The Latest from Iran (3 October): Tehran Slides in the Region

See also Iran Feature: Who Will See the Invisible Iranians?
The Latest from Iran (2 October): Down, Down Goes the Currency

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1915 GMT: CyberWatch. BBC Persian reports on the banning of Virtual Private Networks --- access to computer servers from remote locations --- by the Iranian authorities.

1705 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. Former President Mohammad Khatami has denied the allegation of the hard-line newspaper Kayhan (see 1010 GMT) that he is linked to the $2.6 billion bank fraud.

1645 GMT: Transport Watch. Another act in the ongoing fight between the Ahmadinejad adminstration and the leadership of the city of Tehran, which claims the President has held up $2 billion in funds for the expansion of the Tehran Metro....

Mohammad Reza Mahmoudi, the Deputy Governor-General of Development of Tehran Province, has claimed that the Government paid about $55 million in subsidies for the Tehran subway system and another $30 million for the capital's public bus system. However, Mohammad Gholi (pictured), the Metro's chief operating officer, denied that the funds have been received and asked Mahmoudi to announce the account number to which the money was supposedly sent.

Mahmoudi then changed his claim, first telling a reporter, "Perhaps, as we speak, the funds are being deposited", and later, "Perhaps the funds will be deposited in the next day or two."

1625 GMT: Economy Watch. Remember the case, symbolising the growing divide between rich and poor in Iran, of the Tehran tower-top restaurant selling ice cream flecked with real gold? It has not disappeared....

The manager of the Milad Tower has filed a complaint against the reporter for Fars who highlighted the special dessert, leading to international coverage of the excess amidst worsening economic conditions.

1625 GMT: Corruption Watch. Kalemeh reports that the head of the Maskan Mehr building project in western Iran has fled with 600 million toman ($500,000) of its members.

1620 GMT: At the Movies. Iran's cinema owners have said they cannot pay escalating energy bills and will go on general strike if their power is cut.

1610 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. OK, it's get-tough time --- in televised comments, the Supreme Leader has ordered Iran's judiciary to wage a harsh prosecution against whoever carried out the $2.6 billion bank fraud. At the same time, he warned the media about making too much noise about the case.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank has ordered the dismissal of the heads of Iran's Tourism Bank, Manouchehr Zamani Farizhandi and Mehdi Jahangiri Kouhshahi.

And Nasim Online makes the pointed claim --- as the former head of Bank Melli refuses to return to Iran from Canada --- that several other managing directors of Iranian banks live in Europe.

1600 GMT: The Battle Within. Last month, pro-Ahmadinejad websites said the President had damaging information on his critics within the Iranian establishment. Is this the beginning of the release of that information?

Dolate Ma has posted 140 documents on Ahmadinejad's rivals. Notable among them is the claim that MP Tavakoli, leading light in the Parliament and brother-in-law of Speaker Ali Larijani, received his Ph.D. from Nottingham Univ without completing the academic requirements and has sent his seven children to Britain, despite its status as Iran's enemy and fomenter of sedition.

1540 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. Back from an extended academic break to find the Azerbaijani (as in the country, not the Iranian province) site Trend picking up on the news, from Iran's Mehr that 11 MPs have asked Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani to launch an enquiry into the actions of President Ahmadinejad, the Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani, and some top officials over the $2.6 billion bank fraud.

The MPs are still a long way from success --- the case needs the support of a majority of the 290 MPs to be submitted to the judiciary.

1010 GMT: The Battle Within. A pro-Ahmadinejad website has lashed out at prominent conservative MP Ahmad Tavakoli, releasing documents that question his claims to postgraduate degrees.

The hard-line Kayhan has another target, trying to link former President Mohammad Khatami and his brother, Mohammad Reza Khatami, to the $2.6 billion bank fraud.

1005 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The whereabouts of journalist Hamid Moazeni, seized last Tuesday by security forces in Bushehr in southern Iran, are still unknown.

No reason for the arrest has been given. Moazeni worked for Mehdi Karoubi’s 2009 Presidential campaign and has edited weekly publications including Birami, Avab Baharestan, Daryay-e Jonoub, and Salam Jonoub.

0715 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. The President is due to speak on national TV on Tuesday night.

That is not really news --- Ahmadinejad often uses the slot after the 9 p.m. national news to put his points across in interviews. What is distinctive this time is the concern of pro-Ahmadinejad media that the State outlet IRIB will snub the President by insisting on a recorded presentation, rather than a live broadcast.

0615 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. So much for the regime taking the headlines with its International Conference on the Palestinian Intifada --- the headlines in Iranian newspapers this morning are on economic difficulties, the falling Iran currency, and the $2.6 billion bank fraud.

Alef leads the latest coverage, claiming that the head of Bank Melli, Mahmoud Reza Khavari, was interrogated for several hours before he left Iran for Canada last week. The site says that Minister of Economy Shamseddin Hosseini knew of Khavari's departure and claims that Khavari has cut off his phone to avoid all contact.

Khavari declined to return to Iran on flights on Thursday or Friday, even though Iran Prosecutor General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei warned of consequences for the managing director if he did not face questions over his role in the embezzlement.

0610 GMT: Currency Watch. Khabar Online profiles the slide in the Iranian rial, now with a 23% gap between the official and free-market rates, by comparing it with foreign currencies.

The rial rose above 13000:1 against the US dollar this weekend. The official rate is 10740:1.

0515 GMT: We begin this morning with a glance at the Iranian regime's current campaign to proclaim the influence of its 1979 Revolution and the "Islamic Awakening" on movements throughout the Middle East.

Writing in The National, Afshin Molavi surveys Iran's political conflicts and tensions over production and employment to assert, "Economic mismanagement and sanctions are not new, but Iran's dramatic fall in regional standing is."

It's one thing for Molavi, now based in the US, to challenge the regime's standing. It is another for that criticism to come from within Iran. Sadegh Zibakalam, the Tehran University political scientist, begins with Syria, "We have been sticking to Bashar Assad, a despicable regime, and I can understand that if I were a Syrian I would hate the Islamic Republic,” and goes farther: "Things don’t look very good for the Islamic Republic in the region, as far as I can see. We don’t have good relations with practically any Arab country."

Lebanon's Daily Star then summarises:

Zibakalam dismissed the label “Islamic awakening,” which the Iranian government and its supporters use to describe the protests, as “nonsense.”

“The people in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria simply want democracy, they want free elections, they want press freedom, they want rule of law, they want the end of despotism and dictatorship. It has nothing to do with Islam,” he said.