Military and Security
- Zolghadr, Armed Forces Headquarters deputy, Revolutionary Guards commander, says the Islamic Republic knows all the weak points of the United States and says “naturally, war with the United States will not be conducted with classic and conventional methods.”
- Tehran City Basij establishes rapid reaction force.
- Speaking in Kermanshah, Revolutionary Guards commander Ali-Reza Afshar says the greatest threat against the country are the psy-ops of the enemy, against which the Supreme National Security Council has issued clear directions.
- Sarouyee, deputy director of the Political Bureau of the Revolutionary Guards, says “300,000 occupiers are in our range” in case of aggression against Iran.
- The Revolutionary Guards establishes a separate command unit within its structure to direct the missile activities of the Guards.
- Human Resources Bureau Unit deputy Zohdi discusses the meaning of the concepts of doctrine, strategy and tactics.
- Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s new appointments in the Islamic Republic Armed Forces:
- Amir Seyyed-Abdol-Rahim deputy commander in chief of the Islamic Republic Army
- Amir Ahmad-Reza Pour-Dastan, commander in chief of the Islamic Republic Army Ground Forces.
- The Revolutionary Guards starts major housing project for employees of its Imam Hossein University.
- Quoting the Sunday Telegraph, Resalat claims Russia has threatened the U.S. and its European allies that Russia will arm the Islamic Republic with some of the most sophisticated air defense systems of the world.
- The Revolutionary Guards builds Shahid Hemmat hotel in Shiraz and chain supermarket for its employees in the missile command of the Revolutionary Guards Navy.
- Defense minister Najjar says “the front of the enemy is disintegrating,” and “this has led to their great worry.”
- Student Basij spokesman Mehdi Boloukat claims “defeated student activists are pursuing a policy of instigating violence at the universities.”
- Hassan Shah-Safi appointed chief of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force.
- Former president Khatami says he does not desire to export the Islamic Revolution to other countries.
- Speaking at the graduation ceremony of the Policy Academy Iranian president Ahmadinejad says the “military engine of the bullying powers is out of order.”
Economy
- Supreme public prosecutor Dorri Najaf-Abadi says “economic liberalization” rather than “privatization” is the key to solving the economic problems of the country.
- Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi urges the supermarkets to give discounts to the public during the month of Ramadan.
- Emergency relief organizations formed in Mashhad.
- Isfahan experiences more blackouts.
- Kargozaran editorializes: “This government does not want to privatize state owned enterprises.”
- Central Bank Director General Mazaheri says he prefers to delete three zeroes from the Iranian currency to control inflation.
- Economy minister Hosseini says he does not want to disclose information about the size of the Islamic Republic’s foreign exchange reserve.
Trade
- An all-Iranian made automobile to be marketed on the 30th anniversary of the 1979 revolution.
- (E) Iran stymies sanctions.
- Deputy commerce minister Qazanfari says the heterogeneous nature of the international banking sector opens opportunities for Iranian economic actors engaged in evading U.S. sanctions.
- Qazanfari also urged the Iranian economic actors to engage in commerce with the private sector in European countries, since the private sector “first and foremost is interested in making money.”
- According to Tabnak, Switzerland insists upon engaging in gas exploration in Iran despite U.S. pressures.
- Tabnak News slams the United Arab Emirates’ role in smuggling of goods to the Islamic Republic.
Politics
- Presidential advisor Mashayee causes a new controversy when, according to Javad Jahangirzadeh, Oroumiyeh’s representative in the parliament, Mashayee told a meeting in Sanandaj and, in the presence of 60 ambassadors, has claimed “West Azerbaijan, Kordestan, Ilam and Kermanshah is the land of the Kurds.”
- A number of Azeri members of the parliament attack Mashayee for “forging historical and social conditions and damaging the relationship between different ethnic groups.”
- Sobh-e Sadeq stresses the importance of the Supreme Leader as the one authority having the final words [fasl al-Khottab] in any political dispute in the Islamic Republic.
- Ghaffourian, former member of the Islamic City Council of Garmsar, the native city of Ahmadinejad, says the people of Garmsar will not vote for Ahmadinejad.
- Speaking at the weekly meeting of the Ansar-e Hezbollah vigilante organization, Hojjat al-Eslam Mojtaba Zolnouri, deputy representative of the Supreme Leader in the Revolutionary Guards, expresses worries about candidacy of former president Mohammad Khatami, and says another term for Ahmadinejad is more expedient for the regime.
- Zolnouri also attacked Khatami for selling out interests of the country to the enemy on the nuclear issue.
- Kayhan editor Shariatmadari urges former president Khatami to distance himself from the United States before running for presidency.
- Journalist and political activist Abbas Abdi says there is no such a thing as a reform movement for the time being.
- Following the scandal of interior minister Ali Kordan’s forged Oxford doctoral degree president, Ahmadinejad orders an investigation of educational degrees of all government executives.
- Reza Khatami, brother of former president Khatami, says the mission of the reform movement is to “root out authoritarianism.”
- Mosharekat Reformist theoretician Tajzadeh attacks the Ahmadinejad government.
- Jomhouri-e Easlami warns against “an anti-clerical movement which tries to create a rift between Assembly of Experts chairman Ayatollah Rafsanjani and Supreme Leader Khamenei.”
- Kamal Rajai, son of President Mohammad-Ali Rajai, whose ascetic life style and appearance Ahmadinead tries to duplicate, says his father had a good number of elegant suits and ties but he did not wear them out of fear that people would no longer accept his leadership.
- See also former Tehran mayor Tavasoli commemorating Rajai.
Media
- Restrictions on Alef News Agency imposed after it revealed Interior Minister Kordan’s forged Oxford degree, are lifted.
- Head of the Office of the President says the newly-appointed interior minister Ali Kordan’s doctoral degree from Oxford University has been authenticated, but does not tell by whom.
- Foreign broadcast chief of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting said that, in reaction to Saudi financed MBC’s Persian language television channel, Iran will transmit a 24-hour Arabic language entertainment television to the entire Middle East.
- Nilesat and Arabsat filter Iran’s Arabic language television broadcasts.
Terrorism
- According to Sobh-e Sadeq, 400 deserters from the Mojahedin-e Khalq camp have been transferred to a U.S.-run camp in Erbil.
- Sobh-e Sadeq slams Armenia’s alleged establishment of bases for some elements from the PEJAK group.
- According to Sobh-e Sadeq, Saudi authorities have arrested a man for public display of Lebanese Hizbullah leader Nasrallah’s picture.
- Control of Camp Ashraf (headquarters of the Mojahedin-e Khalq) handed over to Iraqi authorities.
- The Iraqi government gives the Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq six months to leave Iraqi territory
- Tabnak News warns against Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization’s use of SMS in attracting support.
Religion, Culture, and Society
- At a cabinet meeting open to the press, Ahmadinejad says Iranians account for 80 percent of scientific progress of the world.
- Sobh-e Sadegh slams “insistence of the Danes to publish Jewel of Medina,” after Random House backed out of publishing it for fear of antagonizing radical Muslims.
- Ya-Lesarat al-Hossein slams Kargozaran’s commemoration of the poet Touraj Negahban.
- Theological Seminaries Basij declares its readiness to dispatch missionaries to the universities.
- Head of the Olympics Committee of the Islamic Republic Ali-Abadi says Iran’s disastrous performance at the Olympics was “the will of God.”
- Challenging parliamentary majority, Grand Ayatollah Sane’i says additional marriages of the husband without consent of the first wife is religiously impermissible.
- Zeinab Society attacks the Iranian parliament’s attempt to liberalize men’s additional marriage rights.
- Shi’a News publishes a self-help guide to recite the verses sanctioning temporary marriage.
- Grand Ayatollah Safi says Shi’a missionary work in the West is not satisfactory, when compared to Sunni missionary work.
- Khadijeh Saghafi, wife of Ayatollah Khomeini, hospitalized in Tehran.
- As the Library of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Iranian parliament’s library reaches its one hundred years, former head of the library Abd al-Hossein Ha’eri says a good number of the documents of the library are badly damaged, and a lot of materials have been lost.
- Head of the Islamic Republic’s Academy of Literature and Language Habibi complains of his institution being subjected to public ridicule and says that the academy has never suggested substitution of the foreign word “Pizza” with the Persian equivalent Kesh-Loghmeh.
- Shi’a News slams an unnamed Danish publisher’s promise to publish the Jewel of Medina, which U.S. publisher Random House chose to discard because of fears of Muslim violence.
- Tabnak News Agency comments on Shi’a-Sunni rivalry in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Nuclear Issue
- Deputy foreign minister Sheikh-Attar says 4000 centrifuges are spinning in Natanz, and adds “only a simpleton would think that America wants to abandon her hitherto policies [towards Iran.]“
Diplomacy
- Meeting the Bolivian president in Tehran, Khamenei says the U.S. most certainly can’t tolerate awakening of the masses in Latin America.
- Bolivian president, meeting with Ahmadinejad, expresses hopes to expand Iran-Bolivia relations. Also here. (E) And, in English.
- Speaking at the Shanghai Pact summit, Ahmadinejad puts forward five suggestions to strengthen the pact and claims “the enemies don’t desire to see a strong Russia and a strong Iran.”
- Sobh-e Sadegh slams an official Egyptian research institute’s “anti-Iranian” conference which is discussing “Iran’s alleged interventions in Iraq.”
- (E) Iran insists Chapter VII resolutions be lifted on Iraq.
- Sobh-e Sadegh warns of increased suspect contacts of the British Embassy in Tehran with economic actors in the Islamic Republic.
- Basirat, unofficial mouthpiece of the Revolutionary Guards, quotes (and twists) an article by AEI scholar Reuel Marc Gerecht who stresses that U.S. presence at the 5+1 negotiations with the Islamic Republic is a sign of U.S. defeat to the “strong will” of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
- Head of the Iranian president’s office Sheikh al-Eslami says Ahmadinejad will have a speaking engagement like the one last year at Columbia University during his next visit to New York.
- Deputy Foreign Minister Sheikh-Attar says the Islamic Republic has not received any note from U.S. authorities on opening an interest section in Tehran.
- The unofficial mouthpiece of the Revolutionary Guards considers the Georgian crisis to be the beginning of a new cold war between the U.S. and Russia.
- Speaking at the Shanghai Pact Summit, Ahmadinejad supports Russia’s posture against Georgia.
- Tabnak News Agency claims Russian engagement in Georgia has foiled Israel’s secret attempts at establishing bases from which the Islamic Republic’s nuclear installations could be attacked.
- Kermanshah parliamentarian Karami-Rad slams presidential advisor Mashayee’s hand of friendship towards the people of Israel after Shimon Peres welcomes Mashayee’s gesture.
- Government spokesman Elham commenting the Mashayee affair says no one has ever talked of friendship between Iran and Israel.
- Hojjat al-Eslam Ja’fari, representative of the Supreme Leader in Kerman, attacks Mashayee.
- Mashhad Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Alam al-Hoda says the Iranian president will break with God, the Prophet and the Imam of the Era should he chooses to keep Mashayee as an advisor.
- Speaking at the Police Academy, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave advice on how “bullying powers” can “escape economic recession, defeat and decline” and suggested “return to religious culture, divine values, and following the preaching of the great prophets.”
Human Rights and Labor
- Civil rights activist Emad al-Din Baghi transferred to the communal cell of Evin prison.
- Iranians in Cologne and Berlin commemorate mass killings of political prisoners in the Islamic Republic in 1989.
- (E) Kurdish prisoners begin hunger strike in Iranian prison.
Photo of the Day
- Determining the start of Ramadan.
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