The Latest from Iran (8 October): Declaring an Awakening

Mehdi Karroubi & His Granddaughter1920 GMT: Environment Watch. Minister of Energy Majid Namjoo has said basic studies for construction of a dam near Lake Urmia (Oroumiyeh) have been halted.

Activists have claimed that Iran's dams have contributed to the drying-up of Lake Urmia, which has lost more than half of its volume in recent years, but Namjoo said around 85% of problems in the lake's problems are from the "natural, inevitable phenomenon" of drought.

After widespread protests this summer over the situation, the Iranian Government finally agreed to allocate $900 million to measures to protect the lake, and Namjoo said recently that Iran had agreed with its northern neighbors to transfer water from its sector of the Araz River.

1910 GMT: Karroubi Watch. Radio Zamaneh sets out the story of the visit of opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi, held under strict house arrest since mid-February, with his son Hossein's family.

Hossein Karroubi wrote on his Facebook page that, while his family was celebrating his daughter’s entry into university, which coincided with Mehdi Karroubi’s birthday, six security officials brought his father to their home and allowed him to stay with the family for an hour.

Hossein Karroubi said his father’s morale was high but he appeared thinner. Mehdi Karrobui said he had lost weight from pacing up and down in the small apartment where he is being held.

Radio Zamaneh also posts an undated photograph of Mehdi Karroubi with his granddaughter (see inset picture).

1845 GMT: The Detained Filmmakers. Kamnoush Shahabi, the sister of detained Iranian filmmaker Katayoon Shahabi, says the detention occurred because of a complaint from Iran’s national broadcaster: “It appears that she has been arrested for the sale of one or two films to the BBC.”

Katayoon Shahabi was one of six filmmakers seized last month on the pretext that they worked for BBC Persian.

Kamnoush Shahabi said, “My sister has been in custody for 20 days, but no one has been allowed to visit her, not even her lawyer.” She added that Katayoon Shahabi has been allowed three phone calls home and has indicated that she is being held in solitary confinement.

1840 GMT: Parliament v. President. MP Favel Mousavi has said that Parliament's Article 90 Commission has accepted only 4 of 15 complaints against the Government. One of the rejected complaints is the claim of a missing report on the 4th Budget Plan (2005-2010).

1830 GMT: Labour Front. Workers at the Bandar Ali Petrochemical Plant are entering the third week of their strike over non-payment of wages.

1820 GMT: Security Watch. More than 30,000 members of the "Imam Ali" battalions of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps exercised in public for the first time at "Resistance Village" in Tehran on Friday. The battalions were formed last year as part of the response to the 2009 post-election protests.

1810 GMT: Karroubi Watch. Back from a lengthy break at the Salzburg Seminar to find a doubt raised about the report in Saham News of Mehdi Karroubi's temporary release from house arrest to meet the family of his son Hossein (see 0950 GMT).

A reader notes in the Comments below that the date of the claimed photograph of Karroubi with his son's family may be mid-July. This does not mean the story is false --- the information from the camera may be incorrect, Saham News may have used an old photo to illustrate a current development --- but it does mean the information needs checking.

1010 GMT: Elections Watch. Former conservative MP Hossein Fadaei has warned that Mir Hossein Mousavi won the 2009 Presidential election in Tehran, if not all of Iran, because of quarrels among hardliners.

1000 GMT: Prediction of the Day. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of the Basij militia, has declared that the Occupy Wall Street movement "of the American people" will topple the US system.

0950 GMT: The House Arrests. Detained opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi, accompanied by six security agents, has been allowed to see relatives at the home of his son Hossein. Karroubi was also able to see his wife Fatemeh, who has also been keep under strict house arrest since mid-February. The couple were separated by security forces in late July.

Saham News publishes this blurred photograph, the first of Mehdi Karroubi in almost eight months [NOTE: Now see updates at 1810 and 1910 GMT]:

0910 GMT: The US Dimension. The State Department's lead official for Iranian affairs, Philo Dibble, has died from a heart attack.

Dibble came out of retirement last year to replace John Limbert as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State with responsibility for Iran.

Meanwhile, Alan Eyre, the State Department's Persian-language spokesperson, has spoken to Radio Farda about political prisoners, sanctions and the nuclear issue, and the insurgent organisation Mujahedin-e-Khalq, designated as terrorist by the Department. Dibble said that the US is concerned about opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, now under strict house arrest, and all political prisoners and that sanctions will continue to be used to return Tehran to negotiations over its nuclear programme.

0900 GMT: The "Right" Press. Commander Ramezan Sharif, the head of public relations for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has said that the Basij militia will organise a press corps of 21,000 "voluntary journalists".

0820 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. Khabar Online posts a how-to article on the $2.6 billion bank fraud, illustrating with charts how lines of credit were used to embezzle the money.

0815 GMT: Foreign Affairs (Syrian Front). An interesting ripple in the Iranian press, as Aftab News posts Russian President Dmitri Medvedev's warning to Syrian President Assad to carry out reforms or step down.

0510 GMT: The shared theme among the Iranian establishment these days is that of the "Islamic Awakening" in which peoples of the Middle East follow the example set by Iran. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami used it for his Tehran Friday Prayer, and President Ahmadinejad, while promising single-digit inflation with the success of his subsidy cuts programme, has put out the slogan during his tour of Hamedan Province in western Iran.

Ahmadinejad is looking to the domestic tour to boost his position against his critics amidst political in-fighting and the escalating scandal of the $2.6 billion bank fraud. Footage of the trip has showed welcoming crowds, but there have also been reports of people holding up banners calling for the President to dismiss his controversial right-hand man Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai.

At least one person was not buying Ahmadinejad's "Awakening" line. Ayatollah Alamolhoda, at the Mashhad Friday Prayer, claimed that the President had not defended the rights of Palestinians in his speech at the United Nations last month.

And Ahmadinejad's economic claims also had an unexpected stumble --- Minister of Economy Shamseddin Hosseini admitted inflation was now above 17%. Hosseini also struggled with the bank fraud, as he tried to defend the appointment of Bank Melli managing director Mahmoud Reza Khavari, who has apparently fled to Canada. He admitted that Khavari took his post with the consent of ministers but said "nobody told us" about the dual nationality of the banker, whose son lives in Toronto.

MPs have claimed that Hosseini appointed Khavari, even though the Ministry of Intelligence had not given its approval and that Khavari, with his dual citizenship, had left Iran with important documents.