(Special thanks to Ali Alfoneh for his assistance in compiling)
Politics
- According to a Tehran opinion poll, paid for by the “reformist camp” a considerable majority of Tehran’s population support President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s policies.
- Asked what the biggest problem in Tehran is:
- 37.5 percent said unemployment
- 27.5 percent said inflation
- 18.6 percent said the housing market
- 7.5 percent said “youth-related problems”
- 3.7 percent identified poor gasoline distribution schemes
- 3.2 said crime.
- Asked to rate the economic policies of Ahmadinejad and Khatami:
- 30.9 percent rated Ahmadinejad’s policies “satisfactory”
- 46.3 percent rated Khatami economic policies as such
- Asked to rate their foreign policy:
- 43.1 percent were satisfied with Ahmadinejad’s foreign policy
- 39.4 percent said the same of Khatami.
- Asked to rate nuclear policies:
- 63.8 percent consider Ahmadinejad’s nuclear policy successful
- 15.4 percent consider Khatami’s nuclear policy a success.
- Asked to rate social justice:
- 45 percent of the respondents consider Ahmadinejad’s policies “socially just”
- 25.1 percent say the same of Khatami’s.
- Asked: “Which presidential candidate will gain the largest popular support [in the next elections]?
- 40.3 percent said Ahmadinejad
- 17.9 percent said Rafsanjani
- 14 percent said Khatami.
- Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, speaker of parliament, informs the “infuriated” public that he has convened “a special committee” to investigate a speech made by A’lami, deputy from Tabriz, who said not only does he have the right to criticize Ahmdinejad, but he would even criticize the Imam Hossein if the third Imam would return and form the Islamic Republic’s government.
- For background, see Dec. 3 Iran News Round Up (scroll to bottom).
- Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, vice president under Khatami: “Institutionalization of democracy takes time, requires patience… Democracy without the political participation of students does not make sense.”
- Agriculture Minister to be impeached?
Economy and Trade
- Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi: “Rising prices are making life hell for the people.”
- Mohammad Abbasi, the Islamic Republic’s Minister of Cooperatives, said that only the cooperatives can fight poverty in the rural areas.
- Member of Tehran City Council: “More than 140 independent factors affect price mechanisms in the housing market.”
- Minister of Oil: “Over the next seven years, Iran needs $160 billion in foreign investment in the oil and gas sector.”
- Turkey desires to import Turkmen natural gas through Iran.
Society, Culture, and Religion
- Ministry of Education spokesman for Women’s Affairs: “Veiling women should the foundation of social engineering in Iran.”
- Ayatollah Sane’i: “Repetitive marriages [polygamy] without the knowledge and permission of the first wife is religiously impermissible and a sin from my point of view.”
- Ahmadinejad, visiting poor villages in the Ilam province: “Cultural development the main objective of our society.”
- Attending the Revolutionary Guards theoretician Hassan Abbasi’s lecture “I am an imperialist, therefore I am,” members of the Student Basij staged a demonstration at the Technical University of Tehran.
- Ayatollah Kashani, Tehran’s Friday Prayers Leader, quotes Senator Joseph Biden’s remarks on Iran extensively: “This Senator correctly says Israel could not suppress the Hezbollah in Lebanon, [so] how can the U.S. stand face to face to a nation of 70 million? This is the blessing of the Velayat-e Faqih [Government of the Supreme Jurist]… which plants such thoughts in the hearth of U.S. senators and forces them to make such confessions.”
- Iraqi Prosecutor General: “Ahmadinejad’s call for an international Islamic court of justice should be considered.”
- Hezbollah leader Fadhlallah: “Iran is more insistent in freedom of Palestine than the Arab countries.”
- RAJA protests against a television series broadcasted on the National Television of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which says the Safavid Dynasty founded the state of Azerbaijan, and claims parts of the territory of present day Iran as parts of that republic.
- Ala al-Din Boroujerdi, chairman of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, “Negotiations with the United States are not a red line for Iran.”
- Iranian Vice President heads to Syria.
- Talks to remove U.S. sanctions on Iranian aircraft.
Nuclear Issue
- Larijani: “Putin has sent a message answering the message of the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.”
- Summary, in English.
- General Prosecutor of Iran, Ayatollah Dorri Najaf-Abadi: “The Americans and their cohorts are not being honest or truthful.”
- Ali-Akbar Velayati, former foreign minister and advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: “We should not expect the foreigners will protect our interests… Let’s not make a saint out of ElBaradei.
- Ali Ahani, Iran’s ambassador to France: “The National Intelligence Estimate Report provides the Bush administration with an opportunity to correct mistakes of the past.”
- Iran coverage of Zalmay Khalilzad’s discussion of Iran issue diplomacy at Stanford.
Human Rights and Labor
- Letter from International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran.
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