President-elect Rouhani Misquoted as Seeking Israel’s Removal – Press TV

Iranian President-elect Hassan Rouhani’s comments on Israel were distorted by the semi-official ISNA news agency, the state run Press TV reported today.

“In our region, there’s been a wound for years on the body of the Muslim world under the shadow of the occupation of the holy land of Palestine and the beloved al-Quds,” Press TV quoted Rouhani as saying in a video as he attended the annual pro-Palestinian holiday in Iran, known as Quds Day. Earlier, the ISNA news agency, along with other media outlets inside Iran, had quoted Rouhani as saying instead, “The Islamic world must show unity against the Zionist regime, since this regime is an old wound that has lain for years in its body and must be removed.” (Press TV/Bloomberg, 2 August)

After Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu denounced Rouhani’s remarks, ISNA corrected its  “mistake.” ISNA reports other media which used the same translation just removed it from their sites without any explanations. ISNA did not say who provided identical translation to different news outlets, and why those outlets published it without checking its accuracy against the original state TV's Farsi video that was available to them. 

“Rouhani’s true face has been revealed earlier than expected,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Even if they will now rush to deny his remarks, this is what the man thinks and this is the plan of the Iranian regime.” (Bloomberg, 2 August)

President-elect Rouhani will be inaugurated this weekend. He has consistently called the reduction of tensions with the West.

ISNA’s explanation: ISNA has posted a correction on its website, but also reports that a number of other Iranian media had posted the same erroneous translation of Rouhani’s remark, and have now removed it from their sites with no explanations. If true, this shows that the “translation” must have been provided to all those media outlets by an outside source powerful enough not to be questioned by the media. But who provided it? But this is above all else a manifestation of deep political tensions within Iran, especially on foreign policy and relations with the West. 

Photo credit: Iranian president-elect Hassan Rouhani at the annual Quds Day parade in Tehran. Friday, Aug. 2, 2013. (Borna Ghasemi/ISNA)

Fars Denies Report on Enrichment Suspension

Divisions Over Handling Devastating Sanctions

Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency quoting an unnamed senior official reported today that the country’s 20-percent uranium enrichment program will continue as before. Earlier today a member of the national security committee of Majlis, the Iranian parliament, was quoted by another semi-official news agency, ISNA, as saying that Iran has suspended its program of enriching uranium at 20-percent purity as a confidence building measure and a gesture of good will toward the West. Mohammad Hassan Asafari, the national security committee member, had added that Iran expects the West to lift all sanctions in return.

Note: The conflicting reports by top news agencies in Iran reflect deep divisions among the country’s senior leadership on a possible compromise with the West to end the debilitating economic sanctions.

Oil Saga Continues

Former oil minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh, who was sacked by Ahmadinejad last week, warned of a looming “catastrophe” in Iran’s energy sector (ISNA). Although Iran is OPEC’s second largest oil producer, its gasoline consumption forces it to import million gallons of gasoline every day despite the recent gasoline rationing. Vaziri Hamaneh said consumption cannot be controlled with current low prices.

The acting oil minister, Gholam Hossein Nozari, is arguing that the solution to the oil crisis in Iran is an increase in crude oil production. The foreign investment needed to boost the production has, however, all but evaporated.

Ahmadinejad has claimed that during his two years in office, Iran has been able to secure $38 billion in foreign investment for the oil sector. The claim has been denied by Iran oil experts. Almost all of the commitment has been memoranda of understanding, with no sign that any investment is actually taking place. A number of European companies have been hesitant to go ahead with any involvement in Iran’s energy projects. The latest companies suspending involvement in Iranian projects are Royal Dutch Shell, Respol of Spain and OMV of Austria.

Iran’s Role in Iraq under Scrutiny

Iran’s influence in Iraq has taken a center stage in regional politics.

One of Iraq's top Sunni leaders on Monday accused Iran of waging an unprecedented campaign of genocide against his community. Adnan Al Dulaimi, who heads a party in the main Sunni bloc that resigned from the Iraqi government two weeks ago, said that Sunnis in Iraq are facing “a campaign of genocide carried out by militias and death squads under Iranian direction, planning, support and weaponry,” AFP reported.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki said during a visit to Iran, however, that he appreciated Iran's “positive and constructive” role in Iraq (ISNA).

Al Maliki made his comments in Tehran as the US troops and the aircraft attacked Shia militias in Baghdad’s Sadr City. US accuses Iran of delivering deadly roadside explosives and other weapons to those militias. The US military reported that during the Sadr City raid on Sunday it has captured or killed highly-sought weapons facilitators with connections to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force in Iran.

Attacks on Unionists

Iranian intelligence ministry agents arrested five members of Tehran's bus drivers' union after they visited the home of their imprisoned chief Mansour Ossalou. ISNA identified the detainees as Ebrahim Madadi, Yagoub Salimi, Davoud Razavi and Ghojari and Homayoun Jaberi.

Ossalou has been sentenced to four years in prison for acting against national security and to an additional year for disseminating propaganda against the Islamic Republic.

Rights group Amnesty International, the Brussels-based International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the International Transport Workers' Federation held protests in European capitals on Thursday calling for his release.

They also called for the release of Mahmoud Salehi, a prominent trade unionist and former head of the bakers' union in Iran's Kordestan province, who was rearrested in April after serving previous jail terms.

Shargh is Gone!

Shargh, one of Iran’s leading reformist papers, was closed down today. The government announced that the reason for the ban was “the publication of an interview with an anti-revolutionary and homosexual woman” (ISNA). The government was apparently alluding to an interview with Saghi Gharhraman, an Iranian-Canadian poet, which appeared under the title of “Womanly Talk” [Zaban-e Zananeh] in the paper’s literature section on 4 August (13 Mordad).

This is the second time that Ahmadinejad’s government is closing Shargh. The paper was banned last September after publishing a cartoon regarded by the government as personally insulting Ahmadinejad. The ban was rescinded in March. This time, it appears that Shargh is gone forever.

Shargh publisher Mohammad Reza Rahmanian told Jahan News that “today is the day that Shargh died.” Iranian journalists and reformist papers have been under assault by the government. Currently, 11 journalists and cyber-dissidents are detained in the notorious Security Section 209 at Tehran’s Evin prison. The closing of Shargh is the latest move in government's all-out war against free press in Iran.

Iran Oil Executive Confirms Drop in Production

The managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Corp. and the former oil minister Akbar Torkan said, “At the moment, on average, we produce four million bpd of crude. But without new investment, five percent of this production capacity will be gone every year,” ISNA reported (8 July).

In the 1 July posting in this blog, “The Coming Oil Crisis”, we calculated the diminishing rate of production to be at 8% a year. The decrease plus the annual 2% increase in domestic demand for oil would lower Iran’s oil exports by 10% annually. Out of 4 million bpd of oil production, some 2.4 million bpd is currently exported. At this rate, Iran will run out of oil export by 2014.

What About Bushehr?

ISNA quoted Iran’s national security officials today that problems regarding the start of work at Bushehr are being resolved and the country’s first nuclear power plant will start its operation within the next two months (ISNA, 5 July).

However, chief of Russia’s atomic energy agency told TASS news agency yesterday that the plant could not possibly be launched for another year (ITAR-TASS, 4 July).

Javad Vaidi, deputy secretary of Iran’s National Security Council told ISNA that the Iranian experts are finishing up the work at the plant and that he expects all outstanding issues with the Russians to be resolved in the next few weeks.