Iran Feature: The Last Blog of Sattar Beheshti, Murdered by Security Forces in Prison

If you are so afraid of information, either step down from office, or stop committing injustices. Don't arrest people, don't torture them, don't butcher them, so they don't have to denounce you. Otherwise, not only will informing and denouncing you go on, but your own injustice will soon end up falling apart on your own head. Informing others of the miseries of any human being is the responsibility of every single one of us, and if anyone fails to do so, he or she has betrayed his or her conscience. Anyone who fails to inform others digs himself into a hole.

For you, sirs, intend to silence everyone, one by one, even in privacy, anyone who intends to raise his or her voice. Don't threaten us anymore, for fear has no place in our hearts anymore. Neither the whip nor torture can frighten us or prevent us from informing others.

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Iran Snap Analysis: Military Chest-Thumping Takes Over in Tehran

Mohammad Ali Jafari, Head of Revolutionary GuardsNow the important question: is this chest-thumping merely a complement to the talk and manoeuvres for discussions with the US and the 5+1 Powers on Iran's nuclear programme? Is it the indication that Tehran is stepping away from negotiations? Or does it point to a continuing battle within the regime, with the Revolutionary Guards' commanders trying to win over Supreme Leader and quash the efforts of others --- not only the diplomats, but also politicians like the Larijani brothers --- for the discussions with Washington?

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: New Opposition Coalition Formed "In Principle"

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2015 GMT: Syria. The new opposition umbrella Syrian National Coaliation has chosen Damascus cleric Moaz al-Khatib as its head.

Al-Khatib, the former Sunni Muslim imam of the Umayyad Mosque, left the country for Cairo in July after several periods of detention.

Leading dissident Riad Seif said a "12-point agreement" had been sealed. Proposals include an assembly of 55-60 members, with representation for ethnic Kurds, Christians, Alawites, and women, and from the SNC. The new body will also have a military council that will include the Free Syrian Army.

The Syrian National Council, the previous umbrella leadership, was reportedly given a deadline of 10:00 (0700 GMT) to join the Coalition or risk being left out.

Bassem Said Ishak of the SNC said the Kurds required 48 hours to get the approval of their leadership.

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The Latest from Iran (11 November): Preparing for Renewed Nuclear Talks?

See also Iran 1st-Hand: As Sanctions Bite, Life-Saving Drugs Disappear
The Latest from Iran (10 November): Noticing the US-Iran Nuclear Talks

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2034 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The young children of detained lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh have reportedly been denied a visit, as the attorney enters the fourth week of a hunger strike over prison restrictions.

Sotoudeh's husband Reza Khandan wrote:

At the visitation area, despite the fact that prisoners are normally granted face to face visits if they present a letter, we were told that we need to go to the prison’s main gate in order to visit with Nasrin.

At the main gate, after presenting them with the letter allowing us to see Nasrin in person, we were forced to wait 3 hours. Nima who suffers from asthma started having a cough attack as a result of his cold and the poor air condition.

The prison’s administration office eventually closed and an hour after the official prison visitation hours and after such a long wait, we returned home extremely disappointed, never being able to see Nasrin.

The children were starring at that prison gate for 3 1/2 hours. Every time that gate opened and closed they waited patiently to hear their names so that they could see their mother.

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Iran 1st-Hand: As Sanctions Bite, Life-Saving Drugs Disappear (Tehran Bureau)

On Vali Asr Street, in a lower-income district of southwest Tehran, a 30-year-old man storms out of a pharmacy. Arash, a bachelor with long hair and a substantial mustache, lives with his father, for whose heart medicine he has been searching fruitlessly.

Arash says that his father had a heart attack a year ago. "His doctor prescribed Carnitine for him when he was released [from the hospital]. The doctor said that it is very beneficial for his heart muscles."

He says Italy produces the kind of heart medicine his father needs. "It comes as pills and in liquid form. But neither exist [here] these days." He says his father has tried domestically produced versions, "but they are not useful. They don't have the effect of imported drugs."

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US Elections 2012 Audio: Obama's Victory and What Happens Next --- A Conversation with Ideas Lab

I spoke with the University of Birmingham's Ideas Lab on Thursday about the US elections, President Obama's victory, and the political challenges that lay ahead both for him and for the Republican Party. Topics ranged from the debate over the economy and Government budget to the new social dynamics revealed by the vote to American foreign policy.

The full SoundCloud discussion:

The shorter version featured on Ideas Lab:

Syria Feature: Latest on Fighting Among Free Syrian Army, Kurdish Militias, and Regime Forces

Footage of captured regime soldiers after insurgents took Ras al-Ain

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The lack of manpower in the Syrian army due to defections and desertions has led to the Free Syrian army expanding into areas with Kurdish populations, despite an agreement between the FSA and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) to stay out of each other’s zones of control. This led to tensions and fighting between the FSA and the PYD in Aleppo Province, both in cities and the countryside, as well as friction between the Kurdish National Council (KNC) and the PYD.

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The Latest from Iran (10 November): Noticing the US-Iran Nuclear Talks

See also Iran Feature: The Last Days of the Tehran American School
The Latest from Iran (9 November): So 2 Iranian Fighters Fired on a US Drone and Then....

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1450 GMT: Human Rights Watch. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has called on the United Nations to suspend the US membership in the Human Rights Council: "It is obvious that the US administration with its negative record of human rights and its actions in violation of the criteria and standards of the UN human rights conventions and treaties is not qualified to be a member of the Human Rights Council which is the most important international human rights mechanism."

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: What Happened to the Syrian National Initiative for a New Opposition?

Former MP Jawad Fairouz, one of 31 people whose citizenship was revoked by the Bahraini regime (see 0635 and 1125 GMT), speaks with the BBC

See also Syria Feature: Latest on Fighting Among Free Syrian Army, Kurdish Militias, and Regime Forces
Yemen Feature: How A Country Was Lost in Obama's "War Laboratory"
Syria Audio Special: Regime's Leadership Defiant as Opposition's Disintegrates --- James Miller and Scott Lucas with Monocle 24
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Opposition Still Seeking Leadership

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1530 GMT: Turkey. Six leading Kurdish politicians have joined hundreds of jailed militants and activists in a hunger strike, now in its 60th day.

About 700 Kurdish prisoners in dozens of facilities are calling for the leader of the PKK insurgency, Abdullah Ocalan, who is imprisoned on an island south of Istanbul, to have access to lawyers after 15 months of no contact.

Osman Baydemir, mayor of Diyarbakir in predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkey, said in a statement on Saturday that he had stopped eating. Five Kurdish members of the Turkish Parliament --- Sirri Sureyya Onder, co-chair of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Gultan Kisanak, Aysel Tugluk, Adil Kurt, Sabahat Tuncer --- were also on hunger strike, he said.

The hunger strikers are consuming sugared water and vitamins that will prolong their lives and the protest.

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Iran Feature: The Last Days of the Tehran American School (Egherman)

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Despite the fact that most led lives fairly isolated from Iranian society and had few if any Iranian friends, many of the former students of the Tehran American School developed life-long ties to the country. "I feel exiled from what I consider my second home," says T. Lilly Littlewater.

What they miss about Iran is not all that different from what any Iranian in the diaspora misses. They miss eating labu, roasted beets, sold on the side of the road. They miss the mountains, hiking and camping. They miss bread cooked over open flames in ancient ovens. They miss their friends and the community they formed together.

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