1440 GMT: Parliament v. President. Islamic Republic News Agency is claiming a fight-back against Parliamentary resistance to Ahmadinejad subsidy reform and spending proposals, quoting Arsalan Fathipour, head of the Parliament’s economic commission, “We believe it is not possible to implement the subsidy reform plan at 20,000 billion tomans ($20 billion). So delegates intend to raise the figure to 35-38,000 billion tomans ($35-38 billion).” That would be almost all the $40 billion demanded by the President.
1430 GMT: Obama and Iran. Edward Yeranian of the Voice of America claims that there was a “mized” reception amongst “Iranians inside and outside Iran” of President Obama’s Nowruz message.
1420 GMT: “Rights” Annoys Khamenei. The emphasis in Barack Obama’s Nowruz message on rights for Iran’s people has annoyed the Supreme Leader. His office’s Twitter barrage continues:
USA President sent letter and message to normalize relations, but his actions was against his words….USA President called distruptives “civil movement” and supported arsonists in recent events….Aren’t you ashamed of killing in innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan while talking about Human Rights?
(http://www.twitter.com/khamenei_ir)
1340 GMT: Winning on the Internet. The Guardian of London offers an interview with Austin Heap, the creator of the Haystack initiative to assist Iranians with access to the Internet, evading regime blocks and protecting their security. (http://www.irannewsdigest.com/?k=s&v=Guardian)
1330 GMT: Everything Most Excellent Here. Really. The Supreme Leader’s Twitter machine is extracting English quotes from his Nowruz message. My favourite so far: “Last Iranian year was the nation’s year and their victory; a year of seeming presence in glorious arena.” (http://www.twitter.com/khamenei_ir)
A three-minute news clip to note: Al Jazeera English considers the US policy towards Tehran and uses two analysts — Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council and Arash Aramesh — to suggest that attention to human rights should take over from a focus on the nuclear programme.
That in itself might not be stunning were it not for context and timing:
1. At Parsi’s NIAC hearing 10 days ago, the panel on US-Iran relations was totally focused on the nuclear issue and a possible “grand settlement” with Iran. There was scarcely a word on rights. Parsi seems to be promoting a policy beyond that “realist” promotion.
2. But it may not just be Parsi; it may be folks inside the US Government. Beyond Barack Obama’s Nowruz message calling on Tehran to accept the rights of its people, there are signs that this might be part of a new policy and not just rhetoric.
Gaza Rockets, Israel’s Response: Five rockets in 48 hours have been launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel, one of them taking the life of a Thai worker. In response, Israeli Air Forces carried out two air strikes on two tunnels which wounded 14 Palestinians, two seriously.
Latest on Israel-Palestine Negotiations: On Friday, the Quartet (Russia, the United States, the UN and the European Union) called on Israel and the Palestinians to renew peace negotiations to achieve a two-state solution within 24 months. The statement said:
Nothing annoys me more about New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman than his tendency to scuttle his occasionally insightful commentary with fabricated assumptions to fit his narrative.
This makes it really hard for me to like him.
You know that irritation that grows under your skin when somebody is making a lot of sense and then suddenly — wham — they hit you with a doozy so ridiculous you feel disproportionately deflated?
Well, that is my Friedman experience time and time again. Not always though — sometimes I am irritated from the get-go.
Amidst the Nowruz messages inside and outside Iran, Mehdi Karroubi made his contribution yesterday. There was a lot more beside New Year Greetings — Mr Verde analyses:
Karrroubi says that he does not believe in an Islamic Republic which is limited to a few clerics like Ahmadinejad supporters such as Mesbah-Yazdi, Jannati, Shojooni, Hassani, Hosseinian, Ahmad Khatami or an Iran which only includes officials like Ahmadinejad, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, Gholam-Hossein Elham, Saeed Mortazavi, and Jalalladin Farsi (who he says is a murderer). Ridiculing Ayatollah Khamenei’s reference to the “ship of the regime”, he says that the current regime is like a “meagre barge” not a large “galleon”.
Today, I want to extend my best wishes to all who are celebrating Nowruz in the United States and around the world. On this New Year’s celebration, friends and family have a unique opportunity to reflect on the year gone by; to celebrate their time together; and to share in their hopes for the future.
1400 GMT: The Next Nowruz Message…is reported to have come from Mehdi Karroubi.
(http://bit.ly/bLnMG0)
1245 GMT: Rumour of Day/Rafsanjani Watch. Two features in one, as news flies that Hossein Marashi, a relative and ally of Hashemi Rafsanjani, will be released
within days of his Thursday sentencing to one year in prison.
(http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5374138,00.html)
Iranian media are speaking of “hidden hands” behind Marashi’s release (http://www.khabaronline.ir/news-50341.aspx)
Deutsche Welle argues that this is bad news for the President, given the pressure of the Expediency Council (headed by Rafsanjani) to change electoral laws. Rafsanjani has also apparently managed to gain the support of the Combatant Clergy Assocation, headed by key conservative Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani. Another sign of Rafsanjani’s growing influence is the lifting of the ban on Shargh newspaper, which is meant to restart publication in two weeks.
So was Marashi’s arrest due to Ahmadinejad supporters trying to clip the challenge of Rafsanjani? And have they only succeeded in making that challenge stronger?
Japan has begun deportation procedures against prominent Iranian dissident and human rights activist Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei), a resident of the country for the past 18 years.
Japan’s effort to forcibly return an Iranian political activist constitutes a violation of the international principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits forcibly returning a person to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened. Mr. Saberi has a well-founded fear of persecution by the Islamic regime. He warrants recognition as a political refugee and merits protections under UN agreements on the Status of Refugees, to which Japan is a signatory.
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