(Thanks to Ali Alfoneh for his compilation)
Politics
- According to Mowj News Agency, Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi attacks “those who have managed to build empires of wealth” in the Islamic Republic. “There are those, who because of their special conditions, have managed to erect economic empires for themselves, and even enter the international scene [of business]. Are such people ready to forsake their own interests [for the interests of the country]?” Ayatollah Mesbah added: “After the passing of the years since the realization of Islamic rule, we hoped some individuals would struggle to strengthen the Islamic regime, but no serious job has been done. As soon as they got hold of power they lost themselves. They were commanders of war, ready to sacrifice their lives during the war and fought, but later, when they got hold of money and position they forgot [everything.] They even forgot halal and haram [religiously permissible and impermissible sources of income] and said [we do business], and some others will theorize and legitimize it…”
- In a vague attack against Palizdar, who has accused Iranian clergy of economic corruption, Friday prayers leader of Tehran Mohammad Emami Kashani says the plotters and accusers are bound to be punished by God. More here.
- Ansar News Agency republishes reports that Palizdar who has exposed economic corruption of some clergymen is not the same person who, according to the Islamic Republic of Iran Judiciary, is involved in economic corruption regarding a dairy products factory.
- Fars News Agency, on the other hand, insists that there is only one Abbas Palizdar.
- Partov-e Sokhan attacks Hojjat al-Eslam Mohtashamipour and condemns his critical remarks on Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi.
- The Student Basij supports Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi in his feud with Hojjat al-Eslam Mohtashami-Pour.
- Partov weekly, of the Imam Khomeini Research Institute, headed by Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi defends the ayatollah against attacks of Hojjat al-Eslam Ali-Akbar Mohtashami-Pour. The writer of the article, Said Moghaddam stresses that Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi has signed several letters of protest against the Imperial regime prior to the victory of the revolution in 1979, that the ayatollah is not against the popular vote, but is more concerned about the fundamental question of authority and obedience in Islam, that the ayatollah’s thoughts are not retrograde and he is not a reactionary, and that Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi has been present at the front during the Iran-Iraq war.
- Tehran mayor Qalibaf congratulates Ali Larijani upon his assumption of the speakership of the parliament.
- Grand Ayatollah Makrem Shirazi says the most important job for the new parliament is to control inflation.
- According to Alef News Agency, “answering the call of Los Angeles based counter revolutionary satellite televisions, [150] hooligans staged an illegal demonstration in front of the Mellat Park [in Tehran].” Alef continues: “Due to the intervention of the Law Enforcement Forces, and by arresting some of the demonstrators, the gathering is being dispersed.” According to the news agency, the demonstration was an act of protest against arrest of Abbas.
- Asr-e Iran reports “an extreme smell of tear gas” and “heavy traffic due to the demonstration,” which according the news agency says os staged by “monarchists.”
- Speaking in Chahar-Mahal va Bakhtiari province, the Iranian president said he will announce the reasons behind rising prices.
- Aftab-e Yazd asks if the Iranian president will truly report to the people, or will stage yet another round of allegations.
- Ahmadinejad added that those who do not see the relationship between his government and the Imam of the Era suffer from insufficient belief.
- The Islamic Association of Medical Faculty of Tehran University announces a conference called “Inflation on the tables of the people,” referring to the Iranian president’s election promises of “bringing the oil money into the tables of the people.”
Nuclear Issue
- Javier Solana says, ahead of his trip to Tehran, that the EU has a “very generous incentive package for Iran.”
Diplomacy
- In the official state sermon for Tehran, Emami Kashani labeled the proposed security arrangement between the United States and Iraq as a “true disgrace” and “a veritable act of capitulation.”
- Emami Kashani urges Islamic states to rise up and not allow Iraq to capitulate to the Americans.
- Iran’s ambassador to Iraq calls the security agreement between the U.S. and Iraq “an imposed agreement, which the Iraqis will never sign.”
- National Trust Party general secretary, Mehdi Karrubi writes a letter to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, asking for release of former Islamic Republic ambassador to Jordan, Nosratollah Tajik.
- Speaking at the Afghanistan summit in Paris, Iranian Foreign Minister Manochehr Mottaki warned against sending mixed signal to Afghanistan, and urged confidence in the abilities of the Kabul government.
- U.S. Congressman Charles Ellison slams U.S. in Iranian press.
Economy
- Alef News Aency points out that, in contradiction to claims of various ministers” it is “not only rumors which raise the prices.”
- Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari, Friday prayers leader of Tabriz, opposes abolition of subsidies, as proposed by the Ahmadinejad government.
- Ramsar airport to be privatized, along with Iran Khodro and SAIPA.
- Lemon prices increase in the Iranian market.
- E’temad reports of demonstrations against rising prices in Mashhad.
Trade
- According to E’temad, senior presidential advisor Mojtaba Hashemi Samareh has disclosed that European companies are in constant contact with the Islamic Republic begging not to be blacklisted by Iran because of their lack of cooperation, which is due to “pressures from Americans who only understand the language of force.”
- Iranian government allocates €132 million from the foreign exchange reserve to three companies: Ha’er Asa, ICON international engineering and contracting firm, and Bastam-e Jam.
- Deputy chief of the Privatization Organization, Seyyed Mehdi Aghdayee says national flag carrier, Homa Airlines [Iran Air] will be privatized, and that there are several foreign offers to buy the airliner. More here.
- GAZPROM and National Iranian Oil Company in a joint session on development of oil fields in Markazi Province.
- According to Kayhan, India is ready to invest $3 billion in South Pars Gas Field.
- Petroleum minister Nowzari says the Islamic Republic is negotiating TOTAL’s presence in the South Pars Gas Field. Nowzari adds Iran is also negotiating further oil exploration projects with the Foundation of the Oppressed and French PAK.
Religion, Culture, and Society
- Alef News Agency states it is “time to think of infrastructure improvement in the light of the thousands of death in traffic every year.”
- 136 students are hospitalized because of food poisoning at the University of Hamadan.
- Members of the Iranian parliament find “forced marriages” in order to preserve jobs in the public sector “amusing” and “a joke.”
- Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi stresses the importance of an “indigenous sociology,” rather than adoption of Western concepts.
- Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi warns against those who “weaken popular belief in the revolution of Mahdi – may God hasten his reappearance – and those internal enemies who propagate a false Mahdism who weaken the global reappearance of the Imam of the Era.”
- Ansar News Agency, close to the Ansar-e Hezbollah vigilante organization, ridicules the “achievements of participation of Rafsanjani” in the ecumenical summit in Mecca stressing inter-sectarian tolerance in Islam, and points out that three mosques were shut and a number of Shi’a clerics arrested during Rafsanjani’s visit.
Military and Security
- According to Alef News Agency, “bandits take 16 members of the Law Enforcement Forces hostage in Saravan,” an act the agency says some attribute to Abd al-Malek Rigi’s terrorist group operating from Pakistan. Fars News Agency report here.
- Quoting AFP, Alef reports that Muqtada al-Sadr has formed a special operations unit of Jaysh al-Mahdi to fight “against the occupiers of Iraq.”
- Colonel Shahnam Rezayi says two terrorists were killed by the Law Enforcement Forces near Piranshahr.
- Former chief of the Revolutionary Guards says internal disputes weaken the Islamic Republic in the face of external threats, adds Iran is not immune from U.S. aggression as long as George W. Bush is in the White House.
- Kayhan’s Trojeni publishes an anthology of the sayings of Khomeini warning the armed forces, including the Revolutionary Guards, against getting involved in politics.
Human Rights and Labor
- According to Mizan News Agency, Section 500 of the Evin prison, housing imprisoned clergymen has gone through dramatic days: After days of no phone communication with outside world, clergymen speaking to their family members say they staged a hunger strike, the guards attacked them with sticks and had beaten them up. According to Mizan, the security forces had also used tear gas in the attack. One of the imprisoned clergymen is Ayatollah Kazemeini Boroujerdi who passed out and was transferred to the hospital of the Evin prison.
- The body of 25-year-old imprisoned Azeri activist Farhad Mohseni Negarestan delivered to the morgue.
- Kurdish political activist and university professor Jalal Jalalizadeh is condemned to one year imprisonment.
- 5,000 sugar cane workers on strike.
Media
- Iran state TV to launch satellite.
Photo of the Day
- Children roller-skating.
