The Latest from Iran (13 July): The Opposition Re-Marks Its Ground

1700 GMT: Economy Watch. Ayande News reviews the increasing price of basics, from 350% for oil to 180% for food.

An EA source said today that, in some parts of Tehran, the price of sangak flatbread has risen from 100 tomans (less than 10 cents) to 1000 tomans (about 90 cents). He confirmed that both unemployment and inflation were rising sharply.

1655 GMT: Supreme Leader Brother's Watch. Seyed Hadi Khamenei, the reformist brother of Ayatollah Khamenei, has asked, "How do you expect us to participate in elections?" He said there had been thousands of hours of insults against reformists which had not been possible to answer.

1650 GMT: Supreme Leader Watch. Ali Saeedi, the representative of Ayatollah Khamenei to the Revolutionary Guards, has said that people can change government but not the system of velayat-e faqih (clerical supremacy) --- "If they choose what God wants, it's OK."

1615 GMT: Parliament v. President. MP Ali Motahari, who led the campaign to interrogate the President in Parliament, is not happy that the process has been halted, in part because of the intervention of the Supreme Leader's office.

Motahari was careful to say that Ayatollah Khamenei had a "good purpose" in supporting President Ahmadinejad, but he said the problem of Ahmadinejad has not been resolved.

1540 GMT: Clerical Intervention. Ayatollah Amjad has again criticised the Government, advising it to "listen to people before you plunge into complete ruin --- how long do you want to lie to them and ask them not to listen to foreign radio?"

1520 GMT: Economy Watch. According to Mehr, the Government has decided that the Central Bank is no longer the source for economic data --- for the first time in 74 years, no inflation data was published for Khordad (May/June).

1515 GMT: Elections Watch. Mohammad Nabi Habibi, the leader of the conservative Motalefeh Party, has declared, "We welcome the presence of reformists in the next Parliamentary elections."

1415 GMT: Economy Watch (Supreme Leader Edition). Ayatollah Khamenei met members of the Chambers of Commerce in a private discussion on Tuesday. Little detail was given beyond the Supreme Leader's pronouncement on the importance of economic jihad, but the atmosphere was "very friendly".

1410 GMT: Housing Watch. Iranian media are reporting that the Maskan Mehr building project, which was supposed to deliver two million houses, has been halted by lack of cash. Almost $7 billion promised by President Ahmadinejad from foreign reserves has reportedly not been received.

1350 GMT: Economy Watch. The Iranian Labour News Agency claims 10,000 electricity workers in Tehran Province are threatened with unemployment.

1345 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. The daily newspaper Jomhouri Eslami has taken a swipe at the Ahmadinejad Government, in the context of allegations that it has tried to "buy" the support of the poor, declaring that it wants to stir up the needy classes against the "nezam" (system).

1010 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. A striking challenge from leading MP Mohammad Reza Bahonar, who claims "nothing is left" of President Ahmaidnejad's supporters.

1005 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Journalist and Mousavi campaigner Alireza Beheshi Shirazi has been summoned to prison to serve his five-year sentence.

Beheshti Shirazi was detained just after the 2009 elections and again after the December 2009 Ashura demonstrations. He was freed on $500,000 bail in autumn 2010.

0815 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. An EA reader takes us beyond our initial summary of the latest statement of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani....

We noted Rafsanjani's "pragmatic" approach to engagement with the US and suggested that, somewhat ironically, it put him alongside President Ahmadinejad's behind-the-scenes approach. The reader, however, picks up on Rafsanjani's criticism of the Government and, indeed, the Supreme Leader:

Deception is temporary; lying, wasting money on games that are obvious to everyone, and plundering the public purse to buy votes will not work anymore....Officials use their same reckless way of running domestic affairs to conduct foreign diplomacy....I truly believe now's the time to engage America in mutually respectful negotiations....Americans softened their approach, after the [Iran/Iraq] war, especially after Obama took office, and wanted to mend relations, but Khamenei's policy wouldn't allow us to move forward; he didnt agree, so we said bitter things....Whenever I softened my approach, each time they [the Americans] took another step forward...Maybe if we had treated Americans just as we have had the Europeans we would've had less problems.

0550 GMT: Over the last two days, we have posted the translations of three documents --- the significance is up to the reader --- re-staking the position of reformists and the Green Movement in the political conflict inside Iran.

The first of these documents, an interview with prominent reformist Mostafa Tajzadeh, pulled the opposition away from participation in the 2012 Parliamentary elections. It had an immediate effect as it led to the second document, a speech by former President Mohammad Khatami to activists on Monday.

Khatami, criticised by many within the opposition for his advocacy of "reconciliation" between people and the regime, adopted a tougher line, as he told the audience of the reformist mistake in participating the elections after 2005. Not again was his message as he reinforced his already-stated conditions for entering the 2012 vote, both with specific claims --- "So long as those who supervise and monitor the elections are not trustworthy, the elections cannot be free" --- and his general denunciation of the Government --- "Iran is being ruined. They are destroying the resources of the country. They have ruined the economy. They have made a bad name for the nation."

But has Khatami already been overtaken? Certainly he is the leading target for regime arrows at the moment, with some even calling for the arrest of his brother, also a prominent reformist. But the third document may put a new element into the political mix.

Someone, self-identified as a "dozen groups" active in the Green Movement, has put out a claimed manifesto setting out a new path for the opposition. The declaration is general in its language for a popular sovereignty to which the Government must answer --- notably, there is no statement on whether the "regime" of velayat-e faqih (clerical supremacy) must fall --- as it puts forward Green as an umbrella for the pursuit of rights for workers, women, the poor, and religious and ethnic minorities.

The groups specifically challenge Khatami, saying his "discourse of reform is over". It appears that they are also distinct from the spokesmen of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi --- respectively, the France-based Ardeshir Amir Arjomand and the US-based Mojtaba Vahedi --- as they declare, "We here in Iran are looking for decisive participation from Green leaders abroad."