The Latest from Iran (19 April): A Regime Confession About the Greens?

2010 GMT: On the Sports Pages (Parliament v. President Edition). Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, has filed an official complaint with the judiciary against the Ahmadinejad Government for failing to establish a Ministry of Sports and Youth.

Last December, Parliament passed a law for the formation of the ministry of youth and sports by 9 April 2011. Last week, Larijani sent a letter to Ahmadinejad reminding him of the deadline.

However, the president’s chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, said on Sunday: “The government and the president believe that this issue is not in the interest of the country’s sports and athletics.”

1750 GMT: Economy Watch. According to Kalemeh, stone-cutting plants in Qom have been shut down because of the rise in electricity prices.

1630 GMT: Energy Watch. Mardomak reports that protests from some MP over the unprecedented rise in gasoline prices, sparked by subsidy cuts, has led to a promise from President Ahmadinejad to review the issue.

1500 GMT: A Matter of Intelligence. And the fight over the Ahmadinejad Government and the resignation/non-resignation of the Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi rumbles on (see 0737 GMT)....

The hard-line Kayhan has hit back at the President's office and the State news agency IRNA. The newspaper reiterates --- contrary to IRNA's denial --- that the Supreme Leader did not allow the Government to dismiss Moslehi. It then says that Presidential aide Esfandiar-Mashai is influencing Ahmadinejad w his "deviant gang". Included amongst the deviants are Hossein Abdollahian --- the deputy in the Ministry of Intelligence whom Moslehi tried to fire, sparking the current crisis --- and Ali Akbar Javanfekr, former Ahmadinejad aide and now managing director of IRNA.

Javanfekr and IRNA have called for the prosecution of any media spreading "insults, libels, and lies" about the Ahmadinejad Government.

1345 GMT: Parliament v. President. Mardomak writes that the Parliament has cut funding for the Council of Iranians Abroad, close to Presidential advisor Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, out of next year's Government budget.

1340 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kalemeh reports that journalist Nazanin Khosravani has been sentenced to six years in prison on charges of "assembly, colluding to act against national security, and propagating against the regime".

Khosravani was arrested on 2 November 2010. After 132 days of imprisonment, including months of solitary confinement, she was released on bail of around $575,000.

1125 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Leading human rights attorney Mohammad Oliyaifard has been released after serving a one-year sentence for “anti-regime propaganda by giving interviews".

RAHANA confirms that journalist and Azeri civil rights activist Sima Didar has been transferred to Tabriz Prison to serve a six-month prison sentence.

1010 GMT: Foreign Affairs. Rebuffing a report that Iran has appointed its first ambassador to Egypt since 1980 (see 0725 GMT), Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the move was still being considered, "although we are ready to take steps when the Egyptians are willing".

0910 GMT: Campus Watch. Daneshjoo News claims that students at Tehran’s Azad University disrupted a planned speech by Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi, former Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, with chants of "Death to the Dictator!".

The talk, organised by the university’s Basij unit, was disrupted when a student asked Saffar-Harandi about fraud in the 2009 Presidential election. The chants then followed.

Saffar-Harandi is currently an advisor on cultural affairs to the Revolutionary Guards.

0900 GMT: Where's Mahmoud? President Ahmadinejad officially opening the new School of Science and Technology at Tehran University today, declared, "Iran is the world's treasury of human talent."

But that's not the interesting line. Instead, it is Ahmadinejad's assurance that proclaiming Iran's inspiration for the world is not "nationalism" as he expressed thanks that "God is responsible".

Ahmadinejad's office, notably his close advisor Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, has been under fire from cleric and conservative political opponents, for promoting an "Iran-first" rather than an "Islam-first" approach inside and outside the country.

0800 GMT: Ahwaz Watch. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty summarises the letter of Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi --- reported yesterday on EA --- expressing concern over reports of unrest in Ahwaz in southwestern Iran.

Ebadi asked UN Human Rights Commission Navi Pillay to investigate the developments amidst unconfirmed reports of up to 15 people killed in Ahwaz and Khuzestan Province since last Thursday.

0737 GMT: A Matter of Intelligence. Another interesting move by State news agency IRNA in its counter-attack against conservative media who have reported the Supreme Leader's veto of the resignation of Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi.

The agency resurrects a 2010 report of Ayatollah Khamenei's address to the Address of Experts in which he said criticism and expression of dissenting opinions should be supported, but that these should not be "desecration and insult" and that all should be "responsible" in their comments.

No prizes for guessing at whom IRNA's article is aimed, but the interesting tactic is invoking the Supreme Leader's name to support the pro-Ahmadinejad agency's case. Because Khamenei's office has not published the letter which nullified the resignation of the Minister of Intelligence --- allegedly sought by Ahmadinejad's close advisor Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai --- IRNA is telling the Supreme Leader's camp: Prove Us Wrong.

0735 GMT: Labour Front. More than 100 telecommunications employees have marched in Shiraz for better wages and implementation of Government decisions on working conditions.

0725 GMT: International Front. Mashregh News reports that Iran has appointed Ali Akbar Sibouyeh as its first ambassador to Egypt since 1980.

The appointment comes after negotiations between Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and his Egyptian counterpart Nabil al-Arabi.

Earlier this month, al-Arabi called for normalisation of ties with Iran.

0545 GMT: The Battle over Intelligence. Sunday's dispute over the resignation/non-resignation of the Minister of Intelligence --- which culminated with conservative Iranian news outlets reporting that the Supreme Leader had "nullified" the resignation, slapping down President Ahmadinejad's camp --- is not going away.

Indeed, the Ahmadinejad forces are striking back. Yesterday, the pro-Ahmadinejad state news agency IRNA and its head, Ali Akbar Javanfekr (a former Ahmadinejad senior advisor), denounced the lies of other media.

And this morning, Ahmadinejad's Vice President for legal affairs, Fatemeh Bodaghi --- using IRNA as a platform --- promises judicial action over "insult, libel, and publishing lies against the President".

0520 GMT: After a Monday spent mainly on the internal tensions over the resignation/non-resignation of Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi, with the Ahmadinejad camp and its opponents fighting out the episode through their media outlets, and on the still-sketchy reports of violence in Ahwaz in southwestern Iran, we begin today with a story going back to the post-election crisis.

The opposition website Rah-e-Sabz claims a significant confession by Mojtaba Zolnour, the Supreme Leader's representative to the Revolutionary Guard. Zolnour allegedly told scholars and clergy that, if unchecked, the Green Movement still had the power to mobilise the population.

Zolnour cited the marches of 14 February as an example: "We were intimidated by a large gathering. If the Basij and Revolutionary Guards had not acted in time, it was uncertain what would have happened."