Iran News Round Up

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

(E) = Article in English

Senior cleric urges Parliament to assist president; Ahmadinejad explains new cabinet appointments and dismissals; Ahmadinejad says no rift with Supreme Leader; first group of election protestors to be put on trial this Saturday; Iranian official censures Saudi government’s ‘maltreatment of Iranian pilgrims’; BBC, Voice of America accused of fomenting unrest in Islamic Republic; Iranian government to build concrete walls along borders with Afghanistan to prevent drug trafficking and crime

Politics

• Guardian Council Secretary Ayatollah Jannati led this Friday’s prayers. Rafsanjani was absent yet again. 
  • Commenting about the post-election events, Jannati said: "This election was the healthiest of all elections, but some could not see sweetness in the mouths of the people...The conspiracy by those who were defeated had been plotted four years ago. Unfortunately, this group could not see a young man like Ahmadineajd come to power.
  • Back then [four years ago] they [Rafsanjani] did not say anything about seven million more votes obtained by Ahmadinejad, but they planned to take revenge in future. This issue emerged last year. Claims of fraud were constantly raised outside the country, and their connections inside the country began expressing hopelessness. After this, they began to talk about issues such as lack of public trust. Then, we see that someone at the time of voting [Rafsanjani's wife] says, ‘See for whom I have voted. If there is no fraud, this candidate [unidentified] will become president. Otherwise, you should take to the streets.’  
  • The people voted out of devotion and answered the call of the Leader. If we don't claim everyone, the majority voted and accepted the call of the Leader. The vote had a message. I don't know why some people don't pay attention to these messages...At the latest elections, the people voted in favor of the discourse of the blessed Imam [Khomeini], the Supreme Leader and the President..."
  • Jannati also criticized Ahmadineajd's cabinet appointments and dismissals: "The latest dismissals and appointments were painful to all and caused harm...One must not give a key position to someone who causes dissatisfaction. Why was it necessary to do that? This person [Esfandiar Rahim-Mashayi] may have spiritual qualities, but this is not enough to justify his appointment. Also, it is not appropriate to dismiss a cabinet minister [Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ezheh-i] who is a devout, religious and experienced person..."
  • Jannati added: "Dear people! Opponents and supporters! Now the government of the Islamic Republic is in the hands of him [Ahmadinejad]. Should one engage in acts of sabotage and should we oppose him whenever he wants to do some work? This will harm all of us if we do so. He wants to serve the people and one must support him..."
  • Jannati urged the Parliament to assist Ahmadinejad: "The Parliament must cooperate with him and give a vote of confidence to the cabinet ministers of the President. And he [Ahmadineajd] must pay attention to characteristics of each cabinet minister he appoints."
  • Discussing the issue of political prisoners, Jannati emphasized: "Some call for the release of the prisoners. Anyone who is innocent must not remain imprisoned for a single moment and must be released immediately. And one must apologize to him and his family. But should one release someone who is guilty of having engaged in acts of destruction, burning the city, disturbing the public order, instigating unrest in the city, killing people, and having ties with foreigners - as some of them have confessed to such things? Their actions are unprecedented over the past thirty years and such acts were only done by the Monafeghin [Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization]. They were hypocrites, but they [instigators of unrest] have made the people follow such a path..."
• Alef News Agency releases Ahmadineajd's speech last week addressing members of student movements who support his government:
  • "[Esfandiar Rahim-] Mashayi is not the way you imagine. What you say about him is what [Ellipsis as published] say about him, comments such as Mashayi leaving an empty bowl for the Imam of the Era at his table and so forth...The Supreme Leader has said that Mashayi should not be the vice president and we obeyed. But some of the opposition, in breach of the Leader’s statements, repeatedly speak of Mashayi in order to exert pressure on me...I went to the Supreme Leader and gave some explanations. It was agreed that certain actions should be taken. But after that, the letter [Supreme Leader Khamenei's letter demanding dismissal of Rahim-Mashayi] was leaked [to the press] by some honorable parliamentarians...After this we found it more expedient to let the letter be published and that we take action afterwards. At this time I chose him [Rahim-Mashayi] as the head of my office...
  • My relationship, as the President, with the Supreme Leader is different from your relationship with him..."
  • Commenting on the dismissal of Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi, Ahmadinejad said: "It was decided that the Office of the President should inform cabinet ministers who are not meant to be in the tenth government so that they can be prepared for that. My dear brother Mr. Saffar-Harandi was one of the ministers who were told that they would not be cabinet ministers in the tenth government...Again and again, I told Mr. Saffar-Harandi to change a number of his deputies since they were not acting in line with the goals of the government and the demands of the devout people. But he did not do so. And you see that few recognize his performance and no-one says that he should stay in the cabinet...”
  • Speaking about the dismissal of Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ezheh-I, Ahmadineajd said: "The dismissal of His Excellency Mr. Ezheh-i was carried out as a result of a two-year process, and is unrelated to the current affairs...Over the past two years,  I, based on evidence, urged him to change two of his deputies, but he did not do so...He also performed poorly in the issue of [scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars] Haleh Esfandiari. I asked him what he was doing. Why are you ridiculing yourself? You have arrested a 70-year-old woman and you claim she wants to start a velvet revolution? Instigators of the velvet revolution are other people and it is them whom you should expose to the people...Also with regard to Israeli oranges [entering the Iranian market], I told Mr. Ezheh-i to deal decisively with the true perpetrators of this act, but he said he couldn’t deal with them...Two weeks before the unrests, the Foreign Ministry informed us that a great number of people were coming from Britain to Iran in a suspicious way, but the honorable Intelligence Ministry did not follow up on this issue. It also dealt weakly with the unrests, and in some cases it was very clear...With regard to certain developments prior to the election, the Intelligence Ministry did not give me a single page of report. I even asked some of the grandees if the Ministry had provided them with reports. They said they had not received anything. At the same time, the opposition had planned for years for this election..."
  • Ahmadineajd also attacked the Speaker of the Parliament: "Some of the parliamentarians want to plant discord between the pillars of the regime and the government, and they also want to rehabilitate the face of some of the heads of government in the public opinion [Rafsanjani and Khatami]."
• Ahmadineajd speaking at the Eleventh Scientific/Scholarly Conference of the Professors of the Country: "Over the past days, some people with an immature thought attempted to show that the relationship between the government and the dear leader of the revolution was damaged. They have made much noise about an allegedly widening gulf between the government and the Leadership. But they don't know that the nature of our relationship with the Supreme Leader is beyond that of political and bureaucratic frameworks. [Our relationship] is of the kind between love and belief and between a father and a son...The ill- wishers who attempt to use such ways to create doubt will take such wishes to the grave and this path will remain closed to the devils..."
• Former President Mohammad Khatami on the occasion of the fortieth day of killing of people in clashes with the riot police, and meeting family members of Sohrab A'rabi, Ashkan Sohrabi, Kianoush Asa and Masoud Hashem-Zadeh: "I wish it was possible to commemorate the passing away of those dear ones in a greater assembly and with participation of hundreds of thousands of people. But unfortunately this was not allowed...Now that we have gathered here as representatives of the entire nation, we greet the spirits of all the martyrs of the revolution and freedom and extend our condolences to the families who have lost their dear ones...Our people are persistent and will not abandon their demands...The path of freedom, justice and honor is not an easy one. And if we truly believe in it, we must also pay a price to get there."
• Alef News Agency stresses that Hassan Khomeini's visit to France is not politically motivated, is not an attempt to stay away from inauguration of Ahmadineajd, and subtly criticizes the heavy cost of "recreational" trips of Hassan Khomeini to France.
• (E) During his Friday prayer sermon, Ayatollah Jannati stated that “If this recent elections [sic] was null and void then all the previous ones during the past 30 years would have the same status because they, too, were [held] by the Interior Ministry and the Guardians Council supervised them and if the previous elections [had] no problems then the recent one is correct as well.”
• (E) President Ahmadinejad called on all government officials to fulfill their duty to the nation by serving the people.
• (E) In an address to Basiji university faculty, President Ahmadinejad stated that “Today Justice is the beginning point towards perfection and we should reach to a point in which nobody feels that he has [been] deprived from social opportunity. All of people should feel that they are first-class citizens.”
• (E) Iran’s Judiciary will put the first group of protesters on trial this Saturday.
• (E) The Supreme Leader will officially approve Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran’s President on August 3rd.
• (E) In Mashhad, President Ahmadinejad will address Basiji university faculty.

Diplomacy

• (E) An Iranian official condemned Saudi Arabia’s treatment of Iranian pilgrims, stating that “the inappropriate behavior of Saudi morality forces towards Iranian pilgrims has increased… Not only do they limit the religious activities of clerics, but they make false accusations against pilgrims and ask them to sign papers stating that they would not repeat the so called offenses.”
• (E) In a press conference with British Foreign Secretary Miliband, US Secretary of State Clinton stated: “We believe that it is imperative for the (Iranian) authorities to release political prisoners,” adding that the “continuing detention and abuse of political prisoners certainly suggests that the political situation inside of Iran has not yet resolved itself.”
• (E) Former Mossad Director Meir Amit said of the Iranian president: “Personally I am against assassinating leaders and all my life I was against it when I was head of Mossad. But Ahmadinejad has crossed the line. With all he is doing on the nuclear front, saying Israel should be wiped off the map and arranging a conference on the Holocaust where he said it never happened. From my point of view, he is somebody who shouldn't be with us."

Religion, Society and Culture

• Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi expresses hope that political prisoners will be released soon.
  • So does Ayatollah Amini.

Military and Security

• Alef News Agency claims that yesterday's commemoration of those killed in street clashes between the protesters and the riot police at Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery outside Tehran was "provoked by the Voice of America, the BBC and satellite channels." Alef News also says that it understands perfectly well why the authorities do not allow Mousavi's supporters to demonstrate in public since "Mr. Mousavi is incapable of controlling his radical supporters."
• Greater Tehran Law Enforcement Forces Chief Commander Aziz-Allah Rajab-Zadeh says 50 individuals were arrested at the Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery outside Tehran yesterday, but refutes rumors that some individuals were killed during yesterday's unrests.
  • (E) Thousands gathered at the Behest-e Zahra cemetery Thursday in commemoration of those who died in the post-election protests, and Iranian police arrested at least 50 people there.
  • (E) Jafar Panahi, an Iranian filmmaker, was one of the 50 protesters detained but has been released.
• (E) Former Iranian President Khatami condemned the arrest of post-election protesters and called on the government to launch an investigation, stating: “it is not enough to say that a sub-standard detention center has been shut down. What does 'sub-standard' mean?”
• (E) Lieutenant General Mohammad-Soleimani called the IRGC the “most competent military power” in the Middle East, adding that it “is a living phenomenon which is rooted in the Islamic Revolution and which defends the Islamic Republic of Iran against 'hard', 'semi-hard' and 'soft' threats."
• (E) The Iranian government plans to construct a concrete wall along its 435-mile long border with Afghanistan.
• (E) An Iranian lawmaker speculated that the Iraqi-based terrorist group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization may move its operations to Pakistan or Europe as a result of the recent crackdown by the Iraqi government.
• Aftab News reports a 15 percent increase in salaries of Armed Forces employees.

Human Rights

• Reformist theoretician Mostafa Tajzadeh calls his family from Evin Prison.
• Imprisoned former Vice President Mohamamd-Ali Abtahi receives visit from his family in Evin Prison.

Economy

• (E) The development of 700 agricultural complexes will boost Iran’s agricultural sector.
• (E) Iran’s tourist industry has suffered as a result of the recent plane crashes.

Trade

• (E) Asia Development Bank has loaned Armenia one million dollars to construct a railroad to Iran.

Nuclear Issue

• (E) Former Israeli Prime Minister Livni stated: "Even in a period of dialogue, the international community should prepare harsher and more effective sanctions so Iran understands what is on the horizon,” adding that "the international community, led by the United States, must be clear about Iran and whether it would stop a nuclear Iran or come to terms with it. The world needs to be clearer on this matter.”