Iran News Round Up

Politics

• Mohammad Nourizad, former Kayhan journalist just released from Evin Prison attacks Supreme Leader Khamenei in blog post:
  • "O God, during the leadership of Seyyed Ali [Khamenei] law and the authorities abiding by it became weak and miserable. The elites used the law as a ladder for opportunistic advancement. A poor man was imprisoned because of a million [toman] debt, but the president desired by him [Khamenei], his first vice president, some cabinet ministers and his managers engaged in embezzlement and plundering billions in what looked like a marathon to deceive the people and they laughed at the law and the beard of the people! In the parliament, law was ignored by timid parliamentarians. The judiciary was the monopoly of frightened and corrupt judges and the law was skinned by a group of Intelligence Ministry officials and the belongings of the country was plundered by Guardsmen who oppose the law and color it [the way they want it.]"
• Parliamentarian Ali Mottahari says Ahmadinejad and his followers resemble the Furqan revolutionary terrorist group which considered guardianship as the monopoly of the Imam of the Era and not that of Grand Ayatollah Khomeini.
• Mohsen Rezai is attacked by the mobs as he tries to participate at the Ramadan prayers led by Mansour Arzi.
• Ayatollah Nouri Hamadani speaks about the process of "refinement" [purge] during the past 31 years which has helped the Islamic Revolution cleanse itself of impure elements and speaks of the post June 12, 2009 election unrest as another round of purification.
• Criticism of Ahmadinejad's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei:
  • As Ahmadinejad's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei tries to address a crowd of war veterans from Kordestan province, he is forced to leave the podium because of protests . Following Mashaei's exit, Ahmadinejad told the crowd that Mashaei is a devout man and compared him with the late Ayatollah Beheshti and Mohammad-Ali Rajai.
  • Ayatollah Morteza Moghtadaei: "Unfortunately, lack of consequences in dealing with this individual has led to present the deviating hypothesis on "the capacity of human beings to become gods," after presenting the "Iranian school" - which is another name for 'Iranian republic.'"
  • Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Saidi, the Supreme Leader's representative to the Revolutionary Guards: "Today the hope of the oppressed of the world is Islamic Iran. Iran minus Islam does not mean anything and should we consider nationalist thought as opposed to Islam or governing Islam is a deviation."
  • 120 parliamentarians submit a letter to Ahmadinejad protesting against Mashaei's statements.
• Mehdi Karrubi to host Hassan and Yaser [Mostafavi] Khomeini - for iftar.

Diplomacy

• Ali Larijani, speaker of the parliament, addressing the United States says "we have no common ground to engage in negotiations with you."
• Iranian/American academic Houshang Amirahmadi: "I am a friend of Mr. Mashaei, but I consider myself more the friend of the government than of Mr. Mashaei. You see, Mr. Mashaei is a good man and I help him, but of course it does not make any difference if it is Mr. Mashaei or [Kayhan editor] Mr. Hossein Shariatmadari... Everyone who is working for the sake of the country, I help him and consider them all the same. I know that Mr. Shariatmadari has serious criticisms, but I don't have any problem with him. It is possible that he has a problem with me, but that is not the case with me. I consider Hossein Shariatmadari as an individual who is toiling for Iran. We are all Iranians and Muslim and we must all build Iran together."

Religion, Society and Culture

• Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting lectures on authorized hours for sex along with characteristics of children conceived in specific months, days and hours of the night: 
• Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi: "Plural interpretations of religion are one of the arts of the devil... Only the societal unity which is based upon the truth is desirable."

Economy

• Mehr News Agency reports dramatic increase in price of electricity in Mazandaran province even before reform of the subsidies system.

Trade

• A consortium composed of Chinese and Australian companies to develop a $750 million heavy oil project in Iran.
• [E] Venezuelan Ambassador to Tehran David Velasquez announced his country's preparedness to provide Iran with gasoline supplies up to 20,000 barrels per day.

Nuclear Issue

• [E] Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi says the study phase for locating proper sites for 10 new nuclear enrichment plants has been accomplished.
• [E] Ahmadinejad communicated a new law to all executive bodies of the country ordering them to make their best efforts to safeguard the country's nuclear progress and help bring Iran to complete independence from foreign countries in acquiring peaceful nuclear technology.
• [E] Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Seyed Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi: "The news on the loading of fuel into Bushehr power plant was so unexpected that it perplexed all enemies of the project and made them utter disintegrated, irrelevant and illogical remarks."

Military and Security

• [E] The Iranian Army has equipped its fleet of Sukhoi SU-24s with newly developed night operations systems enabling the fighter jets to accomplish missions at nights, a senior Iranian Army Air Force commander announced on Monday.
• [E] A senior Iranian military commander on Monday has warned the US about the grave consequences of any military aggression against Iran, and cautioned that Tehran will attack and destroy any place from which the US attacks are waged against Iran.

Photo of the Day

• Mostafa Tajzadeh, recently released from prison, returns to Evin Prison after he filed a complaint against the Revolutionary Guards for intervention in politics.