Etemad editorial is considered the most prominent of the Iranian press editorials on Sunday morning, July 24th, 2016, providing a statement of account of President Rouhani over the past three years and pointing out to his main accomplishments, In addition to shedding light on the incident of Munich, and responding to the connection between them and Tehran in light of the operative having Iranian citizenship.
In the news, the media highlighted the commander of ground forces of the Revolutionary Guards remarks on thwarting terrorist operations in northern Iran, and Iran confirms the resumption of uranium enrichment. Socially, 1.5 million addicts in Iran and 53% of Iranians are members of social networks. Economically, some figures were released by media about the number of productivity units that face problems.
“Defeats and victories of Rouhani’s government” Etemad Newspaper present a statement of the government of Rouhani over the past three years. The editorial says that the most important success of this government was restoring security of the country, where people are no longer facing daily surprising incidents; Although, the editorial never mentioned what sort of security it meant; the security of armed confrontations with major powers, or internal security after the social and political clashes inside the Iranian society during Ahmadinejad’s era? Economically, the editorial says that the estimated number of unemployment by the government is about 3.2 million, while people believed that unemployment has reached 8 million people. Statistics of the Iranian government don’t count the person who has an average of two working hours per week as unemployed. The editorial also adds that one of the most important achievements of Rouhani is the reduction of inflation rate from 40% to less than 10%, while conservatives believe that severity of economic recession led to inflation rate reduction, but not an improvement of the purchasing power of the Iranian currency. However, the editorial records the rise of residential units’ payments and food prices year after year, meanwhile, improvement took place only on governmental health services. On the other hand, tuition fees in schools and universities haven’t witnessed any changes.
“A new form of terrorism,” Ebtikar Newspaper discusses the terrorist attack that was carried out in Munich on the hands of a dual national Iranian-German boy. According to investigations, there is no relation between the attacker, Ali sonboly of 18 years old and ISIS, but it is likely that he was deeply impressed by the ISIS. The editorial explains the new model of terrorist operations that need not leaderships and coordination centers just like in the past. Independent individuals work with no guidance or logistic support, which had enabled Ali Sonboly to carry out the attack against the most complicated European security systems on German territory. The second point is that the motive behind the crime of Sonboly is mainly a sense of social injustice and inequality just like the attacks on Nice, France; nevertheless, ISIS has attributed the terrorist attack to itself without bearing any costs. Ebtikar editorial and other Iranian editorials reject the connection between the original nationality of Munich terrorist attack operative and terrorism, especially that Iran is always contributing terrorism and extremism to the Sunni communities, and that the Iranian Shiite society produces no terrorism.
“Cultural events permits and political demands duplication,” Avrinsh Newspaper criticizes the interference of security authorities in the cultural activities in Iran in light of the cancellation of some concerts that had got permissions from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. After the intervention of the president and Minister of Culture, police forces were prohibited from preventing any licensed cultural event. Nevertheless, General Command of the Revolutionary Guards issued instructions to the commander of police forces to follow up cultural events and prevent anyone doesn’t comply with the spirit of revolution. The editorial says that over the past years, a number of concerts have been canceled in spite of having permissions from the Ministry of Guidance, because of the unwillingness of some governmental agencies and political currents. Ministry of guidance is responsible for issuing such permits but not Ministry of Interior Affairs that only monitors any violations and take them to court. Unfortunately, this issue has turned into the political rivalry between government agencies. Although all this criticism by the editorial, it doesn’t have the courage to state that the General Command of the Revolutionary Guards who directly submit to Khamenei was behind this cancellation. The Ministry of Interior Affairs reports to Rouhani administratively, but the commander of police forces reports to the General Command of Armed Forces and police forces headed by the Revolutionary Guards officer under the leadership of Khamenei. Thus, it is clear that Rouhani and his government have nothing to do with this and can’t issue a permission of holding a concert, so how can they manage a country and its organizations.
“The Art of ethics” Aftab Yazd editorial handles the new interactions within alliances of the Iranian parliament. At the beginning, it expressed its rejection to the silence of Rouhani’s government on the betrayal of some members of Omid current, Rouhani’s supporters, in the elections of the speaker of parliament and their support to Larijani against Arif. The newspaper also predicted repetition of this behavior in the future more obviously. Now, the formation of a third coalition has been declared in the council, led by Kazem Jalali (assistant of Larijani), who enjoys public support at a time and convert at another by some government ministers of Rouhani. The strange thing is that there has been neither a reaction from Rouhani nor at least disapproval. Perhaps this coalition is a new phase of absolving from Omid coalition inside the parliament. This third current consists of three groups; the first is independent representatives who are not willing to join any of the two major coalitions, Omid and Conservative. The second is fundamental Representatives, who had joined the united Alwelaya with Omid coalition only for electoral interests and to obtain parliamentary committees positions. The third group is MPs who were members of Omid coalition. They have given up morals and joined the third coalition, although they gain reformers support who gave them a ticket to enter the Council. In terms of quantity, the split of those MPs and formation of the third coalition has hurt Omid, who will have only seventy seats in the Parliament. However, the editorial recommends reformers not to give full support to Rouhani and deny any statements like, “Hassan Rouhani; the only choice of reformers” because of his rapprochement with fundamentalists. Rouhani should not be taken for granted as the only choice of reformers. In this case, he’ll bear no responsibility before reformists, and his alliance with them is non-binding, unlike the reformers’ position. Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that reformers will renounce Rouhani in favor of his opponents who will easily take him down. But political balances require all reformers to naively play their papers and plan for their future even at the minimum level.
♦ 38 thousand productivity units in Iran suffer problems
Assistant Minister of Industry, Hassan Salehi Nea pointed out that there are approximately 38 thousand productivity units that face problems inside Iran. He added that there were proposals to restart these small and medium units during the next three years.
Source: Etemad Newspaper.
♦ Iran protests to the International Atomic Energy Agency on the recent leak of classified documents related to its nuclear file
The spokesman the Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Behrouz Kamalondi, that his country’s representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency has given the agency a protest note on the leak of classified documents related to its nuclear file. He added that those documents that were released to “Associated Press” agency were to be kept classified. Therefore, Iran considered what has happened as a process of leak carried out by the international Atomic Energy Agency.
Head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi also stressed that his country has asked the IAEA to maintain all information related to its nuclear program confidential for a long time period since there is no necessity for the leak. A member of the Committee of National Security and Foreign Policy demanded the Iranian parliament to develop security measures to prevent disclosure and leak of more documents by the IAEA and Western countries.
Sri Lanka leasing aircraft to Iran
The Sri Lankan national airlines have leased a number of its Airbus aircraft to Iran and Pakistan to cover financial distress. Minister of Sri Lankan Governmental Companies Development Kabeer Hashim said that the Iranian aviation company, Iran Air, expressed a desire to hire the largest model of A350 Aircraft, which is likely to be sent in coming months.
Source: Tafahom Newspaper.
♦ Vice ADA denies the existence of eight million addicts in Iran
Deputy Secretary-General of Anti-drug Association, Ali Moaiadi, denied what was mentioned by some experts about the existence of more than eight million addicts in Iran. He called individuals who viewed this statistic to disclose their sources, adding that the recent statistics of the number of drug addicts is not currently accessible, and until new statistics are disclosed, the official number of addicts remains as was declared before.
Moadi said that the source of such information in confined to the government. On this basis, the addicts in Iran are about 1.5 million, denying any other statistics.
Source: Mehr.
♦ 53% of Iranians are members of social media
The chairman of Center for Information Technology and Electronic Media at the Ministry of Guidance and Islamic culture, Murtaza Mousavian, declared that 53% of Iranians are members of social media. Unofficial statistics indicate that the access rate to Internet is 80% and there are 40 million mobile phones in Iran.
Mousavian also pointed out that Iranians access websites that bring up news, advertisements, games, applications, and educational content. He also mentioned that 72% of young people aged between 18 and 29 years old are members of these networks. Iranians spend an average of 5 to 9 hours per day on social media, meanwhile, the world average is 16 hours per week.
President of Information Technology Center added that 14 billion hours are spent on games by 40 million users in the country. Moreover, annual users spend about 14.6 billion hours on games and mobile phones, he also pointed out that Iran has 4.5 million students; 40% study engineering, and 17% study electrical and computer majors. These statistics reflect people’s movement toward education and improvement. As well as YouTube and Google, Iranians are considered the most users of social media.
Source: Asr Iran Site.
♦ The purchase of Boeing is a disaster
Chief of “Basij” Forces mobilization, Mohammad Reza Naqdi said that some people want to spend $ 25 billion on buying aircraft just to look more elegant whenever they take some time of relaxation. He added that in time we react toward the smaller political issues, we remain vulnerable toward economic ones. For example, oil contracts and purchase of Boeing aircraft are considered disastrous, but we have no sensation.
Source: Arman Emrouz Newspaper.
♦ Movement of terrorists trying to enter Iran from the north
Commander of ground forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Bakur, declared that there are recent moves by the enemies to prepare for anti-revolutionary actions in northern Iraq. Several teams with equipment and ammunition were headed to Iran, but Revolutionary Guard Corps launched decisive strikes against them.
Bakur also added that all those practices over the past years toward Iran aim to confine and trap the regime. They also aim to prevent the expansion and influence of speech of revolutionary principles among peoples of the region. He pointed out that some neighboring countries do not have adequate security, which led anti-revolutionary members to take advantage and carry out terrorist attacks and devastation. However, with cautious intelligence agents and the strong presence of the Guards ground forces, all conspiracies have been aborted.
Source: Etemad Newspaper.
♦ Chairperson of Energy Committee in the Shura Council: Iran will resume uranium enrichment if the other parties break the nuclear deal
Head of Energy Committee in the Islamic Shura Council, Feridun Hassanond, stressed that the statement of the Chairman of Shura Council, Ali Larijani, concerning the nuclear deal, was courageous and revolutionary.
Hassanond praised this statement of Larijani and considered it revolutionary and courageous that deserves recognition and praise. He also confirmed the possibility of Iran’s return back to uranium enrichment if the West continues to evade their responsibilities toward the nuclear deal. According to him, Iran is committed to full legal commitments toward the nuclear deal, and now it is time for other parties to abide by the terms of this agreement.
Source: Tasnim Agency.
♦ 17 thousand Iranians die every year in traffic accidents
“Iran” Newspaper published a report about statistics of annual casualties in traffic accidents. The report indicated that 17 thousand people die in car accidents in Iran every year. Brigadier Ainullah Jahani, Assistant Social Affairs in the Iranian traffic management contributed those accidents to perished roads and worn out car wheels.
Source: Iran Newspaper.
