The Latest from Iran (19 November): The International Front

1810 GMT: Foreign Affairs (Turkish Front). More fencing between Ankara and Tehran, even as Iran tries to get Turkish support on issues such as its nuclear programme....

Iranian MP Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the chairman of Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, has said "Iranian air forces are strong enough" when he was asked if Turkey could use Iranian air space for "war against [the Kurdish insurgenct group] PKK".

Boroujerdi was in Ankara on Friday for talks with Turkish officials.

1050 GMT: The Battle Within. Ali Akbar Javanfekr, a senior aide to President Ahmadinejad, has threatened Iran Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei and former Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in an interview with Etemaad, repeating Ahmadinejad's warning that he holds damaging information on others within Tehran's establishment: "Be quiet....If curtains should fall, people will learn a lot of things."

Ayatollah Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, has said in Qom that the "deviant current has started to run for Parliament with lots of influence and money", declaring that the Revolutionary Guards and Basij militia "should stop its plots".

1040 GMT: Unity Watch. Mehr reports on Thursday's meeting organised by the "7+8" Committee, now titled the United Front of Principlists, seeking a common line before March's Parliamentary elections.

The gathering, with 10,000 participants, took place in central Tehran with the slogan “wisdom and unity under the umbrella of velayat [clerical rule].”

Speakers included Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani, head of the Assembly of Experts, key principlist Alireza Zakani, Assembly of Experts member Ayatollah Ahmad Alam al-Hoda, and UFP spokesman Ali Akbar Velayati, who is also a key advisor to the Supreme Leader.

1030 GMT: On the Air. France-based satellite broadcaster Eutelsat claims it has pinpointed a location in Iran from where signals of international channels broadcasting in Persian, such as Voice of America, BBC Persian, and Deutsche Welle, are being disrupted.

Eutelsat has claimed since 2009 that its broadcasts are being jammed by outside sources.

Meanwhile, members of the European Parliament have expressed "concern at [Iran's] use of [European] censorship, filtering and surveillance technologies to control and censor information and communication flows and to track down citizens, notably human rights defenders".

The resolution, which put forth "grave concern over the steadily deteriorating human rights situation in Iran", specifically named Britain-based Creativity Software, which has supplied Location-Based Services technology to Iranian mobile phone operator MTN Irancell.

1010 GMT: Military Postures. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has announced a four-day air defense drill in eastern Iran, starting Friday, to prepare for “potential threat over airspace and particularly against population centers, sensitive, important and vital facilities, and nuclear sites”. Advanced missile systems, radar units, air defense artillery and interceptor, and fighter jets will be involved.

Iranian officials have announced the construction of a new multifunctional unmanned aerial vehicle for military and civil use,capable of reaching 200 kilometres (125 miles) per hour and ascending to 12,000 feet.

0610 GMT: We start with a couple of gestures from the international community towards Iran. 

On Friday, the UN General Assembly resurrected The Plot, when it approved a resolution condemning the alleged scheme to kill the Saudi ambassador to the US. It called on Tehran to comply with international law requiring protection of diplomats and to cooperate in bringing those responsible for the plot to justice.

The message passed 106-9, with 40 abstentions. US Ambassador Susan Rice immediately tried to seize the initative: the US "will continue to work closely with our allies and partners around the world to ensure that Iran understands that such outrageous acts only deepen Iran’s isolation".

Rice's words tipped off Washington's strategy behind the accusations, but it is unclear whether the resolution will amount to more than a token rebuke. 

That limit was highlighted by the other development on Friday, as Western diplomats tipped off the media that an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution, based on the IAEA's latest report on the Iranian nuclear programme, will express criticism but defer any consideration of further sanctions until next spring.

Instead, according to an Obama Administration official, Washington will continue its approach of working with European partner to ratchet up measures against Iran's energy sector. It is unclear, however, what further steps could be taken without damage to those imposing them --- "The official said they were focused more on investments in Iran’s petrochemical industry than on cutting off sales of oil, which could disrupt the market" --- and the US appears to have pulled from any thought of sanctioning Iran's Central Bank.

Another source told Reuters that the US "was looking to find a way to bar foreign companies from aiding Iran's petrochemical industry with the threat of depriving them access to the U.S. market". Between the lines, however, even this came with a caution that US allies might not be very keen on the initiative: "the sources said the European nations were themselves likely to follow suit, though not immediately".