The Latest from Iran (5 December): Hope and Resistance

2105 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Journalist Isa Saharkhiz has reportedly undergone an operation for international bleeding in Rajai Shahr Prison's infirmary.

Leyla Tavassoli has been transferred to Evin Prison to begin a two-year prison sentence.

Tavassoli is the daughter of Mohammad Tavassoli, a senior member of the Freedom Movement of Iran.

2058 GMT: Labour Front. Workers of Kashan spinning factory have gathered in front of the governor's office to protest over being paid half-wages for 27 months.

2055 GMT: All-is-Well Alert. The Deputy Minister of Trade has said that bread prices will rise "a bit" after subsidy cuts but added that quality will rise as well.

2045 GMT: Budget Fun. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has insisted that the Government must fulfil all budget laws issued by Majlis and approved by the Guardian Council.

That Council, however, has sent a letter with 27 problems and six admonitions over the 5th Budget Plan to the Majlis.

And MP Mohammad Reza Farhangi has countered in turn with a question: why did a deputy, rather than the head of the Council, Ayatollah Jannati, sign the letter on the 5th Budget Plan to Parliament? Because it was informal, answers Farhangi.

2035 GMT: Pollution Alert. A source from Tehran checks in....

For 3 weeks the capital has been covered by a thick layer of smog. Shops and offices are open only two to three days per week, and ambulances have been set up as mobile oxygen stations throughout the city, for example, at 7 Tir Square.

The source said a yellowish or brownish layer can be seen at a distance of 40 to 50 meters, with the pollution 35 times higher than normal.

The source adds that "many companies have gone bankrupt".

1935 GMT: Labour Front. The President of the Haft Tapeh Sugar Workers Union, Reza Rakhshan, has been sentenced to six months in prison by an appeals court.

Rakhshan's crime was “spreading lies”, apparently in reference to an article he wrote entitled "Happy Birthday Sugarcane Workers!". In the piece, published on Internet sites, Rakhshan referred to the imprisonment of five members of the Haft Tapah executive as well as his own dismissal from work.

1925 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Following the second hearing in her trial, attorney Nasrine Sotoudeh's detention has been extended, with bail denied.

Sotoudeh's husband Reza Khandan said his wife, held for more than two months, is still in solitary detention.

Ebrahim Yazdi, former Foreign Minister and head of the Freedom Movement of Iran, has been transferred to Evin Prison's infirmary with chest pain and high blood pressure.

The 80-year-old Yazdi, the oldest detainee in Evin, was arrested just after the June 2009 election and again in Spetember for attending “an illegal Friday prayers”.

1915 GMT: How to Deal with "Sedition". General Ataollah Salehi, the commander-in-chief of Iran's army, has told his officers of a special tactic to ensure his forces did not side with the unrest the followed the June 2009 presidential election: images of prominent figures in the "seditious" Green Movement were placed in “military bases and the rooms of some soldiers”.

The commander explained, "We didn’t tell [the soldiers to tear up the pictures, but rather, we told the Officer of Political Ideology to try and cleanse their hearts of this matter.”

Salehi declared, “I have said this in all meetings and will say it again here, no one must feel that the army has a lenient approach towards the sedition."

Salehi claimed that the opposition, "based on creating [false] religions", was formed in “England” and had a strong tie with “Zionism".

1655 GMT: On Campus. Kalemeh reports that there will be a mass gathering of Tehran University of Medical Sciences faculty and students at noon tomorrow.

1530 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Seven detainees were released last night from Evin Prison:

*Retired teacher Housein Bastaninejad, arrested 21 June 2009 and sentenced to three years

*Mehdi Fatahbakhsh, 26, arrested 16 June 2009 and sentenced to 3 1/2 years

*Law student Faramarz Abdolahnejad, arrested 21 June 2009 and sentenced to 28 months

*Mohsen Naghash Shoshtari, 19, arrested 5 December 2009 and sentenced to one years

*Omid Yavari, 20, arrested 20 January 2010 and sentenced to one year

*University student Mohsen Abdi, arrested December 2009 and sentenced to two years

*Ghader Rahimi, arrested 31 December 2009 and sentenced to one year

Going the other way is Saeed Poorheydar, sentenced to five years in prison.

1525 GMT: Hmm, That May Be Going a Bit Far. Ezzatolllah Yousefian, a member of Parliament's Planning and Budget Commission, says that those who try to disrupt the implementation of subsidy cuts should face the death penalty.

1100 GMT: Nuclear Strike A Pose. The head of Iran's nuclear energy programme, Ali Akbar Salehi, offers a public-relations special for tomorrow's resumption of talks between Iran and the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, and China): "Today, we witnessed the shipment of the first domestically produced yellowcake [uranium ore concentrate]...from Gachin mine to the Isfahan nuclear facility."

This, Salehi continued, meant Iran is now self-sufficient over the entire nuclear fuel cycle.

Although the Western media from The New York Times to CNN are excitedly relaying this story, but at the moment, it is more symbol than substance. The key question is how much uranium Iran can extract from domestic sources: it was the bottleneck in supply that led Tehran to approach the International Atomic Energy Agency in summer 2009 for a possible arrangement over uranium enrichment. Salehi also said today that a bigger uranium mine at Saghand in central Iran, will be inaugurated "in the not too distant future".

Meanwhile, the official gave away the PR motive, saying the message to those meeting with Iran in Geneva on Monday and Tuesday was that they cannot stop Iran's nuclear work.: "No matter how much effort they put into their sanctions...our nuclear activities will proceed and they will witness greater achievements in the future."

0920 GMT: Mourning. Despite Government pressure, a group of followers will hold a memorial in Najafabad on Thursday for the first anniversary's of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri's death.

Montazeri's family cancelled their plans in the face of Government warnings against any demonstration of dissent.

0915 GMT: It's All A Conspiracy. Not exactly a vital story, but still fun....

The Government is in overdrive in its effort to counter this week's release of the WikiLeaks documents, putting forth a vision of a US-Israel-Anyone Else Bad conspiracy and forgery of hundreds of documents. President Ahmadinejad says they are part of Washington's “psychological warfare”. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast calls the cables “highly dubious”.

Now Iranian media brings out Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh of Parliament's National Security Commission: “Since we trust Arab countries and not Western information sources in the Wikileaks documents, it would be better for Arab states to show a practical response to them.”

0900 GMT: Governing. MP and former Minister of Health Massoud Pezeshkian has said that, instead of supervising legislators, the Government should fulfil the Constitution. He said that some laws have not been implemented for 30 years.

0830 GMT: Question of Day. Why has the Supreme Leader made yet another trip to Qom, his third visit since his grand tour in October was supposed to establish his authority and quell any concerns?

0820 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch (Campus Edition). Of course, Iranian authorities are not going to let "hope and resistance" go unchecked before National Student Day. News came on Saturday that activists Esmail Salmanpour and Farzad Islami had been arrested. Tehran University student Hassan Joulayi has also been detained.

0810 GMT: As documents reveal the assessment of US diplomats that Iran had gone from "crisis to stalemate" by January, activist Bahareh Hedayat --- imprisoned for 9 1/2 years for her dissent --- has offered a reminder of the ongoing challenge with her letter for National Students Day on 16 Azar (7 December). We have posted the English translation in a separate entry.

And Mehdi Karroubi has his own reminder.

In a statement published yesterday, Karroubi said the presence of Iranian students in the political scene is a “thorn in the eyes of the nation’s ill-wishers". 

Karroubi assessed that “those who seek to monopolize power” first “engineered the presidential elections of last year and then went after the arena of knowledge and science to prevent students from questioning their actions". However, the “hope and resistance” of the students in Iranian universities would cause the “retreat of the forces seeking totalitarianism and monopoly in power".

While those ruling forces were continuing repression, the voices of students were needed as “the Iranian society is in dire need of throwing light upon the truth and disseminating information.”