The Latest from Iran (5 May): Cabinet Confusion

1730 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Ali Malihi, a senior member of the alumni organisation Advar Tahkim-e Vahdat, has been released on bail after 14 months in prison.

Malihi has been sentenced to four years for "assembly and collusion with the intention of disturbing the domestic security of the regime, propaganda against the regime, participation in illegal gatherings, publishing falsehoods and insulting the President".

1700 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Another warning to the President, this time from the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari: "In defending the Islamic Revolution, Sepah [the Guards] will not wait for instructions".

1500 GMT: Cabinet Confusion. The opposition Green Voice of Freedom posts another account of the dispute at Wednesday's Cabinet, based on a source who reports the statement to legislators of Vice President Mohammad Reza Mirtajoddini.

According to the site, Mirtajoddini said that the President had declared he would not proceed with the Cabinet meeting until Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi, whom Ahmadinejad had unsuccessfully tried to dismiss, left the room.

Moslehi was gone within 10 minutes.

1320 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Back from an academic break to find that 90 MPs --- almost 1/3 of the Parliament --- have signed a petition for the questioning of President Ahmadinejad.

0725 GMT: The Battle Within. Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, considered by some to be the spiritual mentor of the President, offers a pointed statement to Ahmadinejad: "The Supreme Leader ensures victory against enemies."

0715 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Student activist Zia Nabavi, sentenced to 15 years prison and exiled to Karun prison last October, has written an open letter to the head of Iran's judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, about conditions in the facility:

My hope in writing this letter is to bring the attention of the authorities to this catastrophic situation and in doing so improve the unbearable conditions at Karun prison; conditions so unfortunate that they can only be explained as "bordering between humanity and barbarity", living like a human versus living like an animal.

0605 GMT: More political uncertainty on Wednesday --- frustrating, confusing, and sometimes entertaining --- as the story of what happened at the Cabinet meeting kept changing.

President Ahmadinejad, having ended his 10-day boycott over his failure to dismiss Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi, chaired his second session in a row. Initially, the President's office claimed all was now well, as Moslehi was also present. However, conservative websites were soon noting that the Minister of Intelligence was nowhere to be seen in the official photo of the meeting.

By the end of the day, the new site linked to Ahmadinejad's right-hand man Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai was trying another face-saving explanation: it was quite normal, an "informed source" (what price that it was Rahim-Mashai?) said it was quite normal for ministers to step in and out of Cabinet meetings.

Moslehi must have disappeared just as the photograph was being taken.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Leader and his allies continued to re-assert authority after Ahmadinejad's failed challenge over Moslehi. Ayatollah Khamenei put out a stock speech to teachers, asserting the need for good Islamic education and declaring that European people would rise up against their governments. More pointed was the statement of the head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, that opposition to the Supreme Leader was tantamount to rejection of the Islamic Revolution and the Constitution.