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 

Religion, Culture, and Society

·         Ayatollah Yazdi, head of the Theological Lecturers Associations at the Theological Seminary of Qom, inaugurating the first regional branch of the association in Ahwaz says "unity of thought among the theologians and experts in [various] fields has good results for the Islamic Republic regime...."

·         Shafaf News runs a story about Chinese firms entering the market for religious items:

o    "The vast influx of Chinese companies [and products] into the market and presence of Chinese produced goods for the religious market is less than 10 years old.

o    Chinese brands of products such as prayer rugs, rosaries [tasbih], chadors, headgear [maghna'e], electronic prayer counter, and products needed for the days of Hossein passion have infiltrated the internal Iranian markets for some years to the degree that they are totally visible in traditional bazaars of religious cities of the country."

o    According to Shafaf's account of Sarmayeh's article: "the Chinese are very active in production and distribution of such products in other Islamic countries to the degree that pilgrims to other sites of pilgrimage such as Islamic countries like Iraq, Syria and [Saudi] Arabia in returning to their countries bring rosaries, prayer rugs and Islamic symbols with Chinese brands. The Chinese companies have advanced so much in production of products of use among Muslims that they have even sand blasted Ayat al-Korsi [Quranic verses] on stone, glass, ceramics and porcelain and shipped them into the Islamic bazaars. Including to the [Grand] Bazaar of Tehran which sells religious sites products a look at the bazaars at blessed sites of pilgrimage such as the shrines of the descendants of the Imams [imam-zadehs] and even in religious cities of Qom and Mashhad there is great influx of Islamo-Chinese products. The [shrine of] Shah Abd al-Azim in Shahr-e Rey of Tehran is one of the main centers of distribution of religious sites, mosques and Islamic associations consumer goods and a symbol of the phenomenon and Chinese products have been welcomed by the people.

·         According to Shafaf News, Mashhad has become the most popular destination for newly married Iranian couples. Upon their arrival in the city, the Office of the Supreme Leader gives a gold coin to the young couple and the Office of the President hands out $100. 

Politics

·         Supreme Leader Khamenei, speaking to an assembly of school teachers and workers:

o    "Despite the enemies attempt to depict elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran as fraudulent, the great nation of Iran through its enthusiastic and sincere participation at presidential elections will create an election which raises the anger of the enemy...

o    Autocratic Qajar and Pahlavi kings considered the country their personal property and the nation as their serfs, and through lack of popular participation, whatever the machinery of power demanded came out of the ballot. But the Islamic revolution changed affairs totally and brought the people into the mix...

o    This trend has continued forcefully over the past thirty years, but the enemies whose illegitimate interests have been discontinued in Iran, by ignoring or refuting the blessed phenomenon of popular participation in management of the country, have always attempted to bring the elections into disrepute...

o    Through motivated presence of the people, healthy, lawful and good elections have taken place in Iran, but unfortunately some unjust friends and people who belong to the nation and expect the people to pay attention to them, unthankful [as they are], speak against the nation and, by repeating the lies of the enemy, question the health of the election...

o    During a couple of elections, a few doubts were raised among some, but investigation and accurate research demonstrated that there were no faults in those elections...

o    On several occasions, election results have been against the faction in power. How come anyone can question the elections in…?

o    God willing the entire Iranian nation, to the displeasure of the enemies enthusiastically and motivated as they are will go to the voting stations and create an election which raises the anger of the enemy..." 

·         E'temad runs a front page article on candidacy of Mohsen Rezai, depicting as "Ahmadinejad's rival." 

·         Mohammad Khatami and presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi urge the public to participate in presidential elections. 

·         Ham-Mihan reviews the Mir-Hossein Mousavi works while he was an architect. 

·         Presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi, stressing importance of supervisory representatives of each presidential candidate at each ballot, says "if they don't let in our representatives, we will subject them to news bombardment." 

o    Karrubi adds "protection of the vote is not illegal."

o    The Gonabadi Sufi Order declares its support for candidacy of Karrubi.

·         Former President Khatami, speaking alongside Mir-Hossein Mousavi:

o    "The dusk is near, but I like the sunrise...opportunities are few and hardly won, but they are easy to lose, but as soon as the opportunities are at hand... One must know their value and use them...The opportunity of elections has not been gained easily. For the past 100 years, you have wanted to be free, elect freely and decide your own destiny...Today, thanks to the revolution, the opportunity of elections is at hands despite of the many problems and incorrect procedures...

o    Engineer Mousavi is a personality whose piety, intellectual [character] and feelings for the revolution and society can't be doubted. I am convinced that should popular participation be vast at elections. the result will correspond to the will of the majority which is in the interest of the country...Different classes of the society, all must struggle to maximize popular participation in elections. We must not lose the moment and this historical opportunity." 

·         Emad Khatami, son of the former president, to start the student branch of his father’s Baran Foundation. 

·         President Khatami's Education Minister Morteza Haji comments on dismissed Interior Minister Ali Kordan's presence at the cabinet meeting the other day, which he calls "illegal." 

o    Ya Lesarat al-Hossein, mouthpiece of the Ansar-e Hezbollah vigilante organization, ridicules Ali Kordan's presence at the cabinet meeting as "an attempt to teach acquisition of a doctoral degree to the members of the cabinet!"

·         Ahmadinejad adviser Mojtaba Hashemi Samareh, who also heads the Iranian President's campaign’s Ahmadinejad's provincial trips:

o    "From the very beginning of his activities as President Ahmadinejad has had provincial trips and meetings with the families of the martyrs and [war] veterans and he can't stop it with the excuse of the threat of such trips being interpreted as political campaigns...The President must do whatever legal and administrative tasks he has towards the end of his tenure..."

o    Hashemi Samareh also defends Ahmadinejad's distribution of free potatoes during his provincial trips and refutes it to have a political propaganda dimension: "The government always buys a number of agricultural products including potatoes from the farmers with a previously agreed upon price, keeps some of it as reserves and exports some of it...Today the government has distributed some left over potatoes through the [Imam Khomeini] Relief Committee. In the past such products were thrown away..."

·         Expediency Council member Hojjat al-Eslam Majid Ansari speaking at the conference of "Tenth Elections After Thirty Years of Greatness and Blossoming" says presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi "has clearly stated that the principle of Absolute Guardianship of the Jurist is a point of strength of the country."

·         Representative of the Supreme Leader in Supreme National Security Council Hojjat al-Eslam Hassan Rowhani, speaking on the occasion of the 40th day of passing the way of Khadijeh [Batoul] Saghafi, Khomeini's wife, warns against revision of the viewpoints of the late Leader of the Revolution Khomeini.

Economy

·         Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani at the Investment Opportunities seminar in East Azerbaijan: "Under present circumstances, political, economic and societal connectivity is changing and new economic networks are being formed globally...Men of economics need a deep and accurate understanding of the circumstances, since the current atmosphere of the world has passed through uni-polarity and is developing towards multi-polarity..."

·         The so-called "non-state sector" to become involved in social housing projects. 

·         Pasargadae Bank to teach electronic banking at its branches across Iran. 

Military and Security

·         Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Saidi, representative of the Supreme Leader in the Revolutionary Guards, speaking at the Sixth Grand Assembly of Representatives of the Supreme Leader in the Basij, condemns the "The lax attitude which began during the era of the reformists...especially under Ataollah Mohajerani, President Khatami's minister of Islamic Guidance and Culture..." 

·         Ali Saidi, in an interview with ILNA, claims he was unaware of former President Khatami's meeting with some authorities of the Revolutionary Guards:

o    "I neither know what meeting it has nor who the Guardsmen present were...But the path is very transparent since we have declared what is prohibited and we do not under any circumstance allow any Guardsman to intervene in elections...The opportunities of the Guards should not be abused, the Guards must not be the arena of parties and groups and on the other hand the parties and groups must not have such expectations from the Guars because it would be outside its legal obligations...What the Guards want is active presence in the realm of elections and what we tell the Guards complex reflects the values and indicators, as the late Imam [Khomeini] and the Supreme Leader have said."

·         IRGC Chief Ja'fari: "As the Revolutionary Guards begins their mission to counter bandits, the noble and hardworking people of southeastern sections of the country will also taste the sweet taste of stable and popular security." 

Diplomacy

·         The Persian Gulf Seminar becomes a venue for "reformist steadfastness against demands of Arab leaders." 

o    See also Donya-ye Eqtesad's report.

·         Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak accuses the Hezbollah of intervening in internal affairs of Egypt, warns "regional enemies of Egypt" against intervening in internal politics of his country.

·         Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, attending the Non Aligned Movement's Foreign Ministers Summit in Havana, refutes allegations against the Islamic Republic in the latest U.S. Department of State's latest report on state sponsorship of terror and turns the accusations against the United States: "Because of its support to the Zionist regime, racism, occupation and all that happened at Guantanamo Prison, the United States has no right to raise allegations against other countries...Dual standards of the United States are well known in the entire world and [the U.S.] has nothing new to say.." 

o    Ham-Mihan features a short article on Iran-U.S. relations during the first 100 days of the Obama presidency. 

Trade

·         Former parliamentarian and economist Ali Mazroui speaking to the German Radio Broadcast's Persian service, says sanctioning gasoline imports of Iran will not have "deadly effects" on Iran. 

·         At the World Bank Summit, Economy and Finance Minister Shams al-Din Hosseini discusses future economic cooperation between Iran and Russia with his Russian counterpart. 

·         Pakistani investors show interest in investing in Chahbahar's fishing industry. 

Photo of the Day

·         Mir-Hossein Mousavi's campaign photos including one featuring Mousavi wearing a green shawl which is a sign of him being a descendant of the prophet Mohammad

·         Former Vice President Mohammad-Ali Abtahi releases a recent picture of dissident Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri who is under house arrest.