Iran Focus: Tehran, Aug. 22 – In one of his most forthright comments since losing the presidential elections in June, former President Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Monday criticised the removal of Hassan Rowhani as secretary general of the Supreme National Security Council, the country’s highest decision-making body on security-related issues. “It would have been much more beneficial for [Rowhani”> to have remained [secretary general of”> the Supreme National Security Council, but this did not happen”, the elderly cleric told a high-level meeting organised to honour Rowhani’s services during his tenure as SNSC secretary general.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 22 – Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has banned the script of a leading film and theatre director less than a month after he was forced to pull one of the most successful plays in Iran in recent times off the stage because of its “seditious” message.
Confirming the ban on his screenplay entitled “Fish” in an interview with a local news agency, director Bahram Beizaii said, “As things stand, I just don’t know what to do”.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 22 – The row in Iran’s Majlis (parliament) on Sunday was stage-managed by the dominant ultra-Islamist faction, according to an official close to former president Mohammad Khatami.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 22 – An Iranian student activist was sentenced to one year in prison for organising anti-government demonstrations, the head of a student organisation said on Monday. Amir-Hossein Balali, a former student activist in Amir-Kabir University of Technology, had also been accused of inciting public anger against the state during the years 1998-2001, Yashar Qajar said.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 22 – Iran’s former chief nuclear negotiator told reporters on Monday that Tehran would give Europe a chance to give its agreement before the country takes another crucial step towards achieving the full nuclear cycle.