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

• Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani welcomes the Supreme Leader's call for return to a "parliamentary system," in which the head of the executive is elected by a parliamentary majority.
• Reports on the Islamic Resistance Front, which previously attempted to depict itself as critical of Ahmadinejad:
  • Gholam-Hossein Elham, founding member of the Islamic Resistance Front, says the front supports Ahmadinejad and that he opposes the use of "the current of deviation" about individuals close to the president.
  • According to Ammariyon News, Sadeq Mahsouli, Islamic Resistance Front founding member, has asked Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi to "prepare [Ahmadinejad's] campaign headquarters."
• Former parliamentarian Mohammad Khoshchehreh says "the Ahmadinejad team" has taken many cases away from the Intelligence Ministry and one should expect Ahmadinejad to use the secret information to attack his critics.

Diplomacy

• Following the dismissal of Kourosh Sehati, Ahmad Batebi, Jamshid Chalangi and Rudi Bakhtiar from Voice of America's Persian service, and news of tensions between the network management and Saman Arbabi and Kambiz Hosseini, Farda News writes that the United States does not know what it wants from its Persian broadcasts to Iran.
• [E] President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Massoud Barzani is due to pay an official visit to Iran on Saturday.
• [E] Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani stressed Iran's preparedness to hold talks with the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany), but at the same time said that the negotiations should be "genuine ."

Military and Security

• IRGC Brigadier General Hossein Salami says the Guards are "undergoing a process of intra-organizational rejuvenation."
• Ali Abdollahi, Interior Ministry security and law enforcement forces deputy, says the Pakistani authorities have assured Iran that "no terrorist group will use Pakistani territory against the Islamic Republic of Iran."
• Yadollah Javani, Revolutionary Guards Political Bureau commander: "Today, the Guards and the Basij desire a [political] current to enter the parliament which has the discourse of the Islamic revolution so that the front of guardianship is strengthened."
• Mashregh News discusses domestic drone production in Iran.
• [E] Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said that terrorism in the region will end if the US ends occupation of the regional countries and withdraws its troops from the region.

Trade

• [E] Iran will supply 100 megawatt of electricity to Pakistan after the two sides reached an agreement over the deal.

Photo of the Day

• Fars News condemns "a symbol of freemasonry" at a Tehran park.