Order to Ahmadinejad's Supporters to Attack Rouhani's Diplomacy

The newspaper Aftab Yazd reported on its front page on August 1st about the possibility of a "meeting between Hassan Rouhani and Barack Obama at the United Nations," stating: "After the significant nuclear agreement, whispers of a meeting between the presidents of the U.S. and Iran are being heard. It seems that some Western media outlets have initiated this speculation." The newspaper Kayhan emphasized on its front page that "the Vienna agreement is a shot at Iran's national security" and urged senior officials to "take this warning seriously." The newspaper Shahre Vahdat dedicated its front page to Abbas Araghchi, quoting this member of the Iranian negotiating team as saying: "Concerns regarding inspections of military sites have been alleviated." The newspaper Iran also reported on "Europe's first legal action to lift sanctions," stating: "The European Union Council has approved the first legal measures for implementing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action." The newspaper Farhikhtegan reported that "the urgency of the bill to reduce women's working hours, a remnant of the previous government, will be reviewed in the first session after the parliamentary recess." The newspaper Javan reported on its front page with the headline "47,000 women fired for becoming mothers," stating: "47,000 women out of 145,000 who took six months of maternity leave were fired upon returning to work, as many highly educated individuals are willing to work for low wages due to the current job market conditions." This newspaper also has a report about "veiled women who are not modest" and emphasized that "veiled women who are not modest create distrust among the people." The newspaper Javan also reported on its front page about the assignment of the "mission to determine blocked assets" to the Court of Audit, the supervisory arm of the Islamic Consultative Assembly. The newspaper Iran, while examining the "mysterious incident" of news regarding the "fall of a meteorite," wrote: "The fall of a meteorite on the borders of four Iranian provinces has brought along a mysterious story. While everyone is aware of the sighting of a luminous object in the sky and the sound of an explosion, security and rescue officials consider the meteorite's fall to be a rumor," while "villagers and urban residents in these four provinces indicate that they have seen the meteorite, with some local officials confirming it, but the provincial and district governments consider this incident a rumor." The newspaper Etemad reported on its front page with the title "Return of Ahmadinejad," stating: "On Thursday, key members of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's network from across the country gathered in Tehran at the invitation of his close associates to participate in a conference titled 'National Meeting for Clarifying the Foundations and Thoughts of the Islamic Revolution and Imam'; a conference that marks the official start of his electoral activities and the basis for their slogans in the parliamentary elections." The newspaper Sharq, in its August 1st issue, published a report about a meeting of some of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's close associates, emphasizing that in this meeting, an "order for a coordinated attack" on Rouhani's diplomacy was issued. At the same time, the newspaper Iran reported that "investigations into the former president's case are still ongoing." This newspaper wrote: "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has filed a complaint against Eshaq Jahangiri, the first vice president of the eleventh government, for creating public anxiety and making baseless accusations against the previous government, while his case is under preliminary investigation due to a report from the Parliament's Article 90 Commission and complaints from 11 private plaintiffs." Abdolnabi Malahzadeh, a former judge of the Supreme Court and legal expert, commented on Ahmadinejad's complaint to the newspaper Iran, stating: "Mr. Ahmadinejad, as the former president, should think logically about whether the major financial corruption cases raised by Mr. Rouhani's government and the Economic Corruption Combat Headquarters, as well as the judiciary, belong to his managers or not, and whether these financial corruptions of 9 trillion tomans, 7 trillion tomans, 3 trillion tomans, and the loss of billions of dollars in currency from the country or the disappearance of several oil rigs, encroachment on government lands and natural resources, illegal construction, and large billion-toman debts currently being raised occurred during his 8-year presidency or not." The newspaper Jahan Sanat reported on the possibility of a 17% increase in workers' wages, stating: "Workers' representatives have negotiated with employers to implement the 1994 wage and salary package for about 400,000 deprived workers in the country, and a 17% wage increase is expected to be applied soon." Akbar Manousi, the head of the Iran-Canada Friendship and Commerce Association, emphasized in an interview with the newspaper Jahan Sanat that in recent years in Iran, "the class gap has widened, meaning those who had more have more, and those who had less have less, and the middle class, which is the most important economic class, seems to have become weaker." The newspaper Farhikhtegan reported on the urgency of a bill to reduce women's working hours, which is a remnant of the previous government, stating: "Despite all the warnings from women's activists and the Social Security Organization that implementing such a law will lead to the dismissal and unemployment of women, Fatemeh Alia, a member of the women's faction in Parliament, is adamantly pursuing this issue and intends to finalize a bill that the Ahmadinejad government presented to Parliament at the end of its term before her tenure in the ninth Parliament ends." Saideh Ali Pour, a reporter for the newspaper Farhikhtegan, noted that "according to this bill, the working hours of women employed in government agencies will be reduced from 44 hours to 36 hours without a reduction in salary and benefits," and that "women with children under seven years old, women with disabled children, those with serious illnesses, or women who are heads of households will be included in the bill to reduce the working hours of employed women." The newspaper recalled that "given the raised objections, the Women and Family Affairs Center of the Presidency in the previous government proposed reducing working hours for women employed in government agencies from 44 hours to 36 hours without a reduction in salary and benefits, and if they did not use this privilege, they could take two additional days off." This proposal was approved in seven sections by the government commissions and was presented to the Cabinet on May 8, 2013, and was approved in the form of a single article and sent to Parliament; however, it seems that due to the financial burden of this plan, Parliament is also delaying its implementation." The newspaper Farhikhtegan pointed out the low economic participation rate of women in Iran, stating: "The economic participation rate of women in Iran is even lower compared to some neighboring countries. The latest official statistics show that the unemployment rate of young women aged 15 to 24 has increased by 1.6% over the past year. Although, as Ali Rabiei, the Minister of Labor, Cooperatives, and Social Welfare announced last week, we will soon witness a minimum 5% increase in women's employment, evidence suggests that this promise will only be realized if Parliament and the government do not hinder women's presence in the job market with what they consider supportive laws." The newspaper also noted the high acceptance rates of women in universities and higher education and their low economic participation, stating: "According to the latest statistics, women have a good status in higher education; reports indicate that girls account for 62% of all students in medical sciences at public universities and 69% in basic sciences, while about 60% of students in public universities are women, which is a 99% increase compared to 20 years ago." The report from the newspaper Farhikhtegan mentioned "877 women who have been among the winners of 14 student Olympiads in recent years, which is a reliable indicator of the improved status of women compared to several decades ago, but all of this has not helped improve women's employment status." The newspaper wrote: "Increasing maternity leave for women is another law that, according to official statistics, has been a deterrent in the field of women's employment," and indeed, Fatemeh Alia, 59 years old, "ardently supported this plan until it was finally approved by Parliament last June, but after a year since the approval of this plan, the Social Security Organization announced the dismissal of 47,000 women after the increase in maternity leave." The newspaper Javan, close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported on its front page about the assignment of the "mission to determine blocked assets" to the Court of Audit, the supervisory arm of the Islamic Consultative Assembly. This newspaper wrote: "While the Governor of the Central Bank of Iran stated that the amount of blocked foreign currency assets is only $23 billion, Americans have recently stated that the amount of Iran's blocked assets is over $100 billion, of which only $50 billion is expected to be released." Now, "the Budget and Planning Commission, having seen these contradictions from government officials, has tasked the Court of Audit to accurately determine the exact amount of blocked assets abroad." The newspaper Javan noted that on Tuesday, the Governor of the Central Bank and the Deputy Directors of the Management and Planning Organization were supposed to answer ambiguities and contradictions regarding the amount of Iran's blocked assets abroad in Parliament, but Valiollah Seif's statements were the same as previously stated in the media; that is, the total assets amount to $29 billion." The newspaper quoted Gholamreza Kateb, the spokesperson for the Budget and Planning Commission of the ninth Parliament, stating: "There are multiple interpretations of Iran's net assets abroad. The Central Bank believes that there are only $29 billion of blocked money, but members of the Budget and Planning Commission believe that this number is much higher." According to Gholamreza Kateb, "In this session, the Governor of the Central Bank explained that $23 billion of the Central Bank's resources are blocked and will be released, and $6 to $7 billion belong to the government, which will also be released. These figures stem from the Central Bank's official statistics. The blocked resources of the Central Bank are $23 billion, and therefore the figure of $29 billion has not changed, while $22 billion is deposited in China with the Niko Company as collateral for receiving loans." The spokesperson of the Budget and Planning Commission emphasized that "despite all these explanations, representatives believe that the figure of $29 billion is very low and this issue needs to be investigated," and therefore "it was decided that the Court of Audit, in cooperation with the Central Bank, should extract the exact amount of foreign currency claims and present the results to the Budget and Planning Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly within two weeks." The newspaper Javan, however, wrote that "some of Iran's blocked assets were released after the Geneva agreement, but after the conclusion of Iran's nuclear negotiations with the 1+5 countries, discussions about this issue intensified, to the extent that in addition to the differing figures announced by Iranian officials, Western officials are also racing to announce the amount of Iran's assets.