The Latest from Iran (21 December): Tremors

2030 GMT: Diplomatic Protest. Twenty leading MPs, including Ahmad Tavakoli, Ali Motahari, and Elyas Naderan, have written to Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani to protest last week's dismissal of Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. The MPs have demanded that Parliament's National Security Commission "address the issue as soon as possible".

1850 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. Thomas Erdbrink (see 1840 GMT) also reports that business in department stores had fallen off even though Iranians are celebrating Shab-e Yalda, their festival for the winter solstice.

1840 GMT: The Truckers' Strike. Interesting news from Thomas Erdbrink of The Washington Post in Tehran....

Thousands of Iranian truck drivers in several cities are on strike for a second day after the steep rise in the price of diesel fuel.

"At least half of all truck drivers in the country are on strike or not working," said Mohammad Arjmandi, a manager for a Tehran-based transportation company. Those who are working have increased transport charges by nearly 40%

Government officials disputed claims of a mass stoppage. "Only 60 drivers did not work yesterday," said Mohammad Rouyanian, head of the National Transport and Fuel Consumption Management Committee. He asserted that out of 2,500 transportation requests nationwide, only nine were not honoured.

Transportation companies said, however, that they did not enough drivers on hand, and the sale of diesel fuel has fallen 73% since Sunday.

Each trucker can fill up once during the next month for the pre-subsidy cuts charge of 600 tomans ($0.06) per gallon. After that, they must pay $1.32 per gallon.

1704 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. The official price of bread has tripled. How this will be reconciled with the 3200% increase in the price of flour is still unclear.

1702 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The US Treasury Department has announced new restrictions targeting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its firm, the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. The official heading up the Treasury sanctions effort, Stuart Levey, said the measure seek to limit financing for the IRGC and its shipping line rather than to affect the oil trade.

The restriction name Ansar Bank and Mehr Bank as supporters of the IRGC, barring them from any participation in U.S. financial and commercial systems and prohibiting U.S. citizens from any dealing with them. They also target the cooperative Bonyad Taavon Sepah, which the Treasury said was formed by IRGC commanders to handle their investments.

1700 GMT: Today's In-House Criticism. Alef, the site of leading MP Ahmad Tavakoli, has criticised the President's "tribal management of affairs": "Only the wheedlers will be left over".

1655 GMT: Government Confusion. Now the state media outlets are arguing with each other: Fars News is claiming that an IRNA interview with Ms Torkestani, apparently accepting the position of head of the National Youth Organization, is a fraud.

1650 GMT: Diplomatic Service. A curious framing of an intriguing story by Khabar Online today....

The website says that, in the absence of the Foreign Minister, Vice President Hamid Baghaie went to Sanaa and delivered a message from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Yemen's President.

1) Hamid Baghaie was one of the four "special advisors" named by Ahmadinejad this summer, sparking a heated argument with the Foreign Ministry; 2) "In the absence of the Foreign Minister"? Ali Akbar Salehi was formally named Foreign Minister last weekend.

1645 GMT: Picture of Day. Lines for automatic bank tellers in Lorestan Province in western Iran after the deposit of support payments into Iranians' accounts:

1640 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. Prices for bus tickets will increase by 20-30%.

1558 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Intesa SanPaolo, the last Italian bank providing finance for Iranian oil deals, has cut its ties with the Islamic Republic.

1549 GMT: Clerical Intervention. Reformist cleric Ayatollah Mousavi Khoeiniha, has expressed his abhorrence of the "irreligious and inhuman treatment" of the families of political prisoners.

Last week Iranian security forces accosted and seized relatives, as they stood in front of Evin Prison, of detainees Mohammad Reza Nourizad and Mostafa Tajzadeh.

1545 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Persian2English offers details on detained attorney Nasrine Sotoudeh's decision to end her hunger strike, her third since she was arrested in early September, "because of her duties as a mother and her two young children".

The International Committee for Human Rights in Iran, also quoting Sotoudeh's husband Reza Khandan, says the attorney's decision was because of deteriorating health. Khandan adds, "“Ms. Sotoudeh told me the last time [we talked] that her prison interrogators have told her ‘we won’t let the judge give you less than ten years in prison."

1305 GMT: The Earthquake. ISNA reports that the death toll from Monday's earthquake in southeastern Iran has risen to 40.

1250 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Detained student activists Bahareh Hedayat and Mahdieh Golroo have begun hunger strikes.

Hedayat has been sentenced to 9 1/2 years in prison and Golroo has been given a two-year term.

1215 GMT: Today's Foreign Enemy. Looks like Pakistan has been selected for the brunt of Tehran's criticism today. State media's portrayal of the President's phone call on Monday to his Pakistani counterpart is that Ahmadinejad called on Asif Ali Zardari "to commission the country's security apparatus to arrest known terrorist and extradite them to Iran".

The Deputy Commander of Iran's Armed Forces, Major General Gholamali Rashid, has added a call for "hot pursuit" by the Revolutionary Guards across the border: “The anti-revolutionary rings, which have found safe havens and support in neighboring countries such as Pakistan, need to be hunted down and crushed on Pakistani soil. And this is the only way to confront them.”

And Hossein Naqavi of Parliament's National Security Commission, claims that documents prove Pakistan military intelligence educates terrorists.

1125 GMT: More Divisions. The most interesting challenge to the President this morning may come from the "hard-line" Kayhan, which warns that a "bad circle" around Ahmadinejad have pushed him into dismissals such as that of Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

Kayhan has clashed in the past with Ahmadinejad over his Chief of Staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai.

1120 GMT: The Fight in Parliament. Deputy Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Reza Bahonar, challenging pro-Ahmadinejad MP Rouhollah Hosseinian, has warned that "sifting the idea of principlism" would mean the elimination of pluralism within Iranian politics, pushing principlist rivals towards "the enemy".

1115 GMT: The Fight with the Judiciary. Gholam-Hossein Elham, former Minister of Justice and Government spokesperson, has accused the judiciary of acting illegally. He suggested that judiciary oversight of the registry office, prisons organisation, and forensics as well as control of a newspaper is against the Constitution.

Elham's attack comes in the same week that the judiciary has confirmed it will pursue corruption charges against 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi and after it has received a file on the "illegal transfer" of Iran's state telecommunications in a part-privatisation to a company linked to the Revolutionary Guards.

0945 GMT: Parliament and Economy. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has said a Majlis report on the "illegal transfer" of the Telecommunications Company of Iran has been forwarded to the judiciary.

Former Minister of Communications Mohammad Soleimani is specifically criticised in the report.

The company was part-privatised in September 2009, when Mobin Trust Consortium bought 50% plus one shares for $7.8 billion. Mobin is part-owned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

0905 GMT: Economy Watch. Peyke Iran, citing ILNA, says the unemployment rate in Qom is now above 30%.

0835 GMT: When Elections Converge. President Ahmadinejad has "extended a message of congratulations to his Belarusian counterpart [Alexander Lukashenko on his re-election" on Sunday. 

Lukashenko "won" with 80% of the claimed vote. Thousands of protesters laid siege to Government buildings --- and were reportedly beaten by police --- after the ballot (see our separate updates on Belarus).

I look forward to the Guardian Council's confirmation, with supportive studies, of the legitimacy of Lukashenko's victory.

0715 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. Fars reports that, from this morning, an additional 8000 tomans ($8) per person will be deposited into the accounts of households signed up for the support payments programme.

The $8 is a two-month payment to cover the increased price of bread. However, the Government has still not announced that price.

0640 GMT: On Monday, at least seven people died and hundreds more were injured in a 6.5-magnitude earthquake that struck Kerman Province in southeastern Iran. 

Meanwhile, there is still uncertainty about the scope of the subsidy cuts and their effects on prices. Even though the cuts introduced by President Ahmadinejad are only on certain products, they affect vital goods such as gasoline and bread. Iranian officials have said that the official level for bread prices will be set today, but there is already a dilemma: if the cost of flour has been allowed to rise by 3200%, won't bakers have to raise their prices by a similar amount to stay in business?

And of course the tremors continue for political prisoners, from the little-known to the internationally famous. On Monday, news emerged that film director Jafar Panahi had been sentenced to six years in prison. In addition, Panahi is banned for 20 years from making movies, giving interviews, or going abroad.