Iran will release "new documents" showing the United States involvement in "certain acts of terror" tomorrow.
    • Hojjat al-Eslam Hossein Ebrahimi, parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee deputy, says release of the documents tomorrow will "annihilate the United States."
    • Fars News Agency "predicts" "great demonstrations" chanting "death to the United States" tomorrow, on the occasion of the Friday prayer and commemoration of the seizure of the United States Embassy in Tehran.
    • The Islamic Revolution's Cultural Front Research Institute releases "300 anti-American posters" on the occasion of the commemoration of the seizure of the United States Embassy.
• [E] Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi left Turkey for Libya to meet the country's interim government officials on bilateral ties and the fate of Shiite Cleric Imam Musa Sadr.

Trade

• [E] Iran has allocated a credit line of 500 million euros to Cuba.
• Senior Iranian industrial officials announced that Tehran and Moscow are in talks over the latter's investment in Iran's aluminum industry.

Photos of the Day

• Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses the school children.
• Old photo of Ahmadinejad as governor of Maku.