Iran News Round Up

Nuclear Issue

(E) Russian ambassador: Russia against any new UN Security Council Resolution on Iran.
(E) Russian nuclear chief to visit Iranian nuclear plant.
(E) Supreme Leader praises Iran’s resistance in nuclear dispute.

Politics

Ahmadinejad presents an overview of his government’s accomplishments to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declares his support for the Ahmadinejad government for the second time.
Ayatollah Khamenei called the government a “working government and full of initiative,” and praised the provincial trips of the president as a sign of the servitude of the government towards the people of Iran.
Khamenei also praised the government’s struggle against “Westoxification and secularist tendencies unfortunately infiltrating the managerial body of the country.”
Endorsing the nuclear policies of Ahmadinejad, the Supreme Leader stressed: “Some bullying and shameless powers wanted to claim ‘my way or the highway’ towards the Iranian nation, but the nation, and the very person of the president resisted their demands.”
The Supreme Leader also warned that continuous criticism is character assassination.
Government spokesman Elham attacks Rafsanjani’s criticism of Ahmadinejad.
Ansar News, close to the Ansar-e Hezbollah vigilante organization which traditionally supports Ahmadinejad government, ridicules Mousavi Lari’s proposal on formation of a national unity government as an “elitist project,” contrary to president Ahmadinejad’s “popular project.”
Asr-e Iran reports rumors on former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi running for president.

Religion, Culture, and Society

Asr-e Iran reports re-installation of two highly symbolic statues at the gates of the old National Consultative Assembly, the first parliament building of Iran.
The statues were dismantled by the Islamic authorities in 1979 because the revolutionary government considered the Lion and the Sun [Shir va Khorshid] as the coat of arm of the Pahlavi dynasty.
Asr-e Iran deplores the catastrophic performance of the Islamic Republic at the 2008 Olympics.
With one gold medal and one bronze, Iran reaches its worst Olympic result ever.
Iranian Olympic swimmer Ali Rezai, who refused to swim in pool with Israeli swimmer, is claimed to have undergone surgery.
A square in Tehran to be named after Iranian gold medalist Hadi Sa’i.

Diplomacy

Gary Sick (disgraced conspiracy theorist now at Columbia University) urges the U.S. to improve relations with Iran.
(E) Ahmadinejad says Bush missed opportunity for dialogue.
Iranian president Ahmadinejad to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Pact in Tajikistan.

Trade