Latest from Iran (3 April): The Zionist Lobby and Clay Tablets
Sunday, April 3, 2011 at 13:33
Scott Lucas in Alaeddin Boroujerdi, EA Iran, Fakhrosaadat Mohtashamipour, Hamid Baghaei, Jens Koch, Marcus Hellwig, Middle East and Iran

1840 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch (Repentance Edition). More from the interview published by State news agency IRNA of Ebrahim Yazdi (see 1730 GMT), the former leader of the Freedom Movement of Iran who was detained from early October until 20 March:

In the interview [carried out on the same day he was released, but only printed today], Yazdi maintains that his heart problems and weakened physical condition have prompted him to leave the leadership of the Freedom Movement.

Yazdi insists in the interview that he has the utmost respect for the Iranian constitution, but adding: “Whoever states a criticism cannot be regarded as a dissident. The dominant mode of thinking should not be that you are either for me or against me. If someone criticizes you, this does not mean they are your enemy.”

“I have no problem with the system but I am against certain actions that are unconstitutional,” the octogenarian politician says in his interview.

He is also quoted as saying that demonstrations are free so far as they do not disturb public order.

“It is best to coordinate relevant regulations,” Yazdi is quoted as saying, “because without such coordination, it is not just your supporters that come to the streets but also undesirable groups.”

Yazdi is quoted as saying that he had told opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi that when he invites people to join street demonstrations, it is clear that many of those who take to the streets are not in fact his supporters. “They chant their own slogans and demonstrate against the regime… and they damage the reform movement.” IRNA writes that Yazdi recommends a close investigation of Mousavi’s actions to determine why he has reached his current position.

According to IRNA, Yazdi also says that he was against Mousavi’s candidacy because he felt it was not right to have “a president that was not coordinated with the leadership.”

1735 GMT: Economy Watch. The Central Bank says Iran's inflation rate in the last Iranian year (21 March-20 March) was 12.4%, adjusting it from an earlier estimate of 10.8%.

1730 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch (Repentance Edition). Weeks ago, Ebrahim Yazdi, the 80-year-old leader of the Freedom Movement of Iran, was the world's oldest political prisoner, having been arrested in October for supposedly organising an illegal prayer service.

After his release, Yazdi, a former Foreign Minister, immediately resigned his political position. And now he has told State news agency IRNA: "If Mir Hossein Mousavi had been elected, it would have been disastrous for the country....The President should be in concordance with the Leader."

1725 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Nine Mousavi campaign activists have been sentenced in Babol in northern Iran to a total of 110 months in prison.

1500 GMT: Where's Ali? Today the Supreme Leader has told military and police commanders, "Almost all analysts in the world have acknowledged that the current movement in the Middle East and North African nations has risen from the leadership of the Islamic Revolution."

1430 GMT: International Front. Today's volley in the Saudi Arabia-Iran tennis match over Bahrain comes from Alaeedin Boroujerdi, the head of Parliament's National Security Commission, who advises the Saudi monarchy to withdraw its troops from Bahrain immediately.

Earlier this week the National Security Commission said Saudi Arabia was "playing with fire" in the Middle East. The Saudis responded yesterday by criticising Tehran's interference in the affairs of other countries.

1240 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. HRANA has documented 5485 arrests in the last Iranian year up to 20 March, providing a graph to track the trend in the detentions and the names of 856 prisoners.

1230 GMT: Green Protests. Trend summarises Sunday's environmental protests, with more than 70 arrests, in Tabriz, Urmia and other towns in Iranian Azerbaijan.

1225 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Rah-e-Sabz reports that, despite being hospitalised this week, detained activist Fakhrosaadat Mohtashamipour will resume her hunger strike tomorrow.

Mohtahamipour was arrested during the 1 March protests. She began her hunger strike because she was not allowed to see her husband, prominent reformist Mostafa Tajzadeh, who was sentenced in February 2010 to five years in prison.

1215 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Despite sanctions, Iran's oil exports to the European Union increased 41% in 2010, making Tehran the 5th-biggest crude supplier to the EU.

In 2009, Iran exported €8.11 billion in oil to the 27 member states of the EU, ranking as the 7th-biggest crude supplier. In 2010, the figure exceeded €11.44 billion.

Iran supplied 4.8% of the EU's crude demand in 2009. This rose to 5.2% in 2010.

1030 GMT: Germany and Iran (Oil for Hostages Edition). Der Spiegel claims, in an investigative report, that the German Government helped facilitate payments of $1.5 billion by India for Iranian oil in exchange for the release of two German journalists, imprisoned last autumn for interviewing the son and lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman condemned to death for adultery.

India's Central Bank had suspended payments for Iranian oil at the end of last years because of issues over the currency of payment amidst sanctions against Tehran.

Journalists Marcus Hellwig and Jens Koch, who work for Bild am Sonntag, were freed on 20 February after 130 days in captivity.

0820 GMT: Video of Saturday's demonstration in Tabriz about environmental issues and the "death" of Lake Urmia:

0605 GMT: It is a very slow news day in Iran so far. The opposition's Saham News features the arrest of more than 70 people and wounding of 20 others, protesting environmental damage and dessication of Lake Urmia in the northwest, on the nature festival day of Sizdah Bedar. Press TV's only Iran story is on the killing of at least four policemen in an attack on a police station near Marivan in Kurdistan. Fars, moving from Saturday's coverage of turmoil and protest in Bahrain, Yemen, and Libya (but not Syria), has returned to the theme of "economic jihad".

So let's start with something completely different, taking up the top story from the State news agency IRNA: "Court's Decision is a Legal Victory Against the Zionist Lobby".

Last Tuesday, an US appeals court decided that Achaemenid clay tablets, dating from the Persian Empire, are part of Iran's cultural heritage and must be returned by the University of Chicago, which received them on loan from the Iranian Government in 1936 "for preservation, study, analysis and publication".

This morning, IRNA interviews  the head of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, Hamid Baghaei,who explains the "Zionist dimension". Apparently, after a 1994 explosion in a Jewishcultural centre in Argentina, widely blamed on Iran, the Israeli lobby in the US tried to seize the clay tablets as reparations. 

Scholars studying Iran and archaeologists had petitioned President Obama to keep the tablets in the US for study.

Article originally appeared on EA WorldView (http://www.enduringamerica.com/).
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