Iran News Round Up

 A selection of the latest news stories and editorials published in Iranian news outlets, compiled by Ali Alfoneh and Ahmad Majidyar. To receive this daily newsletter, please subscribe online.

(E) = Article in English 

Politics

• Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, along with Yaser and Fatemeh, returned to Tehran and could be summoned to the court in relation to an impending legal case against him. 
  • Mehdi Hashemi is taken to Evin Prison for interrogation.
  • According to Asr-e Iran, Mehdi Hashemi is arrested on charges of "financially supporting the sedition," a reference to the post June 12, 2009 unrest.
  • According to Asr-e Iran, Effat Marashi, Rafsanjani's wife, with Mohsen and Fatemeh, wait in front of the Evin prison.
  • Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, daughter of the former president, is arrested on charges of "engaging in propaganda against the regime". 
    • Asr-e Iran reports that Faezeh Hashemi was arrested in order to force her brother Mehdi Hashemi to return to Iran.
    • According to Gholam-Hossein Esmaeili, Iran Prison Administration director, Faezeh Hashemi will serve her six-month sentence.
• Radical theoretician Hassan Abbasi says Ahmadinejad has been defeated because of "leaving aside the regime and the sources of emulation," and "following the path of Bazargan, Bani-Sadr, Hashemi [Rafsanjani] and [Mohammad] Khatami."

Diplomacy

• Ahmadinejad travels to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly. Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi, Health Minister Marziyeh Vahid Dastjerdi, Agricultural Jihad Minister Sadeq Khalilian, Roads and Urban Planning Minister Ali Nikzad, Parliamentary Deputy Lotfollah Forouzandeh, Executive Deputy Hamid Baqaei, and Senior Adviser Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi are among Ahmadinejad's entourage. Other members of the delegation include Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, Hassan Mousavi, and Gholam-Hossein Elham. According to Asr-e Iran, The United States Department of State did not issue visas to Mohammad Sheikhan, communications deputy, Mohammad-Jafar Behdad, deputy at Ahmadinejad's office, two cabinet ministers and sixteen individuals not named by Asr-e Iran.

Military and Security

• Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad-Ali Aziz Jafari:"One cannot dismiss the possibility of war. And with the path which the Islamic revolution has taken, it is expanding globally every day, and so must our capabilities... Today, they [Israel] consider military attack the sole way of countering the Islamic revolution and the Islamic Republic of Iran, but they are so stupid that they do not realize that the very point they initiate something would be the point of their own end." 
  • Jafari's speech, according to Asr-e Iran: "Their threats prove that their enmity against Islam and the revolution is serious and these enmities will finally end with physical conflict... The war will take place, but the date is not known. The Islamic revolution has no boundaries. Our experiences do not solely belong to us, and we must update the experiences we gained in the revolution and particularly during eight years of sacred and transfer them to others... The stain of disgrace and the cancerous tumor, meaning Israel, wants war with us. But when and where the war takes place is not known... Now, they consider war the only means of countering [Iran] but they are so stupid that their masters [the United States] must stop them [from attacking Iran]... If they begin something, it would be the point of their annihilation and the end of their story. This [the war] will eventually happen, because the revolution is moving fast towards its goals, which is intolerable to them. Finally, they will create war conditions... We must prepare for a war the nature of which is totally different. The art is to adapt ourselves to the future war."
• Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, Revolutionary Guards Air and Space commander:
  • "Beginning of the war and aggression does not exist in the strategy of the Islamic Republic of Iran... However, under conditions when they have prepared everything for war, it is possible that we will engage in preemptive attacks. I do not dismiss this, but now, I do not see the tactical and operational issues in the region in such a way that they, for example, would want to attack us tomorrow... If we find out that they are ready and want to attack us, we will not allow our forces to be surprised... Our responses and scenarios are beyond the imaginations of the heads of the Zionist regime. They have no imagination concerning the answer, just like they did not expect to face those conditions under the 33 days war, since the Zionists and the Americans thought that the issue of Hezbollah and the Lebanese resistance is solved. The Americans leaders even considered the New Middle East, but the result was different... In the case of war, there would be no neutral countries in the region. The Islamic Republic of Iran is aware of [the whereabouts] of U.S. bases [in the region] and in the case of war, will target them."
• Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, General Staff Basij and Cultural Affairs commander: "Attacking Iran is the hue and cry of the most timid. Capabilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran have prohibited any enemy military move [against it]. Therefore, whatever they say concerning military attacks mostly reflects the enemy's unrealistic hopes and aspirations..."

Nuclear Issue

• Kayhan Editor Hossein Shariatmadari slams Iran Atomic Energy Organization Director Fereydoun Abbasi for admitting to Al-Hayat that in some instances the Islamic Republic has "depicted itself as weaker, and sometimes stronger than we are" in an attempt to "deceive the spies." Shariatmadari calls Abbasi's statements "imprudent," "unreal," "clear mistake," and a "gift to the enemies."

Media

• According to Abdul-Samad Khorram-Abadi, Cyber Crimes Work Group secretary, says Google and the Gmail will soon be filtered in Iran.

Photo of the Day

• Mehdi, Yaser and Fatemeh Rafsanjani return to Iran.