The Latest from Iran (17 April): Making Claims

2130 GMT: Press Watch (IRNA Edition). In a day of curious stories, the tale of the detained journalist --- an employee of Iranian state media --- has another twist....

IRNA reports that Manouchehr Tamari was arrested by “six unidentified individuals” in Sananda, who "inspected Tamir’s home and confiscated his computer and laptop without providing any IDs”.

IRNA adds, “In recent weeks, following reports of terrorist operations in Sanandaj, the director and reporter of IRNA was summoned to the Kurdistan intelligence office and ordered to refrain from covering news regarding terrorist operations in the province.” The State media outlet said this order was rejected since it is in “contradiction of the inherent mission of the Islamic Republic News Agency".

1955 GMT: Ahwaz Watch. It appears that Fars is daring to hint that something has happened in the southwestern Iranian city. In a report on a meeting on a meeting of Parliament's National Security Commission, it says, "At this meeting a report on recent events in Khuzestan [the province where Ahwaz is located] was provided."

1945 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Jafar Ganji and Arash Najbaei, members of the Freedom Movement of Iran, have been released from prison.

1935 GMT: Ahwaz Watch. Journalist and activist Yusef Azizi Bani-Torof claims at least 15 people have been killed in clashes since Thursday night in the southwestern city of Ahwaz, although the names of only five have been reported. Bani-Torof claims Khuzestan Province has been shut off by security forces, and foreign media are scared of reporting events because of the sensitivity of authorities.

1920 GMT: What Has Happened to Intelligence? A situation of silence to follow the confusion over the resignation/non-resignation of Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi (see 1730 and 1810 GMT). The pro-Ahmadinejad State news agency IRNA has now followed the report from Fars that the Supreme Leader nullified Moslehi's resignation, but it has placed the story down the page on its website --- Fars, in contrast, continues to headline the development.

The conservative Jahan News is attacking IRNA for putting out the story of Moslehi's departure, demanding, "Where is the letter of resignation?" Jahan speculates that IRNA put out the story after controversial Ahmadinejad aide Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai said that there were weaknesses in intelligence-gathering and insisted on the removal of Moslehi's deputy, a demand the Minister of Intelligence refused.

1810 GMT: A Change in Intelligence? (cont.). If true, this is stunning news from Fars --- the Supreme Leader has "nullified" the resignation of Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi.

This would be a significant slap-down for President Ahmadinejad who --- according to earlier reports --- was pushing Moslehi out of office. It would mark a renewal of the 2009 battle for control of the Ministry.

1730 GMT: A Change in Intelligence? State news agency IRNA is reporting the resignation of Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi, giving no reason. Fars is claiming, from an unnamed source, that Moslehi has been dismissed, but IRNA says Moslehi will be President Ahmadinejad's advisor in charge of security matters.

In summer 2009, Moslehi replaced Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, who was pushed out by Ahmadinejad in a fight for control of the Ministry. Mohseni-Ejei is now Iran Prosecutor General.

1550 GMT: Press Watch. A photograph of Manouchehr Tamari, a reporter for State news agency IRNA, reportedly detained by "unknown forces" in Sanandaj in Kurdistan:

1440 GMT: Hidden Imam Watch. Another statement from Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, who has been notably critical --- without directly naming names --- of the role of Government officials, including Presidential aide Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, in the distribution of a controversial CD heralding the return of the Hidden Imam --- the cleric warned the film's director to halt production of a Part 2 immediately.

1435 GMT: Economy Watch. Mohammad Nahavandian, the head of the Chamber of Commerce, has warned that the number of bad cheques in Iran has reached a record level.

Ali Akbar Khabazha, head of Iran's society of pensioners, says the Government owes more than $23 billion to the social welfare fund.

1430 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Another warning shot fired at former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, this time in the weekend speech of the Supreme Leader's representative to the Republican Guards, Ali Saeedi....

Saeedi told a gathering in Mashhad that Rafsanjani appears to still support the “regime’s enemies: “We are still witnessing Mr. Hashemi referring to the head of sedition, that is Mr. Mousavi, as a loyal servant of the country. Therefore it is not clear what path he is following.”

1325 GMT: Reform Call. Former President Mohammad Khatami has restated his demands for free elections and freedom for political prisoners.

1310 GMT: Economy Watch. Ghodratollah Alikhani, a member of Parliament's National Security Commission, has sharply attacked the Government's economic policies, claiming that the real rate of unemployment in Iran is 15.6%. (The Government has not released full statistics on unemployment since last year.)

Alikhani denounced a Government approach that was fuelling inflation, citing as an example the effect of rising fuel costs on industry and agriculture.

1300 GMT: Ahwaz Watch. While we continue to monitor claims of deaths, injuries, and arrests amongst Ahwazi Arab protesters at the hands of the security forces, State news agency IRNA puts out the story that "hundreds of thousands" of people in Ahwaz marched on Friday in "support of the oppressed people of Bahrain and the Islamic awakening and resistance in the Middle East".

1255 GMT: Labour Front. Workers in textile industries have protested in front of the Parliament.

Truck owners have also appeared before the Majlis, protesting against the Iranian state company Saipa for delivery of Chinese Howo instead of Nissan trucks.

And it is Day 8 of a strike by 10,000 workers at the Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex in Mahshahr in southwestern Iran.

1130 GMT: It's Bash Britain Day. Looks like the regime, facing more sanctions by the European Union, has decided that it is time for another media assault on London....

Minister of Economy Shamseddin Hosseini has announced that Iran's trade with Britain is "reduced" --- which is not shocking, given the UK's participation in sanctions against Tehran --- and Iranian state media has a buffet of declarations by MPs.

Hossein Ebrahimi, the Deputy Chairman of Parliament's National Security Commission, has accused the British Embassy of using its website for anti-Iran campaigning: “In an act of forward escaping, the British want to divert the public opinion -- that is against them -- from the massacre of the people in the region.”

Another Commission member, Esmail Kowsari, pronounced, “If British officials ward off responsibility for their irrational and bullying moves, the Iranian nation will deliver an appropriate and firm response to them.”

1125 GMT: Press Watch. The arrest of a journalist by the regime is far from surprising, but the arrest of one who works for the State news agency?

A reporter for the Islamic Republic News Agency, including Manouchehr Tamari, have reportedly been detained in Sanandaj in Iranian Kurdistan.

1015 GMT: Claim of the Day. Tabnak reports a representative of the Supreme Leader recently met the family of Mir Hossein Mousavi to offer condolences over the death of Mousavi's father last month.

Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, have been under strict house arrest for more than two months. They were allowed a few minutes with the body of Mousavi's father but were not permitted to attend the funeral. The funeral procession was disrupted by security forces, who arrested several of the mourners.

0910 GMT: A Halal Internet. Lots of chatter amongst Web-watchers this morning about this claim by Ali Aghamohammadi, the head of economic affairs for the Government:

Iran will soon create an internet that conforms to Islamic principles, to improve its communication and trade links with the world. We can describe it as a genuinely ‘halal’ network aimed at Muslims on a ethical and moral level. The aim of this network is to increase Iran and the Farsi language’s presence in what has become the most important source of international communication.

0900 GMT: Ahwaz Watch. Akhbar Rooz, sifting through reports in Ahwazi Arab media and by the Ahwaz Human Rights Organization, names two people who have reportedly been slain by security forces and 14 who have been arrested.

0855 GMT: The Campaign of the President's Right-Hand Man. Markdomak reports on increased conflict amongst journalists, including those on reformist newspapers, over the issue of whether to join the new publications of Presidential aide Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai.

Rahim-Mashai's allies recently applied for licenses for seven new newspapers and magazines. The move is widely seen as part of Rahim-Mashai's campaign for the Presidency in 2013.

0750 GMT: Foreign Affairs. Michael Theodoulou of The National writes about the regime's approach to a changing region, "Demonstrations in Syria are played down by Iran while other Arab-world uprisings and protests are hailed as an 'Islamic awakening'."

Notable in the article is a rare comment from inside Iran challenging the regime's approach: "A Tehran University politics professor, Sadegh Zibakalam, wrote recently that Arab countries 'have the right' to ask Iran why it is so much more concerned about the killing of protesters in Bahrain than the deaths of many more in Syria. And he suggested that Iran's tirades against countries such as Saudi Arabia are unnecessarily alienating Tehran in the Arab Middle East."

0745 GMT: The Nuclear Worm. A senior Iranian military official has said that Stuxnet, a computer worm, could have caused major accidents and loss of life in the country.

Since last autumn, there have been reports that Stuxnet targeted computers bheind Iran's nuclear programme, and speculation has focused on the possibility of US-Israeli sabotage.

On Saturday, Gholam Reza Jalali, head of the Passive Defense Unit in charge of combatting sabotage, said Iranian experts have determined that the US and Israel were responsible: "Enemies have attacked industrial infrastructure and undermined industrial production through cyber attacks. This was a hostile action against our country.If it had not been confronted on time, much material damage and human loss could have been inflicted."

0600 GMT: Linking between far different claims in Iran this week....

The situation in Ahwaz, a city of more than 1.3 million people in southwest Iran, is still far from clear, especially over the claims of protesters slain, injured, and wounded by security forces. Iranian state media is saying nothing, and with other journalists unable to report on the situation, the claimed news comes from Ahwazi Arab activists and Al Arabiya, the one international site to put out the assertion of up to ten people killed and many injured and arrested.

This morning, the opposition Rooz Online picks up the story, repeating the claims from the activist sites and Al Arabiya.

On another front, cartoonist Nikahang Kowsar considers the report in a controversial documentary that the return of Hidden Imam, Shi'a's 12th and last Imam, is near. The Supreme Leader says, "I am Seyed Kharasani", the cleric preparing for the Hidden Imam's appearance. A follower, drinking the juice (Sandis) associated with regime loyalists, makes his own claim: "I was a sheep, now I'm a donkey."

(The opposition abbreviation for Ayatollah Khamenei, KHAR, happens to be the Persian word for donkey.)

And writing in Rooz Online, Arash Bahmani takes on another subject: the concerns of Iran's clerics, including Grand Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani, with inflation and poverty and their lack of faith in the Government's claims of immminent progress on both fronts.