(Thanks to Ali Alfoneh for his compilation)

Diplomacy:

Politics: March 2008 Parliamentary Elections

  • Reformist candidates protest against the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij’s open declaration of support for the Principalist camp.
  • Mohammad-Reza Aref, the former reformist top candidate in Tehran, says the reason behind his decision not to run is not a problem with the reformists, but rather an act of protest against disqualification of candidates.
  • Fars publishes names of 273 candidates qualified to run for parliamentary elections.
  • Mousa-Poor, head of the Election Inspections Committee, says the parties are allowed to campaign, and even use placards and posters, but cannot include the names of the candidates.
  • Tehran mayor Qalibaf criticizes disqualifications to parliamentary elections.
  • Hojjat al-Eslam Fazeli Lankarani urges the Shi’a clergy not to “attach themselves to a certain political grouping,” but adds: “People of Iran should not allow deviant political movements such as those who staged sit-ins at the parliament [the reformists] to enter the parliament”
  • Now-Sazi, a news agency close to the Ahmadinejad government, says Qodrat-Allah ‘Ali-Khani, a reformist whose candidacy for parliament has been approved of by the Council of Guardians, was prior to the revolution was a chaghou-kesh [a knife-wielding thug in street fights], and had “beaten Ayatollah Golpayegani’s son.” After the revolution the news agency claims ‘Ali-Khani was engaged in “unauthorized defrocking of clergy.” The news agency also accuses ‘Ali-Khan of having been a member of the “Mehdi Hashemi gang,” the organization in charge of exporting the revolution.

Politics: General

  • BBC Persian makes the row over Khomeini’s grandsons in the parliamentary elections of the Islamic Republic its main story.
  • Seyyed Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, denies rumors of living a life of luxury.
  • Ali-Asqar Rahmani-Khalili of the Imam’s Line faction demands the regime intervene to stop insults against Khomeini’s grandson: “If insulting the Imam’s grandson is accepted, we can expect more insults against other authorities in the future.”
  • Head of the Publication Center of the Works of the Imam [Khomeini] explains Khomeini’s exact words with regard to the intervention of the armed forces in politics in the Islamic Republic.
  • Ahmad Tavakkoli, Ahmadinejad’s reformist rival in the 2005 elections: “I do not subscribe to the claim that the hidden Imam of the Era had approved or blessed members of the seventh congregation of the Iranian parliament. They were all chosen, not by the Hidden Imam, but by the voters.”
  • The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting screens a cartoon about “Velvet revolutions” and “sinister designs of the U.S. for Iran.” and urges the public to inform the authorities of suspicious behavior.

Economy and Trade

  • Emrooz quoting E’temad reports on the increasing price of food in the Iranian market.
  • Head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Environmental Agency: “Drinking water of 39 percent of villages in Iran is polluted.”
  • Director of the Islamic Republic’s National Natural Gas Company: “Natural gas prices should reflect the real price of such commodity in the market… Large consumers will be punished.”
  • With India leaving the “Peace Pipeline Project” (linking Iran, Pakistan, and India), Iran reaches out to China to build a huge natural gas pipeline.
  • China eager to join.
  • Deputy Minister of Oil: $5 billion investment necessary in the natural gas industry in order to achieve self sufficiency in natural gas and independent from Turkmenistan.
  • Foreign Ministry Spokesman: “There is absolutely no way any sanctions regime could be effective against Iran.”

Security and Military

Nuclear Issue

Human Rights and Labor

  • Iran’s ambassador to Spain defends amputation of arms and legs as “God-given laws.”

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