Persian Press Review

May 30, 2010 - 0:0

The column ‘Persian Press Review’ features the headlines and leading articles carried by Farsi dailies.

Saturday’s headlines:
JAVAN: Russians retreat from their anti-Iranian stance
IRAN: Inspectors search office of board of trustees of Islamic Azad University
ABRAR: First trial session of Abdolmalek Rigi held
ASRAR: Cannes Film Festival has become a base for launching political campaign against Iran, says Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) director Ezatollah Zarghami
TEHRAN-E EMROOZ: Qom’s ayatollahs approve of Tehran Municipality’s performance
SHARQ: They send interfering signals on our satellite channels, and we send interfering signals to jam their satellite channels, says IRIB director
JOMHURI-E ESLAMI: Hijab and Islamic dress code should first be observed in state organizations and departments, says Ayatollah Kashani
JAHAN-E SANAAT: National wealth should be boosted but by observing justice, says Ahmadinejad
KHABAR: Administration set to divide Tehran; one city, 12 governors
KHORASAN: Russia’s National Security Council secretary and foreign minister hold phone conversations with Jalili and Mottaki to discuss the Tehran nuclear fuel swap deal
DONYA-E EQTESAD: Turkish prime minister pursuing the Tehran agreement on nuclear fuel swap in Brazil
AFTAB-E YAZD: Ahmadinejad says political parties don’t have the right to interfere in country’s affaires
SIASAT-E ROOZ: Russia’s tactical retreat; repeated promises to launch Bushehr nuclear power station
KAYHAN: President’s critical remarks make Russians move
HADAF-O EQTESAD: 10 million Iranians live below absolute poverty line, announces Statistical Center of Iran director
Leading articles:
ARMAN in its editorial has called Hillary Clinton’s stance toward the Tehran nuclear agreement hasty and ill-considered. According to the IAEA’s regulations, the nuclear agreement should be submitted to the Vienna Group (U.S., Russia and France) for deliberation. The Vienna Group can approve or disapprove the nuclear deal, so it was not necessary that U.S. secretary of state take an ill-advised and hasty stance against the Tehran initiative. The writer believes Clinton is under pressure from the Israeli lobby. After the Tehran agreement was signed and Iran agreed to ship 1200 kilograms of its LEU to Turkey, Israeli officials started a propaganda campaign against the Tehran declaration and said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is much larger than it was one year ago and the shipment of 1200 kilograms of LEU is not enough to verify the truthfulness of Iran’s assertion that its nuclear activities are only meant for peaceful purposes.
AFTAB-E YAZD in a report has covered lawmaker Hadad-Adel’s remarks about the post-election incidents. Hadad-Adel has said the country’s current political situation is not comparable to the years prior to the victory of the Islamic Revolution. The regrettable incidents like what happened in the Kahrizak detention center are not comparable to the tortures inflicted on campaigners by the mercenaries of the deposed Shah’s regime. The MP also asks why that time no one sympathized with the political prisoners? Hadad-Adel goes on to say, unfortunately the person who claims to be the leader of the (opposition) movement says some political prisoners have come over to him and said they have been sexually abused and before these allegations are investigated, he publicizes these accusations via American and Israeli media outlets.
TEHRAN-E EMROOZ in a commentary has speculated on the future of the former Deputy Majlis Speaker Mohammad-Reza Bahonar’s political career. Bahonar, who used to be a pro-administration MP in the previous Majlis, shifted his policy in the eighth Majlis and stopped supporting the administration. Since then, the pro-Ahmadinejad Islamic Revolution faction became determined to restrict Bahonar’s power and due to their movements, Bahonar failed to be re-elected as the deputy speaker in the recent presiding board election in Majlis. It seems that now that Bahonar is not busy with duties in the presiding board, he can go among the MPs who are critical of the administration’s policies and form a faction made up of the principlist who are critical Ahmadinejad’s policies.
DONYA-E EQTESAD in its editorial has criticized the administration’s monetary policy as being “blind” to the national economy. When the inflation rate was surging to a dangerous level, the administration rightly decided to adopt tight monetary policies and managed to curb the rampant inflation to some extent. But unfortunately, this policy was too inflexible and even was applied to the production sector and plunged the country into deep recession. Today, producers and business enterprisers are faced with lack of liquidity to meet their financial commitments such as paying employees’ salaries. Most of the business enterprises are on the verge of bankruptcy, but banks still follow the tight policy in awarding loans to producers.