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 subscribe to this daily newsletter, e-mail [email protected].

(E) = Article in English

• Vice President Davoudi says Ahmadinejad will have "good nuclear news" for the public on Thursday, Nuclear Energy Day.
  • Ahmadinejad will celebrate the Nuclear Energy Day in Isfahan.

• Commander Bagherzadeh, head of the Foundation for Preservation of Works and Values of the Sacred Defense, says the Ahmadinejad government's support to the Follower of the Path of Light tours to Iran/Iraq war zones during the past two years has surprassed the cumulative effort of the governments of the past ten years.
• The Revolutionary Guards establishes an Education, Training and Culture of Guardianship Department which is commanded by Ahmad Faza'eli.
• War veterans from the regular Army and the Basij to be covered by the social welfare organization of the Revolutionary Guards.

• Iran introduces barcodes.
• Ahmadinejad, speaking in Kazakhstan, says Iran is ready to establish a joint regional currency.
• Islamic Republic of Iran Central Bank releases statistical data on the first eight months of 2008/2009.
• Five parliamentarians claim the joint Iran-Venezuela bank is illegal. 

• Sobh-e Sadegh's Reza Garmabedari analyzes Iran/U.S. relations in an article entitled "The Change Which Must Change," and Revolutionary Guards Political Department Chief Yadollah Javani adds that "slogans and messages do not change anything."
  • Academic Sadegh Zibakalam says "normalization of U.S./Iran relations will make the radicals go crazy." 
• Irancondemns statements by Germany’s Foreign Minister with regard to the Islamic Republic's nuclear activities.
• Kayhan attacks former President Mohammad Khatami for shaking hands with former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, "during the reign of whom insults against Islam peaked in Denmark" at the Alliance of Civilizatiions conference in Istanbul. 
  • Also Vatan-e Emrouz criticizes Khatami and asks "How is he going to answer the Islamic world?" 

• Ahmadinejad gave a Nowruz gift of 1,000,000 rials to each Foreign Ministry civil servant who attended his speech at the ministry. 
• Jomhouriyat says media reaction to presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi has helped identify his enemies: "Kayhan newspaper alongside internet websites such as Raja News [the internet mouthpiece of the Ahmadinejad supporters] and Ansar-e Hezbollah [mouthpiece of extreme Principalist elements], Fatemeh Rajabi, wife of government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham,...were some of the people who attacked him...Raja News attempted to depict Mousavi's press conference a tame affair,...KAyhan...considered Mousavi an agent of psychological warfare..."
• Parliamentarian Daryoush Ghanbari says Tehran Mayor Qalibaf would mobilize the reformist vote should he run for president.
  • Parliamentarian Ali Hosseini says a Qalibaf presidency is the "right of all Iranians." 
• In an open letter to the Guardian Council, presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi criticizes Ayatollah Jannati, secretary of the Council, for openly declaring his support for Ahmadinejad. 

• Gates accuses Iran of aiding Taliban.
  • Defense Secretary Gates has told Afghan private television channel Tolo that Iran creates obstacles to the United States in Afghanistan despite Tehran’s good relations with Kabul. “There is no doubt that they [Iran] provide limited assistance to the Taliban to hamper the U.S. and our allies’ mission,” he added.
  • Sherad Cowper-Coles, the British special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, has also accused Iran of supporting the Taliban. He said evidence showed Iran was supplying weapons to the militant groups in western Afghanistan – a charge denied by Tehran.
• Afghan analyst examines possibility of cooperation between NATO and Iran in Afghanistan.
  • Hoshang Hassanyari says Iran shares a common objective with NATO in Afghanistan, i.e. ensuring security and stability in the country. He adds that Iran could serve as an alternative transit route for NATO’s military and non-military supplies into Afghanistan.
  • Quoting Iran’s media, the analyst says German companies are already in talks with Tehran regarding use of the Iranian soil as a transit route.
• Afghan analyst says Iran’s participation in the Afghanistan conference in The Hague and its pledge of cooperation with NATO could play a positive role in improving security and stability in Afghanistan.
• Fifty Afghan refugees en route to Iran suffocated in container.

• Israel to launch "seven Persian language television channels."

• Rooz reports continued arrest of students from Amir Kabir University. 

• Arrest of drug dealers in Tehran.