The Latest from Iran (7 October): Preparing for the Next Election

1935 GMT: TV, Crime, and Punishment. Iran Police Chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam has again explained that the increase in crime is because of satellite television.

1930 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. Is this an easing of the political situation over the $2.6 billion bank fraud? Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi has said that there is no evidence linking the "deviant current" --- the label for the advisors around President Ahmadinejad --- to the embezzlement.

1900 GMT: All the President's Men (Nip-and-Tuck Edition). I'm not sure if this is news, but it is definitely testimony to the sniping inside the Iranian establishment.

Fars claims that the President's right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, undergoing treatment for cornea dryness, has also had cosmetic surgery to lift his eyelids.

1515 GMT: Your Tehran Friday Prayer Summary. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami took the podium today to say that Iran had inspired the "Islamic Awakening" throughout the Middle East and should continue this role.

Having given this assurance, Khatami condemned the "fake Zionist regime" occupying Palestinian territory as a "cancerous tumour" seeking to "remain permanently in the body of Islamic countries to threaten the nation and region". And he was no more kinder to Saudi Arabia, which its own people and supported dictators in Bahrain and Yemen as they became "a hell of repression and looting by security people".

And then there was "Occupy Wall Street". Ayatollah Khatami explained that the police response to the protests with tear gas and batons had removed "the mask of liberal democracy".

1445 GMT: Oil Watch. Iran and India have reportedly agreed upon a system to resolve the payment complications in bilateral trade, notably India's import of Iranian oil, between the two countries.

A statement by the Indian Finance Ministry said the agreement followed negotiations between an delegation headed by the Vice-Governor of the Central Bank of Iran, Seyyed Kamal Seyyed Ali, and Indian officials on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In January, the Indian Central Bank suspended payments from an Asian currency basket for Tehran's oil amidst US-led sanctions. High-level Iranian official said this summer that Delhi's debt had reached $5 billion.

1425 GMT: Mystery of the Day. Why did Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani meet secretly with two former heads of Iran's judiciary Mohammad Yazdi and Ayatollah Mousavi Ardebili, in Qom?

1420 GMT: Foreign Affairs. Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi tries to put other countries in their place --- Saudi Arabia fights openly against Muslims, Turkey supports the US and Israel by pretending to be Islamic.

1400 GMT: Preparing for the Next Election. Back after a lengthy break at the Salzburg Seminar to find the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, telling a large audience about the achievements of sacrifices of the security forces to preserve the Revolution and Islamic Republic. The "dedication and effective actions", especially in Tehran, had brought a "divine victory" against the "sedition" after the 2009 Presidential election.

0540 GMT: We begin today with a slightly different approach to an old theme --- the Iranian security forces put on a display of how to suppress those who might carry out a protest, say, after the Parliamentary elections in March. (Of course, the publicity and staged photos were of the necessary preparations to turn back "rioters" and those pursuing sedition --- it all depends on your perspective.)