The Latest from Iran (16 August): Complaints

2000 GMT: Supreme Leader's Film Corner (Hijab Special). So here was the question put to Ayatollah Khamenei and other senior clerics, "If a film which is to be shown on Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting has been made outside Iran and features women without hijab, what is the ruling?"

The Supreme Leader's response? "One may look at the face, neck, head, and hands of non-Muslim women."

1730 GMT: International Affairs Expert Rahimi Update. The office of first Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, who has provided some illumination with his recent entry into international affairs commentary (e.g., Australians are cattlemen and South Koreans should be slapped), has issued a clarification.

Rahimi, his staff explained was misquoted because of a "wrong translation" in his comments on "England": he meant to say that not all but only some British politicians are idiots.

1720 GMT: Surveillance and a Lawsuit. Detained journalist Isa Saharkhiz and his son Mehdi have filed a lawsuit in US Federal Court in Alexandria, Virginia against Nokia Siemens Networks and its parent companies Siemens AG and Nokia Inc., alleging human rights violations committed by the Iranian government through the aid of spying centres provided by Nokia Siemens Networks.

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NEW Iran’s Battle Within: Ahmadinejad Appeals to Supreme Leader (Rafiee)
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1715 GMT: Parliament v. President (cont.). MP Ali Motahari, who has been amongst the leader of the challenge to President Ahmadinejad and his inner circle, has welcomed Sunday's meeting between Ahmadinejad and the heads of Parliament and the judiciary (see 0520 GMT), but he has complained that the Government is blocking files against some high-ranking officials, which might provide information on claims of corruption.

Motahari also coyly noted that some MPs accused him of "insults" against Ahmadinejad, when he only said, "The fact that the President does not recognize the law on metro allocations [Parliament had authorised $2 million for the Tehran metro but Ahmadinejad has refused to accept] opens the way to dictatorship." Motahari added, "I don't know how those handful of MPs who regularly humiliate the Majlis will answer to the people whom they are meant to represent."

1705 GMT: Rahnavard "Some in Iran Government Worse than Saddam". Appearing with her husband Mir Hossein Mousavi in a meeting with veterans of the Iran-Iraq War, Zahra Rahnavard
commented, "Unfortunately I should ask that, while you were in Iraqi prisons, did you even think that when you were freed from Saddam's prison, you would face the imprisonment of hundreds and even thousands of freedom seekers in your own country?"

This university professor referred to the complaint filed by seven senior reformist figures, all detained after the 2009 election, against military officials over last year's alleged manipulation of the vote:

Would you ever imagine that these seven freedom seekers, who I call them the seven warriors, would be imprisoned because they filed a complaint against the actions of the coup agents, while they could have filed their complaint in a just court and received a response with convincing reasons? But the government throws them in jail and does not know that this is the voice of the people, seeking justice and asking [where their votes went], that is raised by these seven brave ones in a form of a complaint. In any case, a part of the ruling power curses at Saddam, while they have treated the people worse than him.

1650 GMT: Parliament v. Ahmadinejad. Looks like the President's letter to the Supreme Letter (see separate entry) might be needed to stave off an appearance before Parliament.

Reformist MP Mohammad Reza Khabaz claims that there are now three independent but simultaneous moves by conservative factions to question Ahmadinejad: “The first move by the principlist members, which succeeded, came from the faction’s clergymen in the form of a collective warning to the President signed by 16 clerical members of the Parliament."

Khabbaz said a pro-government MP was also preparing the draft of a “critical” letter to Ahmadinejad regarding the behaviour of his aide Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai. He claimed that the letter would ask Ahmadinejad about the reason behind his silence with respect to Mashai’s comments over Iran and Islam and his support for the controversial Chief of Staff. “I asked this MP who had been a staunch supporter of the government until two weeks ago, why was he in such a hurry to gather signatures for such a letter and he replied to me that ‘we want to do our duty and to prevent an even more radical by the parliament’. But this conservative MP only gave the letter to [his fellow] Principalist MPs to sign and did not allow the reformist MPs to join,” said Khabbaz.

Khabaz said that in a third move, the Majlis members were planning to sign a motion on calling for Ahmadinejad to be questioned over “the government’s recent acts against the law and its neglect of the parliament’s passed bills, as well as recent remarks made by Mashaei”. He described the three parallel moves against the coup government as “unprecedented” and said that conservative members in the Majlis were competing against one another in “warning and questioning” Ahmadinejad.

When asked about the number of signatories on the critical letter as well as the number of signatories to the motion to question Ahmadinejad, Khabaz said, “I am not aware of the number of signatures but there is great interest for this act and the MPs are still in the process of gathering signatures.”

A total of 74 MPs need to support the motion in order for the president to be questioned in parliament.

1640 GMT: Rumour of Day. Yet another video has been posted --- we have seen several in recent weeks --- of an alleged queue of Iranians for petrol/gasoline. This footage is supposedly from Karaj, Iran's fifth-largest city and just west of Tehran:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_C5kKBFykU[/youtube]

1635 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kalemeh reports that leading student activist Majid Tavakoli, one of the 17 detainees who recently went on hunger strike --- has been transferred from Evin Prison to Rajai Shahr Prison.

(English translation via Negar Irani)

1615 GMT: Nuclear Tough Talk. I return from vacation to find the non-Iranian media preoccupied with yet another round of sound and fury from Tehran. From Agence France Presse (quickly followed by Associated Press):

Iran is to start building its third uranium enrichment plant in early 2011, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signed a new law Monday binding Tehran to pursue the controversial work of refining uranium to 20 percent.

The law, Safeguarding the Islamic Republic of Iran's Peaceful Nuclear Achievements, had been passed by lawmakers last month and it also stipulates that Tehran limit its cooperation with the UN's nuclear watchdog, state news agency IRNA reported.

Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi told state television that the search for sites for 10 new uranium enrichment facilities "is in its final stages. The construction of one of these will begin by the end of the (current Iranian) year (to March 2011) or the start of next year, inshallah (God willing)."

Never mind that the Iranian Government has been chest-thumping about "10 new facilities" for almost a year. (Last September, the President was promising 20.) A simple re-statement is enough to start flutters in the "West".

AFP notes the response from the French Foreign Ministry: "We expect Iran to comply with its international obligations. This announcement only worsens the international community's serious concerns about Iran's nuclear programme."

1140 GMT: Nourizad’s "Last Letter" to the Supreme Leader. Mohammad Nourizad, the journalist and documentary maker, who was recently released on bail, has written his sixth and, he claims, last letter to Ayatollah Khamenei (see separate EA entries for earlier Nourizad letters).

The letter, posted on Nourizad's website, declares:

Oh Lord, in the time of Seyed Ali [Khamenei] as the Supreme Leader, the law and abiding the law by officials became insignificant and worthless. The favourite ones used the law as a ladder to climb up in power and gain opportunities. A miserable poor man is thrown into government’s prison over a million toman ($1000) unpaid debt, but the President, his Vice President, as well as some of their ministers and government managers who have taken billions in embezzlement and fraud, in a marathon of deceiving the people, brag about their shirt buttons close to their throats (a sign of being religious among the revolutionary officials) and laugh at the law and the people.

At the end of the letter, Nourizad urges the Supreme Leader, as he is getting to the end of the journey of life, to order the release of innocent political prisoners: this way he may make peace with the people and will not leave a bad name for himself in history.

1125 GMT: The Hunger Strike. Kalemeh reports that families of the 16 political prisoners who recently ended a hunger strike have again been denied visit permits, despite the reported promise of the Tehran Prosecutor General that contact would be restored. The website also claims the prisoners are being held incommunicado in solitary confinement in Ward 240.

0835 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Nima Bahador Behbahani has been released on bail. Aged 17 when he was arrested on Ashura (27 December), far from the protests, he was judged as an adult rather than a minor.

0820 GMT: Execution Watch (cont.). One hundred cities have now joined the campaign against stoning.

The interview by French philospher Bernard-Henri Levy of human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei (see earlier entry) has been posted in English on The Huffington Post.

Mostafaei says of his client Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, sentenced to death --- initially by stoning --- for adultery, "She is a symbol. She is the symbol of all Iranian women who are victims of the family, the society, of their discriminatory laws."

0810 GMT: Parliament v. President. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have written the Supreme Letter (see separate entry), but that has not settled matters. "Hardline" MP Assadollah Badamchian has daid the President has no authorisation to declare that a ratified law is not in force. Badamchian said Parliament must tell Ahmadinejad that laws endorsed by the Expediency Council, headed by Hashemi Rafsanjani, are legal.

0735 GMT: Execution (Sakineh) Watch. An international group of prominent writers, singers, actors, and activists have issued an appeal for the commutation of the death sentence of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, condemned for adultery.

French philosopher Bernard Henri Lévy has interviewed Ashtiani's lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, now in forced exile in Norway.

Feresteh Ghazi, interviewing an attorney involved in the cases, writes that four other women face stoning or other means of execution.

0645 GMT: The Music of Protest, the Protest of Music. Aria Fani writes about artists such as Shahin Najafi to note, "Honoring and emulating (the) tradition of protest verse, a new generation of Iranian singers and rap artists are confronting sociopolitical taboos head on and keeping lit the flame of resistance against a corrupt, totalitarian regime. Their music not only echoes their own defiance, it also voices their generation's demands."

0630 GMT: Shutting Down the Mayor? According to Kalemeh and several bloggers, Iranian authorities filtered “Khabargozarieh Shahr” (City News Agency), a website linked to Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf.

0625 GMT: We have posted the English translation of former President Mohammad Khatami's remarks on Sunday about religion, the Islamic Revolution, and the Republic.

0535 GMT: Who is Mesbah's Target? Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi has proclaimed that "not every unity is good and not every difference is bad". He said that "some who insist on wrong interpretations of Shia don't want to discuss differences, but are devils causing division".

Once upon a time, Mesbah Yazdi, seen by many as the spiritual mentor of the President, would have directed his criticisms at the opposition. Now, given his recent comments on Ahmadinejad's advisors and even the President, the target is not so clear.

0520 GMT: Reconcilation? No. The leaders of the Iran Government's three branches --- President Ahmadinejad, Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, and head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani --- met Sunday.

There is little in the account of Mehr News beyond the cryptic but telling comment of Ali Larijani that there is no room for “odd interpretation” of law.

Khabar Online says the meeting lasted 2 1/2 hours. but there was "absolute silence" on the outcome.

0500 GMT: We open today with tales of two very different complaints. In a separate entry, we post Bahram Rafiee's report that President Ahmadinejad has written to the Supreme Leader about his escalating dispute with the Parliament.

Rafiee also writes for Rooz Online about a serious complaint against the Government and Ahmadinejad in Friday's open letter by the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front to the head of Iran's judiciary, Sadegh Larijani.

The letter builds on the news that seven political prisoners, all senior memers of the IIPF and the Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution party, had filed complaints against “lawbreaking military officers during the tenth presidential election”, citing a leaked audio of a senior Revolutionary Guard commander setting out steps against the opposition before and after the election.

The IIPF wrote Larijani:

The widespread distribution of taped statements from Commander Moshfegh, a senior figure at the Sarallah base, removed the curtain from the electoral coup in the tenth presidential election and proved the truth of the green movement leaders’ claim that the election was engineered. This individual, who speaks frankly, ignorantly and with a drunkenness from power, about organizing the coup, clearly admits to actions that cannot be referred to as anything other than a coup in any school of political thought....

Now that it has been uncovered that the person who was introduced as the President reached that post through a coup (and not just fraud), lacking any kind of legal or Islamic legitimacy, it is your duty to forward the matter to the supreme court for investigation.

Iran's Battle Within: Ahmadinejad Appeals to Supreme Leader (Rafiee)

Bahram Rafiee writes for Rooz Online:

As the struggle between the Majlis and the administration over the latter’s refusal to implement legislation passed by the Parliament escalates, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confirmed for the first time yesterday that the “differences are serious”. He also revealed that he had written a letter to Ayatollah Khamenei to resolve some of the “problems” and that, in response, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic regime had ordered the creation of a separation of powers working group to determine the “lines delineating the legislative and executive branches".

Ahmadinejad made the announcement at the conclusion of a Cabinet meeting where the recent differences between the Majlis and the administration were among the topics discussed. He said:

The issues that are raised are not quarrels. The talk about taking away the authority of the President and giving it to someone else is just not possible. No one can violate the clear letter of the Constitution or dare to limit the Supreme Leader’s powers. The [Guardian) Council will not accept it and then they’ll take it to the (Expediency) Council. This is not legal.

Noting that others “say that this administration violates the law", Ahmadinejad said:

It takes between 20 days to one month for legislation that comes out of the Majlis to reach the president’s desk. There was no problem with this in the past. Even though civil procedure laws had provided 5 days for this, everybody was patient and the government too took its time. But now they are demanding that this be done within five days.

One must understand that this is not the President’s only job. He has thousands of tasks. The President is very busy. So what if it took a little longer than the five days, say seven days for the executive branch to issue the executive orders? Do we have to say that the administration is acting unlawfully?

Ahmadinejad said that he had written about some of these differences to the Supreme Leader, and stressed that “the leader had written a letter to the Guardian Council asking it to establish a working group for this. The group is currently examining the issue and will send its opinion to the Supreme Leader who will determine lines between the executive and legislative.”

Ahmadinejad added, “These discussions are serious discussions and have posed problems for the country’s management, because it can’t be the case for the administration to take a decision based on its legal powers and for the work to be stopped by a Majlis bill.”

He concluded by saying, “(hese are serious issues and they have created problems in the management of the country because you cannot continue this situation where the government makes decisions, based on its authority, and then the Majlis stops it through legislation.”

In the past two months, differences between the Majlis and the administration over the announcement and implementation of laws have increased markedly.

In the latest instance, Majlis speaker Ali Larijani personally forwarded legislation to the country’s major newspapers for publication after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad failed to sign executive orders within the prescribed time limit.

Differences between the Majlis and the administration have existed over the last years, but they reached new levels last spring after a meeting between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and members of Majlis’ Article 90 committee. In that meeting, Ahmadinejad openly accused the Majlis of passing many bills (130 in total) that were “unconstitutional” or “un-Islamic” and announced that he would not implement them. Since then, relations have only gotten worse between the two branches and the leader of each.

The Latest from Iran (6 August): The Campaign Against Ahmadinejad's Aide

1925 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The Lede, the blog of The New York Times, has now noted the hunger strike of the 17 detainees in Evin Prison.

1915 GMT: The No-Longer-Missing Lawyer. Human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei is under European diplomatic protection after Turkish authorities released him today from a detention center for illegal immigrants.

An Amnesty International  official says Mostafaei is expected to travel to Norway.

1730 GMT: Looks like we should name this the "Attacking Rahim-Mashai" thread. Another prominent member of Parliament (and Ali Larijani ally), Ahmad Tavakoli, has joined the criticism of the President's Chief of Staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, for his statements putting forth Iran rather than Islam as a source of emulation for other countries.

Tavakoli has insisted the Parliament will not remain silent in the face of the remarks.

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1625 GMT: Re-packaging the Friday Prayer. Press TV's entry on the Friday Prayer by Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami (see 1325 GMT) changes the priority to the message that "a possible US attack on the Islamic republic will jeopardize American interests in the world". Khatami's attack on Presidential advisor Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, highlighted in other media accounts, seems to have disappeared.

1325 GMT: Your Friday Prayer Update. In a shocking development, the US was not the main target of today's Tehran Friday Prayer, delivered by Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami.

So who got the honour?

Why, it's President Ahmadinejad's chief of staff and brother-in-law, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai!

Khatami, without naming Rahim-Mashai --- or, as Fars put it carefully, "an implicit reference to the words of a Government official" --- criticised those who put Iranian nationalism before Islam.

Earlier this week, Rahim-Mashai has said that it was Iran, rather than Islam, that now stood as an example for emulation by the rest of the world.

Elsewhere in the speech, Khatami went after the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen, for his confirmation that the US had war plans for Iran. But, you know, that just couldn't match up with the apparent transgression of the President's favourite advisor.

(And what do you know? Moments later, I spot an article from Parleman News on Rahim-Mashai as the cause of division amongst principalists. And Tabnak is reporting the comments of conservative member of Parliament Ali Motahari that Ahmaidnejad must question Rahim-Mashai about his remarks.)

1200 GMT: The Battle Within. Ali Asghari, a member of the Expediency Council, has warned that principalism without reformism ends up in dictatorship.

1055 GMT: Talking Tough Today. The commander of Iran's army, Major General Ataollah Salehi, has warned enemies of a "crushing defeat" if they attack: "The army is ready to deal a heavy blow to any aggressors against Iran territories."

0955 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Ayatollah Bayat-Zanjani has issued a statement of support for the 17 hunger strikers in Evin Prison and their families.

0935 GMT: Economy Watch. Khabar Online claims that only 20% of workers are receiving their food supplies for the holy month of Ramadan.

0930 GMT: Fretting. Looks like Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi is a bit worried: he has warned the board of Tarbiat Modarres University of the possibility of a "stronger" sedition. He declared that if young people are not religious, then the Revolution will be weakened.

0920 GMT: The Sale of History. Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyed Mohammad Hosseini has declared, "We must promote the Iranian culture to find purity, because the world is hungry for this." He announced that he would give permits for books seeking this aim.

Hosseini may want have a word about his cultural mission with the President's chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai: according to Rooz Online, the Cultural Heritage Organization, headed by Rahim-Mashai, plans to sell some of Iran's historic artifacts.

0915 GMT: Backing the President? Ayatollah Haeri Shirazi of the Assembly of Experts, one of the most vocal supporters of the Government, has given Mahmoud Ahmadinejad mixed support against claims from "hard-liners" that he has been soft on cultural issues. Haeri Shirazi, criticising Western values in Iranian education, refers to the President's campaign to "Islamise" schools but leaves the impression that Ahmadinejad has not been up to the mark in enforcing hijab.

Haeri Shirazi also made a spirited defence of the Supreme Leader's authority.

0910 GMT: Oil Crash and Squeeze. Peyke Iran is reporting that two planes of the National Iranian Oil Company have collided at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran.

Citing Reuters, the website adds that Turkey's exports of gasoline to Iran have increased.

0640 GMT: A Message to Washington. Reformist member of Parliament Amir Taherkhani has said the US is unwise 2 let "Zionists" have a free hand, warning that adventurism will cause a crisis.

0633 GMT: Missiles and False News. Peyke Iran, quoting Deutsche Welle, claims that the "news" of delivery of four S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran --- two from Belarus and two from an unspecified source --- was removed by Fars News within two hours of publication.

0629 GMT: No Justice. In an interview with the mother and lawyer of Neda Agha Soltan, the woman shot to death by a Basij militiaman on 20 June 2009, Fereshteh Ghazi claims that the suspect in the case has disappeared.

0625 GMT: The Guards and the Economy. Mehdi Eliasi, writing in Rooz Online, has evaluated how the increasing involvement of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps in the economy is undermining the foundations of the private sector.

0615 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. A group of students and alumni of Azad University of Tehran have released a statement objecting to Ali Malihi’s four-year prison sentence and his detention in solitary confinement, expressing concern over his physical and psychological state and well-being.

Malihi has been detained for seven months, spending about 40 days in solitary. He is one of the 17 political prisoners now on hunger strike.

0605 GMT: The Campaign Against Jannati. It is not just opposition clerics and politicians who are pressing Ayatollah Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, after his recent claim of $1 billion given to the Green "leaders" and another $50 billion promised by the US and Saudi Arabia for regime change. Conservative member of Parliament Nayyereh Akhavan has also declared that Jannati should show the documents proving his allegation.

0545 GMT: Mousavi and the Hunger Strike. Mir Hossein Mousavi has praised the resistance of 17 political prisoners on hunger strike in Evin Prison, while asking them to end it:

All seekers of freedom and righteousness have heard your message and have witnessed your resistance for your humanitarian and legitimate demands.

Now that that your message and your families’ struggle has spread across the globe and within the country, the nation is concerned about your health as Green assets for the country. We urge you to end your hunger strike and call on prison officials to respect the rights of all prisoners based on the flawed rule and regulations that exist and not to allow for the country’s reputation to be further tarnished in the eyes of the world’s nations.

The 17 strikers include Bahman Ahmadi Amooei (journalist), Hossein Nourinejad (journalist and member of Islamic Iran Participation Front), Abdollah Momeni (student activist and spokesperson for the Office for Fostering Unity), Ali Parviz (student activist), Hamidreza Mohammadi (political activist), Jafar Aghdami (civil activist), Babak Bordbar (photojournalist), Ebrahim (Nader) Babaei (civil activist and wounded veteran of the Iran-Iraq war), Kouhyar Goudarzi (human rights activist and weblog writer), Keyvan Samimi (journalist), and Mohammad Hossein Sohrabi Rad.

0535 GMT: International Front. Presidents Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and Emomali Rahman of Tajikistan were in Tehran on Thursday at the opening of the “Fourth Meeting of Persian-Speaking Countries”, and meet with high-ranking Iranian officials, including the Supreme Leader and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

There were few substantive details in Fars News, which said Karzai and Rahman supported peaceful nuclear energy and agreements were signed to combat terrorism and fight drug trafficking. However, Karzai's visit comes as the US is escalating its effort in Afghanistan and may be looking for Iranian co-operation.

0525 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Green Voice of Freedom claims that authorities are putting pressure on political prisoners by "exiling" them to prisons distant from their hometowns, thus hindering the ability of families to visit them.

Student activist Atafeh Nabavi, who was detained in the mass protest of 15 June 2009 and is serving a four-year sentence, has written an open letter to the 17 hunger strikers in Evin Prison:

I know that when you began your action, you knew that any protest in this country will have disproportionate costs. I honor your stance and your weakened existence, and I wish that you get what you deserve in this unfair battle.

0515 GMT: After a break last night, we start by noting yesterday's attack, possibly by Basij militia members, on opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi.

Karroubi was attending a funeral at Nour Mosque in Tehran when it was surrounded by individuals, allegedly armed, who threw eggs at the cleric when he left. His bodyguards tried to scatter the assailants by shooting into the air.

The news was first reported by Fars but was later confirmed by Karroubi's Taghi.

Mehdi Karroubi has been attacked by pro-government groups several times since the 2009 election, most recently in June when he was visiting Grand Ayatollah Sane'i, another critic of the Government. He was uninjured in yesterday's incident.