The Latest from Iran (21 November): Let's Talk Nukes...And Nothing But Nukes

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The initial aftermath of the raid by security forces on the offices of Iran newspaper, as they tried to detain Presidential advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr --- full video now in our special analysis

See also Iran Feature: So What Happened When Security Forces Tried to Arrest the President's Senior Advisor?

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1900 GMT: Things That Make You Go Ummm.... The President's office says Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has cancelled his tour to Kohgilouyeh and Boyer Ahmad Province in western Iran this weekend because of expected bad weather.

The official forecast for Kohgilouyeh and Boyer Ahmad Province on Friday is sunshine with a high temperature of 18 degrees Celsius (64 degrees Fahrenheit).

1850 GMT: More Tough Talk of the Day. Mojtaba Zolnour, the Supreme Leader's former liaison to the Revolutionary Guards, has said that if Syria is attacked, the Islamic Republic will support it as it does Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Zolnour added the assurance that the explosion at the Revolutionary Guards base on 12 November, which killed between 17 and 37 people, was not due to sabotage.

1845 GMT: Parliament v. President. And just one more item for Ahmadinejad on this day....

MP Musalreza Servati has said legislators wanting to question the President will stage a sit-in at the Board of the Majlis on Tuesday to press their demands.

1756 GMT: All the President's Men. More trouble for Ahmadinejad and Friends? Key MP Ahmad Tavakoli, a leading foe of the President, has declared that Iran Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei is serious about pursuing those responsible for the $2.6 billion bank fraud "despite restrictions and heavy pressures from some officials".

Perhaps significantly, Mohseni Ejei was sharply criticised by the President's senior advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr in a Saturday interview, a day before he was sentenced to a year in prison over a special issue of the newspaper Iran.

1708 GMT: In the Skies. Germany may have imposed sanctions on Iran, but that has not stopped Mahan Air from buying the former plane of German Chancellor Angela Merkel via a Ukrainian company.

1700 GMT: The Battle Within. Another threat to the Ahmadinejad camp --- the Fedayeen Islam faction, has said that if the President's group does not give up heretical, national (Iran-first), and deviationist beliefs", it will end up like the historian Ahmed Kasravi, assassinated by members of the Fedayeen Islam in 1946.

1648 GMT: Tough Talk of the Day. Back from an academic break --- thanks to James Miller for making a couple of updates --- to find turmoil within Iran over the attempted detention of President Ahmadinejad's media advisor Ali Akbar Javenfekr in a raid on the offices of the leading newspaper Iran.

Still, even amidst the political implosion, there is time to talk tough. Military commander Hossein Hamedani pronounces, "All developments in the world and MENA (Middle East/North Africa) orbit around the Iranian people."

1548 GMT: The US, Canada, and Britain are all passing new sanctions against Iran, specifically targeting the banking and financial sectors. While the details of the sanctions are not yet released, Britain's finance minister, George Osborne, comments on the significance:

Osborne said Monday this is the first time the British government has cut an entire country's banking sector off from the U.K.'s financial sector.

He said he acted after the International Atomic Energy Agency highlighted fresh concerns about the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program.

1520 GMT: Iranian security forces have attacked the headquarters for the "Iran" newspaper run, by Ali Akbar Javanfekr, a key Ahmadinejad ally, "firing tear gas into the offices of the newspaper that the aide runs and retreating only after a phone call from Ahmadinejad himself."

On Saturday, Javanfekr made several statements that attacked Ahmadinejad's critics, and their characterization of Ahmadinejad as being part of the "deviant current."

“Yes, we are deviant,” Javanfekr told Etemaad. “We are deviated from these kinds of friends, from their thoughts and behavior.”

On Sunday, Javanfekr was sentenced to a year in prison and a three-year ban on journalistic activities over the "hijab" controversy. Today he gave a press conference accusing some clerics of abusing their power, and shortly afterwards the security forces raided the paper, injuring political editor Ali Reza Soltani and arresting a total of 33.

1514 GMT: The UK government has announced that it will cut all ties with all Iranian banks, including the Iranian Central Bank, over recent tensions, primarily linked to the new IAEA report. Details will be released soon.

James Miller takes the blog.

0905 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. Hojatollah Seidi, the deputy head of Bank Saderat, has been arrested over the $2.6 billion bank fraud.

The head of the bank, Mohammad Jahromi, was dismissed soon after the revelation of the embezzlement.

0900 GMT: Parliament v. President. Hamid Reza Katouzian, the chair of Parliament's Energy Commission, has said that he is pessimistic about questioning President Ahmadinejad, as the Majlis "has been disarmed" and "lost its supervisory function".

Alef, linked to Ahmadinejad critic Ahmad Tavakoli, adds that "a greedy, populist Majlis that bows to power centres is incapable of electing a premier" under a Prime Ministerial system.

0858 GMT: The Battle Within. The hard-line newspaper Keyhan has alleged that Presidential advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr, now sentenced to one year in prison (see 0605 GMT), gave his controversial weekend interview to Etemaad to divert attention from the $2.6 billion bank fraud.

0851 GMT: Loyalty Watch. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has pronounced that the Supreme Leader has "always been the country's saviour" and that the Basij militia defends national interests.

0846 GMT: The House Arrests. Opposition activist Fatemeh Karroubi, held for more than nine months under strict house arrest, has thanked the families of political prisoners during a visit. She told them that she and her husband, 2009 Presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, "must pay enormous sums" for the security measures in Mehdi Karroubi's new apartment.

Mehdi Karroubi was separated from his wife this summer and moved to another location. Opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard also remain under house arrest.

0845 GMT: Press Watch. Reformist MP Mohammad Reza Tabesh has declared that this weekend's two-month ban on the daily Etemaad (see 0605 GMT) was a "hasty decision". He added, "Threatening media is astonishing. We need the press for vibrant elections."

The criticism is not just from the reformist camp, however: Alef, linked to key MP Ahmad Tavakoli, has complained, "If newspapers cannot interview high officials, which media are left over for spreading news?"

0835 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. RAHANA writes that the detention of documentary filmmaker Mojtaba Mirtahmasb has been extended for two months, even though enquiries into his case supposedly ended three weeks ago.

Mirtahmasb was one of six filmmakers detained in September for alleged links to BBC Persian. He reportedly is being pressed to sign a "confession" of his supposed crime.

0825 GMT: The Battle Over the Explosion. More feuding within the Iranian system over how to present the death of Revolutionary Guards Commander Rashid Islam Hassan Moghaddam, killed in the explosion at a Guards base on 12 November....

The daily Iran had featured the comments of Moghaddam's brother, indicating that the commander was heading a new ballistic missile project, only for Fars to carry a denial from that same brother that he had made the remarks.

The feud continues this morning: Iran expresses "deep concern" over pressures on Moghaddam's family to force them to adopt the right public line.

0625 GMT: Sanctions Watch. "Senior US officials" have tipped off The Wall Street Journal on Washington's next steps to squeeze Iran's economy.

As we expected, European resistance and fears of side effects have halted any move to sanction Tehran's Central Bank. Instead, the Obama Administration will take the symbolic step of naming Iran as a territory of "primary money laundering concern", hoping to encourage foreign governments and businesses to limit their relationship with the Central Bank.

The Administration will also add "dozens" of Iranian companies and organisations to its sanctions list, and it will announce new sanctions on the sales of goods and services used in Iran's production of petrochemicals and crude-oil exports.

0605 GMT: The Battle Within. Muhammad Sahimi translates the comments of the President's media advisor, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, in the reformist newspaper Etemaad. A day later, Etemaad was banned for two months, and Javanfekr was given a one-year prison sentence over an issue of Iran newspaper, which he manages, on hijab.

A take-away quote from the interview:

We do not accept the manners of the principlists, and we have deviated from them. Has the country become a company with stocks that they demand their share [of power] from us? After the [2009] election, they began raising hurdles against the government's work, and demanded their share. Ahmadinejad is popular and does not owe them anything.

Sahimi also English text of the analysis on the Supreme Leader's website considering the "three probable scenarios" for war between Iran and its foes.

0555 GMT: Wall Street Shuffle. We have been noting the Iranian regime's support for Occupy Wall Street, including a website run by the Basij militia and the promise of 250,000 Iranians mobilising to assist the movement.

There may be limits to that enthusiasm, however. Green Wave News claims that a demonstration by labour unions in support of the American protests has been banned by authorities.

Iran Labor Report posts an article on a demonstration that did proceed, as 3000 workers staged a tow-hour sit-in by the gates of Parliament. They were protesting proposed changes to Iran's labor law, including the endorsement of temporary contracts and the increase in the power of state and private organisations over their employees and unions.

0540 GMT: We started Sunday wondering how we could read a "muzzled" press inside Iran, but to be fair, the LiveBlog showed that matters were far from quiet in some Iranian newspapers. There were the one-year prison sentence handed down to the President's media advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr, the signs --- a falling currency, claims of the Government owing billions to Social Security --- of a troubled economy, and the Supreme Leader's website featuring an analyst who set out the three possibilities for "war" with Iran's enemies.

None of this, however, troubles Press TV this morning. The website's top five stories, and seven of its top eight, are on the injustice of the International Atomic Energy Agency's report on Iran's nuclear programme, even though that document has receded in international discussion and the IAEA's members have settled for little more than a resolution expressing general criticism of Tehran. (The 8th story, by the way, also has nothing to do with internal matters: "If attacked, Iran Will Control War Theater". 

Nukes, war, nukes. The State news agency has a different slant, with the Iraqi Ambassador recognising "Iran's support of the struggle against Saddam's regime". It does note the Javanfekr affair, however, with a small item that the Ahmadinejad aide will hold a press conference today.