Speculations are the daily topic about candidates of presidential elections in Iran, which casts shadows on the Iranian press editorials on Thursday, July 21st, 2016 that also gave advice to conservatives about their candidates for the elections.
In the news, Minister of Interior Affairs declared the arrest of individuals that planned to launch terrorist attacks through tunnels in Sistan, head of parliament views on unemployment , the increase of execution cases in Rajai prison, and the escape of those attempted to assassin a number Kermanshah local leaders . Politically, Ahmad Tavakoli, former conservative MP in Shura council criticized the president because of Hussein Faridun, Britain warned its citizens from traveling to Iran, the continuation of Ahmadinejad’s attempts to return back to the political scene in Iran, and Argentina asks Malaysia and Singapore to arrest the Supreme leader’s advisor.
“Rouhani is the first and last choice for moderates” Arman Newspaper handled its stance it declared several days ago about renouncing Rouhani by reformists when it published an editorial under the title of Rouhani is not a man for all ages. The editorial said that fundamentalists always nominate a sole candidate for the presidential elections and this is, in spite of the delay this time, unlikely not to happen. But what is more important than the candidate is popularity and acceptance by people who will expectedly support the fundamentalist conservative candidate. The editorial is rejecting the return of Ahmadinejad back to political life and the bilateral alliance between him and Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi. At the same time, it calls the moderate conservatives to introduce their candidate for the next presidential elections and not to give up to the idea of Ahmadinejad’s nomination on behalf of all conservatives so as not to repeat the same clashes between traditional conservatives and what was then called New Conservatives; Ahmadinejad supporters. The editorial sees the conservatives’ nomination of Ahmadinejad will make a big part of moderate conservatives continue their support to Rouhani. But the problem is that some extremist conservatives are targeting his image among people. Finally, the editorial calls reformers and moderates to stand by Rouhani.
“Mr. President you alone can criticize” Avrinsh Newspaper catches a new slip of the tongue of Rouhani that drew wide criticism in his speech at the first World Conference of Mayors that was held in Iran. The editorial said that Rouhani’s speech about the creation of city managements to new sources of income when he said, “I do not want to criticize the city managers and mayors,” sparked a wave of popular criticism toward him. Tehran city is suffering the sale of parks and forests to generate income at the expense of environment and safety. Tehran increased the number of buses of public transportations but has never thought of improving and modernizing the metro lines or increasing its tracks, which has resulted in the increase of pollution in the city. Despite all of this, Rouhani doesn’t want to direct criticism to city managements and their policies that aim to achieve income at the expense of citizens’ health and the city environment. The editorial directed its speech to Rouhani, saying that being in his position, he had to criticize greed and control managements of cities. It also wonders about the kilometers of the land of Parks to be turned into concrete blocks and the number of trees to be cut off in Tehran and other Iranian cities to make him follow-up and form fact-finding committee? It seems that Rouhani does not enjoy success in the preliminary stage of the next presidential elections. After a storm of criticism, he faced during his visit to Kermanshah when he talked about unemployment and refused to listen to criticism of the crowds, his is repeating his mistakes and anger the people as a result of his condone of the policy of selling parks to achieve income for city managements.
“More important details than a judicial pleading text” Ebtikar Newspaper deals with the trial of the accused people that broke into the Saudi embassy in Tehran, which began holding its first session since yesterday. First of all, the ages of accused people vary between the twenties and thirties; a generation that did not witness the revolution and storming of the US embassy in Tehran. Nevertheless, one of those indicted had participated in the events of disorder that followed the Iranian presidential elections in 2009. He also participated in events that stormed the University City during Khatami’s presidency by those known as the “civilian-dressed” who belong to the Iranian Hezbollah, which ended with the killing of a number of Khatami’s supporters inside the University City dorms. The editorial says that there were signs from the judge that it was a planned matter. Especially with their confession that they got the Molotov bottles that had burned out the embassy by a truck carrying those bottles. One of the indicted also said that he believes the crowd had got an official license from the state because the news was posted on a Telegram channel. At the same time, they blamed the Iranian police forces because they did not prevent them from carrying out the attack on the embassy. The strange thing was that their lawyer considered the move of aggressors on the embassy as automatic and there was no need for a license from the Ministry of Interior Affairs, which means that they were not aware of the Iranian demonstrations law. The responses of the accused individuals were sarcastic that ridiculed the trial. An example is that when the judge asked one of them if he bought the bottles with the intention of making Molotov and burning out the embassy? He responded, “No, I bought a bottle of fizzy water to drink it, in addition to repeating slogans inside the court saying “I through stones, but I have never hit anyone, and thrown Molotov but the police were a lack of sense”. It is clear that this trial goes under the ongoing internal political struggle in Iran, and that the individuals that carried out the storm belong to Hezbollah or whatever the name is, but in the end they all belong to Khamenei, which makes them give no care to the trial since they know that in the end, they will receive praise and get a privileged position within the ruling elite regardless of the charges against them.
♦ The increase of execution cases in Rajai Shahr prison
Six people in Rajai Shahr prison were executed on charges of murder. Prison officials put ten people last Monday in solitary confinement in order to move them to the execution arena in prison. All of those who were executed that day were Iranians except an Afghani whose name was not mentioned in this statement.
Source: Herana News Agency
Revision of the gas contract between Iran and Pakistan
Government officials in Pakistan stated that they came to an agreement with Iran to review the contract of gas exchange between the two countries and extend the implementation deadline of pipeline project of gas exportation from Iran to Pakistan. According to the agreement, it was scheduled to implement this project of gas pipeline “IB” in January 2015 but has been put on halt.
Source: Tafahom Newspaper.
♦ The escape of terrorists that carried out the assassination attempt in Kermanshah
Member of the Committee of National Security and Foreign Policy in Shura Council, Heshmatallah Flahat Bisha, declared ticking merits of the case concerning the assassination attempt on Rijab borders in Dalaho, adding that those terrorists had run away to a neighboring country.
Flahat Bisha stated that there is no information or evidence about this case, which is required by him and people. According to him, until the release of documented information, this case should be followed up closely; otherwise, martyrs blood would go down the drain.
The MP also added that those terrorists must be identified even though they fled to a neighboring country, and Tehran can easily run after them; otherwise martyrs blood would go for nothing. According to him, officials of security agency of Dalaho were lacking sense of security and weren’t doing their job
Source: ISNA Agency.
♦ Argentina requires Malaysia and Singapore to arrest Velayati
Argentine authorities are still insisting that Iran has a hand in “Amia” explosion and asked East Asian countries to transfer their Iranian guest, Ali Akbar Velayati, to the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires.
Argentina judicial has continued the accusation of Iran in the attack and the bombing of the Jewish center in Argentina, killing 85 people on July 18th, 1994. They also called for arresting the Iranian former Secretary of State, Ali Akbar Velayati and transferring him to Buenos Aires.
After the spread of news about the travel of President of Strategic Research Center in the Expediency complex, Ali Akbar Velayati, to Singapore and Malaysia in an official visit, an investigator judge issued a judgment based on the International Police rule “Interpol”, asking officials in those two countries, to arrest Velayati, and move him to Buenos Aires.
Source: Fares Agency.
♦ Rouhani has to re-evaluate his advisors
Secretary General of the Islamic assembly for markets and commodities, Ahmad Karimi Isfahan said that the current government can’t recover recession in the remaining period of its term, and if the next coming government takes the same track, it will also face the same problem of recession, saying that there are many mistakes in statistics and consulting. The evidence here, according to him, is president Rouhani’s latest speech in Kermanshah, when he said that recession is the biggest problem of Iran.
Karimi Isfahani, directed his talk to Rouhani, saying that if he did not pay attention to recession relief, he should reconsider his advisors since they informed him that Iran has recovered recession.
Source: Sharq Newspaper and Fares Agency.
♦ Dismantle of a terrorist cell seeking to attack the security headquarters in Sistan and Baluchistan, and the arrest of 10 terrorists
In a joint operation between security personnel in Khash and secret service, a terrorist group that was trying to launch an attack on the security headquarters has been identified and eliminated. They also discovered a tunnel in a house near two important security centers intended to launch the attacks by the terrorist group.
Tasnim Agency stated that the joint operations of secret service and security agents discovered a tunnel of 20 meters depth, and 30 meters length in the direction of security and police headquarters, in addition to remote-controlled explosives and an amount of weapons, digging equipment, tools, and a map of that area.
During these operations, ten members of this terrorist group were arrested and now are subject to investigation.
Source: Tasnim Agency.
♦ If Rouhani defends his brother, he should be punished
Parliamentary former deputy, Ahmad Tavakoli wrote about the silence of president, Hassan Rouhani concerning his brother Hussein Feridun’s profiteering. He stated that this behavior of silence contradicts transparency and justice that former presidents of Iran had sworn to abide by and to favor the interests of the country over the personal ones. Tavakoli also said that there in only one choice of two; the first is to present evidence and clarifications to people about his brother’s charges and tell people that he discharges his brother or at least states that this is an unacceptable and denied practice. He and his office must take decisive actions against those guilty so as to prove his credibility in opposing all kinds of profiteering by all and keeps his word.
Source: Vatan Emrouz.
♦ Britain warns its citizens from arrest in Iran
British Foreign Ministry warned its citizens of Iranian origins from traveling to Iran. The warning comes amid a campaign of arrests, which affected a number of British people, despite efforts of Rouhani Government to maintain relations with London. The Foreign Ministry appealed its citizens not to travel to Iran unless necessary and avoid visiting sensitive areas.
The Iranian authorities have arrested Ms. Nazanin Zaggrey, the employee in Thomson Reuters Foundation after Hassan Rouhani’s victory in presidential elections without stating the reasons for arrest. Nevertheless, the Revolutionary Guards in Kerman claimed that Zaggrey, participated in the protests that followed the elections of 2009, or what is so-called “green revolution” after the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But Zaggrey strongly denies those charges, and her British origin husband Richard Retklev described this accusation as ridiculous.
Moreover, another British citizen of Iranian origin called Kamal Foroughi who work as a commercial consultant is still detained in Evin prison since 2011.
Source: Farda Radio.
