The Latest from Iran (8 December): Back to the Smog

2205 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Actually, I don't want to finish with smog. Instead, I note Fereshteh Ghazi's interview with journalist Emaduddin Baghi just before he returned to Evin Prison to serve a seven-year sentence. Baghi explains, "It is impossible to work through legal channels in the Islamic Republic."

2200 GMT: Back to the Smog. To almost end the day where we began....

Like the Washington Post, the Financial Times prefers to discuss pollution rather than protests: "Tehran residents are blaming the Iranian government’s production of poor-quality petrol for the serious air pollution affecting Iran’s capital city."

Do not fear, however. The solution is at hand. Reviving a proposal offered by Tehran Friday Prayers leader Ayatollah Emami Kashani, the Basij-e Mostazafin organisation has issued a statement to the people: Pray for Rain.

2053 GMT: Subsidy Cut Watch. The Government has distributed a circular, signed by 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, announcing that subsidy cuts are near and calling on all government and public organisations to send proposals for new prices to the Bazaar Control Group.

Influential MP Gholam-Reza Mesbahi-Moghaddam offers caution, noting that the Parliament has not been informed about the start of the cuts. He hoped that the rise in energy prices would be raised soon but would not cause too much inflation for other goods.

There appears to be a modification in the plans for gasoline. Instead of a flat rate of 700 tomans ($0.70) per litre --- compared to the current rate of 100 tomans ($0.10) --- a dual priceo of 400 tomans for rationed gasoline and 700 tomans for unrationed will be implemented.

The Deputy Minister of Energy has said that water bills will rise for 70% of the population.

2045 GMT: Today's Tough Talk. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of the Basij militia, has announced, "We will take revenge and have already marked gallows for the US and Zionist generals who gave the orders to kill our nuclear scientists."

1835 GMT: The Judiciary Strikes. The head of Iran's judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, has declared, "Intelligence forces are not allowed to enter into judiciary files."

Larijani had specific words for the head of the Guardian Council, Ayatollah Jannati, who had accused the judiciary of failing to cooperate with the Ministry of Intelligence. Larijani said Jannati had "received such information from newspapers".

1820 GMT: Parliament v. President. The Majlis has ended its discussions on the 5th Budget Plan, putting forth 240 articles v. the 200 in the original proposal.

No indication yet of the Government's response, and Speaker of Ali Larijani is already making defiant statements. He said, "Our main concern in the Majlis arbitration commission was Government infringements", and he then took a swipe at the Guardian Council's head Ayatollah Jannati and spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodaei: "They could have declared their statements as personal opinions, and we would have offer them answers based on arguments."

Larijani reiterated, "The Imam [Ayatollah Khomeini said the Majlis is at the head of affairs."

1815 GMT: Free-Thinking Ahmadinejad. Another section of the President's speech on his tour of Iran for National Students Day (see 1020 GMT)....

The President said professorial posts for "freethinkers" should be created, with government officials visiting to answer students' questions. He added that criticism was "necessary" and "I ask the deans to create a space for critical debates".

An EA source causes trouble, however: "Why did authorities close down Arak University when Ahmadinejad visited Arak [in central Iran] yesterday?"

1710 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Journalist and blogger Ali Moazemi has been given a one-year suspended prison sentence by an appeals court.

1515 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Activist Hossein Mahdavi, former secretary of the Islamic Association of Lorestan University, has been arrested.

1450 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Yesterday we briefly noted a message from former President Hashemi Rafsanjani for National Students Day. An EA source sends further details from the Iranian Labor News Agency about Rafsanjani's call on university students to be "vigilant" and not to allow society "to fall asleep with the lullaby of superstitions".

Rafsanjani wrote, "In the contemporary history, in addition to scientific activities, universities have also been active in politics and Iranian students in all academic fields of study have challenged the rulers (of the time) with their power of reasoning and logic."

The former President continued,"The Iranian student should try hard to remain a righteous inheritor of his predecessors' wealth of science and research and he should not allow backwardness to slow Iran's progress The Iranian student should know that the combination of religion and politics, nationalism and Islamism as well as commitment and proficiency are necessary for the future advancement and development of this country....The Iranian student should be vigilant so that the society would not fall asleep with the lullaby of superstitions."

1335 GMT: Shutting Down the Media. What was the transgression of the reformist Shargh newspaper, leading to two raids on its office yesterday and the arrest of four of its staff, including the editor and managing director?

This special edition: "The Student Movement is Alive".

(Still, I guess there is a silver lining, in light of our morning analysis about the media's neglect of yesterday's protests. The Shargh story prompts Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to finally notice: "Students staged antigovernment rallies on December 7 at several universities, including Tehran University, Amir Kabir University, Gilan University in northern Iran, and the University of Sistan and Baluchistan in southeastern Iran.")

1325 GMT: 16 Azar Update. And yet another form of protest....

Daneshjoo News reports that students at Shiraz University, facing a large security presence, staged rolling demonstrations and spread Green graffiti:

1230 GMT: Three Paragraphs Say Volumes about US Policy. This revealing snippet is tucked away in an article by Barbara Slavin on the "Iran Watchers", Persian-speaking US diplomats posted in embassies and consulates in Iran's neighbouring countries.

A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, agrees. "It's the internal reporting about what's afoot in Iran that Washington is starved for," the U.S. official said. "It supplements what we get from other sources."

Still, [former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State John] Limbert, who personally visited all the Iran Watch stations, expressed frustration that the diplomats' views were often not taken into account by an administration that has focused more in recent months on economic sanctions than on outreach.

"I liked them a lot, given the limitations they were under. They did some good stuff," he said. "One of my jobs was to encourage them. These are really smart people, and somebody needs to validate them."

1215 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Former MP, Islamic Iran Participation Front member, and Mousavi campaigner Ali Tajernia has been released from prison after one year in detention.

1020 GMT: Mahmoud Schools the Students. Beginning his "historic" tour of the country for National Students Day, President Ahmadinejad lectured university students about the most vital issue for them: Iran's nuclear programme.

Ahmadinejad, speaking a day after Iran's talks in Geneva with the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, and China), suggested a new "6+1 Group", and asserted that Tehran would insist on "the rights of any nation in the nuclear fuel cycle and the right to enrichment to 20% of uranium" in any cooperation with the West.

0854 GMT: Shutting Down the Media. The Committee to Protect Journalists has denounced raids (on the offices of the reformist newspaper Shargh, with the detention of four journalists (see Tuesday's updates). The CPJ notes that dozens of reporters are "deteriorating in prison".

0850 GMT: A New Way to See the Situation. An EA correspondent points us to a novel project bringing the latest videos, the "Iran Mosaic Project". For the most recent footage --- in this case, from the 16 Azar protests, you just scroll over a "living" map of Iran.

0840 GMT: 16 Azar Update. Daneshjoo News claims a different kind of protest at Isfahan University yesterday. Students were unable to stage a demonstration because the campus had been taken over for an official ceremony.

So no one showed up.

And Human Rights Watch offers a summary of the immediate issues, "Iran: Escalating Repression of University Students": "Dozens of university students are behind bars and several hundred others have been expelled from campus because of their political activism or religious affiliation."

0825 GMT: After all the attention to nuclear talks and student protests over the last 48 hours, it's refreshing to see that some officials are not forgetting the important matters in Iranian life.

On Tuesday, Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi reassured the people of the capital: if they are worried about the pollution that has blanketed the city for weeks, they can file a complaint with his office.

And President Ahmadinejad has a novel solution: on Tuesday afternoon, he proposed renamed the central Iranian province of Ostan-e Markazi as Aftab, which means "sun" in Persian.

On the political front, the President will be hoping for a bit of sunshine from Parliament: the Majlis debate on his stalled 5th Budget Plan ends today.