The Latest from Iran (6 August): Getting Past Ahmadinejad

Video: The Inauguration Protests (5 August)
The Latest from Iran (5-6 August): The Inauguration

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2200 GMT: Ahmadinejad appears to be trying to give Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai greater influence by giving him responsibilities traditionally reserved for the vice president.

2145 GMT: Opposition Resumed. The Facebook pages of Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Zahra Rahnavard can once again be accessed.

2110 GMT: Closing the Evening with an Urgent Question. Last night we reported the breaking news that Hashemi Rafsanjani would be leading Friday prayers in Tehran on 14 August. Tonight there is doubt. Seyed Reza Taghavi, the head of the committee responsible for Friday prayers, has stated, "The presence of Ayatollah Hashemi is not yet clear and depends upon his health and the queue before him."

2045 GMT: Ayatollah Dorri-Najafabadi, the chief prosecutor of Iran, has stated that the recent televised confessions, "although collected legally, will have little effect upon the outcome of the court and sentencing". Dorri-Najafabadi also claimed, "[Detained politician Mostafa] Tajzadeh is in good health"

The chief prosecutor made clear that he would have preferred to have court proceedings behind closed doors. "If we were consulted about having these open trials, we may have had a different opinion."

2025 GMT: Ahmadinejad's Payoff for Moscow? The Russian mobile phone operating company Megafone, which is alleged to belong to the wife of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, has reportedly obtained a license to open a branch in Tehran. Initially the UAE company Etisalat won the auction to be the third mobile operator in Tehran but then suddenly the Kuwaiti company Zain was put in its place. Now it is alleged that Megafone is going to be the operator.

This news is entirely unconnected, of course, to the fact that Russia was the first country to give significant recognition of Ahmadinejad's "re-election", receiving him at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit a few days after the 12 June vote.

1950 GMT: We're just adding footage of a "Death to the Dictator" protest in Vanak Square, Tehran, this evening.

1940 GMT: The Facebook pages of Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Mousavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, still cannot be accessed. A source close to Enduring America believes attacks on Facebook pages "almost confirmed" as coming from Iran and attacks on Twitter "probably" as well.

1930 GMT: Twitter filled with reports of protests and clashes across Tehran.

1715 GMT: Roozonline reports that yesterday the Iranian Association of Journalists' headquarters was sealed.

1700 GMT: The BBC carries an apparent eyewitness account which describes a massive security presence at an opposition demonstration yesterday:

Anti-riot police were out in force, and there was a severe security crackdown. At the top of every street there were Basijis and plain clothed guards - in extraordinary numbers. I think out of every ten people, three of them were security personnel.

0535 GMT: The Helicopter Controversy. President Ahmadinejad's travel to his inauguration has provided a bit of entertainment. The reformist press claim that he dropped in by helicopter. His conservative supporters respond, "Reports of travelling by helicopter is a part of psychological warfare....The President travels with no ceremony and his travels cause no limitation to the flow of traffic".

0530 GMT: The medical examiner's office has said that it is investigating the deaths of some of the recent detainees.

0500 GMT: And More Pressure from Mehdi Karroubi. Speaking to a group of politicians, Karroubi denounced the "widespread fraud" in the Presidential vote and expressed his concern about the strain that it had placed on the Islamic Republic and Constitution. He criticised the Guardian Council and pro-Ahmadinejad figures such as Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi for statements that had contributed to the post-elections problems.

0445 GMT: More on Ayatollah Sanei's denunciation of the treatment of detainees, shich we mentioned yesterday alongside the criticisms of Ayatollahs Bayat-Zanjani and the statement of Ayatollah Montazeri. Sanei has said that those involved in extracting confessions are involved in "criminal acts".