The Latest from Iran (4 July): Pick Your Fight

2025 GMT: President v. Revolutionary Guards. Back to our main story of the day and our questions about how to interpret the statements of President Ahmadinejad and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps over "smuggling" (see 0800 GMT).

An EA correspondent gets to the point, "[IRGC Commander] Jafari wouldn't have reacted, if Ahmadinejad's allusions were not so obvious. Ahmadinejad's speech, between the lines, is completely apparent."

And one might add that the Supreme Leader wouldn't have reacted as well (see 1345 GMT)....

See also Iran Special: Ahmadinejad v. The Revolutionary Guards

2020 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The Speaker of Germany's Parliament, Norbert Lammert, has asked his Iranian counterpart, Ali Larijani, to pursue the release of photojournalist Maryam Majd, detained on the eve of her departure for the Women's Football World Cup in Germany.

Lammert denounced the arrest "not only as an attack on media freedom but also as a striking breach of internationally guaranteed freedom rights and human rights".

1825 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. The head of Iran's Administrative Court has hit back at President Ahmadinejad's weekend declaration of a "red line" against arrests of members of his Cabinet.

Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi said the red line was "meaningless" for the judiciary, as it was enforcing the law and not carrying out political activity.

In May,the Administrative Court suspended Vice President Hamid Baghaei for four years for "numerous violations" in his Government service.

1820 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kalemeh reports that journalist Mehdi Hosseinzadeh has been released after serving a one-year prison sentence.

1710 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Hasan Younesi, the son of former Minister of Intelligence Ali Younesi, has been summoned to prison to serve a one-year sentence.

Younesi, a pro-reform lawyer, was arrested on 20 February during protests demanding the release of opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi from strict house arrest.

1700 GMT: Campus Watch. The head of Parliament's Education and Research Committee says there are no plans for gender segregation at universities.

Sharif University in Tehran has already announced plans for segregation of first-year students from the autumn.

1400 GMT: Free Land! (Or Not.) On Sunday, President Ahmadinejad said the Government would give each Iranian a 1000 square-metre plot of land for a villa.

That generous gesture has not gone down well, at least with the head of the Urban Commission. Mohammad Hossein Moghimi said, "We have no lands to give to people, except for the desert of Lut."

1345 GMT: President v. Revolutionary Guards --- Khamenei Intervenes (cont.). The summary of Khabar Online of the Supreme Leader's address (see 1320 GMT) --- "Supreme Leader Deeply Saddened by Recent In-Fighting".

Press TV has the take-away quotes:

One of the most important and necessary matters for the continuation of the perfective and the progressive movement of the Islamic Revolution is to avoid fueling the atmosphere of dispute [and] chaos and clamour in society, and all political and ideological currents and organs must be practically committed to safeguarding unity.

Do those who fuel such disputes not see the contentment of foreign propaganda machines and their analyses? The happiness of the enemy shows that this issue is a weakness [for us] and therefore it must be stopped.

All [Iranians] must stand against the enemy like an impenetrable wall and in a united front.

The Press TV article is curiously incomplete, however --- it offers no explanation as to why Ayatollah Khamenei made his comments.

1335 GMT: Oil and Politics. Khabar Online challenges the Government with a chart on the decrease in oil production, with a "red condition" in some oilfields, claiming it is because of the negligence of officials.

1320 GMT: President v. Revolutionary Guards --- Khamenei Intervenes. The Supreme Leader, in his first reaction to the row over smuggling between President Ahmadinejad and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has advised an IRGC audience, "Don't instigate scandals --- they make enemies happy."

1250 GMT: Rumour of Day. Tamasha News claims that Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf has met Speaker of Parliament Larijani to form a coalition with Mohsen Rezaei, 2009 Presidential candidate and Secretary of the Expediency Council, for the 2012 Parliamentary elections.

EA sources reported in January 2010, at the height of the challenge from the Green Movement, that the three men were involved in discussions to remove Ahmadinejad from power. The sources later said that the talks resumed in the summer.

1240 GMT: Economy Watch. Fars reports that the Central Bank has been prevented from announcing official statistics on inflation and other economic indicators until further notice.

1120 GMT: Cartoon of the Day. Nikahang Kowsar comments on the temporary halt to the initiative to question President Ahmadinejad in Parliament.

1030 GMT: Unity Watch. In a blow to the attempt at "unity" amongst conservatives/principlists, Ali Akbar Velayati, the former Foreign Minister and current advisor to the Supreme Leader, has withdrawn from the three-person committee appointed by President Ahmadinejad several months ago.

MP Mohsen Yahyavi said Velayati had resigned to remove any doubts that the Supreme Leader wanted to interfere with the process.

The committee has faced criticism that it is not representative of "hard-liners" and their views.

1015 GMT: Culture Watch. Tehran Police Chief Hossein Sajedinia, maintaining his vigilant patrol of Iranian behaviour, has said that women are prohibited fr entering tea houses with "shisha", the flavoured tobacco smoked in a hookah.

1000 GMT: Parliament v. President. MP has hit back at reports that the drive to question President Ahmadinejad in Parliament was grinding to a halt. He claimed none of the 100 MPs had withdrawn his signature on the petition for interrogation, saying claims of 20 withdrawals were Government propaganda.

MP Reza Akrami asked, "Why is that people's discontent doesn't matter, but asking Ahmadinejad is a problem?" He insisted that the Supreme Leader would not oppose the move.

In a poll by Khabar Online, linked to Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, "Do you agree with questioning Ahmadinejad in Majlis?", almost 90% of respondents voted Yes. More than 10,000 people voted within 24 hours.

0945 GMT: President v. Revolutionary Guards. Well, if President Ahmadinejad wasn't aiming at the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in yesterday's anti-smuggling speech, his allies certainly are. Hafte Sobh, the website linked to Ahmadinejad's right-hand man Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, has challenged that "special organisations", i.e., the Revolutionary Guards, should report if they are trading special goods via southern ports and eastern borders.

The website claimed that the suspect traffic has increased in recent months.

Meanwhile, the commander of the Guards, General Mohammad Reza Jafari, has declared that the IRGC will not stop at closing the Straits of Hormuz off the Iranian coast --- "its duties comprise all military, cultural, defensive, and cyber-matters".

0800 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Having read our analysis this morning of a possible conflict between the President and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a source sends us an English translation of the President's remarks on Sunday about smuggling.

As far as I can tell, Ahmadinejad makes no specific reference to the Guards in a general speech calling for new legislation and enforcement of existing customs regulations to stop illegal imports. So was he really using this as a veiled challenge to the Revolutionary Guards or did General Jafari, the Guards commander, over-react when he protested that the IRGC was not importing any commercial goods through Iran's ports?

An extract from the speech:

My dear ones, another reason is that the smuggling networks are affiliated to those who have power and influence in different parts of the world, from America to other parts of the world. We have of course heard about some countries. Now what should we do? One option is to adopt an appropriate law. The bill has now been sent to the Majlis. Hopefully, the Majlis will deal with the bill quickly. Accordingly, the legal framework of the work would be set for the committee. Our other measure would be to make extensive customs reform. The officials of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the customs should quickly organize things....

We should have an electronic network linking all customs offices. They (other officials) mentioned some aspects of it. All illegal borders should be closed. Some individuals have created passages through the border importing and exporting goods saying: it is for such and such company, body or organization. This is wrong. No one should be immune. If the goods are related to security, intelligence or defense organizations, there is no problem. They can also enter the country from legal borders. No ministry has the right to have a dock or harbor outside the control of the Customs and Excise. If certain goods are exempt from customs duty, that is not a problem, it is in line with the law, but it does not mean that it should not be registered.

Where individuals consider themselves above the law and secure certain rights for themselves, that spot turns into a centre of corruption. It does not matter who it is and it is not important with what intention it is done because some of them have good intentions. Some say: I am from such and such organization and would like to equip my organization. That is not a problem. There is a law, those goods can be exempt according to the law and pass through the customs. As soon as some individuals go beyond the law and assume certain rights for themselves, and consider themselves exceptions to the law, corruption creeps in.

0755 GMT: CyberWatch. The Web portal Balatarin has been fighting a denial-of-service attack this morning.

0720 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Fereshteh Ghazi interviews prominent attorney Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, sentenced on Sunday to nine years in prison. He declares, "Nationalism is worse than heresy" for the regime.

0650 GMT: Non-Story of the Day. I was hoping to avoid this media flutter, but in the category of Propaganda Becomes "News"....

Last month, we reported on Tehran's PR campaign, featuring two documentaries on State TV, trumpeting success against the "foreign menace" through the break-up of US espionage networks. While there may have been grains of truth amidst the tall tales, the whole exercise was decided 1) to blunt any opposition attempt to highlight the second anniversary of the disputed 2009 Presidential election and 2) to keep the Iranian people from thinking about other little issues like, say, the economy or the political conflict within the establishment.

See also Iran Video: Taking Apart The Regime's Documentary on the "US Spy Network"

That campaign trundles on, and the Los Angeles Times swallowed it whole on Sunday. An Iranian MP, Esmail Kowsar --- in one of the daily articles in which a legislator shakes a fist at "America" --- said, "The plan for arresting and punishing 26 American officials will be discussed in the Parliament's open session after the parliamentary recess and following the approval of parliamentarians."

Kowsar's declaration follows other promised legal and political threats that evaporated, such as Tehran's promise to impose sanctions on former US officials such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. But the Times did not hesitate to proclaim the "raising of the possibility that [Iran] will out U.S. spies who Tehran claims attempted to recruit Iranians as part of a sophisticated intelligence-gathering operation". 

And this morning CNN decides it has to join the sensational party, "Iran to Prosecute 26 American Officials, MP Says".

0550 GMT: Our headline bout this morning --- President Ahmadinejad v. the Revolutionary Guards --- has so much potential that we have devoted a separate analysis to it.

However, it is only one of the fights on the card today. The discussion among reformists over whether to contest the 2012 Parliamentary elections is getting more intense.

An EA correspondent notifies us that the reformist Hamshahri is headlining, "Reformists are Coming to Parliament". In a lengthy interview in Etemaad, Hojtatoleslam Abdolvahed Musavi-Lari, Minister of Interior during the Khatami President, considers "the reformists' views about Majlis elections". He returns to Khatami's conditions for participation --- freeing of political prisoners, adherence to the Constitution, and a free and fair electoral process --- and declares, "Mr. Khatami's very explicit republicanism and Islamism can appear together in society, and these two are not rivals."

And in Rah-e-Sabz, journalist Saeed-Razavi-Faqih evaluates whether Khatami's remarks could "break the deadlock" between Government and the opposition.