The Latest from Iran (27 October): Is US Government "Supporting the People"?

See also Iran Video: Hillary Clinton with Voice of America's Parazit
The Latest from Iran (26 October): It's All About US Crimes....

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1723 GMT: Well, as at least one reader predicted, MP Larijani dismissed Hillary Clinton's recent statements, arguing that the democrats were trying to distract the world from their own financial and economic problems, and that these statements were just another sign that Zionists were trying to overcome American isolationism.

1700 GMT: A carefully planned trip by an EU delegation to Tehran has been cancelled because the delegates were not granted Iranian visas. The reason why the visas did not arrive was not immediately clear:

Europe's parliamentary delegation was preparing to speak with parliamentarians, government officials and representatives of civil society in Iran, on issues including Iran's nuclear program, human rights, energy, environment, national security and the upcoming parliamentary elections.

An EA correspondent speculates that maybe the visas were misplaced? Maybe there are 150 documents named "EU visas" and the Iranian government was busy finding Gholam Shakuri.

1512 GMT: The Swedish government has awarded the Per Anger prize to Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, who was sentenced to an 11 year prison sentence in September. Mohammadi, an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime's human and women rights record, was convicted of spreading "propaganda against the regime."

“Narges Mohammadi is paying a high price for her human rights campaigning. Despite previous imprisonment, repeated harassment, a travel ban and now house arrest, she continues to work for democracy and human rights in Iran. She is an inspiration for human rights activists around the world and a worthy recipient of the Per Anger prize,” states jury chairman Eskil Franck.

1446 GMT: James Miller takes the blog.

Terror Plot Alert - In an interesting development, Iran's foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, has acknowledged that Interpol has sent a request to arrest the other individual named in the account. Unfortunately for Interpol, Salehi says he's having trouble finding the chap:

"There are 150 Gholam Shakuris (in Iran). Interpol sent us a question about this name, and our investigation showed a certain Gholam Shakuri who lives in the United States and is a member of the Mujahedeen-e Khalq Organisation," Salehi was quoted in Iranian media as saying in Saudi Arabia.

The US is saying that Shakuri is an officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp's Quds force.

Where to even begin? Is the US military intelligence so awful that the would confuse an Iranian military officer with an operative in an group that both governments believe is a terrorist organization? Is Iran incapable of finding one of their own officers?

0750 GMT: Economy Watch. The Daily Star of Lebanon offers a valuable report on division within the Iranian Government over how to deal with economic problems:

Iranian media reported last week that monetary authorities had reversed a 6-month-old decision to cut interest on bank deposits, aiming to mop up excess cash in the economy and halt a dangerous rise of inflation.

The news made sense to economists, who said April’s interest rate cut had prompted Iranians to withdraw their savings and rush to buy dollars and gold as a safeguard against inflation –-- creating heavy pressure for the rial currency to depreciate.

It may have made sense, but it never happened. The media reports were premature, as the Money and Credit Council continued to sit in the Central Bank of Iran well into the night of Oct. 18 and eventually decided to leave deposit rates untouched, rejecting the proposal of CBI Governor Mahmoud Bahmani.

Two Tehran-based economists, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity because of concern about being seen as criticizing the government, said the confusion underlined an economic policy split at the highest levels in Iran.

“The president obviously vetoed it,” said one. “Because in the past six years, the basis of Ahmadinejad’s economic policy has been low rates and expansionary monetary policy.”

Since coming to power in 2006, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has prioritized growth over inflation, so putting interest rates back up would be a “complete collapse of Ahmadinejad’s economic policy,” the economist said.

Bahmani, who is struggling to maintain the value of the rial in the foreign exchange market, says he will continue to push to raise interest rates.

“The central bank is demanding a rise in the interest rates on deposits commensurate with inflation,” he told the ISNA news agency Monday. “I hope the Money and Credit Council will agree to this demand.

0528 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The former head of State news agency, Abdollah Nasseri, has been given a five-year prison sentence, apparently on charges of conspiracy.

Nasseri was accused of involvement in the protests of 14 February and arrested in mid-March.

0525 GMT: The House Arrests. Speaking in Parliament, MP Shokur Akbarnejad has called for the freeing of opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, both held since mid-February under strict arrest.

0435 GMT: The Plot. The head of Iran's judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, has continued Tehran's counter-attack against American charges of an Iranian plot to kill the Saudi Ambassador to the US.

Larijani told judiciary officials that the US had become so “desperate” that it presented an “addicted and alcoholic person” --- Manssor Arbabsiar, the Iranian-American accused of trying to hire assassins --- as an Iranian agent: “But they never thought why Iran would need to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, and what relation it could ever have to such a person,"

0420 GMT: The US State Department made a co-ordinated, high-profile public-relations intervention on Iran yesterday, with both BBC Persian and Voice of America featuring interviews with Hillary Clinton (see separate EA video feature).

For those who have followed Iran on a daily basis, Clinton's statement had no surprises. She restated US positions on regional issues such as Syria --- no repeat of military support for the opposition, as in Libya --- and Iran's nuclear programme, offering no apparent opening for discussions in the near-future and emphasising sanctions. She also firmly insisted on solid evidence tying the regime to the plot to kill the Saudi Ambassador to the US.

As for Iran's internal situation, Clinton put out a prominent but general US position of support for "the Iranian people", especially youth. Specifics were limited: while saying that the US highlighted human rights cases, she did not go farther, for example, on detentions and house arrests. Direct initiatives were represented by the American effort --- clumsily summarised in headlines as "Internet in a suitcase" --- to circumvent the regime's restrictions on communications. 

Oh, yes, there was also this announcement, which I suspect will grab the headlines in any international media that pick up the story: "The United States plans to open a "virtual embassy" for Iran that will give Iranians online information about visas and student exchange programs despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties."