1945 GMT: Political Prisoner News. Documentary maker Mohammad Rasoulof, who was arrested in the raid on director Jafar Panahi’s house, has been released. Panahi is the only person from the incident who remains in detention.
1915 GMT: Picture of the Day. Mohsen Mirdamadi, the head of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, on his release from detention:
1910 GMT: Economy Watch. Iran has cut the cheap petrol ration by 25% to 60 litres per vehicle per month from 21 March. Currently, each vehicle is allowed a quota of 80 litres of fuel at 10 cents a litre, with any amount needed on top of that priced at 40 cents.
Now is the move part of President Ahmadinejad’s subsidies reduction plan or a response to tightening fuel supplies with the prospect of reduced imports? Or both?
1900 GMT: Labour News. We’ve posted an interview with Jafar Azim Zadeh, the head of the Free Assembly of Iranian Workers, about the minimum wage, inflation, and the prospect of “poverty and hunger” for Iran’s labourers.
DW: Yesterday, the new Minimum Wage rate was announced. What is your assessment of the rate which is $303 (per month) for the next Iranian year?
Azim Zadeh: The $303 rate, which is an increase of 15 percent compared to the last year, not only will not solve any of the Iranian workers’ problems, but compared to the current year rate of $260 will bring greater hunger and destitution for the Iranian working people.
Today in Tehran, $303 does not even pay for the rent of accommdation for a 4-person family. With $303, it may be possible only to pay rent for some periphery locations in Tehran. With food, clothing, health, education, and other expenses, I think the workers will face unprecedented poverty and hunger in the coming year.
Sometimes a celebration should be considered first as a celebration.
After months of reporting on tension and conflict, it was a pleasure to watch the joy of Iranians on Chahrshanbeh Suri, the eve of Iranian New Year celebration of the renewal of fire. Although there was a heavy security presence in main streets and squares, this did not — as The Washington Post reported — “block traditional celebrations”.
Instead, on side streets and outside residences across Iran, people gathered to set off firecrackers, sing, dance, and jump over the small fires which hark back to Zoroastrian tradition. An EA reader eagerly wrote us, “Our family live in a provincial town. It was rocking tonight with the sound of fireworks! Cud be heard in every part of the town :-)” Even in Press TV’s state-sanitised video of events, there is the pleasure of an elderly woman gingerly skipping in her long dress over a few inches of flame.
In the Mideast, only one thing is ever certain. Expect the unexpected. The smallest incident can flare up overnight and alter even God’s well-laid plans.
The latest conflagration erupted over something that Israel has been doing for 42 years. The announcement of plans for 1,600 new illegal settlement apartments in Occupied East Jerusalem — the slated capital of the future Palestinian state — would have been a mere irritant for the US in normal circumstances.
But US President Barack Obama still has egg on his face from his early failure to wrangle a settlement freeze from Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu only agreed to a meaningless 10-month halt, excluding “natural growth” and East Jerusalem builds. That is a loophole large enough to accommodate an elephant.
Imagine this scenario: within the space of a single day, two deadly bombs hit two different cities in two different countries. The death toll from each bomb is dozens killed and dozens more injured. Both bombs are placed by arms of the same terrorist organization.
Now suppose these two cities were in France and Spain. The two countries would immediately share all the information they with each other to find a solution to a shared problem. It’s common sense. But sadly in this case, the two countries are Afghanistan and Pakistan. They have not understood this logic of sharing information, even after years of being subjected to such terrorist attacks.
On 12 March, suicide bombings in the Pakistani city of Lahore killed 72 people and injured dozens. On 13 March, a bomb ripped through the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, slaying more than 30 people and wounding dozens more. More bombs exploded in the following days.
2100 GMT: Chahrshanbeh Suri. An activist reports a conversation with a relative in Gisha in Tehranm, who said basiji were roaming the streets on their bikes and tried to stop people celebrating. Told of a report that said nothing political had happened tonight, the relative answered, “In Iran everything is political.”
2010 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. More temporary releases — Behzad Nabavi, a leader of the Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution Party serving a five-year term for “crimes against national security”, and journalist and economist Saeed Laylaz have been freed until 4 April. Laylaz posted $500,000 bail.
2000 GMT: Chahrshanbeh Suri Reza Sayah of CNN reports, via a Tehran witness, that police are spray painting passing cars that toss firecrackers out of windows. Basiji used tasers and batons to chase away 300 partiers near Mehr Park in Farmanieh.
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