(Thanks to Ali Alfoneh for his compilation)

Politics

  • Reformist Mosharekat [Participation] Front issues an analytical communiqué on the parliamentary elections in the Islamic Republic.
  • E’temad publishes a short analysis of the intervention of the Revolutionary Guards in the internal politics of the Islamic Republic.
  • Reformist websites report more discrepancies in the election results declared from different authorities.
  • Raja News, close to the Ahmadinejad government, republishes an old speech made by the late Ahmad Khomeini, in which he attacks the economic policies of then-president Rafsanjani.
  • Mohammad Khatami and Mehdi Karroubi ask for recount of the Tehran parliamentary election result.
  • According to Tabnak, participation in elections for the eighth parliamentary elections was higher than the seventh parliamentary elections.
  • Ahmadinejad’s new year message concentrates on achievements of the government: “Great economic growth, single digit unemployment…[and] structural reforms…great achievements in our foreign policy and victories to the honor of the Iranian nation along with true security…” The Iranian president also mentions problems facing the government: “In the field of job creation…when it comes to non oil exports…inflation.”

Religion, Culture, and Society

  • Former FC Persepolis coach, Qotbi denies having ever granting an interview with Voice of America Persian.
  • Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting will air 75 movies during the Nowruz holidays, of which 28 are made in Iran, 22 are produced in the U.S., 4 are Indian, 4 Italian, 3 Spanish, 2 from Hong Kong, and 2 from Japan. There are also a few movies from France, Germany, Norway, Korea, Britain, New Zealand, Canada, Bulgaria, and Kazakhstan.
  • Iranian blogger points out that search engines in the Islamic Republic do not show results for University of Sus[sex], and [Bra]zil.
  • Street sign in Tehran: “Islamic Republic [Street]” one way, “Freedom [street]” the other way.
  • Ayatollah Yazdi: “Daily affairs dilute our attention from the real goals of the revolution.”

Human Rights and Labor

  • Family members of imprisoned student activists Ehsan Mansouri, Ahmad Ghassaban, Majid Tavakkoli, Sbah Nasri, Hedayat Ghazali, Said Feizollahzadeh, Abolfazl Jahandar and Said Derakhshandi celebrate the Iranian new year at the gates of the Evin prison in Tehran. (See photographs)
  • Authorities in Mashhad hasten burial of 23 Iranian students who died in a bus crash raising suspicions of their families.

Diplomacy

  • State press reacts to Bush’s outreach to Iran on Iranian new year.
  • Russian foreign minister warns against military action against Iran.
  • So does Kofi Annan.
  • Swiss parliamentarians protest against the Swiss minister of foreign affairs wearing an Islamic headscarf in Tehran.
  • Asr-e Iran publishes the photo of the Haft-Sin, traditional Iranian new year table, at the White House.
  • Tabnak, close to former chief of the Revolutionary Guard, Mohsen Rezai, interprets Barack Obama’s answers to The Washington Post as a signal to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Asked if Senator Obama would meet Bin-Laden, the presidential candidate replied that Bin-Laden is not the head of state of any country.
  • Speaking to the special presidential guard, Ahmadinejad says “20 victories of the Islamic Republic have defeated the military formation of the enemy.”
  • Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s new year speech held in Mashhad: “As the country enters the fourth decade of the Islamic Revolution, there is a need for progress and justice… There are two types of countries, those who submit to power and those who resist it…The enemy has done everything in its power against this country in the past thirty years: An imposed war, economic sanctions, psychological warfare, but the Islamic Republic has resisted it all and has managed to increase its might for every day…The enemies of the Iranian nation are the satanic network of Zionism and the imperialist American regime, which are loathed by public opinion and isolated…” Summary in English.

Photo of the Day

  • Remembering Iran-Iraq War martyr during Iranian New Year’s.