The Latest from Iran (28 October): Re-Playing the Election

2040 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The State Bank of India has directed its overseas branches to stop transactions with Iranian entities.

An internal circular issued last month by the bank, India’s largest, establishes that India has tacitly joined United Nations sanctions against Iran.

The directive was issued after Iranian entities attempted to break the bank’s firewall by using shell firms to purchase US dollars to finance their business.

1955 GMT: How Could We Forget? It was the 10th and last day of the Khamenei roadshow in Qom. Mehr said that the people of the city gave him a "huge and passionate" farewell. Fars echoes the story, but there are no pictures.

The Financial Times belatedly notices the trip, "Khamenei Pleads for Clerical Support in Qom".

1930 GMT: Looking Forward, Blaming the West. To give the President credit, by this afternoon he had gotten past the regime's attention to his June 2009 election and looked forward. He declared in a speech that the achievement of the domestic goals of the past 20 years are only possible when the international system changes.

What does that mean? Ali Akbar Velayati, the Supreme Leader's advisor, asserted that people expected the implementation of the goals from the Government but that sanctions gave Iran the opportunity to achieve self-sufficiency.

Not everyone is convinced, however. MP Ali Akbar Oulia said that the 5th Budget Plan, currently held up in a dispute between the Government and Parliament, is a licence for the government to implement only those laws it likes without taking responsibility. He said there is no guarantee that 20 years of goals can be reached.

1915 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Back from conference to find a report from an activist that journalist Hengameh Shahidi has been freed from detention, reportedly for medical treatment.

Shahidi was arrested on 30 June 2009. She was released in October on $90,000 bail but returned to jail in March after her six-year sentence.

1440 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. Mohammad Naqdi, the commander of the Basij military, says subsidy cuts are "major surgery" on the economy and major surgery is always associated with pain.

1425 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Parisa Kakaei of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters has been sentenced to six years.

Activist Mansour Faraji has been sentenced to three years and 30 lashes.

Blogger Mehdi Nezamaleslami, a Mehdi Karroubi campaign activist and son of a former MP, was arrested last night.

1423 GMT: Karroubi Watch. An activist claims that Karroubi's son Taghi, a law professor, has been fired from his position at the office of the Secretary of the Expediency Council.

1420 GMT: Euphemism of the Day. The Majlis Research Center has concluded that a number of professors have been dismissed due to "academic stagnation".

Somehow I don't think that "stagnation" covers the situation.

1410 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Peyke Iran reports that human rights activist Kouhyar Goudarzi, who has already been moved from Evin Prison to Rajai Shahr Prison, is now detained in solitary confinement.

1400 GMT: Un-Free Press. Reporters Without Borders summarises the latest repression by the regime against journalists, including a raid on the home of Mohammad Reza Moghisseh, the editor of Biste Saleha --- his wherebouts are unknown --- and the upholding of the sentence of one year in prison and a 30-year ban on journalism on blogger and reporter Jila Bani Yaghoob.

1345 GMT: Democracy = Soft War. So says Hojatoleslam Ali Saidi, the Supreme Leader’s representative in the Revolutionary Guard: "Democracy is the enemy’s tool for toppling the Islamic Republic and they try to recruit help with it from inside the system.”

Saidi, echoing our theme today of re-visiting the 2009 Presidential vote, continued, “We see that at every election, the enemy uses this secular and liberal movement to reach its aims.”

1340 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Back from conference to find that prominent reformist Ali Shakouri Rad has been released on bail.

The detention of Shakouri Rad had sparked public protests, including an open letter from 165 doctors and professors to the judiciary.

0605 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. Key MP Gholam-Reza Mesbahi Moghaddam has warned that if people do not support subsidy cuts, the government's project will fail. He said the Majlis will have a meeting with the Minister of Economy next week to get details of the cuts --- President Ahmadinejad has been notably reluctant to release information.

0600 GMT: Take It or Leave It. And I'm definitely sure that some US officials and media won't be talking about the 2009 election today. The "hard-liners" in the Obama Administration have gotten hold of their favourite publicist, David Sanger of The New York Times to tell Tehran: "Here's your nuclear deal. By the way, it's not as good as the one you could have had last year."

0550 GMT: Is the Parliament Listening? I am sure that all MPs really care about the regime's renewed emphasis on the 2009 election. The Ministers of Information, Foreign Policy, Trade, and Labour have all been summoned to the Majlis.

And 129 MPs, almost half of the legislators, have demanded the transfer of $551 million in "justice" shares to the Treasury, presenting the defrauders to judiciary.
 
0545 GMT: Defending the Regime. Commander Mohammad Saleh Joukar, the head of the students branch of the Basij militia, has said, "We will organise three million Basiji pupils" for the 13 Aban (4 November) rally marking the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy. 
Summoning pupils reminds me of German history, and Screaming Mary must be pleased ;-) 

0535 GMT: It is striking this week how much emphasis is being placed by regime officials, all the way to the Supreme Leader, on the June 2009 election.

You might think, given the claims of a secure, legitimate position, that there would be need to shout loudly about the victory of the Government over the darkest efforts at sedition. But, after repeated references by Ayatollah Khamenei in his Qom road trip to the electoral stand against enemies, Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi has declared that the esteemed leadership of the Islamic Republic paved the way for Ahmadinejad's two terms.

Moslehi supported his claim of a just restoration of power by claiming that 70% of the work in the 6th Parliament, during the years of Ahmadinejad's predecessor Mohammad Khatami, was done by "hypocrites".