Iran Latest (15 August): Revolutionary Guards' "Election Tape"

1400 GMT: Talking Tough (Larijani Edition). Iran's Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani said that the fake US claim of interest in talks with Iran, following their tireless efforts to push through sanctions at the UN, amounts to yet another scandal for the Americans:
"You have committed crimes in Afghanistan... We don't share a common path to negotiate with you."

1330 GMT: The Hunger Strike. Families of 16 hunger strikers have demanded visit permits from the judiciary, especially Tehran's Prosecutor General, after 21 days without news.

1300 GMT: Bazaar Batlle, New Round. During the month of Tir (July/August), 277,000 shops and firms were controlled, and 38,500 fines were given. Bazaaris have to pay millions, $400,000 for a pharmaceutical firm, $20 million for a textile company, high fines for airlines and smuggler of clothes. Government tries to put the blame on the inflation in Bazaar, while economic experts criticise the government's economic mismanagement as main reason for it.

1200 GMT: At a meeting with former members of the Union of Islamic Associations in Europe, former president Mohammad Khatami said that "criticism is equal to subversion in dictatorships." That is why we made a Revolution, in which free speech and criticisim are not only a right, but a duty of people. As Imam Khomeini said, rulers should not believe that people have no right to criticise, which is to sabotage heavenly benevolence.

1130GMT: The head of the trading arm of Lukoil said his company Litasco was not selling gasoline to Iran, after traders said sales had resumed despite US and European Union sanctions.

"We are not supplying to Iran. We have no existing contracts and we don't have any joint ventures with Chinese or any other companies to supply gasoline," Litasco chief executive Sergey Chaplygin told Reuters in Geneva.

1045 GMT: The heads of the three branches of goverment, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Sadegh Larijani, and Ali Larijani meet today in Majlis.

1030 GMT: Deputy Speaker of Parliament Boroujerdi blames Germany and France of having broken their contracts and calls them as "not trustable".

1000 GMT: The President's Right-Hand Man (cont.). MP Mohammad Javad Abtahi, from the Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution, has written to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, asking him to issue a caution against his Chief of Staff, Esfandiar Mashai. Many MPs, including some outside Abtahi's, have asked to sign, and there are now more than 50 signatories. The letter is likely to be read in the Majlis on Tuesday.
Yalthareth, quoting member of Parliament Hamid Rasaie, claims that there has been a secret meeting between the Supreme Leader and hardline MPs.
Ayatollah Khamenei reportedly defended the President and his Government because they have "more positive points than negative".

The news of the meeting was published after influential MP Ali Motahari compared Ahmadinejad with the extremist Forghan group, whose members killed Motahari's father, one of the key actors in the Islamic Revolution, and were executed shortly afterwards.

0900GMT: Senior reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh has been called back to Evin Prison after filing a lawsuit against several commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps for their interference in Iranian elections.

0830GMT: Cinema Corner. Iran’s late-night Ramadan screenings have sparked outrage among some clerics. “Is there any control on cinemas that encourage people to watch films during Ramadan instead of praying and supplicating?” Mashhad Friday Prayer leader Seyyed Ahmad Alamolhoda said on Friday.

0700 GMT: The Revolutionary Guard and the "Election Tape". Brigadier Yadollah Javani, the head of the political bureau of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has defended the audio tape (and thus confirmed it) in which IRGC Commander Moshfegh explained procedures to deal with the opposition before and after the election.

Seven prominent detained reformists have said they will bring a lawsuit for the comments.

"If the complaint of the 7 persons against commander Moshfegh will be taken to court, they have to appear and much more details will be published about the fact, who has inflicted blows to the Islamic system, unity and national security in this fitna (sedition)."

0445 GMT: I will be travelling across France today, so entries from me will be very limited. However, as usual, EA readers are invited to send in their news, ideas, and analysis.

Turkey Inside Line: Ankara's Ramadan Message to Israel, Chemical Weapons against Kurds, Relations with Iran, and Turkey's Gaza Probe

Ankara's Ramadan Message to Israel: On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wished all Muslims an "easy" month of Ramadan. Although this message was meant for the Palestinians, the first response came from Ankara. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party, Justice and Development Party (AKP), excluded Israel's envoy Gabi Levi from the guest list for Eid al-Fitr, the annual dinner marking the end of Ramadan.

AK party chairman of foreign relations committee, Omer Çelik, said:

The reason for not inviting the Israeli ambassador is not on a personal level but rather a symbolic act against Israel's policies.

Anyone who is unjust or inequitable can not pass the threshold of the Justice and Development party’s headquarters.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry's response came quickly:

Once again it appears that Erdogan is initiating an escalation and searching for it. We will behave responsibly and not be pulled into the Turkish sword dance.

Ankara "Used Chemical Weapons": A report from Hamburg University Hospital concludes that eight PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) members killed last September were murdered by “the use of chemical substances.”

MPs from Germany's Christian Democratic Union party and the Green party have been pressuring the government to take an action against Turkey.

MP Andrej Hunko urged the German Foreign Ministry to file a complaint with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague.

Turkish-Iranian Relations: After Brasil signed a decree that the country will abide by United Nations sanctions against Iran, Ankara has decided to continue its close relationship with Tehran.

On Wednesday, Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said that the country will support gasoline sales by Turkish companies to Iran, despite U.S. sanctions.

Tupras, Turkey's sole refiner and gasoline exporter, which buys 33 percent of its crude from Iran, declined to say whether the company had traded with Tehran. However, a Tupras official said, "For us, Iran is more important than America, because we get crude oil from them. We don't get anything from America."

Meanwhile, Ankara denied a report in Italian daily Corriere Della Sera that it will "send sophisticated weapons, rockets and guns to Syria that will end up in Lebanon", with the Iranian army delivering weapons to Hezbollah. Ankara denied these rumours.

"The claims mentioned are without basis," said a senior foreign ministry official.

Turkey's Own Probe: On Thursday, the AFP news agency reported that Turkey had set up its own inquiry into Israel's raid on the Freedom Flotilla on 31 May.

AFP says PM's Office will "investigate the attack and the treatment the activists faced" and present its findings to the United Nations committee of enquiry. committee.

On the same day, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu again blamed Israel:

No one else can take the blame for killing civilians in international waters. Israel has killed civilians, and should take the responsibility for having done so.

Iran Feature: Two Faces of Modernity (Vahdat)

Farzin Vahdat writes for Tehran Bureau:

It is often thought that what is currently taking place in Iran, the continuation of what has unfolded there over the past three decades --- violation of human rights, systematic discrimination against women, and belligerence toward the West --- constitutes a rejection of modernity and its fruits.

There are many reasons to find this view plausible. Soon after the victory of the Islamists in the Revolution of 1979, most of the modernizing efforts and institutions of the 55-year-old Pahlavi dynasty were either abandoned or completely reversed. Some of the most visible of these institutions pertained to women.

During the rule of Mohammad Reza Shah, the state had taken some positive steps regarding the status and welfare of women. Some of the most flagrant institutionalized forms of discrimination and abuse were curbed, if not abolished, through the curtailing of arbitrary divorce by men, the institution of more women-friendly custody laws, and the restriction of polygyny.

With the establishment of the Islamic Republic, most of the provisions of the Pahlavi era's Family Protection Law were abandoned. Personal freedoms, which before the Revolution were more or less tolerated, came under severe attack by the revolutionaries. Women were forced to don the hejab, and any form of resistance to the closely-monitored dress codes for both men and women was met with harsh punishment, including public flogging. Ancient retribution laws that entailed the cutting off of thieves' hands and the stoning of adulterers --- which, in fact, had rarely been performed in medieval Iran --- were enforced in many parts of the country.

Human rights, including freedom of belief, among the fundamental features of the modern world, received a fatal blow under the Islamic Republic. Adherents of the Baha'i faith, for example, came under savage attack by the government and zealots soon after the Revolution. Some 200 to 300 Baha'is were killed merely because they were not willing to recant their faith. Many more received long prison sentences. The property of thousands of Baha'is was confiscated and their children were deprived of education, especially of access to higher education. Last week, in a renewed attack on the members of this faith a court in Tehran handed down 20-year prison sentences for seven Baha'i leaders.

Read rest of article....

China This Week: Deadly Mudslides, Pollution Crackdown, Nuclear Weapons Promise

Death toll from China floods and mudslides: The death toll from the massive mudslide in northwest China's Gansu Province has risen to 1,156 as of 4 p.m. Friday, with 588 still missing, local authorities said.‬

Meanwhile, at least 38 people are missing after rain-triggered floods and landslides ravaged Wenchuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province early Saturday.‬ No casualties had been reported, a spokesperson with the county government said.

An 8-magnitude earthquake claimed almost 70,000 lives in Wenchaun on 12 May 2008.‬

Chinese flags will be lowered to half-mast across the country and at overseas embassies and consulates on Sunday to mourn the victims of the mudslide. Public entertainment will be suspended on Sunday.

According to some Chinese traditions, the seventh day after a death is the height of the mourning period.‬

Industrial Polluters Given Two Months to Close: China's industry chiefs have warned more than 2,000 companies to close obsolete production facilities within two months or face cuts in credit and a suspension of government approvals.‬

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has set the deadline in a move to cut overcapacity and raise the level of economic growth.‬ The cement, paper-making and iron sectors are the most significantly affected.

Companies could also face power cuts from suppliers if they fail to cut pollution.

China's Nuclear Arsenal “Purely Defensive": China's nuclear weapons are for self-defense, a top commander in the army's strategic missile corps said.‬

"If no power presses for nuclear war with China, the Second Artillery Force will always keep silent," promised General Jing Zhiyuan. "We will firmly pursue a defensive nuclear strategy and resolutely implement the 'no first use' policy."

Premier Urges Greater Foreign Aid Efforts: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has declared, "China's aid should favor the least developed countries, inland and small island developing countries, and focus on livelihood projects that are urgently needed and welcomed by local people, such as hospitals, schools, water supplies and clean energy."

China's Railway Technology: China's high-speed railway technology is not inferior to any other country's in safety and sophistication, senior officials said on Wednesday, claiming that Bullet trains running from 250 to 350 km per hour have travelled 280 million km in the country so far.

The announcment came after criticism from a Japanese high-speed rail company, which is competing with China for overseas business.‬

Ministry Rejects Convict Labour Report: China's Ministry of Commerce rejected foreign media reports that Chinese companies had been sending convicted criminals abroad on work projects abroad to prevent overcrowding in prisons.‬

The reporting was "nonsense with no facts or evidence," said the ministry in an official statement on its website.‬ Sources in the ministry said the reports were featured in the Japan Times, The Guardian, The Washington Times, and Canada's Globe and Mail newspapers.

Government Urges Efforts in Grain Production: China's Ministry of Agriculture said Friday that autumn grain production has entered a critical period, as it pressed local authorities to step up efforts to ensure a good harvest.‬

The autumn grain harvest makes up 70 percent of China's annual total. annual grain harvest.

Summer grain output declined 0.3 percent to 123.1 million tonnes, the first fall in seven years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics‬ .

China, Africa Forge Farming Ties: China's agricultural cooperation with Africa requires more strategy than passion, an executive from a leading Chinese agribusiness company has said, as Beijing plans to strengthen the China-Africa new strategic partnership with more focus on agricultural links.‬

"The fragile political situation is still the biggest challenge for Chinese companies investing in Africa," Xu Jun, deputy general manager of China State Farms Agribusiness Corporation (CSFAC), said.

Last year, a cooperative program worth more than 70 million yuan ($10 million) between the CSFAC and Ghana's ruling party came to an abrupt halt when the opposition party took office, Xu said. "Now we prefer to talk with government administrations instead of party leaders when it comes to further cooperation."

China-Argentina Co-operation on Antarctic Expedition: China and Argentina will be more active in cooperation on Antarctic scientific expeditions, an official from the State Oceanic Administration of China has said.‬

"As a country closest to the South Pole in Latin America, Argentina provides ideal conditions for Chinese expedition teams to gather and rest before entering the pole," Wei Wenliang, head of the Polar Expedition Office, said.‬ "China is willing to launch more antarctic scientific expedition projects with Argentina and contribute to peace of the South Pole, especially after Argentine President Cristina Fernandez's successful visit to China in July this year."

China Launches New Remote-Sensing satellite: China on Tuesday successfully put into orbit another remote-sensing satellite, "Yaogan X", from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern Shanxi Province.

The Latest from Iran (14 August): Returning to the Streets?

1800 GMT: Economy Watch. Kalemeh reports that the unemployment rate has risen across Iran by 3.5% since last spring. In 26 of the country's provinces, the average is now 14.6%.

1745 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Labour activist Pedram Nasrollahi has been sentenced to four months in prison for “acting against national security” and “propaganda against the system by joining the women’s council”.

Kurdish painter Mokhtar Houshmand, the secretary of the Marivan Society of Visual Arts, remains in prison after his detention order was renewed for a month. His family has reportedly been denied a meeting or talking with him on the phone. The family has also been prohibited from talking to the media.

1735 GMT: The Hunger Strike. Kalemeh reports that five political prisoners who recently ended a hunger strike were threatened by the director of Evin Prison to six months in solitary confinement. Those warned were journalists Ali Malihi, Bahman Ahmadi Amouie, Keyvan Samimi, and Kouhyar Goudarzi and Ashura protester Gholamhossein Arashi. 4 of them are journos, Arashi is a Ashura protester, severely beaten in prison.

1725 GMT: Spinning Bushehr. Washington has tried to convert the news that Russia will supply the fuel needed to make Iran's nuclear plant at Bushehr operational --- finally, after repeated delays --- into a case that Tehran does not need to carry out its own uranium enrichment.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, "Russia is providing the fuel, and taking the fuel back out....(This) underscores that Iran does not need its own enrichment capability if its intentions, as it states, are for a peaceful nuclear program."

1510 GMT: The President's Right-Hand Man (cont.). How significant is the movement against Ahmadinejad's Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai? An EA correspondent summarises:

*Javan News --- connected with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps --- now quotes Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of the General Staff, Habibullah Asgarowladi, secretary of the "conservative" Front of the Followers of the Path of the Imam, Ayatollah Kaabi, a member of the Association of Teachers and Researchers of Qom, and Hojatoleslam Moe'tamed as condemning Rahim-Mashai's statements about "the school of Iran," which they call "nationalist" and a threat to the international and Islamist character of the Islamic Republic.

*Jomhouriye Eslami writes in an editorial that "support of higher authorities [Ahmadinejad] for Rahim-Mashai makes the situation worse".

*Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi: "Once more Mr. Mashaei has involved himself in discussions not worthy of him and has made wrong and unsuitable statements....It is not to the benefit of the regime, the office of the Presidency and the person of the President --- who has always been in the line of the leader and a supporter of religious foundations --- that his chief-of-staff engages in expert discussions about issues about which he is ignorant and harms his own dignity and those related to him even more."

*Alef News accuses Rahim-Mashai of "eclecticism" and condemns his statements about "human beings having the capacity to become God".

* MP Ali-Reza Zakani warns of a "new discord", likening Mashaei's statements with statements of former Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan "who confessed that his conflict with His Holiness the Imam [Khomeini] was that we want Islam for Iran, but the Imam wants Iran for Islam".

1420 GMT: Shutting Down Green Media. A week after it was launched, the website of the new Green channel, Rasa TV, has been filtered by the Ministry of Intelligence.

1410 GMT: Challenges to the President (cont.): MP Ahmad Tavakkoli has criticised Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for disregarding the laws ratified by the Parliament and the Expediency Council.

Tavakkoli accused the president of intransigence, and said, “I am sorry that the president values his personal interpretation too much.”

MP Parviz Sorouri also criticized the President, “Any law that is ratified should be implemented. The president is not in a position to say whether a particular law is correct or not."

1230 GMT: But Those Other Friday Prayers Might Be A Problem....

Away from Ayatollah Jannati's Tehran Friday Prayer, trying to deflect attention from problems for the regime, other sermons point to, well, problems for the regime.

In Qom, Mohammad Saeedi indirectly criticised the President while bolstering Ayatollah Khamenei, saying someone who manages the country has to follow the Supreme Leader as the representative of Prophets. Saeedi declared everyone has to abide to the laws ratified by Parliament and approved by the Guardian Council.

Elsewhere, alongside condemnation of US sanctions and praise of Lebanon's Sayyed Hassan Nasrullah for his stand against Israel, there were attacks on the President because of his aide Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai's "Iran principle", placing Tehran as a source of emulation ahead of Islam. In Mashhad, Ahmad Alamolhoda said any ruling against the Supreme Leader is obsolete. In Kashan, Abdolnabi Namazi directly said Rahim-Mashai's presence disturbed the Iranian clerics and people.

1200 GMT: International Front. Not sure what to make of this....

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of Parliament's National Security Commission, claims that the Vienna group (US, France, Russia, International Atomic Energy Agency) has accepted the Iran-Brazil-Turkey statement on uranium enrichment, so there is no necessity for Brasilia and Ankara to join talks with the "5+1" powers of the US, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany.

1155 GMT: Put-Down of the Day? Khabar Online claims a large banner with President Ahmadinejad's picture was removed from the Qur'an exhibition at Tehran's Grand Mossalla.

1145 GMT: Oil Squeeze. Alireza Mir-Mohammad Sadeghi, the deputy to Minister of Oil Mirkazemi --- a target of Khabar Online for "wrong policies: --- has allegedly said that 12,000 oil managers are on the verge of retirement.

1045 GMT: Getting Jannati's Line Right. Press TV gives the proper spin to Friday's Friday Prayer by Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, after recent difficulties over his speeches. Jannati, without re-stating the "$51 billion" coup allegation, warned against the discussions with the US:

You have forgotten what they (Americans) have done, you think they have changed…. They are the same….When they flash a green light it is [always] chicanery and a scam.

Jannati continued:

They think the Iranian people will give in under sanctions and adversities.…but the West's problem is that they do not know the Iranian nation and do not know who they are dealing with.

1025 GMT: The President's Right-Hand Man. The conservative Resalat devotes its main article to the "unacceptable statements" of Ahmadinejad Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai.

The newspaper says the comments provide a welcome excuse for conservatives to attack the Government and demands, "Mr Ahmadinejad, let the passengers without a ticket get off the (Government) train!"

Key MP and Government critic Ali Motahari goes farther and harsher, claiming that the thinking of the President and his followers about Islam is like the Forghan group who killed his father, Ayatollah Motahari, in 1979.

Motahari alleged that Ahmadinejad's and Rahim-Mashai's ideas do not comply with Islam. According to the MP, the President is neither a conservative nor a reformist, but because he is supported by the Supreme Leader, other clerics support him as well.

The Motahari's call for resistance: a MP must decide by himself, not according to the Supreme Leader's opinion. He strengthens the demand with the regret that MPs should have protested clearly against the Kahrizak abuse and the allegation that Ahmadinejad's refusal to implement laws is a sign of dictatorship.

1015 GMT: Three Islamic Revolution Guards Corps soldiers have been killed in clashes with members of the Kurdish separatist group PJAK.

1000 GMT: More on the "Jannati Line". Alongside Ayatollah Jannati's appearance at Friday Prayers, there is support for him from Esmail Kowsari, deputy head of the National Security Council, who claims the Majlis was informed about the documents for Jannati's claim of the $51 billion US-Saudi-opposition coup plan. Kowsari says the proof is in the Ministry of Intelligence.

MP Zohreh Elahian, a member of Parliament's National Security Commission, claims the documents will be given to prosecutors.

0915 GMT: Challenging Ahmadinejad. Khabar Online devotes its "headline" news to an analysis by Professor Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh, who criticises the President's foreign policy.

Mojtahedzadeh claims Iran's "turn to the East" led to damage to its nuclear energy programme, as Russia delayed completion of the Bushehr reactor, and to a quadrupline of imports from China.

(Last night, Voice of America claimed the cost to Iran of the Bushehr reactor was now close to $1 billion.)

The professor adds a significant comparison: during the Presidency of Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989-1997), the east-bound policy was advisable, but it has now led Iran "to this mess". Instead of battling with one set of foreign powers (US, Europen Union) and making advances to another (Russia, China), Tehran should follow a balanced policy towards all.

0455 GMT: Execution (Ashtiani) Watch. Human Rights Watch has condemned the treatment of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, sentenced to death for adultery and presented on national TV on Wednesday with her "confession".

HRW women's rights researcher Nadya Khalife said, “The men who run Iran apparently have no shame at all, first pronouncing the barbaric sentence of death by stoning and then resorting to a televised confession. Under the circumstances there is every reason to believe that this so-called confession was coerced."

0430 GMT: We begin this morning with a look to the future, provided by an EA correspondent:

Roughly 3 weeks to Qods Day and a lot of chatter, whether Mousavi and Karroubi will invite the people to protests.

Another idea is going to the streets on the 27th of every month in accordance with Article 27 of the Constitution, assuring freedom of assembly.

Qods (Jerusalem) Day is the annual commemoration of Palestine. Last September, opposition supporters used the occasion to press their demands publicly in one of the largest post-election rallies.

Meanwhile....

47 Baha’is Currently In Prison
Following the recnet sentencing of seven Baha’i leaders in Iran to 20 years in prison each, Diane Ala’i, the representative of the Baha’i International Community has said that there are currently 47 members of the Baha’i Faith are inside Iranian prisons.

According to Ala’i, the Baha’is are not facing charges of mohareb (enmity with God), which carry the death penalty. They are accused of “acting against national security”, “participating in illegal groups", and “propagating the Baha’i Faith”.

Ala'i added that the seven leaders have been moved from Evin Prison to Rajai Shahr Prison in Gohardasht, Karaj. Families have been able to visit the prisoners once every two weeks for 10 minutes. They are allowed to see male relatives one week and female relatives the next, so the entire family cannot meet at the same time.

Ala'I said the verdicts for the seven Baha’i leaders have not yet been served in writing.

Cyber-Challenge

The Persian 30mail site, which features news roundups, has launched a competition for IT specialists to write a programme feeding news from Green sites to e-mail accounts and mobiles in Iran. Programmers selected in the first round receive $1000, and the finalist wins another $4000.