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

HAMSHAHRI: Faithful youth help make country progress, Leader says

TEHRAN-E EMROOZ: Ahmadinejad tries to separate banking system from government 

TAFAHOM: Neither dollar price nor gold price decrease despite Central Bank governor’s promises 

JAM-E JAM: Ahmadinejad’s recommendations about subsidy reform plan

MELLATEMA: Russia, China veto UN Security Council resolution against Syria 

 

ETEMAD: Shamseddin Hosseini at the crossroads: Mahmoud Bahmani or his ministerial post  

In an interview with ILNA, MP Esmaeil Kosari has criticized the intelligence ministry and the economy minister for the appointment of Mahmoud Reza Khavari as managing director of Bank Melli, asking why Khavari, who had a dual citizenship, was appointed to such a key post. Khavari resigned over the $2.6 billion financial fraud case and went to Canada. He has so far refused to return to Iran. Kosari said, “Now Khavari holds lots of secret information about the country… and it seems he had no sense of belonging to the country from the beginning, therefore, the minister of economy should explain” how he could trust a person who had another country’s citizenship. Kosari also asked the Judiciary to clarify the pros and cons of the financial fraud case and. He also added that Economy Minister Shamsedin Hosseini should immediately clarify his personal relationship with Khavari.

TEHRAN-E EMROOZ, in a commentary, has criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for claiming that the government had no responsibility for the $2.6 billion financial fraud case. During a televised interview broadcast live on television on Tuesday night, the president asked: “Why do you accuse the government? What is the role of government”? The writer says the president talked in a way as if banks are “autonomous”. However, managing directors of state-owned banks are appointed and dismissed by economy minister and managing directors of private banks are appointed and dismissed by central bank governor. In the recent scandal the resignation of Bank Melli chief was accepted by the economy minister and the chiefs of private banks were dismissed by the central banker and this shows that the state and private banks are under the direct control of the government. However, the president preferred to completely deny the role of government in the banking system and responsibility for such a huge financial scandal.