Iran News Round Up

The Iran News Round Up ran from February 2009-September 2018. Visit the Iran File for the latest analysis.

September 21, 2009

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

  • Sermons marking the end of Ramadan:

    • Supreme Leader Khamenei in Tehran:
      • "Through participation in Quds [Jerusalem] Day demonstrations, the people once again showed to the entire world the direction towards which the revolution and the regime is moving, and demonstrated that the anti-Iranian policies of Western politicians and authorities, and their tricks and conspiracies have no effect on this great nation..."
      • "The international Quds Day is the angry shout of the Islamic community of believers against the lethal cancer of Zionism...The global message of this worldwide participation is that the nations of the world are following the glorious movement of the Iranian nation all over the Islamic world, and that the Islamic community of believers does not accept injustice, even when the usurper enjoys the support of the mightiest power in the world..."
      • Commenting about the Tehran Show Trials, Khamenei said: "Rumors and exchange of accusations are lamentable, inject dimness into the hearts of the people and darkens the society...Confessions of all individuals accused in the court in front of cameras and millions of spectators are religiously and logically acceptable and make an impression. But the words of the accused against other individuals have no religious legitimacy and should not be listened to. And one should not infest the atmosphere with accusations and suspicion...One must act decisively in accordance with the laws but punishing the criminals is different from accusing someone based on suspicion and we should abstain from making accusations in the society...The true meaning of transparency in the affairs is showing the truth to the people and no-one has the right to express matters which are not proven and make accusations against others...False accusations are a great sin."
    • Grand Ayatollah Montazeri refuses to lead the Eid prayer in protest against governmental restrictions on his freedom of movement.
    • Ayatollah Ahmad Alam al-Hoda in Mashhad:
      • "One should not allow certain individuals to impose their political ambitions on the society just because of their past record in the revolution or because they have had certain responsibilities in the past but have changed in the course of time...One should deal decisively with people whose words are in line with the ideas and policies of the enemies…and one must not allow them to reach their goals..."
      • "The country’s political atmosphere should tolerate opposing ideas and thoughts and all political elites should use this atmosphere to express their ideas and viewpoints. But certain individuals should not exploit this to express ideas and problems which serve the interests of enemies of the regime..."

  • Iranian clerics divided over when to celebrate the end of Ramadan:

    • The office of Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani says the end of Ramadan on Sunday has not been proven and urges the Muslims to continue the fast. So do Ayatollah Sanei, and Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi.
    • Other sources of emulation who have not declared the end of Ramadan include: Ayatollahs Lotf-Allah Safi Golpayegani, Mousavi Ardebili, Nouri Hamedani, Mohammad-Taghi Moddaressi, Sadegh Shirazi, Safi Golpayegani, Hossein Vahid Khorasani, Eshagh Fayyaz, Mohammad-Said Hakim, and Bashir Najafi. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Najaf has announced Monday as the end of Ramadan.
    • The Green Movement disobeying Khamenei says Monday marks the end of Ramadan and not Sunday as declared by the Office of the Supreme Leader.

  • Iran marks Quds Day amid protest rallies by reformists:

    • According to the Fars News Agency, Mousavi's attempt to participate in the Quds Day rally met "popular opposition" and people who chanted the slogan of "Death to the hypocrite," "Death to the opponent of the Guardian Jurist," and the like. Similar slogans were reportedly used against Khatami and Karrubi as well.
    • IRNA calls critics of the Ahmadinejad government at the Quds Day rallies "supporters of the Zionist regime in Tehran."
    • Tehran temporary Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami: "Expressing opposition to the regime within the framework of the law is acceptable. But if someone aims at the foundations of the Islamic regime, the regime will defend itself forcefully and decisively…"
    • Basij forces attack pro-Mousavi demonstrators in Tabriz.
    • Parsineh News reports clashes between protestors and the Law Enforcement Forces at Vali-ye Asr Boulevard. Parsineh also notes significant participation of Mousavi and Karrubi supporters at the Quds Day demonstrations. Mousavi and Karrubi supporters have reportedly carried placards with slogans such as "Death to Russia" [following rumors that Russia supported Iran in suppressing the post-election protests] and "Just if [Grand Ayatollah] Sanei issues me a decree of Jihad." According to Parsineh, the car carrying former President Mohammad Khatami was attacked by the government supporters and that he was not allowed to leave the car to participate at the demonstrations.
    • According to Parleman News, the mouthpiece of the Path of the Imam reformist movement, the attack against Khatami, whose turban was thrown on the ground, was directed by Abolfazl Shariatmadari, son of Kayhan editor Hossein Shariatmadari.
    • Raja News Agency editorializes: "The waves of the nation devoured the hypocrites!...Mousavi was present at the Vali-ye Asr Boulevard along with 100 followers, but left after a few minutes...Mehdi Karrubi faced demonstrators chanting slogans of 'Death to the hypocrite' and fled the scene..." Link upon request.
    • Al-Arabiya television quotes some reformist sources as saying that Mousavi and Karrubi will be arrested at the end of the Quds Day.
    • According to Sarmayeh, supporters of Mousavi and Karrubi burnedthe Russian flag at protest rallies.
    • Fars News Agency says "anti-Israeli and anti-imperialist" demonstrations were taking place all over Iran.
    • Ahmadinejad appears among the demonstrators chanting "Death to Israel".
    • Quds Day demonstrators burn the flags of the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Israel.
    • Ahmadinejad's speech on Quds Day:
      • "There is freedom of research about everything but the black box of the secrets of the Holocaust...They do not allow research into the Holocaust because they exploit it politically...Why should the box not be opened?...Palestine is still the greatest problem of the world of Islam. We believe that if there is a war in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is provoked by the Zionists...If Sudan suffers suppression, it is also because of the Zionists...they [the Zionists] do not allow us to study the main excuse to occupy Palestine...The main excuse behind establishment of this forged regime is an undocumented claim and their method is corruption...Occupation of Palestine has nothing to do with the Holocaust issue...The very existence of the Zionist regime is an insult against dignity of humans...The Westerners engaged in two types of activities in order to create the Zionist regime. First, the anti-Judaism scheme, and secondly, supporting the crimes of the Zionists...Heads of the Zionist regime are the greatest criminals of history...formation of this regime is based upon an evil organization and a network which is trying to achieve world dominance...If we recognize the hypothesis of the Holocaust, where has it taken place? Europe!" More complete version, here.
    • Ahmad Tavakkoli, the head of Parliament's Research Institute, in an open letter to former President Mohammad Khatami and former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi: "At the Quds Day demonstrations, your supporters, and they were not few, chanted slogans such as: 'Independence, Freedom, Iranian Republic', and 'Neither Gaza, nor Lebanon, My Life Be Sacrificed for Iran,' 'Death to...,' and 'We Are Not the People of Kufa to Support Yazid.' Such slogans demonstrate an apparently new strategy which was also adopted during the first years of the revolution and it was only through opposition of the blessed Imam...The Imam [Khomeini] said 'Islamic Republic', nothing more or less...The events have until now demonstrated that the so-called Green Movement has at least four characteristics: It is incompatible with the foundations of the Islamic revolution; it is supported by foreigners opposed to Islam, the independence of Iran and all Muslims of the world; behavior of the vast majority of those composing [the Green Movement] shows their lack of belief in revolutionary values and religious law; and it wants to fight against the legal and popular regime and is not limited to protest within the frameworks of the law...Had the Imam [Khomeini] been alive, would he not have called it treason?"

  • Ahmadinejad tells NBC that U.S. and Britain were behind the post-election unrest in Iran. Also, video.

  • According to Parsineh News, Mousavi had a secret visit to Qum Tuesday where he had meetings with Ayatollah Mousavi Ardebili, Grand Ayatollah Yousef Sanei, Ayatollah Bayat and representative of Grand Ayatollah Sistani, Hojjat al-Eslam Shahrestani, and Ahmad Montazeri.

  • Son of former President Rafsanjani, Mehdi Hashemi during a visit to Lebanon ask for permission to defend himself against accusations on Iranian national television.

  • Mohsen Rezai says Ahmadinejad is the president of the Islamic Republic and that one should help him to solve the problems of the country.

  • Rafsanjani's sons and daughters in a letter to Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani protest against false accusations against the Rafsanjani family.

  • Ahmadinejad by decree appoints Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei as the Head of the Presidential Institution.

  • In a response to Iranian academic Hossein Bashiriyeh's Dowlat-e Din [Government of Religion] Fatemeh Rajabi releases the book Dowlat-e Aghl [The Government of Reason] in defense of the Ahmadinejad's government’s alleged divinity.

Diplomacy

  • Supreme Leader Khamenei meeting the authorities on the occasion of the end of Ramadan:

    • "Thanks to the blessing of the victory of the Islamic revolution and the sovereignty of Islam, the Iranian nation today is the vanguard in the fight against the Zionist regime and the Iranian nation is today proud of its resistance in the face of the most bullying imperialist of the world..."
    • They, the world imperialism, especially the United States, propagate the dual policy of spreading Islamophobia and Iranophobia in order to weaken the consolidation of the Islamic world...The previous U.S. governments were engaged in many actions against the world of Islam and against Iran. The current administration, despite apparently friendly words and messages, is also pursuing the very same policy of Islamophobia and Iranophobia..."
    • "The claims [of threats from Iranian missiles" is an accusation made as part of the policy against Iran. During the past thirty years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has not invaded any country and the policy of Iran has been one of brotherly and friendly engagement with Islamic and neighboring countries. And towards the countries that have not attacked the Islamic Republic, this country has had a correct, rational and balanced policy...But the Islamic regime will never remain silent in the face of attacks against the government and the people of Iran..."

  • (E) Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki arrived in New York to participate in the 64th annual UN General Assembly meeting. President Ahamdinejad is arriving tomorrow and will address the various delegations and heads of state present at the meeting.

  • (E) Gholam Reza Baqeri Moqaddam was appointed Iran’s envoy to Sofia. Baqeri Moqaddam held similar posts in Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan prior to his appointment. Baqeri Moqaddams replaced a former Iranian envoy who had passed away from cancer in Sofia.

  • (E) Hassan Kazzemi Qomi, the Iranian envoy to Baghdad, announced that Iraqi Parliament speaker Ayad al-Samarraie will visit Iran next week. Qomi declared that this unexpected move was part of a “framework of the expansion of the two countries' cooperation, especially in the field of parliamentary ties."

  • (E) Chairman of the Iran-Congo Friendship Group Hamid Reza Haji Babaee led an Iranian delegation to the Congo at the request of the Congolese parliament. Throughout this five-day visit, the Iranian parliamentary delegation is expected to meet with members of the Congolese government to discuss increasing bi-lateral ties.

  • Ala al-Din Boroujerdi, the Chairman of Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, urges Ahmadinejad to "disclose foreign hands" in the post-election unrest in Iran at the U.N. General Assembly.

  • Ahmadinejad in a phone conversation congratulates Afghan president Karzai's election victory.

  • Leader of the Yemeni Shi'as says it is not his group, but the Yemeni government, which relies on foreign military assistance, and claims that there is no Iranian military presence in the Shi'a areas of Yemen.

Military and Security

  • Use of mobile phone is prohibited at schools in Iran.

  • Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Saidi, Representative of the Supreme Leader to the Revolutionary Guards, addressing the Saheb al-Amr Revolutionary Guards unit of Qazvin:

    • "There were some elements and movements who without paying attention to the consequences of their statements and with certain motives discussed this issue [of collective leadership]. In reality, however, this is not appropriate and does not solve any problem in our country. We have witnessed determination, strength, intelligence and managerial skills in the leadership both during the era of the blessed Imam [Khomeini] and during the leadership of Grand Ayatollah Khamenei…The leadership council is not in line with the national interest and the interests of the revolution and this issue has been formulated for certain political and personal motives..." 

    • "The Revolutionary Guards, which has solid presence at the village level, has 45,000 resistance bases, 4500 resistance districts and this provides a suitable basis to deal with the widespread movement of the enemy."

    • "The revolution is going through the phase of minor emergence [of the Imam of the Era]..."

  • The Revolutionary Guards in a public statement warns "rioters" and "political hooligans" against using the Quds [Jerusalem] Day demonstrations to express any other slogans than "Death to Israel."

  • Alef News Agency reports that an Iranian hacker attacks against "500 Zionist websites" on the occasion of the Quds [Jerusalem] Day.

  • Law Enforcement Forces announce arrest of 65 "hooligans" in Qazvin.

  • (E) Iran’s Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar announced the formation of a new committee to investigate recent attacks in Kurdistan. The western province has recently suffered a marked increase in terrorist activities.

  • Former Revolutionary Guards Chief Rahim Safavi says the "miraculous achievements of the Islamic opposition front in Palestine and Lebanon is a harbinger of demise and annihilation of the Zionist regime."

  • Basij Deputy Head Mohammad-Bagher Zolghadr says "some activities raised false hopes for foreign enemies who have an incorrect analysis of Iran’s internal affairs, but these activities have no slightest effect."

  • Sabz-Ali Akbari, the local Revolutionary Guards Commander of Mahriz in Yazd Province: "As the Judiciary deals with the criminals in a just and Islamic manner, it must also deal with the unreal claimants of the revolution and the hypocrites in such a way that the perpetrators no longer dare to disturb the calm and tranquility of the people or to violate their rights...There are limits to Islamic compassion and mercy, and if it is exaggerated, it will be abused by opportunists..."

  • Iranian authorities filtered Gmail and Yahoo Mail on Friday.

  • Reformist news agencies report lack of mobile phone services in Vali-ye Asr Boulevard area.

  • (E) The Iranian Navy fleet in the Gulf of Aden successfully defended three Iranian trade ships from an oncoming pirate attack. The presence of the Iranian fleet is part of an international effort to curb pirating off the coast of Somalia and to protect significant shipping lane. There have been 200 attacks in the past 17 months, leading to significant damage and hefty ransom charges.

  • (E) Iran’s defense ministry is expected to showcase its newest and most impressive developments, including high-tech Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and missiles, in Tuesday’s upcoming military parade. The parade has been specifically scheduled for the beginning of the Week of Holy Defense, which marks Iranian sacrifices during the 8 years of Iraqi imposed war on Iran in 1980s.

Iran in the Afghan Media

  • Ahmadinejad congratulates Afghan President Hamid Karzai on re-election in a telephone conversation. Describing Ahmadinejad’s congratulations as “premature”, Afghanpaper says the Iranian president’s good wishes come before the final election results are announced and before the Election Complaints Commission (ECC) completes investigating the vast number of fraud allegations.  

  • Kabulpress accuses the Iranian government of exploiting the Quds Day to advance its “satanic policies” in Afghanistan. The paper writes that some Iranian-sponsored groups “exploiting the blind sentiments” of people have mobilized them in the Kabul streets to chant slogans prepared for them by Iran’s intelligence agency. “From the very beginning of coming to power, the Khomeini regime has been determined not to abstain from any religious and political deceit to save its regime. And the demonstrations on Quds Day in Kabul mirror the Islamic Republic’s satanic policies as observed in the past, such as planting discord and killing the Shi’as in Bahrain by the Al Khalifa family, destroying and massacring the Shi’as in Azerbaijan by Armenians, killing the Iraqis, desecrating Iraq’s holy sites, slaying Shi’a leaders in Kuwait, beheading young Saudis through religious decrees by Wahabbis…” The author also criticizes the Kabul government for turning a blind eye to Iran’s interference. “Karzai’s mercenary regime clearly understands who benefits such protest rallies and chaos… The question is as to why the [Afghan] Ministry of Information and Culture… does not have the authority to prevent such activities by the Iranian agents. It needs to be said that they are also involved in organizing such deceitful movements…”

Religion, Society and Culture

Nuclear Issue

  • Supreme Leader Khamenei meeting the authorities on the occasion of the end of the month of Ramadan: "The Islamic Republic of Iran is based on Islamic ideas and considers illegitimate the production of nuclear weapons and use of it and it maintains this belief. The American authorities know this, but at the same time they repeat this accusation as part of its policy against Iran...The United States government should correct its policy and the Iranian nation is a vigilant observer of their enmity and will resist them...The Islamic Republic will not make retreat in the face of attacks..."

Economy

  • Abrar-e Eghtesadi's analysts say making the Central Bank independent rather than removing three zeros from the currency can help combat the inflation.

  • Gholam-Reza Heydari Kord-e Zangeneh, head of the privatization organization, says several Iranian power plants will be privatized and that their stocks will also be on sale in foreign stock exchanges, including Malaysia.

  • (E) Iran has exported a 15,380-ton consignment of sulfur from its export dock in Assaluyeh in the southern province of Bushehr. The sulfer, the first to be produced from phases 9 and 10, was extricated from the South Pars gas field, an area jointly developed by Iran and Qatar.

  • (E) Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) Seyed Reza Kassaeizadeh expressed his hope that a gas deal between Iran and Switzerland would be implemented in the coming year. The agreement was signed between the National Iranian Gas Export Company and Switzerland's Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft Laufenburg and included a 13-billion-dollar, 25-year deal in March 2008 for the delivery of 5.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year. This has encouraged other European countries to express interest in investing in Iran’s energy sector, despite the US call for sanctions.

  • (E) Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) Seyed Reza Kassaeizadeh announced that India expressed interest in joining a multi-billion dollar pipeline venture, that would transfer gas from Iran to India via Pakistan. The gas would be supplied from the South Pars field. Kassaeizadeh noted the value of Iran’s essential commodity, stating that "India and other states in the region and even in the world need Iran's (natural) gas. Iran does not have any problem for sealing an agreement with them."

Trade

Human Rights

  • Abdollah Shahbazi, a former member of the Tudeh [Communist] Party and Iran’s official historiographer since the revolution, is convicted to imprisonment       after releasing a lengthy book about alleged corruption in Fars province.

  • Hassan Na'imi-Pour and Mehdi Shirzad, sons of two leading reformist politicians, are arrested.

Photos of the Day

 
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