The Latest from Iran (24 August): The 4-D Chess Match

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The Latest from Iran (23 August): An Anti-Ahmadinejad Bloc?

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2110 GMT: In addition to providing the first set of his evidence of detainee abuse to Parliament, Mehdi Karroubi has responded to criticism from a conservative MP, Ahmad Tavakoli, that the revelations were against Karroubi's revolutionary background and would have bad consequences. Karroubi said that it was not right to sacrifice "our religion, dignity and bravery for the benefit of ourselves" and that the regime's is to no one's benefits.

2100 GMT: Returning to the comments of former 1st Vice President Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai (see 1315 GMT), more to raise a smile than to offer any analysis. Rahim-Mashai said that the election had demonstrated President Ahmadinejad's historic and extraordinary popularity in the world, a popularity unique before and after the Islamic Revolution. He added that, had it not been for the “challenges” that the Ahmadinejad Administration created in the world, Iran would not be as successful as it is today. (Press TV has a summary in English.)

1945 GMT: The Los Angeles Times blog "Babylon & Beyond" has summarised the first testimony of detainee abuse produced by Mehdi Karroui (see 1535 and 1930 GMT):

Iranian officials interviewed an alleged victim of jailhouse rape at the hands of security personnel. But instead of consoling him, they asked him embarrassing questions and blamed him for the violence.

They said it was the young man's own fault for protesting the results of Iran's June 12 presidential elections, according to a fresh account of the alleged rape published on the website of a prominent reformist politician.

"I asked them why I and others were raped in prison," the young man says he asked two interrogators and a judge who had agreed to hear his story....

One of the three replied, "'When the supreme leader confirmed the election result, everyone should have recognized it."

1940 GMT: For What It's Worth. Press TV, citing Ayandeh newspaper, reports that the managing director of the Behehst-e-Zahra cemetery has denied the secret burial of post-election casualties. Norooz claimed earlier this week, from information provided by a cemetery employee, that security forces had forced staff to inter 40 bodies.

1930 GMT: Tabnak reports that Kazam Jalali of the Parliament National Security Committee has met with Mehdi Karroubi to discuss Karroubi's initial presentation of evidence on the sexual abuse of detainees (see 1535 GMT). The Los Angeles Times offers an English summary quoting Jalali, “Karoubi agreed to introduce four persons, who have met him personally and claimed that they were tortured and raped in prison, to Parliament. Karoubi told us these four persons are ready to provide their testimonies that they were sexually abused, but they do not feel secure.”

1600 GMT: Cyber-Wars. We will probably run a feature tomorrow, but it appears that the Iranian authorities are doing serious damage to the communications and presence of the Green opposition and reformists.

One key site of Mir Housein Mousavi's campaign, Ghalam News, was hacked out of existence last month ("Service Unavailable"). It is reported that another, Kalameh Sabz, has been down for more than 10 days. The closure of Etemade Melli newspaper has been followed by the disappearance of its website ("Under Construction"); Seda-ye Edalat fell at the end of July. (The website of the Etemade Melli political party is still up and a key source for information.)

1535 GMT: The Evidence Emerges. Mehdi Karroubi has released the first testimony from an abused detainee from Saham News via his party's website, Etemade Melli, and promised that this is only "a corner of the documentation".

1525 GMT: Press TV features the story that head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani has appointed the former Minister of Intelligence, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejeie, as Iran's Prosecutor General, as well as naming Ayatollah Ahmad Mohseni-Gorgani as the head of the Supreme Court.

Nothing surprising there --- we reported Mohseni-Ejeie's appointment many days ago. What is significant is that Press TV is obviously repeating the news to give the President a poke in the eye. On no less than four occasions in a short article (three times in the text; once in the caption), the website stresses, "The appointment comes as earlier last month President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sacked his intelligence minister Mohseni-Ejei after he objected to the president's first deputy pick."

1450 GMT: Rumours have been flying for the last 36 hours that one of the defendants in tomorrow's fourth Tehran trial of post-election detainees will be prominent politician Saeed Hajjarian. That has now expanded to the claim that Hajarian and reformist political heavyweights , Mohsen Aminzadeh, Mostafa Tajzadeh, and Mohsen Mirdamadi will be making "confessions" on television on Tuesday night.

1400 GMT: Journalist Mahsa Amirabadi has been released after more than two months in detention. Her husband Masoud Bastani is still in Evin Prison.

1315 GMT: Slow politics day so far, but one story has been developing. The former First Vice President and current (but suspended for legal reasons) Chief of Staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, has given an extended interview to Islamic Republic News Agency, declaring that the Presidential election was a "referendum" on the Government.

Rahim-Mashai's lengthy version of how the election developed, however, is important for another reason. He asserts that Hashemi Rafsanjani tried to use events to curb the authority of the Supreme Leader. In the context of current events, this may be seen as a clear signal that the Ahmadinejad camp is trying to prevent any rapprochement between Ayatollah Khamenei and the former President, or as we frame it, an anti-Ahmadinejad compromise.

0915 GMT: A Green Media and Organisation. Seyed Mohammad Maraashi, writing on the website of the Mir Hossein Mousavi campaign, declares:

The continuation of this movement is tied to the creation of a cohesive organization with its own definite means of communication. The establishment of a closely knit organization depends primarily on setting up a newspaper or a television and radio network. That will allow the movement’s supporters to receive the news from trustworthy sources. This initiative will also prevent the irresponsible distribution of rumors....

But the creation of an official newspaper, radio or television network is only one of the considerable tasks of the movement. Another momentous task is the establishment of an organization. Every organization must focus on a particular objective, and this objective can be realized if we devise and preserve this organization’s structure through constant education and activity....

We should not forget that the current condition is the condition of a coup d’état, and we should be prepared to go to jail, or even to die, for our political activities.

0700 GMT: Watching Hashemi. Maryam at Keeping the Change offers a challenging evaluation of Rafsanjani's role and strategy, set in the context of his 30 years at the forefront of Iranian politics and his 17 July address at Friday prayers in Tehran:

In the first half of his speech, Rafsanjani emphasized the importance of unity to resolving the post-election crisis, a theme he discussed primarily through citations to the Quran....Rafsanjani's [Saturday] comments to the Expediency Council reinforce this view.... [It was] another...example of Rafsanjani's desire to strike a middle ground, though one which superficially favored the Establishment in the short term.

It's a persuasive argument as far as it goes, but it leaves an important question. Is it possible to find unity in the current crisis?

0545 GMT: Late last night, after a day trying to interpret where exactly Hashemi Rafsanjani stood in the post-election conflict between and amidst the President, the Supreme Leader, conservative and principlist groups, and the Green opposition, one reader wrote, "This really is the most incredible four-dimensional chess game."

In a new day in that game, the players are on a break. However, there is one move, from a high-ranking reformist member of Parliament: "The First Vice-Speaker of Iran's Parliament, Mohammad-Hassan Aboutorabi-Fard, told reporters on Sunday that it was 'likely' that the Parliament (Majlis) would reject about five of the introduced nominees."

Aboutourabi-Fard made the same statement last week, as did Mohammad-Reza Bahonar, the second Vice-Speaker. The question, of course, is whether other MPs share their scepticism.

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The Latest from Iran (17 August): Waiting for the Next Manoeuvre

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2010 GMT: Ayatollah Bayat-Zanjani, a critic of the Government throughout the post-election crisis, has called on the judiciary to take the lead in stopping the calamity that has befallen Iran.

1850 GMT: Responding to a reader's question, "Did Etemade Melli newspaper publish today?" No, and according to our sources, it is unlikely to appear for some time.

1610 GMT: Tehran's chief prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi has announced that the fourth Tehran trial has been postponed from tomorrow until next Tuesday to allow defendants' lawyers more time for preparation.

1415 GMT: Forward with the Green Path of Hope. Chief Mousavi advisor Alireza Beheshti has said, "The central council of the Green Path of Hope will be a small group of five to six, including Mr. Khatami and Mr. Karroubi." Beheshti He added that the party would have a "counselling board consisting of 30 to 40 members" and "monitoring committees".

1340 GMT: Reuters has now published a summary of the Mousavi letter of support for Karroubi (see 1020 GMT): "[The authorities] asked those who were abused and raped in prisons, to present four witnesses [to prove their claim]....Those who committed the crimes were the establishments' agents."

Earth News offers more extracts:

"Those who have committed these crimes are agents of the regime....Does the rulership have no interest in knowing what these agents are doing to the people?....
Your letter on ugly treatments of prisoners have made the pro-government dailies nervous. This indicates that there might even be more horrible abuses of which we are not yet aware....

Do you [in the regime] also want four witnesses to wash off the sin from your hands?...It is expected from the Islamic clergy to fulfil their spiritual duty and only to be afraid of God and not of liars and rapists.

1300 GMT: Reformist groups have also announced their full support for Mehdi Karroubi.

1020 GMT: Mir Hossein Mousavi has written a letter of support to Mehdi Karroubi over Karroubi's claim of the abuse of detainees, thanking him and calling on others to share his "courage and commitment".

0945 GMT: The report of the arrest of an employee of the Italian Embassy in Tehran now appears to be an incorrect rumour spread by an Iranian blogger. The Italian Foreign Ministry has denied the story.

0930 GMT: The Iranian Labor News Agency has provided a timeline and summary of yesterday's ceremony installing Sadegh Larijani as head of Iran's judiciary (our correspondent's comment: "Not sure if it's good for him behaving in this way, but Ahmadinejad is treating Rafsanjani like a has-been"):

President Ahmadinejad entered the hall 68 minutes late for the ceremony, scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Police chief Radan, Deputy Majlis Speaker Abotourabi Fard, former IRGC [Revolutionary Guard] head Rahim Safavi, Guardian Council head Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, Mohsen Rezaei, and others were in their seats at 9:30. Jannati did not move towards them or Rafsanjani and "sat alone" for a while.

Head of judiciary Hashemi Shahroudi, Sadegh Larijani, the Supreme Leader's Chief of Staff Mohammad Golpaygani, and Hashemi entered the room together at around 10 a.m. Salavats were shouted in direction of Rafsanjani.

Ali Larijani walked in 20 minutess after the start of the ceremony

Sadegh's passage on need to prosecute those who have committed violence (reported on Enduring America yesterday) was "met with congratulatory remarks" by those present in the hall.

Ahmadinejad talked immediately after Sadegh and spoke of the necessity to bring "the holders of power and wealth" to justice, referring to Sadegh's previous remarks (see 0615 GMT).

Ahmadinejad left the room immediately after the end of his speech and did not wait for Rafsanjani's. Rafsanjani did not dwell at all on Ahmadinejad's remarks in his own comments. However, ILNA reiterates that Rafsanjani treated Ahmadinejad with visible respect upon the latter's entry into the hall.

Ali Larijani referred to his brother as "Agha Sadegh" in his speech and stated: "We are all offspring of the seminary and the marjayyat [clerics] who have strayed into the path of government service." His remark were met with laughter.

After the end of the ceremony, lobbying took place between various parties to try to patch up the acrimony between Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad.

0850 GMT: Italian media report that an employee of the Italian Embassy in Tehran has been arrested. Iranian reports call the detainee a blogger who has supplied information to foreign media.

The employee's nationality is not known.

0825 GMT: There are indications that the legal file against the Minister of Industry, Ali Akbar Mehrabian, may be "nullified". Mehrabian was convicted last month of taking credit for the invention of "an earthquake safe room" by another scientist.

On Sunday, President Ahmadinejad proposed that Mehrabian retain his post in the new Cabinet.

0820 GMT: Mowj-e-Sabz reports, from an "informed source", that Dr.Zabih, the head of the organisation of clerics supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi, and his son have been arrested.

0810 GMT: We've just posted an exchange between two of my colleagues which I think is one of the most important analyses of the post-election situation in Iran: "Is Hashemi Rafsanjani a Spent Force?"

0720 GMT:The head of the special Parliamentary committee on national security, Parviz Sorouri, has asked Mehdi Karroubi to present his evidence of sexual abuse of prisoners to the committee and Parliament. The request is a reversal, as the committee had initially declared that there was no basis for the allegations.

Saham News also reports that the committee will investigate conditions in Evin Prison today and will visit other detention centres, speaking with detainees. Those centres include "unofficial" sites such as Shapour, Eshratabad, and Pasargad.

0658 GMT: Ayatollah Sane'i's scathing attack on the regime, which was made in a speech on 12 August but emerged yesterday in a five-part video (posted on Enduring America in a separate entry), has stung the Government. Both Iran News and Raja News have called the Ayatollah a "shameless" "sinner" and "adulterer" and asked that he be given 80 lashes.

0655 GMT: Mir Hossein Mousavi's website, Ghalam News, is still down several days after apparently being hacked.

0640 GMT: Hossein Ali Arab, a professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Tehran, and Ali Asghar Khodayari, a professor in mineral sciences and former Deputy Chancellor, have been released after two months in detention in Evin Prison.

0630 GMT: So is the new head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, going to be on the front line of the power struggle? Both Jomhoori Eslami and Tabnak are reporting that Larijani is going to remove Tehran's chief prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi.

Mortazavi is considered a member of President Ahmadinejad's camp, who lobbied strongly against Larijani's appointment by the Supreme Leader. That conflict in turn is part of the wider, important struggle for control of the judiciary, which we analysed on Sunday.

0615 GMT: 36 hours to go before the deadline for President Ahmadinejad's submission of his Cabinet choices to Parliament, and there is a good deal of chatter about the possible moves and conflicts.

The President, however, did take time out yesterday for the inauguration of Sadegh Larijani as head of Iran's judiciary. While the initial images and chatter were about Ahmadinejad's greeting of rival Hashemi Rafsanjani, a later headline offers a different perspective: "If the power-holders and the wealthy are taken to court, then there would be no place left for those who hold lower ranks to commit any wrongdoings."

Since presumably the President isn't suggesting that he should be the "power-holder" arrested, to whom is he referring? Surely it couldn't be "the [very] wealthy" Rafsanjani, despite Ahmadinejad's election charges of corruption against his predecessor?