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

• Mohammad Dehqan, who had earlier discussed the role of the Office of the Supreme Leader in revision of the Constitution in order to change the presidential system into a parliamentary one, has changed his mind: "It is possible that certain legal experts have certain viewpoints concerning the political structure of the regime, and some of these individuals may also be connected with the Office of the Supreme Leader, but it does not mean that the Office has directly investigated the political structure of the country and the Constitution."

Diplomacy

• Kayhan editorializes: "The United States thinks that the pressure against Iran will open Iran's guard against the West, or provide the Iranian opposition with greater freedom of action which in the long term could open a path of infiltrating Iran. Therefore we see that the human rights issue, which is mostly focusing on improvement of the conditions of the seditionist forces, is elevated alongside the nuclear issue and the diverse move of Mansour Arbab. But the United States is planting the seeds of conspiracy in infertile ground. The nature of the field of the regime does not converge with American seed. And the field of the opponents is nothing but a desert and will not produce any result. The West has experienced this before, particularly during the past two years. However, the Americans are following the beaten path, but they have no alternative. They are in reality not capable of harming Iran and neither the request of the Israelis, nor the request of people like the Saudi King could do away with the memory of the defeat of the West in the hands of countries much weaker than Iran... This is why the Zionist regime talks of attacking Iran as a global obligation in order to free Tel Aviv from this responsibility..."
• Kayhan "predicts" more purges in Voice of America Persian Network: "Certain news sources have announced that following dismissal of Jamshid Chalangi, Mohsen Sazegara, Roudabeh Bakhtiar, Kourosh Sehati and Ahmad Batebi it is now the turn of [Setareh] Derakhshesh."
• Hojjat al-Eslam Bahraini, head of the Islamic Center in Washington, discusses the state of affairs of the Iranian community in the United States.

Military and Security

• Yadollah Javani, Revolutionary Guards Political Directorate commander: "Israel will never have the stature to threaten and act against the Islamic Republic."
• Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, Revolutionary Guards Air and Space commander:  "A bunch of empty headed American leaders who seem to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, threaten the commanders of the Guards with assassination but have forgotten that 300,000 innocent Iranians and more than 135,000 Guardsmen, Basij members and countless commanders of the Guards of Islam have been martyred by them in the past... You should not forget that American commanders are present in Afghanistan, Iraq and the countries of the region. If you kill one of us, we will kill tens of you. Today, we are convinced that any new step of the United States and the Zionist regime will make their demise come nearer."
• Bahram Hosseini-Motlaq, Tehran province Seyyed al-Shohada Revolutionary Guards unit commander, replaced by Ali Nasiri.
• [E] A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said that the US growing activities along Iran's Northwestern borders, where the PJAK terrorist group was active, encouraged the IRGC to stage its recent offensive against the armed group.

Nuclear Issue

• Reactions to the IAEA report on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program:
  • Ahmadinejad: "I am sorry that the person at the helm of this organization [IAEA] has no will of himself."
  • Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh, permanent representative to the IAEA:
    • "This report does not raise a new issue and repeats previous claims which Iran has dismissed in a 117-page long report..."
    • "The report is unbalanced, unprofessional and politically motivated."
  • Parviz Sarvari, parliamentary National Security Committee member: "IAEA's report was written and coordinated with the United States."
• [E] Ahmadinejad blasted the International Atomic Energy Agency for working under the yoke of the world arrogant powers, and said Washington is playing with the IAEA card against Iran by persuading the UN body to issue a US-dictated report on Tehran's nuclear activities.
• [E] Member of the Iranian parliament's Presiding Board Mohammad Hossein Farhangi warned Israel against the dire consequences of any military aggression against Iran, and underlined that the Iranian Armed Forces are capable of annihilating Israel completely.

Economy

• Ahmadinejad comments on the legal aftermath of the $3 billion embezzlement: "There is one who abuses [his powers] and the rest must take the blame. Six years ago we said 'Reform the banking system,' but they resisted - very those individuals who purport to reform the banking system [today]... A group of influential people with backing outside the executive managed their affairs through contacts and the abuse took place, but they have made this a pretext to sabotage the affairs of the state... Why do you take your revenge against the nation? Arrest those who have paid bribes, those who have breached the law and those who had powerful backers. Arrest them and indict them. Why did you arrest the Central Bank deputy? The very executive director under whose auspices loans were given has again approved of loans... The Central Bank deputy has been arrested but the executive director is still at large... It is clear that this is political..."
• Inflation reportedly reaches 19.1%.

Photo of the Day

• Fars News' caricature: "The IAEA's anti-Iranian report."