The Latest from Iran (28 June): Towards the Next Elections

1810 GMT: Khamenei's Balancing Act? More on the statement of the Supreme Leader's representative to the Revolutionary Guards, Mojtaba Zolnour (see 1435 GMT)....

While defending Ayatollah Khamenei's support of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2009 election, Zolnour said that the "nezam" (system) was interrogating elements of the "deviant current".

Significantly, Zolnour indicated that the President's right-hand man Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai was the head of this deviant current and that the Guardian Council would reject him as a Presidential candidate in 2013.

1800 GMT: Ahmadinejad v. Khamenei? The pro-Ahmadinejad Absar News has warned the "aghazade-ha" (sons of influential persons) not to eliminate the President.

So at whom is Absar pointing? Digarban thinks it is Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the Supreme Leader.

1645 GMT: Parliament v. President (The Do-Do Protest). Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has had to ask MPs to refrain from shouting "Do-Do (2-2)" as a pro-Ahmadinejad legislator was addressing Parliament.

Apparently "Do-Do", pronounced "dough-dough", has been adopted as a slogan by those opposing the President's proposals and nominees. It comes from the digital voting system, where the button "2" is used for No and "4" for Yes.

Last week "Do-Do" was shouted as the Parliament rejected the nomination of Hamid Sajjadi as Minister of Sport. Subsequently, the Supreme Leader asked Larijani to stop MPs from Do-Do shouts.

So today, legislators did not chant Do-Do as Fatemeh Alia angered MPs by quoting the Supreme Lead that "MPs behaviour was malicious, unjust, morally incomprehensible" when Ahmadinejad presented Sajjadi.

Instead, the Parliamentary critics merely banged on tables to express their dissent.

1635 GMT: Human Rights Watch. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has repeated that the visit of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights to Iran is "unacceptable".

1630 GMT: Assurance of Day. Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi says that 80% of the sentences for those involved in the post-election "fitna" (sedition) of 2009 have been confirmed.

1620 GMT: Politicsl Prisoner Watch. Change for Equality posts an appeal by 500 women's and civil rights activists for the immediate release of Mansoureh Behkish, a supporter of the Mothers of Mourning, who was arrested on 12 June and is now in Ward 209 of Evin Prison. No official charges have been brought against her.

1435 GMT: Khamenei's Balancing Act? It looks like the Supreme Leader may be intervening to pull all sides back from a showdown within the Iranian system. After Ayatollah Khamenei's remarks on Monday asking the media to tone down talk about arrests and calling on everyone to refrain from questioning Government statistics, his representative to the Revolutionary Guards has also tempered recent criticism of the Ahmadinejad camp....

Mojtaba Zolnour again denounced the "deviant current", saying it was heading for the "gravel road" in trying to control half of Parliament. However, he also proclaimed, "Those who pretend Ayatollah Khamenei made a mistake in supporting Ahmadinejad are accusing the Prophet and Imam Ali of the same mistake."

Meanwhile, Speaker of Parliament Larijani has tied himself to the Supreme Leader, declaring that those who separate themselves from clergy are "deviant" and MPs proudly follow Khamenei's path.

1328 GMT: Economy Watch. The construction of the biggest petrochemical plant in western Iran, in Ilam Province, has stopped, leading to complaints against privatisation.

1325 GMT: Energy Watch. Deputy Minister of Energy Mohammad Behzad has confirmed that 15 power plants have received no gas from the National Gas Company.

The plants are running on liquid fuel reserves, but these stocks are low.

1315 GMT: Remembering. The Mothers of Mourning have gathered again in Laleh Park to commemorate the post-election protests of June 2009.

1225 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. The plan to question the President in the Parliament has been postponed until next month, after the legislators' summer holidays.

Even then, the process will only begin if 75 MPs call for the questioning. Foes of Ahmadinejad had claimed this week they had 100 signatures, but MP Mohammad Dehghan, who announced the postponement today, had called for a delay in any immediate move.

1215 GMT: All the President's Men. The foes of the Ahmadinejad camp have moved quickly to blunt the latest move by Presidential Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai.

Yesterday Rahim-Mashai named Meysam Taheri as head of the High Council of Iranian Affairs Abroad. Taheri replaced Mohammad Sharif Malekzadeh, who had lead the Council before being nominated as Deputy Foreign Minister --- not only was the nomination blocked, but Malekzadeh has been arrested on "financial and non-financial charges".

Now Taheri is being interrogated, and documents have been taken from the Council's offices.

1200 GMT: The Hunger Strikes. Kalemeh has confirmed that six political detainees at Rajai Shahr Prison have ended their hunger strike.

The six prisoners had started a strike last week in support of 12 compatriots at Evin Prison, who began refusing food on 18 June. The Evin 12 halted their protest on Sunday night.

1100 GMT: Parliament v. President. An MP has revealed that the Supreme Leader has called for a meeting of the Board of Parliament to discuss the "woes" of the President's failed nomination of Hamid Sajjadi as Minister of Sport.

Tension escalated over the nomination when President Ahmadinejad's letter presenting Sajjadi criticised the operations of the ministry. The President has refused Parliament's merger of the ministry with the Ministry of Youth.

0900 GMT: Diversion Watch. The Iranian military says it has fired 14 surface-to-surface missiles on the second day of the "Great Prophet 6" drills.

Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Aerospace Division of the Revolutionary Guards, said Iran could build missiles with longer ranges but does not need to, as US and Israeli targets are already within reach.

0610 GMT: Punishment Watch. The head of Iran's prisons says that there are now 220,000 detainees in facilities with a maximum capacity of 55,000 people.

0600 GMT: Cyber-Watch. An Iranian official announces that 18,200 websites are active in a "soft war" against the Islamic Republic.

0550 GMT: The Parliamentary elections may still be eight months away, but already Iranian politics is beginning to galvanise around them.

As 18 political prisoners ended their hunger strike, attention returned on Monday to political manoeuvres. While reformists debate whether to participate in the vote, the conservatives/principlists are sharpening knives for a battle between themselves. The camp of Presidential right-hand man Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai accused senior figures in the Revolutionary Guards of jumping into politics in alliance with the triumvirate of Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer-Qalibaf, Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, and Secretary of the Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei. From the other side, conservative MPs linked the threat of "liberal principlists" --- a reference to the Ahmadinejad group --- to that of the "deviant current".

All this is likely to complicate the Supreme Leader's calls for calm. In his latest intervention yesterday, he said that no one should question the statistics of the three branches of Government, an effective call for the Executive, Parliament, and the judiciary to live and let live amidst chatter about the possible impeachment of President Ahmadinejad.

Following a week in which Ahmadinejad and Rahim-Mashai allies were arrests, Khamenei told an audience of judiciary officials and judges, "If a person's crime has not yet been proven, the name of that person (and the accusations) should not be publicised. I address not only the judiciary, but also officials outside the branch as well as the media."