The Latest from Iran (25 December): Awaiting a Hanging

2250 GMT: All-is-Well Alert (Overseas Edition). Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi has assured a conference, "All Iranians who live outside of the country are not in the opposition. The number of Iranian expatriates who are opponents of the system is limited."

Moslehi said, however, that there is still work to be done: "Foreign intelligence agencies have provided facilities and equipment to [the opponents] to help them make their voices widely heard."

On another front, Moslehi bragged that the authorities were monitoring the e-mail accounts of the opposition, saying that the surveillance helped break the "sedition" after the 2009 election.

2240 GMT: Execution Watch. Ayatollah Bayat Zanjani has commented on the imminent hanging of Kurdish prisoner Habibollah Latifi: "Even illicit Arabs stopped war and killing in [the religious month of] Moharram."

2225 GMT: All-is-Well Alert. The Deputy Minister of Commerce, Mohammad-Hossein Nekoui-Mehr, has said that the Government has taken special measures for decreasing food prices amidst subsidy cuts.

Nekoui-Mehr added that about 7,000 products are currently being monitored by the Ministry to stop any increase in the prices of general commodities.

1920 GMT: We Have Hidden All Our Money. Former Minister of Culture Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi explains how Iran will triumph over Western economic pressure: "We have transferred our foreign assets to safe havens."

1830 GMT: Terrorist Mystery Continues (see 1050 GMT). OK, here is what has apparently happened to prompt Iranian state media's confusing claim that Pakistani authorities captured Abdolraouf Rigi, who the Iranians said had succeeded his executed brother Abdolmalek as head of the Jundullah insurgent group.

Iranian media named the wrong person. The Governor of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, the centre of Jundullah's activities, is now saying that the key detainee and leader of Jundullah is Mohammad Zaher Baluch.

IRNA, which initially reputed the arrest of Abdolraouf Rigi, has also revised its story, based on "informed sources" and local Pakistanis, to report that Baluch is the prisoner in question.

Iran’s Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs, Ali Abdollahi, is refusing to confirm or deny the new claim.

1810 GMT: Execution Watch. Roya Boroumand writes for The Huffington Post about Habibollah Latifi and his imminent hanging:

Most authoritarian states execute dissidents to deter dissent. A young unknown Kurdish student in an isolated region is a perfect target. Publicizing an unverifiable accusation of involvement in an armed group is meant to prevent a public opinion outrage and create confusion.

1800 GMT: Diplomatic Admission. New Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has told a conference that brain drain from Iran is a reality as the Islamic Republic cannot compete with the US.

1715 GMT: Bring It On (cont.). The Guardian Council has rebuffed the Parliament, rejecting the bill that takes the Central Bank of Iran from the oversight of the President.

1705 GMT: Bring It On. Another escalation in the in-fighting? The President's right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, has rebuffed the declaration of the judiciary that it was sending the file on 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, accused of corruption, to the courts.

Rahim-Mashai said that after the announcement, made by Iran Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, Ahmadinejad was even more determined to keep Rahimi.

Rahim-Mashai declared, "If Ahmadinejad wants to do something, no one can stop him!".

1700 GMT: A Green Christmas. The opposition website Rah-e-Sabz features Christmas music videos from John Lennon ("Happy Christmas --- War is Over) and Luciano Pavarotti ("Ave Maria").

1655 GMT: Cyber-Restriction. Rah-e-Sabz claims that internet communications have been disturbed for a week, with a 58% decrease in traffic.

1650 GMT: Labour Front. Workers of the Pars Metal factory have protested that they are owed seven months' pay.

Another report indicates that some Pars Metal workers have been unemployed for three weeks, with the factory's power cut off due to unpaid debts.

1635 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Eighteen-year-old Navid Mohebbi, the world's "youngest detained blogger", has been given a suspended sentence of three years in prison and has been freed from prison.

1545 GMT: Shutting Down the Opposition. Moussa Ghorbani, a member of Parliament's Judiciary Committee, has confirmed that opposition figures are barred from leaving the country.

A ban on travel has long been an open secret, and there have been specific incidents such as the refusal to let former President Mohammad Khatami travel to Japan for a conference on nuclear disarmament. However, Ghorbani's staement is the first public announcement.

Ghorbani also suggested that the opposition figures should be put on trial. He said authorities had "recognized" that Mousavi, Karroubi and Khatami are have committed "mohareb" (war against God), a crime which can be punished by death. He added that, even if Britain granted asylum, the "leaders of sedition" would not be allowed out of Iran.

1335 GMT: Execution Watch. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has now posted an article on the Habibollah Latifi case: "Concern over 'Imminent' Execution of Kurdish Student".

1335 GMT: Execution Watch. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has now posted an article on the Habibollah Latifi case: "Concern over 'Imminent' Execution of Kurdish Student".

1155 GMT: Execution Watch. A blogger claims that all Kurdish satellite channels are jammed, making it impossible to get information on the eve of the scheduled execution of prisoner Habibollah Latifi.

Phone lines to and from Sanandaj prison are cut. Extra checkpoints manned by Revolutionary Guards have been set up at entries to Sanandaj city.

The Guardian of London has now picked up on Latifi's case, interviewing his sister Elahe (see also Masih Alinejad's interview of Elahe Latifi for EA).

1055 GMT: Sedition Watch (Obama Admits Defeat Edition). Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi has told a conference that President Obama is about to admit failure in the American effort to overthrow the Iranian regime, using the events around the Presidential election in 2009.

The White House has offered no response to this revelation.

1050 GMT: Terrorism Watch. More on the confused story of Pakistan's possible detention of the head of Jundullah, the Baluch insurgent group.

Earlier this week, Iranian state television claimed Pakistani authorities had arrested a number of Jundullah members, including Abdolraouf Rigi, who took over leadership when his brother Abdolmalek was executed in Iran last June. Pakistani officials denied the claim, however.

Now Iranian media is asserting that Pakistan will soon hand over Rigi. There has no been separate word from the Pakistanis.

Earlier this month, Jundullah claimed responsibility for a attack on a religious ceremony in Chabahar in Sistan-Baluchestan Province in southeastern Iran. 
At least 39 people were killed and almost 90 others were wounded.

0650 GMT: Iranian state media is playing up the visit of President Ahmadinejad to Istanbul, featuring proclamations of co-operation between Turkey and Iran, but Internet discussion continues to be dominated by the imminent execution of Kurdish prisoner Habibollah Latifi.

Latifi, convicted in June 2008 of mohareb (war against God) and membership in the Kurdish insurgent group PJAK, is scheduled to hang on Sunday morning. In a separate entry, we feature an interview with his sister Elahe. Video has been posted of a Voice of America interview with her.

On a far lighter political note, Aftab has fun with the recent dismissal of Government ministers by President Ahmadinejad, predicting where the next victims will meet their fate. Minister of Communications? In a phone booth in Bandar Lengeh on the southern coast of Iran. Minister of Culture? In a cinema box office. Minister of Welfare? Sunbathing "while on the shores of the beautiful coral island of Kish in its full prosperity".

The Christian Science Monitor takes a more serious approach to the battle within the Ahmadinejad Government, viewing the "growing influence" of Ahmadinejad Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai as the catalyst for changes.