Manoucher Mottaki, the chairman of the House of Parties, suggests if the protestors are not happy with principlist and reformist factions they can establish their own political parties.

Mottaki says he was representative in the first parliament immediately after the 1979 Islamic revolution. He said in a parliamentary session Mr. (Ahmad) Tavakoli proposed that a place be considered for gathering of opposition newspapers to air their views even though their opinions are against the government and the system. However, this proposal went unnoticed, said Mottaki who was foreign minister in the Ahmadinejad administration.

Now, he said, the Interior Ministry is drafting a plan for protest gatherings and it is a good step that is taking place for the first time in the country. Mottaki said the House of Parties recently asked the three major political groups to attend a meeting on the issue of legal protest gatherings even though the media wrote the Interior Ministry opposes the involvement of the House of Parties. Yet, the interior minister “asked me as the chairman of the House of Parties” to attend the meeting.

He added, “Even though the demands of protestors may be too much and diverse and all them cannot be met, but I believe that their views should be heard.”

Javan:  Defending Bahais is totally unacceptable 

A leading Sunni scholar has said Molavi Abdolhamid’s defense of Bahais is “totally unacceptable”.

Emad Atieh Abdul Razagh, a graduate of Al-Azhar University who is teaching at Al-Madinah International University in Malaysia, says the Bahai sect holds dangerous ideology and the position of Islam that they are “apostate” is unchangeable. 

Molavi Abdolhamid, prayer leader of the Maki Mosque in Zahedan) capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province), said on Friday the Islamic republic should respect the rights of Bahais. 

“When we say that Bahais are apostate it means that they were first Muslims and then stood against Islam,” the professor says.

Etemad: Charlie Hebdo’s indecent cartoons are ‘insult against a nation’

Grand Ayatollah Javadi Amoli says the indecent cartoons by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo are “insult against a nation”. 

However, the grand ayatollah suggested that response to the sacrilege should not be of the same kind.  “An indecent move should not be responded in an indecent manner.”

A proper way to the insult is to hold protest gatherings because the magazine has insulted an entier nation, the top religious scholar noted.

Jomhouri Eslami: Air pollution in Tehran inherited from long years of inaction

It is clear that the choking air pollution in the metropolis of Tehran is the result of many years of inaction and its resolution entails work by many government bodies for many years.

Warning that breathing air in Tehran is “poisonous”, the newspaper said what was more conspicuous this year was that this year inversion lasted longer than the previous years.

The newspaper said 14 million people commute daily in the province of Tehran. Also, about 80,000 trucks are trafficking in the city of Tehran.