The Latest from Iran (18 August): Which Way for the Government?

NEW Text of Latest Karroubi Statement “You Will Not Force Me Into Silence”
NEW Is Hashemi Rafsanjani A Spent Force?
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?