The Latest from Iran (15 September): The Failure of the Regime's Anti-US Diversion?

An image from Friday's protest "Down with US, Down with Israel" in Tehran

See also Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- Collapsing Currency, Closed Embassy, No to Women Watching Volleyball
The Latest from Iran (14 September): The Regime Stages a Protest Over a Movie

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2040 GMT: Sanctions Watch. More on the US waivers from economic restrictions for Japan and 10 European countries because they cut their purchases of Iranian oil, noted by the Islamic Republic's media this morning (see 0540 GMT)....

The 11 countries have been given a second 180-day waiver from the threat of being cut off from the US financial system. The European Union implemented a full embargo on Iranian crude and petroleum products on 1 July Japan has sharply reduced imports.

The 10 European countries are Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

The review of waivers for India and South Korea, who have cut off or sharply reduced oil purchases (see 0940 GMT), is due in December.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Will the Clashes Around the US Embassies Continue Today?

Friday's peaceful protest in Binnish in northwest Syria against the US-produced film "The Innocence of Muslims"

See also MENA Audio Feature: Beginner's Guide to the Mohammad Film and the Violence --- Scott Lucas with the BBC
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Re-Focusing on the Conflict

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2105 GMT: Syria. The Local Coordination Committees have updated today's death toll to 144, including 65 in Damascus and its suburbs, 23 in Aleppo Province, 22 in Idlib Province, and 15 in Deir Ez Zor Province.

1745 GMT: Syria. The Local Coordination Committees report that 127 people have been killed by security forces today, including 57 in Damascus and its suburbs, 20 in Aleppo Province --- among them, an entire family in Daret Azzah --- and 20 in Idlib Province.

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Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- Collapsing Currency, Closed Embassy, No to Women Watching Volleyball (Arseh Sevom)

This was a week beginning with 24 medals, 10 of them gold for Iranian Paralympic athletes in London 2012 and continuing with record increases in the cost of dollars in Iran.

Gold Goes Up, The Rial Goes Down

On Tuesday, Mesghal.com reported that the Rial hit a record low with an open-market price of 24,520 Rials per dollar. This compares to the official bank rate of 12,260:1.

Fars News reports the street rates have skyrocketed because Iran’s Central Bank has not issued dollars to customers for about three weeks now. The head of Parliament's planning and budget committee, Gholamreza Mesbahi-Moghaddam said, "Unfortunately the Government has made the biggest mistake in history by not injecting dollars to answer the demand of the foreign exchange market.”

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MENA Audio Feature: Beginner's Guide to the Mohammad Film and the Violence --- Scott Lucas with the BBC

Demonstrators in Sudan set fire to the German Embassy on Friday

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I spoke with BBC WM yesterday afternoon about the US-produced film, "The Innocence of Muslims", that contributed to demonstrations and violence across North Africa and the Middle East. 

Looking at how the film emerged from badly-made trailer on the Internet to centre of controversy, I spoke with Paul Franks about deeper causes for the protests and clashes. Take-away line? While the confrontations are fuelled by anger at US foreign policy and actions and the planning of radical groups, the film was "throwing a cultural firebomb and standing back to watch the flames spread".

The item starts at the 1:10:10 mark.

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Re-Focusing on the Conflict

The moment that crowds charged the US Embassy in Yemen on Thursday

See also Iran Propaganda Feature: Fars News Makes Up Interview with "Bahrain Opposition Leader
Thursday's Libya, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Extraordinary Death, "Everyday" Death
MENA Video Special: The Biggest and Most Important Protests are in Syria

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2146 GMT: Syria. Earlier we reported that the Free Syrian Army conducted an offensive against Assad positions in the Saleh el Dine district of Aleppo. We also reported that there were rumors that the Assad military retreated after the battle. Now, we've found many videos showing fighters inside the district today, claiming that they have captured the entire area. But this may be the most compelling evidence.

The video below claims to show the district being shelled, an activity that would not be possible if Assad troops were still in the district. Another video shows fires burning there, reportedly the result of the shelling:

The key to winning any battle is to maintain the initiative. The Assad regime is failing to do that. The FSA is mixing up attacks in the east with assaults on the military airport, and really disrupted the pattern of battle last weekend when they briefly captured a major military base in the heart of the city. The center of the city has been shelled for four days, and now this turn of events suggests that, at least for the moment, the Assad regime is more content to sit back and shell opposition forces than fight them on the streets.

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MENA Video Special: The Biggest and Most Important Protests are in Syria

Protesters in the Syrian city of Kafranbel hold a placard reflecting the focus of their concerns (Source).

See also Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Re-Focusing on the Conflict
Syria Video Feature: Inside the Al-Farouq Brigade (Mani/Channel 4)

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The past forty-eight hours has been a tense time in the Middle East and North Africa, following the anti-American violence in Egypt and Libya which resulted in the death of a US Ambassador. However, whilst there have been demonstrations in many countries against the US-produced film deemed blasphemous to Islam by many, these protests have been notably small in number and comparatively peaceful. Widespread regional demonstrations had been anticipated today, following Friday prayers. However at present, despite incidents in Sudan and Lebanon, and clashes in Egypt, protests against the film are failing to rally large numbers of people.

In Syria, the focus is different and the story is different. There, we are seeing large, peaceful and motivated protests against the Assad regime. Indeed, the largest, most widespread, likely the most peaceful, and definitely the most dangerous protests today are in Syria - not elsewhere in the Middle East. While protesters elsewhere are focused on a Youtube video created by an individual in the United States, Syrians are using their own YouTube videos to oppose the Assad regime.

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The Latest from Iran (14 September): The Regime Stages a Protest Over a Movie

Thursday's protest in front of the Swiss Embassy, which represents US interests, in Tehran

See also Iran Propaganda Feature: Fars News Makes Up Interview with "Bahrain Opposition Leader"
The Latest from Iran (13 September): Diversions and Selective Condemnations

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1615 GMT: Trade Watch. Mehr reports that Iran and Pakistan have struck a barter deal --- Iranian oil for Pakistani food.

The agreement was signed in Lahore between representatives of Iranian and Pakistani Chambers of Commerce.

http://www.mehrnews.com/fa/newsdetail.aspx?NewsID=1695745

1555 GMT: Currency Watch. The website Pana claims that foreign exchange traders are using wireless devices at Istanbul Square in Tehran to sell dollars and that, despite threats to shut down "illegal" vendors, the Central Bank is not intervening.

Pana says the traders are getting up to 28000 Rials per dollar, higher than the 23880:1 to 25000:1 posted by Iranian media on Thursday.

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Iran Propaganda Feature: Fars News Makes Up Interview with "Bahrain Opposition Leader"

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On Saturday, Fars News featured an interview with a "Sheikh Sadiq Kadhim Al-Jamri", a Bahraini who extolled the Islamic Republic as a model for Muslims in the Middle East. Al-Jamri said that it was the late Ayatollah Khomeini who had first inspired the "Arab Awakening" with the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which had "brought revolutions to Muslims from Tunisia to Egypt and Libya to Yemen and Bahrain ".

But who is Sheikh Sadiq Kadhim Al-Jamri?

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Syria Video Feature: Inside the Al-Farouq Brigade (Mani/Channel 4)

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To its supporters, the Al-Farouq Brigade of the Free Syrian Army is a leading unit in the fight to remove the Assad regime; to its critics, it is guilty of kidnappings and abuses.

Channel 4 features the work of French filmmaker Mani as he moves on the front line with the Brigade. A take-away line from a fighter, "It's not about the army anymore or toppling the regime. It's a sectarian conflict now."

Libya, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Extraordinary Death, "Everyday" Death

1829 GMT: Egypt. As predicted, things have turned ugly in Cairo:

Clashes between protesters and police outside the US embassy in Cairo have left hundreds injured, according to the health ministry, which last put the number of injured at 224.

1535 GMT: Egypt. Anti-US sentiments, protests, riots, embassy stormings, RPG attacks... it's all very dramatic and scary stuff right now...

But really, protests against the US have been pretty small today. Besides Tuesday's protests in Cairo, the terrorist attack conducted by a relatively small amount of insurgents in Libya, and the few hundred angry rioters in Yemen, we haven't really seen widespread protest against the US.

Foreign Policy's Blake Hounshell states what's been on our minds:

Friday could prove me wrong but so far, isn't the real story how small all these anti-U.S. protests have been?

— Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) September 13, 2012

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