 2125 GMT: We Persist. The Committee of Human Rights Reporters, many of whose members have been detaineed, has issued a statement:
The Committee of Human Rights Reporters once again by maintaining the path that it has taken and by supporting other human rights organizations, emphasizes that it will continue its decisive activities in reporting human rights conditions on both national and international levels through collaborations with independent and credible international human rights organizations.
NEW Iran Labour Front: Minimum Wage, “Unprecedent Poverty and Hunger”, and Strikes
NEW Iran Analysis: What Does the Fire Festival Mean?
NEW Latest Iran Video: Two Views of the Fire Festival (16 March)
Iran Document: Mousavi Speech on “Patience and Resistance” (15 March)
Latest Iran Video: The Attack on Karroubi’s House (14 March)
Iran Breaking: Ban on Reformist Political Party
The Latest from Iran (16 March): Fire and Politics
2115 GMT: Karroubi’s Big Line. Here’s the stinger statement from Mehdi Karroubi as he addressed the (banned) Islamic Iran Participation Front: “Why is it that the justifications of the Shah for his actions were wrong but the very logic and content of his words coming from you is to be considered right?”
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Tags: Abdolreza Ghanbari, Aftab News, Ashura, Chahrshanbeh Suri, Committee of Human Rights Reporters, Etemaad, foreign policy, Free Assembly of Iranian Workers, Genevieve Abdo, Hashemi Rafsanjani, Hassan Rohani, International Committee for Human Rights, Iran, Iran Elections 2009, Islamic Iran Participation Front, Jafar Azim Zadeh, Jafar Panahi, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Masoud Mir Kazemi, Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mohammad Khatami, Mohammad Rasoulof, Mohsen Mirdamadi, Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Nowruz, Parleman News, Press TV, Saeed Nourmohammadi, Zahra Rahnavard
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 Jafar Azim Zadeh, the head of the Free Assembly of Iranian Workers, in an interview with Deutsche Welle:
DW: Yesterday, the new Minimum Wage rate was announced. What is your assessment of the rate which is $303 (per month) for the next Iranian year?
Azim Zadeh: The $303 rate, which is an increase of 15 percent compared to the last year, not only will not solve any of the Iranian workers’ problems, but compared to the current year rate of $260 will bring greater hunger and destitution for the Iranian working people.
Today in Tehran, $303 does not even pay for the rent of accommdation for a 4-person family. With $303, it may be possible only to pay rent for some periphery locations in Tehran. With food, clothing, health, education, and other expenses, I think the workers will face unprecedented poverty and hunger in the coming year.
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Tags: Deutsche Welle, Free Assembly of Iranian Workers, Iran, Jafar Azim Zadeh
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 Sometimes a celebration should be considered first as a celebration.
After months of reporting on tension and conflict, it was a pleasure to watch the joy of Iranians on Chahrshanbeh Suri, the eve of Iranian New Year celebration of the renewal of fire. Although there was a heavy security presence in main streets and squares, this did not — as The Washington Post reported — “block traditional celebrations”.
Latest Iran Video: Two Views of the Fire Festival (16 March)
Instead, on side streets and outside residences across Iran, people gathered to set off firecrackers, sing, dance, and jump over the small fires which hark back to Zoroastrian tradition. An EA reader eagerly wrote us, “Our family live in a provincial town. It was rocking tonight with the sound of fireworks! Cud be heard in every part of the town :-)” Even in Press TV’s state-sanitised video of events, there is the pleasure of an elderly woman gingerly skipping in her long dress over a few inches of flame.
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Tags: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Chahrshanbeh Suri, Iran, Iran Elections 2009, Press TV, The Guardian, Washington Post
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The Opposition Version: “Death to the Dictator”
The State Version: Press TV
Tags: Chahrshanbeh Suri, Iran, Press TV
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 Sharmine Narwani writes for The Huffington Post:
In the Mideast, only one thing is ever certain. Expect the unexpected. The smallest incident can flare up overnight and alter even God’s well-laid plans.
The latest conflagration erupted over something that Israel has been doing for 42 years. The announcement of plans for 1,600 new illegal settlement apartments in Occupied East Jerusalem — the slated capital of the future Palestinian state — would have been a mere irritant for the US in normal circumstances.
Israel: Netanyahu Swims in Dangerous Waters
But US President Barack Obama still has egg on his face from his early failure to wrangle a settlement freeze from Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu only agreed to a meaningless 10-month halt, excluding “natural growth” and East Jerusalem builds. That is a loophole large enough to accommodate an elephant.
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 Josh Shahryar writes for EA:
Imagine this scenario: within the space of a single day, two deadly bombs hit two different cities in two different countries. The death toll from each bomb is dozens killed and dozens more injured. Both bombs are placed by arms of the same terrorist organization.
Now suppose these two cities were in France and Spain. The two countries would immediately share all the information they with each other to find a solution to a shared problem. It’s common sense. But sadly in this case, the two countries are Afghanistan and Pakistan. They have not understood this logic of sharing information, even after years of being subjected to such terrorist attacks.
Afghanistan-Pakistan: America’s Private Assassination Company
On 12 March, suicide bombings in the Pakistani city of Lahore killed 72 people and injured dozens. On 13 March, a bomb ripped through the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, slaying more than 30 people and wounding dozens more. More bombs exploded in the following days.
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Tags: al-Qaeda, Hamid Karzai, Josh Shahryar, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Pakistan, Taliban
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 2100 GMT: Chahrshanbeh Suri. An activist reports a conversation with a relative in Gisha in Tehranm, who said basiji were roaming the streets on their bikes and tried to stop people celebrating. Told of a report that said nothing political had happened tonight, the relative answered, “In Iran everything is political.”
2010 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. More temporary releases — Behzad Nabavi, a leader of the Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution Party serving a five-year term for “crimes against national security”, and journalist and economist Saeed Laylaz have been freed until 4 April. Laylaz posted $500,000 bail.
NEW Iran Document: Mousavi Speech on “Patience and Resistance” (15 March)
NEW Latest Iran Video: The Attack on Karroubi’s House (14 March)
Iran Breaking: Ban on Reformist Political Party
Your Super-Special Iran Caption Contest
Iran: The Opposition’s Campaign in the US — Sequel With Revelations and A Lesson
The Latest from Iran (15 March): Breaking Human Rights
2000 GMT: Chahrshanbeh Suri Reza Sayah of CNN reports, via a Tehran witness, that police are spray painting passing cars that toss firecrackers out of windows. Basiji used tasers and batons to chase away 300 partiers near Mehr Park in Farmanieh.
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Tags: Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi, Ahmad Batebi, Ali Akbar Soroush, Ali Gha'ani, Ali Larijani, Alireza Shahiri, Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani, Azar Mansouri, Behzad Nabavi, Central Intelligence Agency, Chahrshanbeh Suri, CNN, Ebrahim Nabavi, Esmail Gha'ani, Hossein Karroubi, Human Rights Activists in Iran, Iman Sadighi, Iran, Iran Elections 2009, Islamic Iran Participation Front, Islamic Republic Guards Corps, Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Khabar Online, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mohajedin of Islamic Revolution, Mohammad Esmailzadeh, Mohsen Barzegar, Press TV, Rah-e-Sabz, Reza Sayah, Saeed Jalalifar, Saeed Laylaz
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