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

Guardian Council upholds election result; recount of vote shows Ahmadinejad’s votes increased in Kerman; Gilan; Kayhan editor calls for British Embassy in Tehran to be closed; Ahmadinejad to visit Libya; Ahmadinejad demands a probe into murder of protestor Neda; Iran’s Intelligence Minister unveils “foreign plots” to disrupt elections; Basij chief defends role in maintaining public order; Alef News reports on reshuffle of Petroleum Ministry; Iran blames Britain for rise in drugs cultivation in Afghanistan; Afghan commentary predicts collapse of clerical regime in Iran

Post-Election: Politics

• Guardian Council Secretary Ayatollah Jannati officially approves the election result after recount of ten percent of the vote. Video.
  • Guardian Council Spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei provides details. Video.
  • (E) After the Guardian Council confirmed Ahmadinejad’s re-election, Spokesman Kadkhodaei responded to some complaints made by the presidential candidates.
  • Recount of the vote from Masal, Gilan province gives additional two votes to Ahmadinejad.
  • Kadkhodaei says the Council has proposed live coverage for the recount of Mousavi’s ten percent of the vote.
  • According to the Mousavi campaign, he did not have any representatives at the recount committee.  
  • Rezai’s unofficial spokesman Omidvar Rasai says between 70 to 80 percent of the votes in some constituencies was written with the same pen and with the handwriting of one single individual.
  • (E) The partial recount revealed that Ahmadinejad’s votes increased in the Kerman province.
• Alef News Agency shows pictures of school teachers serving as election workers and asks Mousavi as to why he accuses them of manipulating the election result.
• Alef News' analyst claims Mousavi has dealt a "deadly blow" to the Islamic Republic after twenty years of absence from the Iranian politics.
• Rumors that Sadegh Larijani, brother parliament speaker Ali Larijani, is set to replace Ayatollah Shahroudi as Judiciary Chief.

Post-Elections: Diplomacy

• Kayhan editor Hossein Shariatmadari demands closure of the British Embassy in Tehran: "The bulk of documents gained from the seizure of the American Embassy and published in more than 100 volumes of books show clearly that one of the most important missions of American diplomats stationed in Iran was keeping relationship with their like-minded individuals and groups and bribing individuals inside Iran for conspiracies and setting the country ablaze… Existing evidence leave no slightest doubt that the British Embassy in Iran is playing the exact role played by the American Embassy, which is now closed, and that it has taken over the mission of the Americans. The question to the honorable authorities of our Foreign Ministry is that if the former American Embassy had to be closed because it had changed into a den of espionage, why should the British Embassy, which is carrying out the exact mission, not be closed?"
• Ahmadinejad to visit Libya Wednesday.
• Fars News Agency runs a backgrounder about the U.S. state-level sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
•  (E) Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki met with Bulgarian Ambassador Plamen Shukurliev.
• (E) Majlis Speaker Larijani met with Algerian members of parliament, stating that “Iran and Algeria could be an appropriate symbol for creating unity among the Muslim countries.”
• The Speaker of the European Parliament says he will send a delegation to Tehran at the behest of Iranian Nobel Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi.
• Al-Sowrath (Damascus) claims the recent unrest in Iran was the work of Western agents.
• Al-Tashrin (Damascus) condemns the behavior of the Western media towards the presidential election in Iran.
• (E) After the Guardian Council announced the results of the partial recount, Lebanese President Suleiman congratulated Ahmadinejad on his re-election.
• (E) Egyptian journalist Heikal blamed the US for Iranian protests, stating: "In fact from the Junior Bush's tenure, Washington had developed the plan to create [a] street crisis to destroy [the] Tehran government… but the White House found the opportunity in Barack Obama's era."
• Spanish Foreign Minister Moratinos stated that “Europe, without any interference in Iran's internal affairs, wants Iran to manage the situation and resolve the [post-election] issues.”

Post-Election: Military and security

• Ahmadinejad in a letter to Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi demands an investigation into the murder of Neda Agha-Soltan "in the hands of unknown individuals."
• Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Ezheh-i: "Prior to the elections - two to three weeks before the election day - I was repeatedly asked about a number of issues. Bearing in mind the Intelligence Ministry's superiority in some fields, and various other issues, we believed that our dear people would respond to the call of the Supreme Leader with excellence, participate in the elections with great joy and enthusiasm, and vote with the greatest confidence. And this was the case...A great Islamic country like the Islamic Republic of Iran has during the past thirty years struggled against the colonialists, the world imperialism, and the Great Satan. Therefore, we need to be vigilant and careful so that, God forbidding - under certain circumstances and especially after the elections - no problem is made for the country and for the people. Therefore, we used all our means to discover the enemy’s plans, and if there should there be any plots, to deal with it and neutralize it. And with the grace of God, this also happened...It is clear that such groups are supported by the Zionists, who provide them with their needs, including bomb-making technology. Thanks God, they were identified. The first case of such plans was at the shrine of Chizar and they wanted to continue such explosions until the very day of the elections and detonate them at crowded places. But thanks God this was neutralized...They also had other plans. In an American-sponsored operation, and with American intelligence,  they wanted to carry out some plans in the eastern parts of the country, but they were also foiled – thanks to God and thanks cooperation of other government agencies and local authorities...There were some groups that did not support Karrubi or Mousavi and wanted to plant a bomb at a place where Mr. Mousavi was to speak...There were some instances where mostly the Zionists and the West - which have always pursued such objectives and are still doing so - had planned assassinations. But whenever they started, they were identified by the Intelligence Ministry with the cooperation of other authorities. With the help of the divine wisdom, their attempts were neutralized. And God willing, this will also be the case in the future...Behind such affairs there are at the very least two Western countries. The United States at least has provided support and logistics for the movement in the eastern parts [ed. of the country] to which I already referred. There is also the Monarchist Association, which - according to clear evidence - is supported by the Zionists...I called Mr. Mousavi to a private conversation and asked him what he would do if a new round of election also showed that he could not get enough vote...The British Embassy trained their employees to direct the riots..."
  • Ezheh-i explains the role of the Intelligence Ministry in the electoral process. Video.
• Kayhan claims British Embassy employees arrested in Tehran, according to the Islamic Republic Criminal Code, risk five years of imprisonment for disturbing public order.
• Vajihe Marsousi, wife of Said Hajjarian, says she recently met her husband. Hajjarian was the Intelligence Ministry co-founder and a reformist theoretician recently imprisoned.  
• An unnamed Javan journalist recently imprisoned confesses to have been trained as a velvet revolutionary while on holiday in a foreign country in the region. The journalist claims that the struggle against the election result was orchestrated by foreigners.
• Parliamentarian Reza Akrami calls for dividing Tehran into four provinces to improve its security.
• Basij Chief Hojjat al-Eslam Hossein Taeb, speaking at the Epic of June 12th Seminar, claims the police has arrested several individuals dressed in Basij uniforms and engaged in acts of sabotage: “It is very easy to enter the Basij. Anyone can become a member of the Basij with the aim of damaging the public perception of the Basij and engage in ugly and unsuitable acts so that the people change their opinion about their own children [ed. in the Basij]..." Taeb also claimed eight members of the Basij have died and 300 are hospitalized after being wounded during the recent unrest. Taeb continued: "We had received reports about import of various arms into the country from opposition forces and foreign countries, but we did not believe that they wanted to use those arms in the Iranian election...The Basij has two ways of dealing with threats. If there is an attack against a military base under the Basij command, the Basij will defend its base by all means possible - because of availability of arms. But in this case, the Basij has never been armed...During the latest unrests, there were some individuals who operated as members of gangs and groups with defined goals. They must be dealt with harshly...But despite this fact, the Basij does not deal with unsatisfied people who think they need to defend their vote...Today we have 70 million Basij members, who are defending the Islamic Revolution...According to the latest research, more than 85 percent of the people have great trust in the electoral process..." Commenting the killing of young protestor Neda Agha-Soltani, Taeb said: "It is clear that this scenario was pre-planned. Otherwise, how could foreign media and especially the Mojahedin [ed. Khalq Organization] release all family information of the individual in question in their media?...The enemies are using all their effort to direct the world opinion in such a way that portrays Iran as a violent regime...I'm not saying Mousavi is a liar. He is just emotional and thinks he ought to have received more votes."  
• (E) A new law has decreased the term of military service by 2 to 10 months for those with university degrees.

Economy

• Alef News reports major changes in Petroleum Ministry after the presidential election:
  • Akbar Torkan is replaced with Ebrahim Radou-Afzoun; Karbasian with Seif-Allah Jashnsaz; Abd al-Jalil Razavi with Mousa Souri; Rafi'i with Hedayat-Allah Khademi; and Mohammad-Taghi Khatibi leaves the Petroleum Ministry.
  • Also Hossein Allah-Dad - who is replaced with Nikou-Sokhan - and Mahmoud Mohaddes - who is replaced with Hormoz Ghalavand - leave the Petroleum Ministry. Alef News also predicts further changes in the executive branch of the Petroleum Ministry.
• (E) Two Asian banks are interested in investing over 1 billion dollars in Iran’s South Pars gas field.
•  (E) Textile smuggling into Iran is hurting the local industry, “decimating Iran textile manufacturers and costing Iranian jobs.”
• (E) The completion of over 500 industrial projects has generated 19 thousand jobs in Iran.

Media

• The Press Court finds Kargozaran editor guilty of six charges.

Religion, culture and society

• Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, the head of the Professors at the Theological Seminaries in Qom, says that the tenth presidential election was the fairest election in the history of the Islamic Republic.
• (E) Iranian poet Mohammad Hoqouqi died Tuesday.
• (E) Weightlifters Mohsen Davoudi and Rashid Sharifi have tested positive for illegal drug use.

Iran in the Afghan Media

• Iran’s National Police Chief Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqaddam says Britain is responsible for the rise in drug cultivation in Afghanistan over the past eight years. Speaking at the World Drug Day summit in Vienna, Ahmadi-Moqaddam added: “Instigating war and crisis in Iran is one of Britain’s main political agenda.”
• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says Afghan refugees expelled from Iran have been migrating to Tajikistan.
• Afghan commentary sees the end of clerical regime in Iran. “The protests may be crushed,” the author says, “but the clerical and unelected institutions have been greatly weakened.” The article, entitled “The Islamic Republic is no longer the same regime,” predicts that the regime in Iran will collapse in a few years.
• Article in Hasht-e Sobh, headlined “Outcome of Iranian Election, Silence of Arabs,” explains why the Arab countries have not shown any reaction to the post-election turmoil in Iran. The author says Arab leaders do not want to take the path of confrontation with Iran because they fear Iran’s retaliation.
• The Afghan government refused to allow Iranians living in Kabul to stage a protest rally in front of the Iranian embassy in Kabul to voice support for Mousavi. The editorial team of Hasht-e Sobh says that the Afghan authorities forbid the anti-Ahmadinejad demonstration because of Karzai’s close relationship with the Iranian president. Karzai was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Ahmadinejad’s election triumph. 
• Hasht-e Sobh also publishes an article from Farda, entitled “The End of Legitimacy for Religious Government in Iran.”
• Hasht-e Sobh publishes recent remarks by Richard Holbrooke, the special U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, about the impact of Iranian election on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Holbrooke: “I don't know what the outcome is going to be in Iran right now. But everyone is watching it closely in the region and it is not a good model for other countries' elections. So the first thing to do is to make sure that it doesn't cause instability in neighboring Afghanistan. I don't see any great danger of that right now, but you gotta be vigilant.”
• A group of Iranian artists and musicians express their frustration over “military power substituting logical power” in Iran.

Photo of the day

• Ahmadinejad with Chinese construction workers at a freeway in Northern Tehran.