1150 GMT: Revolutionary Guards Do Politics. Ayatollah Alamolhoda, the Friday Prayer leader of Mashhad, tries to clarify the issue of whether the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps can intervene in political issues --- he explains that the late Ayatollah Khomeini never said the IRGC should not enter politics, only that they should not interfere in political parties and elections.
IRGC commander Hossein Hamedani offers another bit of logic to support the Revolutionary Guards' invovlement: all Iranian people are Basiji fighting for the country, the Revolutionary Guards are not separated from the Basij, thus the IRGC is a principlist movement beyond a narrow military role.1040 GMT: Cartoon of the Day. Nikahang Kowsar depicts President Ahmadinejad's escape from interrogation by legislators, thanks to opposition from the Board of the Parliament and --- it is reported --- the Supreme Leader's office:
0800 GMT:Shutting Down the Reformists. Regime hardliners, from politicians to the Revolutionary Guards, have already been pouring wrath on the head of former President Mohammad Khatami in an effort to contain his challenge, but his brother, prominent reformist Mohammad Reza Khatami, has now also put himself in their sights.
Mohammad Reza Khatami's provocation was a letter responding to last week's intervention by the head of the Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, which claimed authority to act against both the "deviant current" around President Ahmadinejad and "unacceptable" v. "acceptable" reformists, with former President Khatami defined as very unacceptable. Mohammad Reza Khatami declared, ""You are not in a position to decide what the politicians should do."
The hard-line Fars attacked the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front and called for Mohammad Reza Khatami's arrest. So did MPs such as Mohammad Karami-Rad. Seyyed Ahmad Reza Dastgheib said Mohammad Reza Khatami had committed "sedition", and Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of Parliament's National Security Commission, declared, "The Iranian nation will not accept insulting Sepah [Revolutionary Guards]. There is a deeply rooted alignment between the Islamic nation and Sepah."
0350 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. More challenges to the President on the political front....
Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani has joined the chorus of critics denouncing Ahmadinejad's letter which ordered a halt to plans for gender segregation in universities. And Mohsen Yahyavi of the Islamic Society of Engineers has warned that any revelations by the President will backfire on him.
Ahmadinejad has allegedly threatened to produce damaging information on others in the Iranian system if there are further moves against his inner circle.
0345 GMT: All the President's Men. Aftab reports that Hojatoleslam Abbas Amirifar, the prayer leader for Ahmadinejad's office, has returned to his duties despite being arrested at the start of May.
Amirifar, who was released on bail last month, is accused of promoting a controversial film proclaiming the imminent arrival of the Hidden Imam.
0330 GMT: Another sign of the shifting political ground in Iran....
Yesterday, a fellow cleric, Ayatollah Hojjati Kermani, had some sharp words for Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, the man generally labelled as the "spiritual mentor" of President Ahmadinejad. Hojjati Kerman noted Mesbah Yazdi's recent attacks upon the Ahmadinejad camp, to the point of claiming "satanic" influence behind their actions, but he then put this challenge: "Wasn't it you who raised Ahmadinejad to this point?"
We are stil lwaiting for Mesbah Yazdi's answer to the far-from-subtle question, but another cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi he offered another signal of allegiances on Sunday, declaring that the Supreme Leader never makes a mistakes in his decisions and "is chosen by the Mahdi", the Hidden Imam of Shia Islam. In contrast, there were no words for Ahmadinejad --- Mohammad Yazdi merely noted the "unique" problems of "intrigue and diversion" besetting Iran.
"Diversion" is the euphemism for the wayward advice and activities of the President's camp.