Iran News Round Up

(Thanks to Ali Alfoneh for his assistance in compiling)

Nuclear Issue

• Former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati: “The National Intelligence Estimate will not change our strategic approach.”
• Rashid Jalali Ja’fari, member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian parliament: “[After the publication of] The National Security Estimate… there no longer is any ground for a third round of sanctions against Iran.”
• Ali Larijani, former secretary of Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic: “The National Intelligence Estimate shows that Iran has chosen the right strategy.”
• Tabnak’s analysis of the National Intelligence Estimate: “The report shows that the Bush-administration has been forced to change strategy towards Iran… But the fact that the document is very unclear serves the purpose of providing the administration with a means of interpreting it the way it pleases.”

Economics and Trade

• Tabnak reports of extensive smuggling of gasoline to Afghanistan and Pakistan from Iranian Baluchistan.

Diplomacy

• “Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez support fully the activities of Islamic preachers in Cuba and Venezuela,” writes the RASA News.
• Fourth round of U.S.-Iran negotiations in Iraq to take place in Iraq on January 1, 2008.
• Nick Burns says U.S. prefers talks with Iran over sanctions.
• China appoints new ambassador to Tehran.

Politics

• “Strengthening national unity is the way to achieve international objectives,” says Velayati.

Religion, Society, and Culture

• Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani attacks moderate Sufi leaders.
• The Special Court of Clergy to judge the reformist religious thinker Hadi Qabel soon.
• Ansar-e Hezbollah vigilante group demonstrate in front of Cafe Fenjoun in Tehran, claiming the cafe is involved in “prostitution and wounding the religious sentiments of the public.”
• Referencing the teddy bear named Muhammad in the Sudan, Ayatollah Lotfi Golpayegani: “The enemy is trying to annihilate our religion by assassinating the character of our Prophet.”
• Government demolishes 2,200-year-old bridge.

Human Rights and Labor

• Twenty years old Makvan Moloud-Zadeh, convicted of rape at the age of 13, executed in the prison of Kermanshah, despite the fact that families of the rape victims have witnessed that Moloud-Zadeh’s relation with another boy had been “mutually consensual,” and his that confessions were forced under torture. Human Rights Watch believes Moloud-Zadeh has been executed because he is homosexual.

Picture of the Day

• Ahmadinejad speaks to families of martyrs in Ilam.