The Latest from Iran (16 January): An Execution Passes But Stuxnet Breaks Up the Quiet

2125 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Student activist Mohammad Hossein Mozafari has been released from detention.

A court has confirmed the six-year sentence of teachers' union activist Rasoul Badaghi.

Security forces have raided the home of journalist Peyman Aref, who was arrested in June 2009 and sentenced in March 2010 to one year in prison. He was given temporary release for medical reasons in April.

2035 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Radio Zamaneh summarises the statement of families of political prisoners about the dire conditions for women detainees in the quarantine section of Evin Prison.

1845 GMT: The Battle Within. Radio Zamaneh follows up on the messages sent by Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani and MP Ali Motahari to the head of the Guardian Council, Ayatollah Jannati, over the authority of the Majlis. Larijani assured MPs that they have the right to question government ministers despite Jannati's warning against avoid imposing on the time of ministers with talk of impeachment.

In an interview, Motahari maintained that the Parliament must assert its role and defend its right to monitor government activity.

1735 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Journalist Rayhaneh Tabatabaei , arrested with five other colleagues at the reformist Shargh newspaper in early December, has been released on bail.

1725 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Reza Khandan, the husband of detained attorney Nasrine Sotoudeh, has been detained at Evin Prison. The charges are unclear, but reports indicate a bail of $50,000 has been set.

Sotoudeh, a prominent human rights lawyer, was detained in early September after growing regime pressure upon her. Earlier this month she was sentenced to 11 years in prison and a 20-year ban on practicing law and leaving the country.

1510 GMT: MediaWatch. Nice to know that the concept of an independent press is alive and well: Foreign Minister spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has said the correspondents of IRNA, the state news agency, have a role to play in Iran's "soft war" alongside the foreign policy apparatus.

1440 GMT: Mehr reports that, after a series of crashes, flights by Russian-made Tupolev aircraft will be banned.

1435 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Azerbaijani painter and sculptor Yashar Hosseinzadeh has been arrested and his artworks confiscated.

1430 GMT: On the Border. About 300 Afghan protesters, carrying stones and eggs, gathered outside the Iranian Consulate in Herat to protest Tehran's continuing refusal to let up to 2500 fuel tankers into Afghanistan.

The crowd carried banners with slogans such as "Death to Iran".

Minister of Commerce Anwar ul-Haq Ahadi said Iran was allowing only 40 tankers to cross the border each day: "The Iranian authorities have assured us the issue is being solved but unfortunately the crisis is where it was."

1420 GMT: The Battle Within. The feuding over power, currently focusing on the Guardian Council, continues: Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani and leading MP Ali Motahari have warned the head of the Council, Ayatollah Jannati, not to undermine the authority of Parliament.

The Council has backed President Ahmadinejad in overturning recent bills from Parliament, including those for control of Islamic Azad University and the Central Bank, and the leaders of the Majlis have also been concerned over Jannati's pronouncements about the budget dispute between Parliament and Ahmadinejad.

1155 GMT: Book Corner. The Ministry of Culture is censoring 100 pages of a book by film director Bahram Bayzai.

1130 GMT: Economy Watch. The latest report by the World Bank on Iran’s economic growth in recent years estimates the growth rate in 2010 at 1.5%, following 1.4% in 2009 and 2.3% in 2008

The Bank predicts continued decline of direct foreign investments with a fall to $1.2 billion in 2011 from $2.9 billion in 2010 and $3.2 billion in 2009.

The Central Bank of Iran has declined to publish growth rates for the past three years.

1040 GMT: The Battle Within. The National reviews the challenge from conservatives to 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, accused of corruption and possibly going to trial.

1030 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Three members of the Pan-Iranist Party have been sentenced to a total of 14 1/2 years in prison.

0840 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Families of political prisoners have issued a statement expressing concern about the situation of female detainees.

0820 GMT: A slower phase in Iranian politics continues. Saturday's execution of Kurdish detainee Hossein Khezri, quickly and quietly carried out, attracted far less notice --- and thus may have avoided delay --- than similar cases such as that of Habibollah Latifi last month.

Iranian state media said little about the hanging, mentioning only that an unnamed Kurdish terrorist had been put to death. However, there is a notable ripple on another topic in Tehran's outlets this morning.

Last year, officials and media denied the initial claims that Iran's nuclear programme had been disrupted by the Stuxnet computer worm. But now, as the regime elevates its campaign that the US and Israel are backing sedition and carrying out espionage, Tehran is supporting the story. 

This morning Press TV highlights this report from The New York Times: "Over the past two years, according to intelligence and military experts familiar with its operations,[Israel's] Dimona [nuclear complex] has taken on a...secret role — as a critical testing ground in a joint American and Israeli effort to undermine Iran’s efforts to make a bomb of its own."

And so politics make strange bedfellows on Stuxnet: Iran now wants to promote the US-Israeli espionage story to show the perfidy of the "West", and the US Government --- although it will not publicly admit responsibility --- wants to feed the line to supportive reporters that covert operations have hindered Tehran's push for nuclear weapons capability.

Doing so, both sides open up the space for an advance in the nuclear talks resuming in Turkey this week: Iran can maintain its finger-wagging while it considers a deal, and Washington can give the assurance that there is time --- no Bomb is imminent --- for a diplomatic settlement.