Iran News Round Up

(Thanks to Ali Alfoneh for his compilation)

Politics

• In the aftermath of the deaths of between 3 and 10 people protesting because of rumors that Daryoush Ghanbari’s election victory was cancelled, Agahsazi stresses the necessity of “identifying the visible and invisible hands responsible for inciting the people into riots and deal with them decisively.”
• Interview with Ghanbari.
• Saidi, the representative of the Supreme Leader in the Revolutionary Guards: “Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi’s points of view are the closest ones among the viewpoints of the Holy Warriors to the viewpoints of Grand Ayatollah Khomeini.”
• Iranian economist and current member of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Khosh-Chehreh: “In the Evin constituency of Tehran in which I, and my own family reside and voted [at the second round of parliamentary elections on April 25, 2008], they claim I have received zero votes!”
• Public Relation office of the reformist Participation Front protests against Iran’s forgery of words of the reformist party’s general secretary in the newspaper on election day.
• Alef News Agency condemns the speech of the Iranian president in Qom: “What has the president done to fight corruption during the past three and half years?”
• For Ahmadinejad’s Qom speech, see Iran News Round Up (April 18, 2008)
• Office of the Consolidation of Unity, the largest student movement in Iran, attacks the Iranian president: “Which corrupt official has been subject to the scrutiny of your administration during the past three years?”
• Association of Islamic Students attack appointment of Rahimi as acting minister of interior: “This government is supposed to support the downtrodden…not to include those who accumulate gold.”
• For the first time, ousted minister of interior Pour-Mohammad admits having been relieved of his responsibilities by the Iranian president.
• Press TV interview with Interior Minister Pour-Mohammadi.
• Nasrin Soltankhah, candidate for city council elections in Tehran, is appointed presidential advisor in Women and Family affairs. According to Alef News Agency, Zohreh Tabibzadeh Nouri, the current advisor has asked for her resignation.
• General Secretary of the reformist Participation Front demands a recount of the votes in Tehran.
• Iran attacks ousted minister of economy and finance, Danesh-Ja’fari.
• Following the meeting between Ahmadinejad and the widow of Dr. Fatemi, Musaddiq’s foreign minister, student groups in Isfahan demand that the Iranian president intervenes to return the name of Martyr Bahonar street in Isfahan to itss former name Dr. Fatemi Street.
• Kayhan editor Shariatmadari accuses the reformist camp of having chosen the path of the Mojahedin-e Khaq Organization and of having distanced themselves from the revolution.
• Tabnak publishes the names of the winners of the second round of parliamentary elections along with their political inclination.
• Speaker of the Iranian parliament, Haddad Adel asks if it really is worth having two rounds of parliamentary elections.
• Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani publishes another volume of his memoirs.
• According to Abrar, Rahimi, the acting minister of interior, is believed to have been outmaneuvered by three alternative candidates for the post.

Economy

• The ministry of trade asks the public to identify expensive bakers to the authorities, but Alef News Agency discloses that the ministry has in effect already accepted a multiple bread price policy in Tehran, which has been divided into affluent, middle class and poor neighborhoods. In low income neighborhoods the flour is delivered to the bakers at extra subsidized prices, while bakeries in more affluent neighborhoods receive more expensive flour, which results in prices up to 50 to 100 percent more expensive than last year.
• Ayatollah Javadi Amoli: “Inflation and rising prices exist.”

Trade

• According to the Kurdish newspaper Rozhnama, Iraqi Kurdish oil sold to Iran.
• Iran boosts oil production.

Military and Security

• Responding to a journalist’s claim that there are 5,000 members of the Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon, Hosseini, spokesman of the ministry of foreign affairs, said “There is no Guards corps there, if there are, let them deport them.”
• Hosseinian adds that the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan has made a U.S. attack against Iran impossible, and an attack would have painful consequences.
• Egyptian official daily Al Ahram claims the Islamic Republic is helping Hamas to build an unmanned bomber drone.
• Rahim Safavi, former commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guard: “Oil and gas are the instruments of power of Islamic countries.”
• Speaker of the Iranian parliament Haddad Adel stresses the importance of the strength of the Law Enforcement Forces.
• Ahmadinejad’s proposal for subjugation of the Pupil’s Basij to the Revolutionary Guards and its removal from its current organizational position under the ministry of education is defeated by one vote in the Iranian parliament.

Diplomacy

• Speaking to commanders of the Law Enforcement Forces, Ahmadinejad says: “Through the faith and steadfastness of the Iranian nation in the face of the bullying powers, the world is undergoing a transformation and capitalism and imperialist thought has reached its end.”
• Foreign minister of the Islamic Republic and Saudi Arabia engage in a verbal dispute at a summit in Kuwait.

Nuclear Issue

• Jalili, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic, claims Iran will soon present the world with an “incentive package” on the country’s nuclear program.
• Will work through Russia.
• Iran says its resolved major issues with the IAEA.
• IAEA Deputy Head in Tehran for more talks.

Religion, Culture, and Society

• Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi is no longer present in the Supreme Council of the Elmiyeh Theological School of Qom.
• Ayatollah Taskhiri: “We have invited Salafi clerics to explain their viewpoints in public with no regard to any matter.”
• The Pakistani president welcomes the Iranian president.
• Deputy Saudi minister of interior visits Tehran.

Photo of the Day

• Tea farming in Gilan.