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

Voice of America Persian accused of directing velvet revolution in Iran; Supreme Leader’s representative discusses Khomeini’s statements about IRGC’s intervention in politics; Kayhan editor says opposition leaders behind killings in post-election violence; Iran’s riot police bar Mousavi from visiting graves of election protestors; National Iranian Oil Company to sign contract with Italian company to develop 12th phase of South Pars Gas Field; Iran continues crackdown on opposition figures

Politics

• Karrubi speaking to young members of the National Trust Party:
  • "After the election the country has entered a new phase. Before the election all the candidates and their supporters attempted to get the people to come out and vote in order to create an ever more enthusiastic presence. The people showed up at the ballot because of the promise of changing the existing conditions, but unfortunately things happened during the election and the people felt that their vote has not generated the necessary result...
  • No group has the power to organize and mobilize the great population of the country, either groups inside or groups outside Iran. In reality, claims of a velvet revolution and the protests being directed from abroad have no benefit to the country, and indeed harm the country...
  • This is an insult to the people and it is ascribing too much power to the foreigners that whenever they desire so they can make the people to enter the arena...The protests were made by the people who felt that their intelligence had been insulted...Under present conditions we must not lose hope and be tired. We must continue our party political activity within the frameworks of the blessed Imam [Khomeini] and the people of Iran and the country..." 
  • Mousavi releases his July 27, 2009 speech on political prisoners on YouTube.
• The Martyr and Self Sacrificers' Foundation and Imam Khomeini Relief Organization are organizationally subjected to the new Labor and Social Welfare Ministry.  

Diplomacy

• Baztab News Agency accuses the CIA of using Voice of America Persian to direct a velvet revolution in Iran. 
• Alef News Agency condemns the Danish People's Party for having enforced prohibition against headscarf for women in the Royal Danish Home Guard.

Religion, Society and Culture

• Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Ministry's Ideological and Political Indoctrination Bureau refutes rumors on senior ayatollahs having left Iran for Najaf to protest against Ahmadineajd. So does Shi'a News. 
• Islamic Propaganda Organization to harmonize training of praise singers and religious missionaries. 

Military and Security

• Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Saidi, Representative of the Supreme Leader in the Revolutionary Guards, discusses Khomeini's statements with regard to IRGC intervention in politics:
  • "This issue must be totally opened and one must take the circumstances and the time during which the decree was issued must be taken into consideration. It is quite possible that a certain issue is bound to time and space, the necessity of the special conditions which may not be present in other circumstances...
  • In the beginning of the revolution there were political parties and groupings which asked their members to become members of the Revolutionary Guards. For example, Mr. [Mohsen] Rezai entered the Guards from the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization and some other faces entered the Guards from other parties. In other words it was possible that the Guards could have become an arena for inter party rivalry.
  • When the Imam [Khomeini] was informed of this he said that the Guardsmen had to chose between membership in the parties or in the Guards and that the armed forces should not be active in the parties...The Institution of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps belongs to the foundation of the regime and must be a consolidated and uniform organization which obeys the orders of the Guardian Jurist of the era...Therefore, what is discussed as non-intervention of the Guards in elections is first, not using the money and materials of the Guards for elections and secondly, not supporting a certain candidate." 
• Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Ministry's Ideological and Political Indoctrination Bureau claims commemoration of those killed by the Basij and the security forces is a part of the plan of those directing a velvet revolution in Iran.
• Kayhan editor Shariatmadari accuses former President Mohammad Khatami and presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi of having paid mercenaries to kill demonstrators during the unrest to maximize a sense of insecurity in Iran.
• The Islamic Republic and Russia perform a joint military exercise in the Caspian Sea aimed at fighting oil spills. 
• Kazem Jalali, spokesman of the committee for investigation of the affairs of those arrested in recent unrest, says there may be a detention center four levels below the ground floor of the Interior Ministry. Jalali also says he has met 200 arrested individuals but that he has not had access to 50 others. 
  • Jalali also reports that the political prisoners had been removed from Evin Prison prior to the visit of a parliamentary group.
  • Prisoners formerly at Kahrizak detention center are transferred to Evin Prison. 
• BBC Persian reports unrest in Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery outside Tehran at which presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karrubi had announced they would commemorate the victims of the recent violence. According to BBC's report Mousavi attempted to leave his car to pay his respects at the grave of Neda Agha-Soltan, young woman killed by the Basij, but the Riot Police forced Mousavi into the car while Mousavi supporters chanted "Ya-Hossein, Mir-Hossein" [reference to the third Imam of the Shi'as].
  • Eyewitnesses also say that the mourners had thrown stones at the Riot Police which had surrounded Mehdi Karrubi's car. According to state controlled Press TV the number of demonstrators reached "two to three thousands" and the demonstrators shouted "Don't fear, we are all together" and "Death to the Dictator!"
  • According to Agence France Press, the riot police attacked the demonstrators with sticks and belts and a number of the demonstrators have been arrested by the police. Film makers Mahnaz Mohammadi, Ja'far Panahi and Rokhsareh Ghaem-Maghami are among the arrested individuals.
  • According to Radio Farda, there were also demonstrations in Tehran, especially Vali-Asr Square and surrounding streets.
• Ali-Akbar Javanfekr, Media Advisor to Ahmadinejad, discloses that the Intelligence Ministry's failure to deal decisively with the rioters is the reason why Ahmadineajd ousted Intelligence Minister Ezheh-i from the cabinet. 
• Islamic Republic of Iran Navy chief inaugurating the second port at Jask Island, says expansion of Iran's naval bases in the Sea of Oman is "among our plans predicted."
• Mizan News claims the Intelligence Ministry has fallen under total control of Ahmadinejad and warns against Ahmadinejad and his supporters in the Ministry taking control over the ministry archives.

Trade

• The Islamic Republic grants Bolivia a low interest rate $280 million loan.
• The Islamic Republic to purchase 80 Antonov-148 planes.
• National Iranian Oil Company officials finalize negotiations with an Italian company to develop the 12th Phase of the South Pars Gas Field.
• Gholam-Hossein Nowzari, Oil Minister, says Iran and China are negotiating China's participation in Azadegan Oil Field.
• Mohammad-Reza Naderi, Deputy Customs Chief of Iran, says there is no prohibition against importing American products - including apples - and that the prohibition is only counts "the Zionist regime."

Human Rights and Labor

• Tehran Prosecutor General announces that the legal process against rioters will begin on August 2, 2009, but judging from the official statement of the legal authorities the Judiciary has already found the arrested individuals guilty of being "foreign agents."
• A former detainee at the now closed Kahrizak detention center shares his experiences with the public.
• Hamid Derakhshan-Nia, Tehran Deputy Prosecutor General attacks "rogue elements who set up detention centers":
  • "Two years ago, we went on inspection tour - as a part of our effort to enhance civic rights - to this illegal detention center in Kahrizak. Unfortunately we faced cases which were not acceptable for us. We asked the Prison Organization if such detention centers are supervised by that organization and operate within the framework of the regulations of the Judiciary.
  • Back then, the Director General of the Prison Organization sent us a written answer to the effect that 'We don't have any supervisory function with regard to this detention center' and back then we informed the Tehran Supreme Prosecutor General and the head of the Preservation of Civic Rights and he demanded immediate closure of this detention centers since the center should have operated within the framework of the Prison's Regulations and be subjected to legal standards or be shut down immediately. But for certain reasons, this did not happen and now we are witnessing the Supreme Leader has ordered its closure since certain things have not been respected. This will prove very costly for our Islamic regime...Any judge who has interned a convict in Kahrizak Detention Center...has been engaged in an illegal act."
  • Aftab-e Yazd condemns the Kahrizak affair.
• Imprisoned veteran politician Behzad Nabavi talks with his wife on the phone.
• Said Shariati, member of Mosharekat Faction Central Committee, is arrested.
• Said Hajjarian transferred from Evin Prison to "an organizational housing unit" with "medical treatment facilities."
• Amir-Hossein Toufani ,the latest victim of the post election unrest in Iran.

Photo of the Day

• Ayatollah Safi meets grandsons of Ruhollah Khomeini.