The online Iranian reformist daily Rooz reports on unrest in universities across Iran because of increasing rumors that over 30 students, detained since early December, have been tortured in order to extract confessions, and because of the delay of the release on bail of the three students from Amir Kabir university even after their bond was posted.

At Isfahan University, students who have barricaded themselves since December 24 are continuing with their hunger strike against the repression of the student movement and the restriction of freedom of expression.

The student movement issued a communiqué protesting against the arrest of over 100 students in the past nine months.

Source: Rooz, Iran, December 30, 2007

Iran's Prisoners' Rights Organization chairman 'Amad Al-Din Baqi, who has been under arrest for 80 days, was returned to Evin prison after being rushed to the hospital following his second heart attack since Decemberf 26.

Dissident journalist 'Issa Saharkhiz said sarcastically that this policy towards Baqi and others was Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s way of putting Shi'ite justice into action.

Source: Rooz, Iran, December 30 and 31, 2007

At a conference of reformist journalists, Iranian Nobel Prize laureate and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi referred to that claims by the Iranian daily Kayhan that she was acting to increase economic sanctions against Iran and that she had called the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) "terrorists."

Ebadi said that the paper was making up stories, and that she had called for political sanctions against the Iranian government, not for economic sanctions that harmed the entire people.

Source: Kayhan, December 23, 2007; Rooz, Iran, December 31, 2007

In a meeting with reformist activists in Iran, Ayatollah Hossein 'Ali Montazeri, one of the senior Iranian clerics critical of the Iranian regime, said that the regime was acting illegally by approving candidates for the March 2008 Majlis (parliamentary) elections based on the candidates' political proximity to the regime.

Montazeri encouraged activity to pressure the regime to hold free elections, and reiterated that the slogan of Iran's Islamic Revolution was "independence, freedom, and Islamic revolution."

Source: Montazeri's blog, Iran, December 28, 2007

Russia has delivered a second consignment of nuclear fuel to Iran's Bushehr power plant, said Iranian Atomic Energy Organization deputy head today, December 28.

He said that the delivery was the same amount as was supplied in the first consignment, which arrived December 17.

Russia is to deliver a total of 82 tons of nuclear fuel to Iran, over two months and in eight separate consignments.

Source: Fars, Iran, December 28, 2007

In his sermon today, Tehran interim Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati congratulated all "real believers" in Christianity on the new year, and said that Jesus should be considered among the oppressed prophets "because certain individuals who allege to be an advocate of Christ, such as U.S. President George W. Bush, kill innocent people and trigger crisis among the world nations."

He lambasted those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ while committing murders in different parts of the world, and said that of the three options of silence, supporting the oppressors, and fighting with the oppressors, Jesus Christ would have certainly chosen the third if he was present among us.

He went on to slam the U.S. administration for sowing discord in Lebanon, saying that the ongoing political crisis there had been created and exacerbated by Washington. He said, "America has planted the occupiers of Quds [Israel] as a cancerous tumor in the heart of the Arab countries in order to create crises in Palestine and Lebanon."

He also said that Iran's upcoming March 2008 parliamentary elections would "show the world that religion and democracy are not incompatible."

Source: IRNA, IRIBnews.ir, Fars, Iran, December 28, 2007

The Iranian weekly Sobh-e Sadeq, which is the mouthpiece of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei circulated among Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, is claiming that the U.S. NIE report is actually "a searing accusation against Iran's nuclear activity" and constitutes psychological warfare and a new White House plan against Iran.

According to the paper, one of dangers of the report was that it cast great doubt on the International Atomic Energy Agency's oversight of Iran – because the agency had not spotted Iran's efforts to develop nuclear weapons since 2003. Thus, it said, there was no guarantee that Iran was not now concealing from the agency's inspectors a post-2003 renewal of its nuclear weapons development efforts.

The weekly said that according to the NIE report, Iran was concealing information – thus preparing world public opinion for further measures against Iran. Thus, the weekly said, according to the report Iran's efforts to develop nuclear weapons stopped in 2003 because of pressure and sanctions – so these should be escalated.

The weekly further stated that the NIE report gives world public opinion and the international institutions the impression that Iran can renew its nuclear weapons development efforts any time it likes, meaning that Iran is still a real threat to world peace.

Source: Sobh-e Sadeq, Iran, December 24, 2007

Al-Azhar Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi said yesterday, December 26, that Iran's scientific advancement, particularly in nuclear field, constitute pride for Islamic World.

Sheikh Tantawi made the comment during a meeting with Ali Larijani, Ali Larijani, the representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

Tantawi added, "Promoting solidarity among world Muslims is a dire need today," and said, "There are no important differences of opinion among the followers of major Islamic schools of thought, and the existing differences, too, are over issues of minute importance."

He said, "The enemies of Islam and a bunch of ignorant people contribute to exaggeration over such differences."

Source: IRIBnews.ir, Iran, December 27, 2007

Ali Larijani, the representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said yesterday, December 26, that Iran's religious and cultural centers are ready to cooperate with Al-Azhar University and other scientific centers in Egypt.

Ali Larijani proposed the cooperation during a Cairo meeting with the Al-Azhar University head and several Al-Azhar professors.

He said that Al-Azhar's role in promoting closeness among followers of major Islamic schools of thought has always been significant.

Source: IRIBnews.ir, Iran, December 27, 2007

In response to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's statement that the Algiers agreement determining that the Iran-Iraq border along the Shatt Al-Arab river is invalid, the Iranian daily Jomhouri-e Eslami warned, "Talabani must pay attention to the fact that the tearing up of this agreement was the step that began the crumbling of the rule of Saddam Hussein – which means that this is playing with fire."

In a December 26 interview with the Iranian website Entekhab, Talabani said that this statement, which appeared in a December 25 interview with the London daily Al-Hayat, had been distorted.

Sources: Entekhab, Iran, December 26, 2007; Jomhouri-e Eslami, Iran, December 27, 2007