Iran News Round Up

 A selection of the latest news stories and editorials published in Iranian news outlets, compiled by Ali Alfoneh, Ahmad Majidyar, Brianna Rosen and Michael Rubin.  To subscribe to this daily newsletter, e-mail [email protected].

Senior cleric calls for punishment of opposition leaders; Karrubi warned not to make accusations against regime; Iran’s strategic gasoline reserves reach 1.4 billion liters; IRGC commander hails Basij for foiling enemy plots after elections; Radio Farda journalist threatened with ‘rape’ by Iranian authorities while in Tehran prison; former political prisoner reveals sexual abuse of women in Iranian jails during 1980s; Iran reportedly lifts restrictions on IAEA inspections    

Politics

• Friday prayer sermons:
  • Ayatollah Jannati, Secretary of the Guardian Council and Temporary Tehran Friday Prayer Leader: "The latest unrest and chaos was injustice to Islam, the revolution and the entire nation and a popular regime was targeted by it. During the events some individuals were arrested, but those who had planned and directed the unrest were not arrested... How come the judicial authorities did not arrest the heads of the unrest? Those who are the roots of the discord and the mothers of corruption, those who are connected with a certain center and have misled the youth? Why were they not tried? There were some men of power and wealth who through letters of recommendation managed to stop execution of justice, but the judiciary officials should not capitulate to such pressures..."
  • Ayatollah Assadollah Imani, Shiraz Friday Prayer: "During the latest events, the enemy had decided to bereave the regime from taking advantage of the 85 percent turnout in presidential elections. They conspired and made us some problems, but the regime has made the threat of the enemy into an opportunity..."
  • Hojjat al-Eslam Ali-Akbar Akrami, Astara Friday Prayer Leader, demands Karrubi control himself when it comes to making accusations against the regime.
  • Ayatollah Ebrahim Amini, Qom Friday Prayer Leader, urges the elites not to "betray" the regime by propagating discord distributing rumors, but says innocent prisoners should be released.
• Ahmadinejad presents his candidates for cabinet positions on live television. (video)
• Governorate of Qom suspends a "spontaneous" demonstration against Ayatollah Sanei after the end of the Friday Prayer.
• Parliamentarian Ahmad Tavakkoli, in an open letter, attacks Karrubi and warns him that he is following the path of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri.
• Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, Head of the Office of the President, is suspended from work for two months and is subjected to fines and reduced pay because of economic irregularities during his tenure as Head of the Iran Cultural Heritage Organization.
• (E) Iran’s new Judiciary Chief Sadeq Larijani announced two appointees.
  • Local media speculate on an appointment of Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, the intelligence minister that President Ahmadinejad fired last month, to prosecutor general.
• (E) In a televised national address, President Ahmadinejad defends proposal to replace 11 of 21 cabinet ministers, saying “The election has changed the demands of the people.”

  Economy

• According to Mehr News Agency, Iran's strategic gasoline reserves reaches 1.4 billion liters.
• (E) President Ahmadinejad attended the launching ceremony of the first Iranian-made ocean liner, praising the shipbuilders’ “astounding success.”
• (E) Hoping to boost Iran’s ship-building industry, President Ahmadinejad announces plan to fire any public official “who ‘goes after’ foreign ships.”

Religion, Culture, and Society

• Official hours of Ramadan across Iran.
• (E) Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati criticizes the government’s failure to administer justice to both “riot leaders” and the “violators” during Friday prayers.

Military and Security

• Firouz-Abadi, Armed Forces Command Council chief, approves of Ahmadinejad's candidates for cabinet positions.
• Former Revolutionary Guards Chief Yahya Rahim Safavi says Tehran's security is guaranteed by the Seyyed al-Shohada Revolutionary Guards unit.
• Abdollah Eraghi, commander of the Mohammad Rasoul-Allah Revolutionary Guards Unit of Greater Tehran, praises the Basij which allegedly managed to neutralize the conspiracy of the enemy which had mobilized "three hundred thousand people in the streets."
• Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, Law Enforcement Forces chief, says the recent televised confessions were not coerced, but stresses that "the heads of the unrest" should be arrested.

Media

• (E) Demonstrators chanted "Death to the dictator" outside the offices of the shuttered daily newspaper Etemad-e Melli (National Trust) as police and security forces beat the crowd with batons to disperse them. The reformist paper was closed the day it planned to print an interview with its owner, recent presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi, responding to criticism levied at him by clerics at Friday Prayers, a member of Karrubi's campaign told Radio Farda. Karrubi has drawn criticism for his allegation that several demonstrators arrested during post-election protests have been raped in prison.

Human Rights and Labor

• Journalist Fereshteh Ghazi told Radio Farda she was repeatedly threatened with rape in 2004 after being arrested for contributing to reformist Internet sites. "The threat of rape is a kind of rape itself," she told Farda's weekly women's magazine, "The Other Voice." "The interrogators kept telling me they would rape me in front of my husband, she said." Ghazi said she discussed the threats with Iranian authorities, who deny that rapes take place in Iran's prisons. [read in Farsi]
• Soudabeh Ardavan, a former political prisoner who survived the mass executions in Iranian prisons in 1988, told Radio Farda that rape in Iran's prisons is nothing new. "During the 1980s, young female political prisoners were raped before being executed because authorities thought that if a woman dies a virgin, she will go to heaven," she said. [read in Farsi]
• A lawyer representing noted journalist Isa Saharkhiz said her client was beaten in jail and is still being held in solitary confinement. She said he has been denied medical treatment for broken ribs suffered during his arrest. [read in Farsi]
• (E) Chief of police Esmail Ahmadi Moqaddam denies that detainee confessions have been made under duress.
  • “No-one has extracted confession out of Mrs. Clinton, yet she reveals all issues freely," he said in reference to the U.S. Secretary of State’s August 9^th claim to have helped protesters “behind the scenes.”

Diplomacy

• (E) Iranian Consul Head Mohammad Reza Nasir-Baghban invites the governor of Iraq’s Basra province to visit Khuzestan.

Nuclear Issue

• (E) Iran lifted restrictions on IAEA inspections last week, giving UN nuclear officials access to the Arak nuclear reactor, European diplomats say.

    Photo of the Day

• Display of alcoholic beverages seized and distributors arrested.