The Latest from Iran (16 May): Ahmadinejad the Prizefighter

1900 GMT: Claim of Day. Fars says General Yahya Rahim Safavi, former head of the Revolutionary Guards, has been sent by the Supreme Leader to meet senior clerics in Qom.

1845 GMT: Corruption Watch. MP Fazel Mousavi claims the Parliament has proven 50 cases of Government "takhalof" (wrongdoing).

And more rumblings in the Iranian media about the President's inner circle, with claimed details of the diversion of $400 million in a building project on Kish Island.

Last week, conservative newspapers and websites claimed that friends and associates of Presidential Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai were linked to the project.

1830 GMT: Fashion Watch. The hard-line Mashregh News is outraged that the daughter of an employee of the Iranian Interests Section in Washington has been photographed without hijab.

The story has emerged in connection with this footage of women, appearing with and without a headscarf, explaining what it is like to take off the covering for the first time:

1715 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Back from a break to find the first ripples of discontent after the President's speech....

We asked this morning (see 0505 GMT), "is the President going to continue to fight for his controversial right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai?", and others are also anticipating the question. Influential conservative MP Gholam-Reza Mesbahi-Moghaddam has told Fars of the "diversionary current" that continues to commit sedition by fighting Islam and the Islamic Republic.

"Diversionary current" is the euphemism commonly used by critics for Rahim-Mashai and his supporters.

1210 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Journalist Mehdi Mahmoudian has been moved back to the general prison ward.

Mahmoudian was punished with solitary confinement after he wrote a letter about abuse and rape at Rajai Shahr Prison.

0740 GMT: The Ahmadinejad Speech. A Tehran-based observer offers this important comment about our summary:

"The speech ends with more platitudes about loyalty to the Supreme Leader and the system of velayat-e faqih (clerical supremacy).”

I actually have found that part very interesting (and far from platitudes). First, he said that vali [the Supreme Leader] is not independent of a nation. A nation has to follow a vali to prosper, but the point of vali’s existence is to lead a nation. Vali leads and guides but is not exactly above the people. Also, at one point he said that the guardianship is not absolute. Second, he used the very language he had been harshly criticized for –-- e.g. he called Khamenei a ‘father’ (despite all this “he’s not a father but commander” brouhaha).

A retreat it was, but a quite smartly framed one. If there’s no more pressure from the conservatives, he will be able to say that there’s a consensus about the above views and portray himself as a representative of the nation essential to well-functioning of the vali-mardom [Supreme Leader-President] duo.

0725 GMT: Claim of the Day. On Saturday, Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of the human rights section of Iran's judiciary, told journalists, “No Iranian citizen has been arrested or put in jail because of being a member of Baha’i community. The Bahais enjoy citizenship rights in Iran as any other Iranian citizen do, but Iran’s judiciary deals with them as it does regarding other citizens if they commit any crime."

Numerous Iranians of the Baha'i faith have been detained. Recently seven prominent Baha'i members were given 20-year prison sentences.

0610 GMT: The House Arrests. It is now three months since opposition figure Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard were put under strict house arrest by Iranian authorities. In that time, their solitude has been broken only by two brief meetings with their daughters and a few moments with the body of Mousavi's father, who died at the end of March.

See also Iran Transcript: President Ahmadinejad's TV Interview
Iran Snap Analysis: Interpreting Tonight's Ahmadinejad Speech

0510 GMT: 25 Ordibehesht. Student demonstrations yesterday appeared to be scattered and limited by security. There were reports of protests at Mashhad, Isfahan, Sari, and Ghaemshahr Free Universities, as well as claimed footage of a rally at Tehran University, but other attempts, notably at Tehran's Amir Kabir University, were blocked.

A short clip purportedly showing a cafeteria protest at Isfahan Polytechnic University:

0505 GMT: On Saturday, following a week of sustained criticism of the Iranian President, we asked this question:

How does Ahmadinejad respond? Well, his office has put out the word that he is appearing on national television on Sunday night.

Another cry of "Uncle!"? Or a fightback?

We got a complex answer last evening. In his interview, Ahmadinejad offered some concessions. He waved a white flag on his quest to control the Ministry of Intelligence, and the final part of his speech was an extended love letter to the Supreme Leader.

But that love letter was not a total surrender. Instead, the President was re-positioning himself. Now he would assert authority on another front. As he pursued his merger of Ministries, the cause of this week's conflict, he would take personal charge of the vital Ministry of Oil.

Our snap analysis, with a LiveBlog of Ahmadinejad's interview, is in a separate entry. This morning, we'll be looking for reactions, especially from the President's critics and challengers. 

And we'll be seeking signals on another vital question: is the President going to continue to fight for his controversial right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai?