The Latest from Iran (18 May): Getting Beyond the Uranium Agreement

2000 GMT: Bring the Kids Home. More than 200 children of Iranian diplomats have returned home to pursue education at local universities, Ministry of Science official Hassan Moslehi announced on Tuesday.

Moslehi said that all Iranian diplomats should transfer their children's education to Iran once they have fulfilled their mission abroad.

Last week member of Parliament Mohammad Shahryari had complained that around 400 children of senior Iranian officials were studying at universities in Britain.

NEW Iran Analysis: Washington and the Tehran Nuclear Deal (Parsi)
NEW Iran Alert: Filmmaker Firouz Faces Deportation From UK
NEW Iran Analysis: The Contest at Home Over (and Beyond) the Uranium Agreement (Zahra)
NEW Iran Analysis: Assessing the Tehran Nuclear Deal (Gary Sick)
Iran Document: Text of Iran-Brazil-Turkey Agreement on Uranium Enrichment
Iran Document: Mehdi Karroubi “The Islamic Republic Depends Upon the People”
Iran Document: The Prosecutor on the Executions, “Leaders of Sedition” (15 May)
Iran Urgent: The Deal on Uranium Enrichment
The Latest from Iran (17 May): Let’s Make a Deal (But Not with You, Mousavi)

1905 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Amir Khosro Dalirsani of the National Religious Front has been sentenced to four years in prison.


1855 GMT: Hmm, You Might Want to Think About This One. Saber Feizi, the head of the Telecommunications Company of Iran, has said, “The reason for the low internet speed in the country is that users mainly consult websites outside the country for obtaining information."

Launching 115 telecommunications projects in the holy city of Qom on Tuesday, Feizi said that issues with infrastructure were not to blame for slow internet access. He admitted that “lack of content” on Iranian pages pushed users to visit foreign websites.

1845 GMT: A Far-from-Academic Protest. Daneshjoo News claims that students at Khaje Nasir University of Technology in Tehran staged a spontaneous protest against the presence of the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

Green Movement supporters distributed leaflets and reportedly spilled paint over the car of the IRGC commander. The protest occurred despite the presence of armed security and military forces and at least four cameramen from university security.

1335 GMT: Defending His Judiciary. The head of Iran's judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, under pressure on several fronts, has issued a "hold the line" (and don't blame me) statement.

To the 175 members of Parliament who submitted a public letter calling for prosecution of opposition figures like Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, Larijani said the judiciary “is always in step with the greater policies of the Islamic Republic” and has not delayed in its confrontiation of “seditious elements”: “We are very good at our job and are not prone to procrastination as these gentlemen would like to believe. We have no fear of confronting the heads of sedition.”

As for claims that the judiciary has not pursued corruption allegations against public officials, including First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, Larijani claimed, “The Supreme Leader has repeatedly stressed on direct confrontation of corruption cases provided that they do not weaken the system.”

1145 GMT: We've added another analysis on the Iran-Brazil-Turkey uranium deal: Trita Parsi assesses its signficance and Washington's possible reaction.

1030 GMT: Cracking Down on Mousavi. More on the arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi's lead bodyguard, Ahmad Yazdanfar (see final updates yesterday)....

There is still no official reason for the detention of Yazdanfar, who has accompanied Mousavi for the past seven years. Following the arrest, Mousavi has asked his office staff not to appear at work until further notice.

0739 GMT: Rights and Repression. Rooz Online features a lengthy interview with Kurdish activist Mahmud Saeedzadeh, "The Judiciary is a Repressive Tool".

0735 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. RAHANA has published a list --- still incomplete --- of 472 political prisoners, their prisons, and their professions in both Persian and English.

0725 GMT: Subsidy Front. Subsidies: Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghaddam, a vocal Parliamentary critic of the Government on economic issues, has charged that the delay in implementation of subsidy cuts to September means the Government is obtaining $20 million of revenue illegally.

0720 GMT: Sacrificing Iran. An interesting statement from Dr Alireza Marandi, former Minister of Health and prominent medical professor: he says that the "development of the country has been sacrificed for politics".

Marandi is the father of the academic Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a high-profile post-election defender of Iran's Government.

0650 GMT: Domestic Politics and the Uranium Agreement. EA's newest correspondent, Ms Zahra, offers a sharp analysis of the internal manoeuvres over yesterday's nuclear news, noting the possibilities and pitfalls for both President Ahmadinejad and the opposition.

What is clear this morning is that Ahmadinejad's "opposition" is not limited to the Green Movement and reformists. The most striking comment in Rah-e-Sabz's overview of the deal and reactions is that of "conservative" member of Parliament Ahmad Tavakoli, who complains that "Iran has lost its most important ace" in high-stakes international card games. Tavakoli added to Fars News that the Tehran agreement is not an "treaty" but an "obligation" upon Iran.

There's more: Tavakoli is a firm ally of Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani. And Khabar Online, also linked to Larijani, features Tavakoli's remarks that "Ahmadinejad must come to the Majlis [Parliament] and explain this strange statement".

Jomhouri Eslami piles on, asserting that the treaty is "a complete drawback".

0600 GMT: Monday's Iran-Brazil-Turkey agreement on procedure over uranium enrichment resonates through politics and the media this morning. Our key question remains unanswered: did the US quietly support the Brazilian-Turkish initiative or was it taken by surprise?

So far Washington has limited itself to a "hold the line" statement, which sets out a further lines for Tehran to cross: let's see the agreement when it has been presented to the International Atomic Energy Agency and let's see Tehran pull back from its unilateral attempt at 20-percent enriched uranium. (The latter, I think, is a red herring; more important will be the response to the former.)

We've posted an analysis by top US-based analyst Gary Sick, and the newest EA correspondent will be offering thoughts later this morning.

As always, however, we will be ensuring that the nuclear news does not wipe Iran's internal situation from sight. An agreement on uranium enrichment does not stop the advance towards 12 June, the anniversary of the election, or the Government's arrests and intimidations. In what may be a most pointed signal, the head of Mir Hossein Mousavi's security detail was arrested yesterday.

And we have a special post this morning on Iranian filmmaker  and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights activist Kiana Firouz, who faces deportation from Britain.

Comments

[Arshama]

Shanghai Expo (Special Watch)

Spiegel-Online has a cute article about the Shanghai Expo, attended only by half of the expected Chinese visitors. http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/service/0%2C1518%2C695084%2C00.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/service/0,1518...
The North Korean neighbours the Iranian pavillon (special area for dictatorships), the former has a signboard "Paradise for the People", the latter a message from AN, advocating the "ideal city, repleted with love, devotion and understanding".
Any objections ;-)

[Megan]

"So far Washington has limited itself to a “hold the line” statement"

It takes, at minimum, 8 to 9 days for this US administration to react and formulate a response to any domestic or international event! It is only two days! Give them a break please, will you?!!!!

[Arshama]

@ 0739 GMT: Rights and Repression

Have a look at these graffitis from Tehran, reading "Death to the Republic of Gallows / Executions", "Kurdistan, Tehran is with you", "Hail to brave Kurdistan", and "We will take revenge for the executions" http://www.peykeiran.com/Content.aspx?ID=16926" rel="nofollow">http://www.peykeiran.com/Content.aspx?ID=16926

This regime should read the Writings on the walls...

[Catherine]

Death Senetence Watch
UN Urged to Take Action for Jafar Kazemi, Political Prisoner on Death Row
Jafar Kazemi was arrested on September 18, 2009 and sentenced to death. In a letter written to the United Nation’s secretary general and published by HRDAI, Kazemi’s wife describes the family’s ordeal since her husband’s arrest.
http://persian2english.com/?p=10796" rel="nofollow">http://persian2english.com/?p=10796

[Catherine]

Family of Jafar Panahi threatened
On Sunday morning, eight security agents including two women raided the house of imprisoned filmmaker Jafar Panahi in a clear attempt to intimidate his family.

According to Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s official website Kaleme, the agents who raided the Panahi home threatened his family not to reveal any information regarding Panahi's condition to the press. They told the family that in the case of any interviews they would immediately be imprisoned.
http://en.irangreenvoice.com/article/2010/may/17/1894" rel="nofollow">http://en.irangreenvoice.com/article/2010/may/1...

[Catherine]

The IRI's "Social Security Plan" has nothing to do with retirement!

The Tehran police plans to start implementing a new phase of the Social Security Plan next week.

In this phase, the police will deal with people who drive down the street looking for dates, Tehran Police Chief Hossein Sajedi told the Mehr News Agency on Sunday. These people will be taken to court and their cars will be impounded for two months, Sajedi said.

The police have already begun implementing the phases of the Social Security Plan that call for the deployment of undercover police officers across Tehran and a clampdown on thugs and producers and distributors of illegal drugs and pornographic movies.

So far, the police have confiscated over 200,000 films from 180 centers where pornographic films and other illegal movies were written onto CDs, the Tehran police chief stated
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=219605" rel="nofollow">http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=...

[Catherine]

RE "There is still no official reason for the detention of Yazdanfar, who has accompanied Mousavi for the past seven years."

Didn't they do the same thing with Karroubi - deprive him of his bodyguards in the run-up to an important date on the IRI calendar?

[Tom]

Very moving speech at the Cannes film festival today by Abbas Kiarostami in defense of his colleague Jafar Panahi.
From spanish newspaper El Pais: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/grito/Abbas/Kiarostami/defensa/Jafar/Panahi/elpepucul/20100518elpepucul_5/Tes" rel="nofollow">http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/grito/Ab...
(run it through Google translate for reasonable english version)

[Arshama]

@ 1845 GMT: A Far-from-Academic Protest

Daneshjoo news reports students from Free Universities (Daneshgahe Azad) will stage sit-ins and hungerstrikes tomorrow (19 May) to protest against the 100th day of arrest of Ali Malihi and all other students, imprisoned on behalf of false accusations: http://www.daneshjoonews.com/news/student/1024-1389-02-28-15-42-55.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.daneshjoonews.com/news/student/1024-...