The Latest from Iran (31 August): Unity? What Unity?

2005 GMT: Execution (Stoning) Watch. The Los Angeles Times, citing Human Rights Activists News Agency, reports that Iranian courts have handed down two more sentences of death by stoning for adultery. The verdict was issued on Saturday to Vali Janfeshani and Sariyeh Ebadi, convicted of having an extramarital affair.

The developments follows international protests over the death sentence given to Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani for adultery. Ashtiani's execution by stoning has been suspended by Iranian authorities, although there has been no clemency over capital punishment.

1905 GMT: Economy Watch. Deutsche Welle offers an article on the growing economic influence of the Revolutionary Guard, "Iran's largest employer".

1855 GMT: Karroubi, Qods Day, and A Nervous Government. James Miller, at Dissected News, offers a concise overview of latest developments from the "siege" of the Karroubi house to the Government's stumbling propaganda ahead of Qods Day this Friday.

NEW Iran: Ahmadinejad's Trash Talk (Theodoulou)
NEW Iran Witness: Activist Mahboubeh Karami on Six Months in Detention
NEW Iran: The Latest on the Karroubi “Siege” and the Qods Day Rally
Iran: The Regime Feels the Pressure on Stoning
Iran Special: Political Prisoners, Election Fraud, & The Regime’s Backfiring Propaganda
Iran Breaking: Karroubi on Election Fraud; House Surrounded by Pro-Regime Crowd
The Latest from Iran (30 August): Khamenei Slaps Down Ahmadinejad

1640 GMT: MediaWatch. Arshama3's Blog has posted a useful list of websites for Iran news and analysis.

1635 GMT: The Protests Are Not Over (Says the Regime). Ali Fazli, commander of the Basij militia, has said that last year's fitna (sedition) is like fire under the ashes; "when we let it go loose, it will start again".

Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi explains: from 1991-2010 Iran's enemies have spent $17 billion to topple the regime through "soft war", with the money handed over by several foreign embassies in Iran, European parties, "Western" foreign ministries, US-connected Iranian organisations, and dozens of foundations.

(If you're in one of these locations, you could be in for some money from "US Bureaus", according to Moslehi: Baku in Azerbaijan, Frankfurt, London, Istanbul, and Dubai.)

1630 GMT: We have updated on the "siege" of Mehdi Karroubi's house by a pro-regime crowd with an interview with Karroubi's wife Fatemeh Karroubi.

1400 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. A bit of a twist with the arrest of Hamid Hassanzadeh, President of the Council of Ahwaz....

Hassanzadeh, whose home was raided and whose belongings and computer were seized, is not a Green or a reformist. He was the Ahwaz campaign manager for the conservative Mohsen Rezaei in the 2009 Presidential election.

1330 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kurdish detainee Rahim Rashi has ended his hunger strike after 43 days.

1320 GMT: Parliament v. President (cont. --- see 1310 GMT). From the reformist wing, Qodratollah Alikhani has said, that as the government refuses to allocate funds for the Tehran Metro, it also obstructs other laws, as workers go without pay. Alikhani also criticised Minister of Science Kamran Daneshjoo for his statement warning of "flattening" universities that do not adhere to Islam.

Dariush Ghanbari said he was concerned about new restrictions on the press, suggesting that the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance should be summoned to Majlis. Ghanbari made the sharp comment that the dispute over the Family Protection Bill, now sent back to committee, obscured critical issues such as control of inflation and unemployment and stimulation of economic growth.

Meanwhile, MP Mohammad Khoshchehreh has made a conciliatory statement by claiming that the common base of conservatives and reformers is revolutionary principles and anti-imperialism, and any movement to overcome divisions is important.

Which gives us the excuse to publish this not-so-conciliatory photograph of another MP, Mehdi Kouchakzadeh, and Ali Larijani (hat tip Tehran Bureau from Mehr):



1310 GMT: Parliament v. President. Almost two weeks since the Supreme Leader's intervention, let's see how the call for unity is faring....

The President's spokesman Ali Akbar Javanfekr has accused the Majlis of "misunderstanding laws" and "making laws against Constitution", leading to dictatorial behaviour.

On the other side, key member of Parliament (and ally of Speaker Ali Larijani) has denounced Ahmadinejad's "rowdy" statements. Another member of the critical bloc, Ali Motahari, says the government is fleeing from laws and has established a "half-suffocating" situation: "Ahmadinejad refusing to implement laws is a sign of dictatorship."

Expediency Council member Dorri Najafabadi insists that laws approved by the Council are laws of the Islamic Republic and complains that Ahmadinejad is "not too friendly". Fellow Council member Mohammad Hashemi declares that the government is not the interpreter but executor of laws.

Leading conservative Morteza Nabavi has repeated his criticism that the President has been absent from Expediency Council meetings, saying the Supreme Leader expects Ahmadinejad to attend.

And in an intriguing statement, Habibollah Asgarowladi, leader of the Islamic Coalition Party, says that a principlism with former President Hashemi Rafsanjani on one side and Ahmadinejad on the other is "not desirable".

1240 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Heidi Hautala, the head of the European Parliament's Human Rights Commission, has called for the immediate release of activist Shiva Nazar Ahari.

Ahari has been detained since July 2009. She is due in court on 4 September, reportedly to face charges that include "mohareb" (war against God), which carries the death penalty.

Intellectuals, academics, activists, and family members have issued a statement calling for the freeing of Azeri political prisoners.

1110 GMT: The Battle Within. Monavar Khalaj of the Financial Times is on the case with "Iran's Warring Factions Reignite Tensions": "Iran’s radical and conservative fundamentalists have ignored the orders of the regime’s supreme leader and begun exchanging recriminations once again."

1105 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The court hearing for Emad Bahovar, a member of the reformist Freedom Movement of Iran and of Research Supporting Khatami and Mousavi, has been postponed again.

Bahovar has been detained since March.

1100 GMT: All the President's Men. Of Iran's 290 members of Parliament, 216 have signed a statement supporting the suspension of Presidential aide and former Tehran Prosecutor General Saeed Mortazavi, ordered by the judiciary because of Mortazavi's alleged complicity in the post-election abuses at Kahrizsak, and hoped for a quick end to the case.

1034 GMT: The Supreme Leader Slaps Down Ahmadinejad. The website of Ayatollah Khamenei has published the English summary of his Monday meeting with the President and the Cabinet, including the rebuke of Ahmadinejad for carrying out a parallel foreign policy.

However, Khamenei has offered public support for the Government subsidy reduction plan.

1030 GMT: Execution (Ashtiani) Watch. The members of Parliament of Portugal's ruling party have joined the call for clemency for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, sentenced to death for adultery.

1015 GMT: It's All About Me. I would not dare to call the President's Chief of Staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, self-centered; however, for the record, here is the banner from his personal website:



1010 GMT: Endorsing the Supreme Leader's Slapdown of the President. The Iranian Foreign Ministry, given cover by Ayatollah Khamenei's criticism of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday, has said that it is essential to avoid "parallel work" in foreign policy.

Last week Ahmadinejad appointed four special representatives for international affairs.

1000 GMT: We have posted a separate feature, written by Michael Theodoulou, on the language being used by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iranian media about internal and international disputes, "Ahmadinejad's Trash Talk".

Already there have been further developments. The Iranian Foreign Ministry has said that it does not agree with insulting another country's officials and specifically denounced the description, offered by Keyhan, of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni as a "prostitute".

Keyhan, however, does not seem to be listening. Today it wrote, "Studying Carla Bruni's record clearly shows the reason why this immoral woman is backing an Iranian woman who has been condemned to
death for committing adultery and being accomplice in her husband's murder and, in fact, she herself deserves to die."

Bruni had spoken out for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death for adultery.

0850 GMT: We have posted an interview with women's right activist Mahboubeh Karami, freed on bail this month but facing a four-month prison sentence, about her six months in detention.

0710 GMT: Shutting Down Information. A reader's comment to Tehran Bureau says that the site is now blocked in Iran.

0700 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Reports say Arjang Davoudi, on Day 49 of his hunger strike, is in a coma. Davoudi, a poet and teacher, is detained in Gohardasht Prison.

The detention order for blogger Hossein Ronaghi (Babak Khoramdin), who has been imprisoned for 10 months, has been extended for another month. He is reportedly being held in solitary confinement.

0655 GMT: Execution Watch. For days now, we have followed stories on the Internet that hundreds of prisoners have been put to death in Mashhad. Rah-e-Sabz is now posting the claim.

0650 GMT: In a separate entry, we post the latest on the "siege" of Mehdi Karroubi's house and, via a Deutsche Welle interview with his son Hossein, his declaration that he will not be prevented from rallying on Qods Day this Friday.

0600 GMT: A busy, tense, and dramatic Monday --- from the surrounding of Mehdi Karroubi's house by a pro-regime crowd to the Supreme Leader's slap-down of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to uncertainty in the Iranian establishment over its image on the stoning issue --- and today offers the prospect of more.

Khamanei Slaps Down the President on Foreign Policy

Very cute (and telling?) approach by Press TV to the Supreme Leader's criticism of Ahmadinejad in a meeting with the President and the Cabinet's. The website does note, from Khamenei's official website, the Leader's statement that "Iran's Foreign Ministry is in charge of leading all matters related to the country's foreign policies and affairs".

What Press can't bring itself to say is the rest of the Supreme Leader's rebuke, where he denounced "parallel" structures for foreign policy. That, of course, refers to Ahmadinejad's appointment last week of four special representatives for international affairs.

Indeed, the Press headline is all happiness: "Leader praises Govt. 'Diplomatic Spirit"

Iran: Ahmadinejad's Trash Talk (Theodoulou)

Michael Theodoulou writes for The National:

Within the space of a few weeks, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, an Iranian vice president, opined that the British were “inhuman” idiots saddled with a dunce of a prime minister, and the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, scoffed that the Americans should “pour water where it burns”, a vulgar Iranian expression that refers to people who are so angry that their buttocks catch fire.

A hardline Iranian newspaper joined the fray by branding Carla Bruni, France’s first lady, a “prostitute”.

It is nothing new for the Iranian regime to lambast the West in robust terms. But these various diatribes raised eyebrows at home and abroad because crudity rarely features in Iran’s political discourse.

Analysts say that while Mr Ahmadinejad’s earthy rhetoric against the West upsets educated Iranians and reformists, it is a populist attempt to appeal to his working-class supporters as a man of the people possessing a common touch.

“The language used by Ahmadinejad may not be deemed proper for the president of a country, but it brings him closer to his base, who find him affable and to be one of them,” said Farideh Farhi, an Iran expert at the University of Hawaii.

Mr Ahmadinejad’s invective against the United States is also an attempt to deflect attention from bitter political in-fighting between Iran’s conservatives and does not mean he is slamming the door on nuclear talks, other analysts say.

“Despite his tough language against Washington, Ahmadinejad is on the record as supporting unconditional talks with the five-plus-one powers on the nuclear issue,” Scott Lucas, an Iran specialist at Birmingham University in England, said in an interview.

The P5+1 is shorthand for the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France – plus Germany.

The vicious slur against Ms Bruni, the wife of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, came last week in Kayhan, an influential ultra-hardline daily close to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who appointed its managing editor.

Kayhan targeted the “infamous” Ms Bruni after she penned a passionate open letter of support to Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the 43-year-old Iranian mother of two sentenced to death by stoning for alleged adultery.

Read full article....

The Latest from Iran (30 August): Khamenei Slaps Down Ahmadinejad

2010 GMT: Khatami's Qods Day Message for Iran. The Facebook page supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi has posted the English text of Mohammad Khatami's message for Qods Day. Inevitably, much of the statement was about Palestine, but Khatami did have a sharp passage directed at Tehran rather than Jerusalem:

We cannot suffer from colonial dependence in one place and say that we should fight that and be ignorant toward that in another place; or vice versa we say that others should be free and have sovereignty to chose their own fate and should ne not be under tyranny, colonialism and dictatorship but if such issues happen to us we be ignorant toward them! No! human problems are linked together.

The roots of many of these issues are in the teachings and history of Islam as well. One of these issues is what gives legitimacy to a system, a society and a government? What is the basis for legitimacy? There is a common principle that humanity have reached and we as Muslims also have accepted that and that is the fact that people's votes and satisfaction are the foundations to establish a legitimate system.

If people's consent does not exist, no government can be imposed on the people; and even if it is imposed it will not be legitimate. Of course according to our views based on Islam and Shia teachings a government should have some principles and meet some conditions and if it does not then it will not be legitimate. Government should meet some conditions and the rulers also should meet some conditions.

According to teachings of Imam Ali (Shia's first Imam), he had stated that if people's votes and presence did not exist, he would have never accepted to govern. It means that even in case of Imam Ali's government if people did not voted of it, it would have not been imposed on the people because if such thing would have happened it would have been wrong.

When we say democracy this is it: democracy in line with religion....

NEW Iran: The Regime Feels the Pressure on Stoning
NEW Iran Special: Political Prisoners, Election Fraud, & The Regime’s Backfiring Propaganda
NEW Iran Breaking: Karroubi on Election Fraud; House Surrounded by Pro-Regime Crowd
Iran: Ahmadinejad Attacks Rafsanjani & “Corrupt” Foes; “Overthrowers Have Not Been Punished Yet” (Kamdar)
UPDATED Iran: Tehran Declares Readiness for Nuclear Talks?
Iran: An Ayatollah’s “Larijani is a Jew” Declaration
The Latest from Iran (29 August): The “Hidden Imam” Circle

1800 GMT: Families Protected. The Los Angeles Times, via Iran Labor News Agency, reports that the Parliament has referred controversial articles of the Family Protection Bill back to committee for further study.

Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani said, "According to the notification of the lawmakers and in consultation with the judiciary branch, seemingly the articles 22, 23 and 24 contain some Islamic shortcomings. Therefore, they will be returned to legal and judiciary commission to be corrected."

Parliament had already voted down a provision that would have allowed registration of "temporary marriages". The bill also would make ease the financial and legal regulations on polygamy for men.

1755 GMT: Supreme Leader Slaps Down the President. And the day gets even more interesting....

The website of Ayatollah Khamenei's office reports that, in a meeting with the President and the Cabinet, the Supreme Leader said they must "avoid parallel work in areas including foreign policy". That is an in-your-face message to Ahmadinejad that Khamenei is not happy with the President's appointment of four special representatives for international matters.

1740 GMT: Karroubi Watch --- Urgent. We've added to our feature on Mehdi Karroubi's latest statement, condeming election fraud and repression, with the disturbing news that his house is being declared the meeting place for plotters of sedition and that it has been surrounded by 50 "plainclothes forces".

1730 GMT: It's a bad propaganda week so far for the Iranian Government. We had already posted a feature on its bungled publicity over detained reformist Mostafa Tajzadeh; now we write about Tehran's nervousness that its image is being damaged by the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, condemned to death for adultery.

1400 GMT: Electricity Squeeze. DayPress claims that residents in Ahwaz in southern Iran have protested sharp rises in electricity bills, amidst 50-degree Celsius (122-degree Fahrenheit) heat.

1350 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani is maintaining a tough line on international matters: “The United States propped up Islamic extremism and created the extremist groups to impede the Islamic Revolution, but ... now they are plagued with [the acts of] their own puppets....The ill-informed and prejudiced [officials] in the West overtly express their animosity towards the liberating teachings of Islam and the Quran under the pretext of [opposing] the blind al-Qaeda terrorism and Islamic extremism.”

1344 GMT: Economy Watch. Despite sanctions and economic difficulties, the Tehran Stock Exchange continues to rise because of trading by state-run firms, increased liquidity, and the government's push for privatisation. The Exchange has hit a record high, rose nearly 4 percent on Sunday and Monday, adding a nominal $10 billion to its value.

1340 GMT: Qods Day Alert. Five days before Iranians are asked to recognise the situation of Palestine, former President Mohammad Khatami has declared that Qods Day "is a symbolic day against oppressors".

1330 GMT: Interview of the Day. It has to be Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki's exchange with the German magazine Der Spiegel, "The West Lacks Political Maturity". This is the mature start to the discussion:

SPIEGEL: Mr. Foreign Minister, you are the senior diplomat of the Islamic Republic of Iran. You represent a nation that prides itself on a cultural history stretching back more than 2,500 years. Don't you find it shameful that people are stoned to death in your country?

Manouchehr Mottaki: You come from a country that murdered millions of people during a tyrannical war, and you want to talk to me about human rights? OK, we can certainly discuss the laws in various countries and naturally we can, in a friendly atmosphere, debate the different legal principles.

The interview features Mottaki's claims, "No one is executed in Iran for political reasons. You have no evidence to prove the opposite," and "Confessions were made in an open atmosphere, in the presence of media representatives. They were also repeated in front of other witnesses." However, this is the maturity showpiece from the Foreign Minister:

This election was a triumph. We had the highest turnout for a presidential election since the 1979 revolution. Of 40 million voters, a turnout of 85 percent, 25 million voted for Mr. Ahmadinejad. But as was already the case during Mr. Ahmadinejad's first election in 2005, the West apparently expected a different election result. We think the Western countries lack political maturity.

Manipulation is an issue in elections everywhere. Just think of the differences of opinion that elections have triggered in the United States, where a court had to step in to end a dispute over the validity of ballots. The accusations were also investigated in our country, at the urging of the opposition and our leadership. The votes were recounted. Since then, the result has been legally binding.

1210 GMT: The President's Right-Hand Man. Looks like the Ahmadinejad office is ready for a fight with conservative MP Elyas Naderan over the claim that Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai met the former US ambassador in Israel: "We reject the baseless claim made by an Iranian parliamentarian...and we secure our right to pursue the issue legally."

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, trying to defend the President's appointment of Rahim-Mashai and three others as special representatives for foreign policy, has said that Naderan's remarks in Parliament had "nothing to do" with the questions he had tabled over the appointments. Mottaki said he might have to give Naderan a "yellow card" for his behaviour.

1000 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch.Ghorban Behzadian-Nejad, the manager of Mir Hossein Mousavi's campaign, is free on bail after 9 months in detention.

Women's rights activist Mahboubeh Karami is reportedly in hospital after her release on $50,000 bail. Karami has been sentenced to four years in prison.

0855 GMT: We have now posted our special feature, "Political Prisoners, Election Fraud, & The Regime’s Backfiring Propaganda."

0700 GMT: Sanctions Watch. William Yong of The New York Times follows up on the development, which we noted last week, that Iran is withdrawing its assets from European banks to prevent them being frozen.

0645 GMT: Shutting Down the Lawyers. Fereshteh Ghazi reports on another instance of harassment and intimidation of Iran's defence attorneys. Nasrin Sotudeh's office and home have been searched, and the lawyer has been accused of propaganda against the regime.

0640 GMT: Discussing, Organising. Activists have announced a conference from 1 to 3 October at the Free University in Berlin to discussion the formation of "an independent, widespread organization of Iranian youth and students abroad".

0636 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch --- The Latest Names. An activist, drawing from RAHANA, has published an English-language list of 574 known political prisoners currently in detention.

0633 GMT: Political Defiance. The reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front, banned by the Government, continues to defy its "non-existence". Rah-e-Sabz has photos of an Iftar, the meal breaking the daily fast during Ramadan, of IIPF members.

0630 GMT: Execution Protests. Mission Free Iran claims that Rasht, a city in northwest Iran, joined the global demonstrations this weekend against stoning.

0625 GMT: The President's Right-Hand Man. Kodoom claims, without citing the original source, that prominent conservative MP Elyas Naderan has accused Ahmadinejad's Chief of Staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, of meeting a former American Ambassador to Israel, hosting mixed-gender dance parties, and serving alcohol at some gatherings.

0610 GMT: We open today with two specials surrounding the claimed rigging --- some going as far to call it a "coup" --- of the 2009 Presidential election. We have the English text of Mehdi Karroubi's statement on Sunday condemning the election fraud and repression of the Iranian people. Later this morning, we'll have an update on the increasingly desperate Government campaign (which we noted 12 days ago after a manipulated video appeared, failed, and disappeared) to fabricate a "confession" by former Deputy Minister of Interior Mostafa Tajzadeh that the election was legitimate.

Rah-e-Sabz features Tajzadeh's latest resistance, via his wife's blog to the regime's propaganda and pressure upon him and his family. He challenges defenders of the vote to a public debate and asks, "I have written 7 pages about the rigged election in jail, why don't they [the Government] publish them?" (See English version of report.)

Iran: The Regime Feels the Pressure on Stoning

Who says that international campaigns have no effect?

Last week, speaking to a journalist, I said that I had the sense that the Iranian Government was getting rattled over the international attention to the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the 43-year-old woman sentenced to death, initially for adultery and then for complicity in the murder of her husband. Reactions against the sentence this summer had already pushed Tehran into declaring that the carrying out of the death sentence had been held up and that it would not be by stoning; however, the prospect remained that Ashtiani would die by hanging.

A few days ago the Government confirmed my suspicions through two linked statements. The judiciary tried to explain that, while it protected the rights of all citizens, Ashtiani had been tried fairly and convicted on the weight of evidence. The Iranian Foreign Ministry complained, with notable irritation, about "foreign interference".

Earlier today we noted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki's ill-tempered response to the magazine Der Spiegel, ruling out German criticism of stoning because the country had killed millions of people under a totalitarian regime. And speaking of ill-tempered, Keyhan has called Carla Bruni, the singer and wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a "prostitute" for joining activists in asking for clemency for Ashtiani.

But it is the high-profile conservative newspaper Tabnak that gives the most telling testimony today. The publication, linked to Mohsen Rezaei, the Secretary of the Expediency Council and 2009 Presidential candidate, carries out a full review of the case.

Tabnak does not say the sentence should be reversed; however, it frets about the criticism of Iran from sources as varied as Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Catherine Ashton, the foreign policy representative of the European Union. In light of the attempt by the "West" to "mobilise public opinion against Iran", Tabnak insists "the country's authorities should seriously watch the next move by the West and not ignore it".

The take-away quote (hat tip to an EA correspondent):

Would it not be better if, right from the beginning, we showed more diligence in issuing stoning sentences rather than incurring the great cost of changing the sentence to execution?

The statement from the Council of Human Rights of the Judiciary was well able to reveal the reality of this case and they must be thanked. However, it must be accepted that this came about very late in the day. If only in those first days of the western media campaign an official had made this statement in an interview with one of the major international media.

Stay tuned....

The Latest from Iran (28 August): Music, Sanctions, and Science

2020 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch (Cosmetics Edition). Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi, who has been putting himself on front pages all week with tales of danger and how Iran's services are triumphing, does it again today by accusing the Swedish cosmetics firm Oriflame of trying to harm Iran's security: "Oriflame intended to fight the (Iranian) system. There are no economic reasons behind the company. We realised through the evidence that the arrogants (Western powers) and intelligence agencies sought to create security problems for the country through this company."

Oriflamme's chief financial officer Gabriel Bennet responded, "We are a cosmetics company, we are selling direct. We are of course not involved in any political activities in the country (Iran). It is very very difficult to comment on [the accusations]."

On 22 August, Iranian authorities closed Oriflamme's Tehran office and arrested five employees, reportedly on charges that the company was running a pyramid scheme.

NEW Iran: Obama Rejects a Public “Red Line” on Nuclear Capability (Porter)
NEW Iran Music Special: The Kanye West No-War Rap
NEW Iran: Conservatives v. Ahmadinejad (Jedinia)
NEW Iran Special: The Supreme Leader and One Voice on Nuclear Talks with US?
The Latest from Iran (27 August): One Voice in Iran?

1625 GMT: The American Detainees (cont.). There is chatter, amidst the statement of Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi that the case of Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal "is nearing its end", that the US hikers could be released before the end of Ramadan.

There have been a number of moments over the last 13 months when there were indications that freedom was imminent, and each time hopes have been dashed. So the attitude might be "believe it when we see it".

The lesson could be --- as with many other cases and seen this week in the campaigns for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani (see 1415 GMT) and Shiva Nazar Ahari --- that pressure not be relaxed for justice and resolution of the situation.

1500 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Ten days after he was summoned back to prison, journalist/filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad has finally been allowed to see his family.

Reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh, who also returned to detention and shares a cell with Nourizad, has written an open letter to the Tehran Prosecutor General. In the message, he talks about seeing his wife after 11 days incommunicado.

1435 GMT: The American Detainees. Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi has said the case of three detained American nationals --- Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal --- is near closure: "The investigations in the case of the three (Americans) is nearing its end and the verdict to be announced soon."

The trio were arrested in July 2009 when they allegedly crossed an unmarked border into Iran while hiking in Iraq's Kurdistan region.

1420 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. HRANA reports that the four-year prison sentence for human rights activist Mahboumeh Karami has been confirmed.

1415 GMT: Political Prisoner (Ashtiani) Watch. The Iranian judiciary has released a statement on the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, sentenced to death for adultery.

The judiciary, implicitly recognising the international presssure for clemency and/or freedom for Ashtiani, said that the rights of all citizens were defended; however, the charges of adultery and complicity in her husband's murder had been proven against the 43-year-old woman.

1120 GMT: Diplomatic Service. Iranian official Mohammad Reza Sheibani Rauf has defended the President's appointment of four special representatives, including Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, for areas of foreign policy. He claimed this was "not uncommon" and cited the example of the US.

Rauf also noted that the President's office had appointed a Special Representative on Caspian Affairs in the past.

1100 GMT: The Battle Within. Leading conservative Morteza Nabavi has criticised the President for his failure to attend meetings of the Expediency Council, saying this was a "legal claim" as well as a political issue.

Nabavi noted the possible conflict between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the head of the Expediency Council, Hashemi Rafsanjani, but said both should reject "inflexible positions" and show an example of "political maturity" in reaching resolutions.

0900 GMT: Uranium Watch. Peyke Iran, drawing from Asr-e Iran, claims that Moscow is unsure about Tehran's proposal for a joint consortium to produce fuel for the Bushehr nuclear plant.

0850 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Dr. Shiravi, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and former Dean of Shahid Chamran University in Dezfoul, has been arrested.

0615 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Muhammad Sahimi, writing in Tehran Bureau, has a lengthy profile of Shiva Nazar Ahari, the activist detained since July 2009 and facing death on the charge of "mohareb" (war against God).

0610 GMT: Economy Watch. Street Journalist, relaying an item we saw in Peyke Iran, quotes Ali Deghan Kia, a member of the Higher Islamic Council Association Board, who says there has been a 40% increase in unemployment in manufacturing and "more than 90 percent of productive units transferred to the private sector are at risk of bankruptcy”.

Deghan Kia blamed "uncontrollable importation and smuggling of Chinese goods [as] the number one cause for unemployment....Every billion dollars of smuggled good entering the country is responsible for unemployment of 25,000 workers in Iran.”

0600 GMT: Academic Corner. Science follows up on the firing of Professor Yousef Sobouti, the astrophysicist and founder-director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences who was Chancellor of Zanjan University. It claims that Sobouti's replacement, Rasoul Khodabakhsh, is a "nuclear scientist known to have links with the pro-government Basij militia".

Science that the Government has also replaced the leaders of at least 17 other academic and scientific institutions over the past month, including the chancellors of Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, the University of Golestan in north Iran, and Arak University.

0545 GMT: We open Saturday with a music special, as Kanye West and Jay-Z put out a rap against war with Iran.

Meanwhile, the Swiss energy group EGL spins another message, saying that 18 billion Euro ($23 billion) gas contract with the National Iranian Gas Export Company is not affected by American sanctions: “We are not violating any regulations, and follow rules; we feel we are not really deserving to come on the sanctions list.”

“Using of the revenues by Iran from the EGL deal to finance terrorism and its allies Hamas and Hizbullah. That is speculation. We do not pay money for supporting terrorism. I cannot really comment on such a speculation,” spokeswoman Lilly Frei said.

Last week EGL put out a somewhat different rationale: “As we noted in the past when this deal was first announced, oil and gas deals with Iran send the wrong message when Iran continues to defy UN Security Council resolutions. We have raised our concerns with the Swiss government about this arrangement on multiple occasions."

However, Frei is now saying, “We have a contract with the company, not with Ahmadinejad." Asked about other connections, Frei said EGL did “not know if the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is affiliated with National Iranian Gas Export Company".