(Thanks to Ali Alfoneh for his compilation)

Diplomacy

  • Beijing invites Ahmadinejad to Olympics.
  • Asr-e Iran says U.S. intervention prevented extradition of former deputy minister of defense Amir-Farshad Ebrahimi who defected in Germany in 2003 from Turkey to the Iranian authorities.
  • In an interview with Al Jazeera television, Iraqi shi’ite leader Muqtada al-Sadr attacks the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic and the policies of the Islamic Republic in Iraq: “I told Khamenei that Iran should stop her interventions in Iraqi politics.” More.
  • Foreign Ministry presents a demarche to the Dutch ambassador to Tehran after broadcast of Wilder’s fitna on the internet.

o English.

o Arab League General Secretary says the issue of the island dispute between Iran and the UAE is being sent to the Hague.

o The emir of United Arab Emirates thanks Libya for backing the UAE’s claim on three disputed islands in the Persian Gulf.

Military and Security

  • Alef News publishes an official report on some structural problems in the Islamic Republic’s conscription system, including: “The costs of sending application papers of those who demand exemption from service due to medical reasons to the capital, and later correspondence at the provincial level… Investigation and issuance of exemptions from service due to educational reasons in the absence of the applicants…lack of internet connection between the universities, the bureaus of the Ministry of Education, and the draft offices at the province level…Extreme dissatisfaction among applicants disqualified due to extreme obesity or thinness…Delay in issuance of exemption from service cards to university students…Transport of the recruits to the training facilities with the current traditional means…Dissatisfaction among doctors examining the recruits due to low economic compensation for their efforts.”

o The length of military service is reduced from 24 months to 17 to 20 months for conscripts serving in the “frontiers” and “disadvantaged areas.”

  • Russian intelligence agencies claim U.S. forces around Iran are on high alert, which they say could be a sign of pending U.S. strikes.

Terrorism

Religion, Culture, and Society

  • Shi’a News is blocked completely upon orders of Iranian government.
  • Alef News “discloses” that the Iranian religious innovator, Abdol-Karim Soroush’s statements on the prophet Muhammed – and not God – being the original source of the Quran is plagiarism of “the Jewish philosopher Spinoza.”
  • Alef News predicts that the Dutch politician Gert Wilder’s Fitna which has been removed from the internet will be republished “as the Danish cartoons were.”
  • Reformist politician Mostafa Malekian claims the “weakness of research in the field of humanities in Iran” is due to “low IQ of scholars and students in the field of humanities.”

o Hamid-Reza Jalayeepour says structural weakness in the Islamic Republic is the main reason of weaknesses of humanities in Iran.

Economy and Trade

Politics

  • The Council of Guardians approves of the election results in Tehran.
  • Shireen Ebadi tells Radio Free Europe elections in Iran were neither free nor fair.
  • Mirdamadi of the reformist participation front accuses the Ahmadinejad government of “adventurism” in the field of foreign policy, which has “provoked our neighbors against us.”
  • Ali Shakouri-Rad predicts the crises of the year 2008-9.
  • Dean of the Azad University tells the tale of “political accusations against the university” made by the Ahmadinejad government.

Human Rights and Labor

  • Protests in Sanandaj for labor leader Mahmoud Salehi.

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