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 

Politics

• Letters to the editor published in Kayhan warn Hassan Khomeini not to get involved with "the enemies of Islam and the Imam [Khomeini.]" One letter reads: "Tell Seyyed Hassan Khomeini that the people who prevented you from delivering your speech were the shanty town dwellers whose lives the Imam [Khomeini] preferred to those of the palace dwellers. Grandson of the Imam must be the defender of the Imam’s main legacy, which is the absolute guardianship of the jurist, and must not align himself with the heads of the discord whose betrayal against Islam, the Imam, the Islamic revolution and the guardianship is clear to all."
• [E] Supreme Leader Khamenei said on Tuesday that sincere cooperation between government and Parliament should go beyond political inclinations.

Diplomacy

• Hojjat al-Eslam Mohammadreza Mir Taj al-Dini, Ahmadinejad's parliamentary deputy: "Medvedev’s statements and postures against Iran are unbelievable...Such postures of the Russian leaders will be to their own detriment...The Russians’ following the Americans will prove very costly for them and most certainly the international public opinion and the nations will condemn the Russians...After the president’s [Ahmadinejad] criticism, there was a visible change in the behavior of Russian authorities when meeting our country’s authorities."
• Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee member: "China only considers Iran as a consumer of its low quality products. If this economic relationship becomes more limited, they, just like Russia, will begin to have tensions with the Islamic Republic of Iran..."
• Kayhan's Sa'dollah Zare'i demands "a prominent role for the Islamic Republic of Iran" in sending aid into Gaza so "the blessed movement of Islamic awakening and the anti-Zionist intifada does not suffer from pests."
• [E] Ahmadinejad arrived in Istanbul, Turkey to take part in a summit of the Organization of Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA).
  • [E] Ahmadinejad and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul underscored the necessity for defending the rights of the oppressed Palestinian people, and called for an end to the siege of the Gaza Strip.
  • [E] Ahmadinejad and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev underlined the active presence of both countries in regional and international developments.
•  [E] Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is due to visit Dublin, Ireland, in the next few days to discuss bilateral relations as well as regional and international developments.
• [E] Iranian envoy to London called on Britain's new government to revise its hostile policies towards Iran and work for better relations between the two nations.  Earlier in May, the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission had set up a special committee to continue assessments and studies on a bill which requires a downgrade of ties with Britain.
  • [E] Iranian Deputy Minister of Science, Research and Technology announced the country's plans to decrease scientific cooperation with Britain after London started limiting activities of Iranian scientists and academicians.
• [E] Tehran's Envoy to Tbilisi and Georgian Economy Minister conferred on possible avenues for the further expansion of ties.  Iranian Sanir Company in cooperation with Georgia's GIG Company is due to build two hydroelectric power plants to produce electricity for Georgia.
• [E] Iran’s Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi stressed Iran's willingness to expand ties and cooperation with Africa, Kenya in particular.

Military and Security

• A video clip of Shahram Amiri, nuclear scientist, was shown on Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting in which the scientist said he was kidnapped by Saudi and CIA agents in Medina. Amiri said he was being held captive in Tuscon, Arizona, where his American captors have tried to convince him to "spread lies about Iran's nuclear program."

o   [E] An Iranian scholar who went missing in Saudi Arabia last year unveiled CIA and Saudi intelligence agency's role in his abduction, and said he had been tortured in US jails.

o   [E] Iran moves to reject the possibility of his swap with three detained American hikers.

• [E] A senior Iranian commander announced that the Air Force plans to form a battalion of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in all its bases across the country.
• [E] Iran's police squads seized a 150kg cargo of narcotics in an operation in the country's northern province of Golestan Monday night.

Economy

• Central Bank Director General Mahmoud Bahmani says "decline in inflation does not mean declining prices."
• The government receives parliamentary endorsement for withdrawal of 130 trillion rials from the 2010 budget to finance cash handouts.
• Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani: "According to the Article 44 [of the constitution] state-owned institutions must be handed over to the private sector...but this handover has not been performed correctly and we have only witnessed a mild competition. If we want to correct this issue we must encourage fierce competition...Those who believe one can create justice with a socialist viewpoint are wrong...There has been 670 trillion rials worth of privatization within the framework of Article 44, but 340 trillion rials of it has been 'justice shares.' In other words, 52 percent of the privatization has been 'justice shares,' but it should have been 40 percent at its maximum so we could have had the ideal situation...There has been 80 trillion rials worth of privatization of the [Iran] Telecommunication, which can't be called transfer of ownership to the private sector... I am opposed to transfer of ownership to other sectors, but if one thinks that one can bring about qualitative change by changing the banners one is mistaken since the executives will remain public service executives."
• Answering parliamentarian Mostafa Kavakebian's questions about privatization of Iran, Telecommunications Economy Minister Shams al-Din Hosseini says "we have acted according to the law." 
• Ahmad Pour-Fallah analyzes the consequences of denying subsidies to the industrial sector, and concludes that the government will be forced to subsidize the industry regardless of the plans to reform the subsidy system.
• Foundation of the Oppressed purchases five percent of the shares of Saderat Bank.
• [E] Iran plans to cut rationed subsidized gasoline by March 2011 after the implementation of an economic reform plan to cut food and energy subsidies.

Trade

• [E] Iran and Pakistan signed off on a $7.5 billion deal to build a natural gas pipeline from the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, officials said.

Nuclear Issue

• [E] Tehran and Moscow are set to establish a joint venture to operate Iran's first nuclear power plant at Bushehr, scheduled to enter service this summer.
• [E] Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said fresh UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program have been "practically agreed upon."
• [E] Pakistan's former Army Chief General urged all Muslim states to show strong support for Tehran against what he called the United States' “double-standard policies” on the Iranian nuclear program, citing US support and aid to India's nuclear program.
• [E] The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has started a week-long meeting to discuss nuclear programs in the Middle East, focusing on Iran, Syria and Israel.
  • [E] Tehran's representative to the IAEA Ali Asqar Soltaniyeh stressed that pressures on Iran would bear no fruit for the West.

Religion, Society and Culture

•  [E] The 2010 Munich Film Festival will grant internationally-acclaimed Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami the festival's lifetime achievement CineMerit award and screen a retrospective of his films.

Iran in the Afghan Media

• Iran has promised to create more facilities for Afghan merchants, including providing two large cargo ships for the transportation of Afghan merchandise to India and Arab countries. It has also pledged 50,000 hectares of land for Afghan businessmen.

Photos of the Day

·         Child labor.