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

• Reports on imprisonment of Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani and Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani:
  • Farda News depicts Mehdi Hashemi’s return to Iran before the 2013 presidential election as a "suspicious scenario."
  • Saeid Qassemi, Hezbollah activist and vigilante leader, says return and arrest of Mehdi Hashemi and imprisonment of Faezeh Hashemi is "a project related to the [2013 presidential] election." Qassemi also says the project aims at "exonerating the seditionists [from guilt]." Link upon request.
  • Akbar Ganji, author of books which implicated Rafsanjani in the serial killings of Iranian dissidents and intellectuals: "Rafsanjani is no longer the red eminence."
  • Rafsanjani embraces his son Mehdi just before his arrest. Video:
• BBC Persian journalist Bahman Kalbasi asked Ahmadinejad about the parliamentary inquiry into the cost and size of his UNGA entourage.  "Goh khordan, [they have eaten fecal matter]" retorted Ahmadinejad. Video.

Military and Security

• Tabnak slams the United States Treasury's "attempts to link the oil industry with the Revolutionary Guards."
• Amir Mousavi, former Defense Ministry adviser, says confrontation with the West is "unavoidable."
• The Revolutionary Guards displays the Shahed 129 drone.
• Diplomasi-ye Irani condemns removal of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization from the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.

Media

• Farda News' investigation shows that the Islamic Republic has filtered Gmail.

Photos of the Day

• Ahmadinejad meets Iranian-Americans in New York.