Sunday
Aug012010
The Latest from Iran (1 August): Pressure on Ahmadinejad & Khamenei
Sunday, August 1, 2010 at 14:30 
1930 GMT: New rhetorical developments in the "War with Iran" corner --- we've got a separate analysis of today's appearance by US military chief Mike Mullen on a Sunday talk show.1850 GMT: Women, Off Your Bikes. The Friday Prayers leader of Mashaad has reminded women that it is forbidden for them to cycle.
1845 GMT: Terrorist Alert. Fars News reports that a "terrorist" group, made up of Baha'i followers, has been rounded up in Tehran.
1700 GMT: Water Squeeze, Electricity Squeeze Oil Squeeze. Rah-e-Sabz surveys the crisis in supply of clean water, electricity, and gas, noting the restriction in operations of many plants.
NEW Iran Analysis: Hyping the War Chatter — US Military Chief Mike Mullen Speaks
Iran Analysis: More War, No Facts, Blah Blah (Chapter 23)
Iran Analysis: Looking Back on the 1980s (Verde)
Iran Music Video Special: The Award-Winning “Ayatollah, Leave Those Kids Alone”
Iran’s Persecution of Rights: The Pursuit of Lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei (Shahryar)
The Latest from Iran (31 July): Past and Present
1655 GMT: Academic Corner. Advar-e Tahkim Vahdat, the student alumni organisation, has warned of widespread purges of professors with the destruction of social sciences and condemned the prison sentences of Bahareh Hedayat, Ali Malihi, and Milad Asadi.
1650 GMT: More Pressure on the Supreme Leader. Ayatollah Mohsen Kadivar, who recently made a prominent call for the removal of Ayatollah Khamenei, has declared that the "greatest coup d'état" in Iran has been "made by the first person of the country".
1635 GMT: Khomeini Intervention. Seyed Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, has appealed for "an end to hate and rancour as means to solve problems".
Khomeini was meeting members of Islamic associations in Golestan Province.
1620 GMT: Today's All-is-Well Alert. The managing director of the National Iranian Oil Distribution Company (NIODC), Farid Ameri, has said that despite the imposition of new UN sanctions, Iran's gasoline reserves have increased by 15%. Ameri insisted that Iran is capable of supplying its gasoline needs.
1610 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Student activist Hosein Sarshoumi has been arrested in Isfahan.
1530 GMT: Counter-Sanctions. The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has issued a directive, "Registration of orders for printing goods, tools and machines from Britain is not allowed."
1520 GMT: Economy Watch. Reports claims that German experts hired for a metro project in Isfahan have left because of unpaid wages.
1515 GMT: Tough Talk of the Day. Yadollah Javani, the political director of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps: if attacked, Iran will take the war beyond its geographical borders.
1450 GMT: Economy Watch. Parleman News reports that unemployment has risen in 21 of Iran's 30 provinces.
The official unemployment rate is now above 10% in 22 provinces.
Mehr News reports that Iran's non-oil trade imbalance has increased, with imports now at a 2:1 ratio to exports.
1430 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kalemeh says that four hunger strikers (we had reported on one, Payman Akbari-Azad, at 1405 GMT) have been moved to a clinic at Evin Prison.
1415 GMT: Western Reporters, Stay Away. Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad-Ali Ramin, in addition to slamming Iran's "irresponsible press" (see 1400 GMT), has proclaimed, "The Western media will be excluded from this year's [national] press exhibition. We will not allow the presence of those Western media which are vain, dishonest and beguiling and consider themselves as the ultimate media sultans of the world."
Ramin said exceptions would be made for Western media "which are fitting and independent" to attend the 25 October exhibition.
Earlier this year, some Western journalists used purported coverage of a Tehran conference on uranium enrichment to publish other first-hand stories of Iranian life and politics after the 2009 election.
1410 GMT: Put-Down of the Day. Activist Zahra Rahnavard on Ayatollah Jannati, head of the Guardian Council, after his speech this week defending the Supreme Leader and claiming a US-Saudi $50 billion plot for regime change: "Even a cooked chicken laughs at his words."
1405 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. RAHANA reports that Payman Akbari-Azad, in the 7th day of his hunger strike, has been taken to a hospital outside Evin Prison.
1400 GMT: Complaint of the Week. Mohammad Ali Ramin, the Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, commented on Wednesday in a speech at Imam Khomeini International University blasted the "undesirable situation of the press": "The government is criticized and even disparaged on a daily and weekly basis by at least 500 to 600 publications in the country in the strongest, sometimes insulting, terms."
Ramin also said there are too many publications in Iran:
In the period before me, the supervisory committee would issue 60 licenses during a one-hour meeting. We are now facing problems and some people have licenses over which there is no supervision....Some of these publications which have obtained licenses are in the hands of individuals with no money and they become dependent on investors. The government must help them become absorbed into parties and organizations.
In another section of the speech, Ramin supported the Supreme Leader's "I am the Rule of the Prophet" fatwa and went even further: "The [Leader] has the position of surrogate of the Imam Zaman [the 12th "hidden" Imam] and on his behalf must manage the world, in other words the imposition of God's proof upon humanity during the time of absence [of Imam Zaman]."
Ramin concluded, "We must find a way for the velayat-e-faqih system to manage the world."
0720 GMT: Trouble for the Fatwa? With clerical reaction in Iran awaited to the Supreme Leader's declaration of authority (see 0645 GMT), Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the leading Shia cleric in Iraq (and a native of Iran), has given a less than warm reception.
Sistani said that, to rule the country, velayat-e-faqih and the Supreme Leader's authority must be approved by the majority of loyal followers. He added that if the rule of a marja (senior cleric) differs from that of the Supreme Leader, it is still valid if it is based on welfare for all, unless it contradicts the Qukran and tradition. (http://www.khabaronline.ir/news-80110.aspx)
Meanwhile, Hojatoleslam Hossein Ebrahimi of the Assocation of Combatant Clergy has warned that all three branches of Government are in the hands of hardliners. He added, however, that those hardliners are menaced by internal conflicts and said reformists have not been eliminated. (http://www.khabaronline.ir/news-77980.aspx)
0710 GMT: The Battle Within. The dispute between Parliament and President is now affecting war veterans, according to Rah-e-Sabz. The site claims that the law to support victims of chemical warfare in the Iran-Iraq War has not been implemented by the Government.
(http://www.rahesabz.net/story/20523/)
MP Musalreza Servati has warned that if the Government does not approve the funds for the Tehran metro system, the relevant ministers will be impeached. (http://www.rahesabz.net/story/20470/)
On a different front, MP Esmail Kousari has challenged the Government's "soft" stance on hijab: any current which wants to supersede hardliners is not hardline at all. (http://www.khabaronline.ir/news-78645.aspx)
Alireza Marandi has asked, "How can a government that does not implement Majlis legislation... pretend to be able to run the country?" (http://www.khabaronline.ir/news-79922.aspx)
However, the most serious challenge may have come from Mohammad Nabi Habibi, the leader of the conservative Motalefeh party. Amidst growing confrontation with the President's inner circle, Habibi has struck back at Ahmadinejad's recent declaration that only one party, the Velayat Party, is necessary.
Habibi claimed that the lack of parties menaces Iran and said the "propaganda system" of a party that presents its aims as those of the people is wrong.
Then he warned, "In many cases government have been toppled because of this." (http://www.khabaronline.ir/news-80102.aspx)
0700 GMT: Watching the Clerics. An EA correspondent tells us of a development with the Supreme Leader's "I am the Rule of the Prophet" fatwa.
Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, who was approached by Ayatollah Khamenei's staff before the fatwa was issued, has published answers to questions about velayat-e-faqih (clerical supremacy) on his website. (http://persian.makarem.ir/estefta/?it=899&mit)
Makarem Shirazi's responses could be a big clue as to whether the Supreme Leader's assertion of authority will be accepted by senior clerics. Curiously, only some of the answers have been published by Fars News. (http://www.farsnews.net/newstext.php?nn=8905080088)
0645 GMT: Slapdown to Obama. Iran has responded to President Obama's call on Friday for the release of three Americans, detained for allegedly walking across the Iran border last year, by insisting that the trio will be tried.
0630 GMT: Oil Salvation from Beijing? Deputy Minister of Oil Hossein Nokreqhbar Shirazi claimed Saturday that Chinese investment in Iran's energy sector has risen to $40 billion.
There was a downside, however. Shirazi admitted that Iran's oil exports to China have fallen 30% this year.
0600 GMT: Catching up with the news while on the road....
Political Prisoner Watch
Brazil has offered asylum to Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman sentenced to death --- initially by stoning before this was recently revoked --- for adultery.
Peyke Iran publishes pictures of detainees' families who protested in front of the Tehran Prosecutor General's office on Saturday.
Inside Evin Prison, telephone contact has been re-established with political prisoners in Ward 350, where detainees protested last week over ill treatment of them and their families by prison guards. There is still no word, however, of several prisoners who are reportedly in solitary confinement and on hunger strike.
RAHANA posts a report on Majid Dorri, one of the hunger strikers.
Economy Watch
Green Voice of Freedom writes about the metal industry of Kerman, "destroyed" by Chinese & Pakistani imports.
tagged Advar-e Takhim Vahdat, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Brazil, China, Farid Ameri, Fars News, Green Voice of Freedom, Hossein Nokreqhbar Shirazi, Iran, Kalemeh, Majid Dorri, Mehr News, Mike Mullen, Mohammad Ali Ramin, Mohsen Kadivar, Parleman News, Payman Akbari-Azad, Peyke Iran, RAHANA, Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, Seyed Hassan Khomeini, Yadollah Javani, Zahra Rahnavard in Middle East & Iran
Advar-e Takhim Vahdat, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Brazil, China, Farid Ameri, Fars News, Green Voice of Freedom, Hossein Nokreqhbar Shirazi, Iran, Kalemeh, Majid Dorri, Mehr News, Mike Mullen, Mohammad Ali Ramin, Mohsen Kadivar, Parleman News, Payman Akbari-Azad, Peyke Iran, RAHANA, Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, Seyed Hassan Khomeini, Yadollah Javani, Zahra Rahnavard in Middle East & Iran
Reader Comments (20)
Boo-hoo! They don't like us!
Homylafayette has a new entry up on Mohammad Ali Ramin, Deputy Islamic Guidance Minister in charge of the press, who has been complaining about how many publications criticise the government on a daily basis and that there are too many publications in the country in the first place. Ramin is directly responsible for banning publications.
Read: http://homylafayette.blogspot.com/2010/07/up-to-600-national-publications.html" rel="nofollow">http://homylafayette.blogspot.com/2010/07/up-to...
RE: Peyke Iran publishes pictures of detainees’ families who protested in front of the Tehran Prosecutor General’s office on Saturday.
Information in English to go with the pictures:
http://en.irangreenvoice.com/article/2010/jul/31/2206" rel="nofollow">http://en.irangreenvoice.com/article/2010/jul/3...
RE: 0645 GMT: Iran has responded to President Obama’s call on Friday for the release of three Americans by insisting that the trio will be tried.
From the Christian Science Monitor:
In ironic twist, Iran detained US hikers critical of Israel and America
Just before Iran arrested three US hikers a year ago Saturday, one of them – Shane Bauer – had nearly finished an exposé on Israeli military aggression.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0730/In-ironic-twist-Iran-detained-US-hikers-critical-of-Israel-and-America" rel="nofollow">http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010...
Maybe that's why the US hasn't pushed hard to get them out like they did with the very lovely and innocuous Roxana Saberi.... ???
Sanctions Give China an Advantage in Iran
The European Union’s new sanctions against Iran appear to open a new space for eager Chinese companies to expand their investments in a country viewed as a rogue player by much of the western world.
http://original.antiwar.com/antoaneta-bezlova/2010/07/30/sanctions-give-china-an-advantage-in-iran/" rel="nofollow">http://original.antiwar.com/antoaneta-bezlova/2...
Bizarre and sad story of how Zahra Soltani, with a similar appearance and name to Neda Agha-Soltan, was swept up in the government’s efforts to counter any suggestion that its security forces had been involved in the shooting of Neda, and was eventually forced to flee Iran.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/world/middleeast/01neda.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/world/middlee...
From Haaretz: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leaning toward accepting the United Nations' proposal that it investigate the Gaza-flotilla affair. The U.S. administration is pressuring Israel to accept the proposal by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, and Netanyahu is expected to make a decision this week. (...) According to Ban's proposal, a review panel would examine the investigations that Israel and Turkey are carrying out. The team would thus begin its work only after the investigations in each country are completed. Heading the review panel would be former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer, while his deputy would be outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-amenable-to-un-probe-of-gaza-flotilla-incident-1.305197" rel="nofollow">http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israe...
Maybe not the right place to post this - but wanted to share anyway :-)
A heart braking story from a depressed reporter within, on Tehran Bureau: If Kafka were born today, he would be Iranian. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/08/kafka-would-have-loved-it.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranb...
"Iran is now a land of mediocre people accepting less-than-mediocre results. This is not just the vanishing middle class. It is almost at every level. I know that we all want to blame the government for our predicament, and it does deserve our condemnation. But that is ruminated over enough in cyberspace and amongst the intellectuals and on sites like Tehran Bureau. The real blame should also fall on us as Iranians who accept mediocrity as the legitimate status quo."
Thanks Catherine! To me the most important sentences of this blogpost are in the end... Ramin is quoted there saying this: 'The [Leader] has the position of surrogate of the Imam Zaman (NB The Mahdi or messiah of Shiites) and on his behalf must manage the world, in other words the imposition of God's proof upon humanity during the time of absence [of Imam Zaman],' Ramin said at the beginning of his address in Qazvin. 'We must find a way for the velayateh faghih system to manage the world,' Ramin told the students a bit later, obviously still enamored of the idea of world dominance with which he flirted in his younger days.
'Kafka would love it!' ties in particularly well to the "bickerng points" listed in the segment above: 0710 GMT: The Battle Within.
I bet Obama insisted on this during the kiss-and-make-up session with Netanyahu at the White House recently. I wonder what he gave Bibi for it?
Iran brands Western media 'dishonest cocky cheats'
Iran's deputy culture minister lashed out at Western media on Sunday, who will be banned from an annual press fair in the autumn. "This year none of the Western media are allowed to participate in the fair," said Mohammad Ali Ramin, who is also a press watchdog official. "We have eliminated them, because Western media are dishonest, cocky cheats and see themselves as the invincible sultans of the world," he said, adding that "there are rare exceptions" without elaborating.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100801/wl_mideast_afp/iranpoliticsmedia_20100801104107" rel="nofollow">http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100801/wl_mideast...
Does the man have a point? ;-)
Homylafayette gave some background on this man: "Ramin, 56, was fairly unknown on the national stage until Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's first term, when he became a presidential adviser. He allegedly contributed to Ahmadinejad's questionable positions about Israel and the Holocaust, and was the prime initiator of the infamous 2006 Holocaust conference held in Tehran, which was attended by such luminaries as Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson. He headed Tehran's International Holocaust Foundation and was named deputy Islamic guidance minister last year. Ramin lived in Germany from 1971 until 1994, when he was expelled from the country for unknown reasons, though some sources cite his activities in Islamist and neo-Nazi circles as the cause. (...) It is said that during his time in Germany he forged close relations with neo-Nazi and extreme-right figures, including Benedikt Frings of the NPD (National Democratic Party), who was also a guest at the Holocaust conference." http://homylafayette.blogspot.com/2010/07/up-to-600-national-publications.html" rel="nofollow">http://homylafayette.blogspot.com/2010/07/up-to...
Even is if does have a point, let's not do him the honor to answer the question for him? :-)
CNN: The son of an Iranian woman facing imprisonment and possible execution by stoning has been told that Iranian authorities will contact him about his mother's case Thursday, a human rights activist said Sunday. Mina Ahadi, chairwoman of the International Committee Against Stoning and Execution, said authorities contacted the son of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani on Sunday. They did not specify the nature of the information he would receive on Thursday.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/08/01/iran.stoning/index.html?section=cnn_latest#fbid=X-9bZXLJlyS" rel="nofollow">http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/08/01/i...
[...] from: The Latest from Iran (1 August): Pressure on Ahmadinejad … Written by admin in: Earth | Tags: a-separate-analysis, corner-, military-chief, [...]
Some people ask :" Why is it that the West will not allow Iran to have atomic weapons - but are not concerned that Israel already has them??"
This is the reason -- "Ramin concluded, “We must find a way for the velayat-e-faqih system to manage the world.”
This is never going to happen of course - but in the meantime, before the eventual downfall of this system, they are a menace which must be at the least "contained", but preferably eliminated.
Barry
My gratitude to all of you for providing a fantastic news and analysis service while I was away.
Thank you....
S.
"Iran's president now under attack by hardliners." A noteworthy piece from the Emirates by Michael Theodoulou and Maryam Sinaiee, foreign correspondents.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100802/FOREIGN/708019834/1011/rss" rel="nofollow">http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article...
"Whether Ahmadined’s conservative opponents eventually make a concerted effort to oust him – which would require Khamenei’s approval – will depend largely on the outcome of his foreign and economic policies, analysts say.
If these are deemed to be preventing “the system from functioning properly,” the second analyst in Tehran said, “Principlists may come to the decision that they need to sacrifice him to survive”."
@Scott. Hope you enjoyed your getting 'lost' in the northwest... :-)
Thanks for another interesting article.
But WitteKr, dear, are you all right? It seems you were chained to your computer yesterday for at leat 12 hours! Has someone come by to release you yet? ;-)
Catherine, for an old timer like me seeing history unfold via the internet (no matter how many weeks, months, years it takes) has become an addiction... :-)
I can still remember trying to get in touch with the strikers at Polish Gdansks' shipyard via a telex machine (remember those?) and following the aftermath of the shooting of President Reagan by plugging into the American Service Radio station of a US military camp nearby... the only direct source.
I wish journalists today would appreciate the new technology more: we would see a lot of quality reporting instead of all this poor 'news' we are fed by the traditional media.
Ah, and in the old days I *loved* the night shift!
Thanks for asking :-)
WitterKr,
I totally understand how one can get 'addicted' in the best sense of the word to the Internet! Take my parents - neither of them was computer savvy before the Internet appeared, but by the late 90s (when they were already in their late 60s) they had e-mail accounts and are constantly online!