This column features excerpts from news articles, editorials, commentaries, and interviews of the leading Iranian newspapers and websites. 

HAMSHAHRI: Film of (Jundullah terrorist leader) Rigi’s confessions sent to UN

JAM-E JAM: Palestinians celebrate release of prisoners

TEHRAN-E EMROOZ: Majlis gives the first yellow card to energy minister

EGHTESAD POOYA: Oil minister puts Iran’s crude reserves at 158 billion barrels 

HEMAYAT: 60,000 schools to be connected to internet, minister of education announces

KAYHAN: Price of water, electricity will not change, energy minister says 

FARHIKHTEGAN: Iran has not received compensation for broken S-300 missile contract, Foreign Ministry spokesman says

ETEMAD: Deposit interest rates increases by 2.5% 

 

KEYHAN: 220 MPs support anti-capitalist protests 

HAMSHAHRI, in a news report, says 21 provinces out of 31 provinces in Iran are facing drought. Among these provinces Bushehr and Golestan are facing severe water shortages. The report also says the nine provinces of Tehran, Khorasan Razavi, Semnan, Sistan-Baluchestan, Hormozgan, Hamedan, Mazandaran, Qazvin and Gilan also faced water shortage crisis in the previous Iranian calendar year which ended March, 20, 2011.

According to a report by the Mehr News Agency, Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi says he was dismissed as culture minister in the last days of the term of President Ahmadinejad’s first administration because he had opposed the appointment of Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaii, which he called the leader of the deviation current, as the first vice president and a refusal by President Ahmadinejad’s refusal to sack Rahim-Mashaii. When Ahmadinejad won the second term as president in 2009 elections he and his cabinet paid a trip to Mashhad and it was during this trip that Ahmadinejad selected Rahim-Mashaii as first vice president. Saffar Harandi said, “It was (nearly) at the end of the life of the ninth administration that the issue of appointing the leader of the deviation current as first vice president was raised, and nobody had the right to oppose (it). (They) said it is the right of the president (to appoint his aides) and it was said he would have probably coordinated (the issue) with the Supreme Leader.” He added when the cabinet returned to Tehran the Supreme Leader opposed the appointment and he wrote a letter to the president saying, “This appointment is not in the interest of the president and the society and will cause disappointment and rift among the supporters of the president.” The former minister said in the next cabinet session it was expected that the president to dismiss Rahim-Mashaii but this did not happen and the president even praised this person and insisted that his decision was correct. On how he was informed of his dismissal, he said, “I was informed through telephone that I have been sacked.” 

According to JAVAN, a member of the Majlis minority faction says as Mesbah Yazdi, Mahdavi Kani, and Mohammad Yazdi form the cornerstone of unity among principlists Hashemi Rafsanjani, (ex-president) Mohammad Khatami, and Hassan Khomeini also play a role in brokering unity among reformists for the March parliamentary elections.  Jamshid Ansari, who represents the people of Zanjan in the parliament, said reformists abide by any decisions taken by the Coordinating Council of the Reformist Front. Ansari said those reformists who respect the authority of the council will naturally accept its decisions.