The Latest from Iran (12 October): Rafsanjani Hits Back

2010 GMT: Cyber-Watch. The English-language website of Human Rights Activists News Agency has been off-line since Monday morning with the error message "Access Denied".

1945 GMT: Opposition Challenge. Ardeshir Amir Arjomand, a senior advisor to Mir Hossein Mousavi, has called on Green Movement activists to “bravely” reflect the “oppression” of the Iranian people to the “international community and all international organisations".

Arjomand, who is now outside Iran, called the President a "delusional liar" and declared, “Mr Ahmadinejad is not the representative of the Iranian people and does not have the right to speak on behalf of the Iranian people in the international stage.” Claiming that Ahmadinejad's impending visit to Lebanon was to gain domestic advantage, Arjomand asserted, “Unfortunately, Ahmadinejad is used to exploiting—[both] politically and personally—the pains and sufferings of others [both] by means of deceitful slogans and actions.”

Arjomand also spoke out against sanctions:

The international community must not punish [Iranian] workers, teachers and deprived sectors of the Iranian nation --- who live under the tyranny of an oppressive state --- because of the irresponsible adventurism of a president who lacks legitimacy among the people....Contrary to baseless claims, the sanctions will have a clear effect on the day-to-day lives of the people;therefore the Green Movement wants an end to the economic sanctions. The harm resulting from these sanctions have a direct impact on the situation of the people’s livelihoods and will create basic problems for using national resources.

Arjomand then tried to turn the Israeli issue against the government, saying that West Jerusalem government was “eager [for] and in need” of Ahmadinejad’s positions, using them to divert attention from the Palestinian struggle for justice, and claiming that the Green Movement “condemns” Israel’s acts of hostility in “breaching human rights and human dignity": “Our support for the Palestinian people is considered to be a support for justice and people as well as a religious and moral duty.”

1920 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Na'im Aghayi, the secretary of Tehran University's Democratic Association, has been arrested.

We reported yesterday that labour unionist Reza Shahabi had been released on bail. Rah-e-Sabz writes today that Shahabi, although paying bail, is not yet free.

1900 GMT: Philosophical Reflections. Hamid Dabashi, writing in Tehran Bureau, explains why UNESCO's World Philosophy Day should not be in Tehran in November:

The objective of rethinking World Philosophy Day in a way that will allow for a far more open and democratic space is precisely to allow for thinking critically through these issues without being charged with a velvet plot to topple the regime or else be accused of being an accomplice in its crimes. What we fundamentally lack and desperately need in Iran is a free and democratic space to think critically through these issues. Today, World Philosophy Day, as any other day, can potentially provide that space on the Internet. The Islamic Republic's gaudy conference halls of state-sponsored banality, over which ceremoniously presides the fraudulent figure of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, do not.

1855 GMT: Currency Watch. Radio Zamaneh summarises the news of closures of foreign exchange offices and the stabilised official rate of the Iranian toman against the dollar.

The website adds the claim of Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam, head of Iran’s police, that the recent drop in the value of the toman was organized by “enemies” who tried to create a crisis by buying up foreign currencies.

1845 GMT: The Explosion at the Military Base. Mashregh puts a number to the report of "several" killed and injured in an explosion at a military base in western Iran today. The website claims 12 Revolutionary Guards were killed and 20 injured.

Rah-e-Sabz says more than 40 troops were killed and wounded.

No further information on the cause of the blast, described by Iranian state media as an accident.

1530 GMT: Currency Watch. Rah-e-Sabz reports that Iranian authorities have closed three major foreign exchange offices.

Currency sellers have been warned not to exchange dollars for Iranian tomans at a level above the rate set by Iran's Central Bank.

Aftab reports that the official rate has stabilised at 1053 Iranian tomans to a US dollar.

The influential MP Gholam-Reza Mesbahi-Moghaddam, a member of the Majlis Economic Committee, has said that errors in currency distribution by the Central Bank caused the recent crisis.

1510 GMT: Iran Military Hit by Blast. Iranian state media is reporting that "several" soldiers have been killed and wounded in an explosion at a military training base outside Khorramabad in Lorestan Province in western Iran.

Iranian officials are saying that the blast occurred accidentally.

1135 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Amir Hossein Fotouhi, a Karoubi campaign activist, has reportedly been sentenced to four years in prison.

Hadi Hakim Shafaii, a lecturer at Bejnourd University, has been sentenced to one year in prison by an appeals court.

Shafaii was originally given a three-year term for "acting against national security", "propagating against the regime", and "insulting the leader", but the appeals court quashed the national security conviction.

0920 GMT: The University Dispute. According to Fars, as quoted by Tabnak, member of the governing board of Islamic Azad University has said that the Supreme Leader's edict handing control to the Government shall be implemented fully or, in his words, "hair by hair".

0910 GMT: Un-Freedom of the Press. Reporters Without Borders has condemned the expulsion from Tehran of Ángeles Espinosa, the correspondent of the Spanish daily El País. RAHANA claims Espinosa got into trouble because of an interview in July with Ahmad Montazeri, the son of the late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, a critic of the regime.

Reporters without Borders also criticised the arrest of two German journalists who were interviewing the son and lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman sentenced to death for adultery.

The son, Sajad Ghadersadeh, and lawyer Houtan Kian were also detained in Sunday's raid.

0855 GMT: Film Corner (Ahmadinejad in Lebanon Edition). On the eve of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's trip to Beirut, director Hana Makhmalbaf has written this open letter to the Lebanese people. Organisers of the Beirut Film Festival withdrew Makhmalbaf's award-winning film, Green Days, allegedly to avoid upsetting the Iranian President's delegation:

Ahmadinejad stole our votes yesterday and will steal your trust today. His intention is not to help you, just as his intention is not to serve Iran. His firebrand cries of justice to Iranians has brought nothing but poverty, imprisonment and torture under the name of God and his rabble rousing against Israel is nothing but a public deception of the Islamic world and will bring nothing for your land other than war. He uses your land as a frontline trench of his imaginary war. His insignificant loan is like the blood money for the great spirit of the youth of your country.

Ahmadinejad in my land is the symbol of censorship. Look how he brings censorship to your country before even arriving there.

We Iranians have learned to turn our homes into a festival to combat censorship, if you too turn your homes into a film festival and show the movie of Green Days to the mourning mothers of Lebanon and say that the mourning mothers of Iran say to each other: "Ahmadinejad and [Supreme Leader] Khamenei begin with the name of God but only end in the interests of Satan."

0845 GMT: Subsidies Watch. Mohsen Rezaei, 2009 Presidential candidate and Secretary of the Expediency Council, has said that the Government's plan for subsidy cuts should be reviewed: “The subsidy reform plan was drafted before the imposition of the (new round of) sanctions against Iran, so the sanctions should be taken into consideration and the plan should be revised."

0835 GMT: Economy Watch. Farnaz Fassihi, writing in The Wall Street Journal, parallels EA's coverage of economic tensions:

Iran's economy is under increasing strain four months after the latest international sanctions against Tehran, say Iranian businessmen, traders and consumers, who describe spreading pain from inflation, joblessness and mounting shortages.

In interviews from within Iran, these people paint a picture of unsteady supply chains and disrupted exports. Ordinary Iranians say they worry they will be caught paying more for goods and services even as the government trims subsidies.

Iran's Central Bank hasn't released official gross domestic product, inflation and other data for three years. But anecdotally, these Iranians say, weaknesses in their economy appear to have been magnified since June, when the United Nations, European Union and U.S. began stepping up measures aimed at deterring Tehran's nuclear program.

"Every morning, we go to work wondering how we will manage the day," says Gholam Hossein, a Tehran brick-factory owner. "The market is chaotic and unpredictable. One day we can't move our goods from the port. Another day we can't open a letter of credit."

An industrial-machinery importer says operating costs have risen at least 30% because of new shipping and insurance restrictions on Iran-bound cargo, costs to be passed on to consumers. A retired accountant in Tehran says her pension is now stretched thin. "Inflation is putting a lot of pressure on people," she says. "It's on everyone's minds."....

Layoffs and worker strikes at state companies have been rarities in Iran. But a pharmaceutical company owner said he recently curbed production and laid off at least 40 employees because of the increasing time and cost of importing raw materials. Iran's ILNA news agency, meanwhile, reported that last week workers walked off the job at government-owned factories—two tire plants and a cooking-oil maker— saying they hadn't been paid in as long as four months.

"The economic crisis we are witnessing today is a direct result of the sanctions—and Iranian officials who say otherwise are fooling themselves," said Mojtaba Vahidi, who served as a top-level manager for nearly two decades in Iran's ministries of finance and industry. Mr. Vahidi was an economic adviser to a losing candidate in Iran's last presidential elections and now lives in the U.S.

0535 GMT: The Campaign of the Political Prisoners (cont.). More on Mohammad Nourizad's 28 questions to the Supreme Leader from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty....

The website highlights Nourizad's challenge, as he requests fulfilment of rights, to Ayatollah Khamenei's repeated invocation of "America" as Iran's enemy:

The American judicial authority defends Muslims' rights and allows them to build mosques just a short distance from the Twin Towers. But in Islamic Iran, Sunni Muslims are not allowed their own mosque to worship without fear in Tehran....

Americans have been brought up in such a way that they seldom lie, while lying is clearly evident among the people and authorities in our country....The chances of an American prosecutor telling a lie are virtually nil, except in rare cases, but what about prosecutors in our country? Our prosecutors lie as easily as taking a sip of water -- they formulate and disseminate untrue rulings....

You are the only person in Iran who has freedom of speech, while everyone in America has freedom of speech.

Nourizad, asserting that there are no political prisoners in the US but many in Iran, made this request of Khamenei: "We are Muslims but tainted by hypocrisy, while [Americans] who seem to be pagans do not know hypocrites. You, as an imam, should issue a fatwa and tell us which nation is closer to God."

0520 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Ali Taari, Mir Hossein Mousavi's campaign manager in Babolsar in northern Iran, has been sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison.

0515 GMT: The Campaign of the Political Prisoners. Yesterday we featured initiatives by detainees pressing the regime for action, including a letter by 14 prominent political prisoners calling for a national fact-finding committee into the 2009 election and 28 questions put to the Supreme Leader by journalist/filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad.

We should have added this: five detainees, including journalist/activist Heshmatollah Tabarzadi --- sentenced to nine years in prison last month --- journalist Isa Saharkhiz, and labour activist Mansour Osanloo, have supported Mir Hossein Mousavi's call for a national referendum on "destructive government policies".

0500 GMT: Currency Watch. Both Khabar Online and Kalemeh report that long lines in front of foreign exchange offices continue.

0450 GMT: Today's All-is-Well Alert. Deputy Minister of Energy Mohammad Behzad has tried to offer assurances even as he said the government has approved a rise in the price of electricity in line with subsidy cuts: "people should not fear them but economise, they will be refunded" for the increased cost. 

0445 GMT: Economy Watch. Iran's statistics office reports that only 36% of privatisation goals have been reached, and the private sector's share of that privatisation is only 14%.

0430 GMT: It looks like political tension in Iran just went up a couple of notches....

Yesterday we evaluated the striking news that the Supreme Leader had ruled in favour of the Government and against former Hashemi Rafsanjani by declaring that a private endowment of Islamic Azad University was invalid, thus taking control of the campuses away from Rafsanjani and handing them to President Ahmadinejad. 

That's far from the end of the story, however, for Rafsanjani's supporters have already hit back.

The former President's website responds to the Khamenei ruling by re-printing a Rafsanjani interview, carried out before the latest developments, with the magazine Communications. In the discussion, Rafsanjani says that as long as Imam Khomeini's opinion is valid --- the IAU was founded in 1982 --- the "Free" Universities will not be a part of the Government.

As dramatic as this dispute may become, it only adds to the bickering as some conservatives and principlists take stands against the President. Hamidreza Taraghi of the Motalefeh party was blunt: we will not allow power-hungry elements in govt to reach their monarchist and nationalistic goals. 

Mohammad Khoshchehreh, who has been a prominent Government supporter, continues his political shift, saying Ahmadinejad should be responsible for what he does or correct himself. Khoshchehreh added that principlists are concerned that he and members of his government do not react to criticism.

Looking on from the reformist camp, Dariush Ghanbari claimed that the President is no longer putting up with the principlist parties, who make up the majority of the Parliament, with reform of the law on political parties the "coup de grace" against all factions.