Diplomacy
- According to former foreign minister Ebrahim Yazdi, Ahmadiejad intends to start negotiations with the United States and Vice President Mashayee’s extended hand of friendship to the “people of Israel” must be seen in this light.
- Iranian parliamentarian Badamchian praises Ahmadinejad’s invitation to negotiations between the Islamic Republic and the United States.
- Talking to CNN, Ahmadinejad says Bush has lost the opportunity of negotiating with the Islamic Republic.
- Representatives from the think-tank world meet Ahmadinejad, who explains the Islamic Republic’s positions in various fields.
- Ahmadinejad blasts powers for bullying world.
- (E) Iranian press comments on Ahmadinejad’s popularity with US media, personalities.
- Ayatollah Khaz’ali says the Iranian president’s speech at UN was a symbol of greatness and honor of Iran.
- (E) Thailand frees Iranian indicted in U.S. for weapons smuggling.
- (E) Iran to create garden at Oxford.
- Prior to tomorrow’s Jerusalem Day demonstrations Agah-Sazi republishes Grand Ayatollah Khomeini’s call for “returning Jerusalem to the Muslims.”
Nuclear Issue
- (E) 5+1 talks called off.
Politics
- Dissident Grand Ayatollah Montazeri urges the reformists to run with only one presidential candidate, and advises the candidate to make it clear to the Supreme Leader that the president is the representative of the people of Iran.
- Presidential candidate Hassan Rowhani to publish multi-volume memoirs.
- Former president Mohammad Khatami: “In case I decide to run for presidency, I don’t know how effective I’ll be.”
- In an open letter to the Supreme Leader, Mehdi Khaz’ali urges Khamenei to reconsider his choice when it comes to personal representatives in Kayhan, and criticizes the newspaper’s editor Hossein Shari’atmadari who lately has been critical of Ahmadinejad.
Religion, Culture, and Society
- Ali-Reza Mahjoub, parliamentarian and head of House of Labor, says only one-seventh of public executives are women (94,608 women in exact numbers) despite the fact that 825,000 women out of 1,923,000 M.A. and Ph.D. holders in the public sector are women.
- Agah-Sazi reports extremely slow internet in Iran.
- Grand Ayatolah Makarem Shirazi warns against religious superstition, condemns the Wahabis for waging cyber warfare against Shi’a web sites.
- Supreme Leader Khamenei stresses importance of indigenous scientific production.
- Agah-Sazi publishes viewpoints of the Supreme Leader on martyrdom: “If your life is taken from you it means that a physical and material frame is taken away from you, and so what? When man knows that death is ascendance to divine heavens and joining the company of souls of prophets why should he mind about when this death arrives? For him, death is only a passage, “Time has arrived for death and flight from life of searching.” Man moves from search, the entire being is only a moment, and what follows afterwards is unparalleled divine blessing…Martyrdom is the death of intelligent and wise people who don’t lose life easily and for free, without gaining something in return. Our life is our main capital.”
Military and Security
- Alef News reports increased policing in Iran.
- Dubai police chief, commenting on the news of Iranian sleeper cells in the UAE, says UAE also has cells in Iran.
Economy
- (E) Iran creates Value Added Tax.
Photo of the Day
- Military parade in Tehran.
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