Iran News Round Up

(Thanks to Ali Alfoneh for his compilation)

Politics

• Second round of parliamentary elections tomorrow.
• Supreme Leader Khamenei meeting public servants from the ministry of labor and social affairs: “Like the first round of the parliamentary elections, the Iranian nation will give a crushing answer to the propaganda of the enemies by participating at the second round of parliamentary elections, and by choosing suitable candidates the Iranian nation will demonstrate that the its motivation is infinite…The enemy continuously attempts to capitalize on differences of opinion between the authorities, which is to their great delight… Having lost any hope, America and the Satanic Zionist network use rhetoric and [false] accusations.”
• Supreme Leader: “The atmosphere should not be one of ‘gotcha’ and petty criticism.”
• Delivering a speech in Hamadan, Ahmadinejad Referred to Mehdi Karrubi’s remarks that “the people jump up an down like dolphins at the gatherings of the president,” and said, ”If any authority, minister or parliamentarian does not work for God, after the end of his responsibilities, one can clearly see that during his long tenure he has not worked to the benefit of the people, but to serve his own interests. Such a person will end up considering the nation indebted to him and when the people put him aside, this person calls the people ignorant.”
• Addressing his political opponents, the Iranian president said: “In many cases we face the visible enemy, but when it comes to the fight for [social] justice we face friends who have cooperated with us for the past 25 years, but today that we are on the road towards justice, [such people] become the opposite points of justice…”
• Continuing the polemics against his ousted minister of economy and finance, Ahmadinejad repeated: “When we stressed reduction of the interest rate of the banks [to ease obtaining loans for the public], some declared their resistance to such policy and claimed this would be unscientific and against expert knowledge, but we tell this to them: if they don’t want justice they should leave our road and know that the people are in the scene and will do it themselves.”
• Referring to economic conditions in the United States: “The crisis which the United States is going through is the result of fifty years of plundering the nations of the world…God willing the divine promises of annihilation of capitalism is near.”
• Speaking in Hamadan, the Iranian president recommended ”the culture of martyrdom” as the solution to economic ills of the society.
• The Iranian president also claimed “Iran has become a primary world power.”
• Donya-ye Eqtesad ridicules Ahmadinejad’s speech (.pdf) in Hamedan, in which he said “those who are against lowering of the interest rates of the banks should go!” Editorializes sarcastically: “Why should the interest rate not be zero?!”
• Sobh-e Sadeq (IRGC weekly) editorializes: “That Mehdi Karrubi calls the people of Iran cheering the president ‘dolphins’ is unforgiveable.”
• Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting boycotts Ahmadinejad’s attack against parliamentary speaker Haddad Adel.
• Kayhan editor Hossein Shariatmadari supports Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi in a heated debate in which supporters of Mehdi Karrubi claim Khomeini did not desire to see Mesbah’s son-in-law as political commissar in the Revolutionary Guards.
• Tabnak News Agency documents that the pages of Sahife-ye Noor [Pages of Light], authored by Khomeini to which Hossein Shariatmadari refers, do not exist.
• Mehdi Karrubi, leader of the National Trust Party: “For the past three years you have claimed that the mafia of wealth might prevent me from doing my job. Could you please tell us who these people are…? Such claims are neither bread nor housing for the people.”
• First vice president Parviz Davoodi says newly appointed acting minister of economy and finance, Hossein Semsami is not his son-in-law, or son of his sisters. Davoodi gave a speech retorting the farewell speech of the ousted minister of economy and finance, Danesh-Ja’fari.
• First Vice President Davoodi defends the policies of the Ahmadinejad government.
• According to Sobh-e Sadeq, ousted minister of economy and finance has turned down offers to become Iran’s ambassador to Canada and is expected to take a position at the Expediency Council.
• Aftab Yazd ridicules the Iranian president’s appointment of ousted minister of economy and finance Danesh-Ja’fari to be special economic advisor to the presidency, especially after the criticism of Danesh-Ja’fari against the policies of the Iranian president.
• E’temad reports on the acting minister of economy and finance Hossein Semsami’s factionalist past and conflicts with political rivals.
• Mojtaba Hashemi Samareh, senior presidential advisor: “66,000 jobs in Hamadan resulted from the president’s trip to the city.”
• The farewell ceremony of the minister of interior, Pour-Mohammadi, postponed until next Saturday, after the second round of parliamentary elections.
• Ali Bagheri of the reformist camp election campaign, commenting the change of minister of interior: “The new [acting] minister of interior can’t be worse than the one we experienced during the first round of parliamentary elections.”
• Donya-ye Eqtesad comments ousting of Pour-Mohammadi (.pdf), minister of interior.
• E’temad Melli wonders what urgency (.pdf) led Ahmadinejad to depose the minister of interior Pour-Mohammadi just two days before the second round of parliamentary elections in Iran. Also here (.pdf).
• Mohammad-Javad Zarif: “Making the environment insecure for the rival is equivalent to making the environment insecure for ourselves.”

Economy

• Mohammad Khosh-Chehre, member of the economic affairs committee of the Iranian parliament: “The criticism of Mr. Danesh-Ja’fari [the ousted minister of economy and finance] was right and true but the aim was wrong…Dr. Danesh-Ja’fari knew from the very beginning what kinds of problems riddle the Iranian economy. Therefore, he should have acted on the basis of his own knowledge and the advice of experts and economists. Talking about such matters now is too late.”
• Emrooz publishes assessment of the farewell speech of the minister of economy and finance.
• Hezbollah attacks deposed minister of economy and finance: “Why did Danesh-Ja’fari not leave the cabinet when he realized his priorities were not the priorities of the president?”
• Reformist politician Mohsen Armin builds upon ousted minister of economy and finance Danesh-Ja’fari’s harsh criticism of the economic policies of the Ahmadinejad government.
• Spokesman of the Merchant’s Union says “there is a mafia (.pdf), you just don’t know them.”
• Drinking water in Kerman is rationed due to drought.
• Ahmadinejad’s former minister of industries and mining, says that the president had asked him to announce economic growth of 4 percent as “8 percent economic growth.”
• Director General of the National Bank of the Islamic Republic: “I’ll lock the coffers of the bank with six locks [denying loans]“. See also Donya-ye Eqtesad’s analysis (.pdf).
• The Islamic Republic Electricity Federation: “The government should pay its debts (.pdf) to us!”
• During a visit at an oil and gas exhibit, the Iranian president visits the exhibition section of the contracting arm of the Revolutionary Guards.

Trade

• Oman’s (.pdf) ambassador to Tehran expresses hope that his country can share in the expected round of privatization of nationalized firms in Iran.
• Ali-Akbar Mehrabiyan, minister of industry and mining: “According to our schemes, we intend to inaugurate a new industrial project led by Iranian firms in Venezuela every ten day…”
• Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez adds that the people of his country have chosen the Islamic Republic as the role model for development and will not bow to U.S. pressures.
• Deputy Minister of Trade Ghazanfari suggests formation of a Chinese/Iranian bank.
• Switzerland blocks the accounts of 27 individuals and banks related to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

Human Rights and Labor

• Members of the reformist Participation Front meet family members of imprisoned religious reformer Hadi Qabel.
• Mohammad Hashemi, Ali Nikou-Nesbati and Ali Azizi of the Office of the Strengthening Unity student organization summoned to the Revolutionary Court.

Military and Security

• Thanks to the efforts of The Unknown Soldiers of the Imam of the Era, hostages are freed in Isfahan.
• Commander of Tehran, Hossein Tala says meetings and demonstrations on May 1st are forbidden and will be met with a crushing response. More.

Religion, Culture, and Society

• Hemayat analyses the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, the main body tasked with “cultural engineering of the Iranian society.”
• Abrar publishes rumors of the suicide of commander Zare’i, the former chief of the Law Enforcement Forces in Greater Tehran, who was found with prostitutes.
• Background from March 12, 2008 Iran News Round Up.
• Komeil Deilami, deputy chief of the Coordination Bureau of Ideological Teachings, explains the necessity of re-reading the teachings of martyr Muttahari.
• Sobh-e Sadeq explains the necessity of cultural revolution in the Islamic Republic.
• Iranian read books on average two minutes per day.

Diplomacy

• For the first time in the history of the Islamic Republic official historiography, the Iranian authorities admit that the late Ayatollah Beheshti held a friendly meeting with two U.S. diplomats in Tehran just a week before the seizure of the embassy. These documents had been earlier disclosed by Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization, also participants in the embassy seizure, but never admitted by Iranian authorities.
• Friday prayer leader of Mashhad Ayatollah Alam al-Hoda attacks the cultural policies of the Islamic Republic and claims the authorities have not been able to introduce the culture of the Islamic Revolution to the youth.
• Qatari prime minister calls sanctions against Iran ineffective.

Photo of the Day

• Ahmadinejad holding meetings with citizens in Hamadan.