The Latest from Iran (1 August): Brain Drain and a "Brain Tumour"

1650 GMT: Back to the Brain Drain. An EA reader has kindly asked us about the context for our morning report (see 0630 GMT) of an Iranian official revealing that 97% of Iranian Ph.D. students are pursuing their degrees abroad.

The story came from an interview, with the Director General of Home Affairs at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, in Daneshjoo News (Student News).

Subsequently, another official at the Ministry told Fars that the "97%" claim was "not true" because it was taken out of context.

1520 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. A message comes in from an EA correspondent, "This Shojouni guy just won't stop" --- Hojetoleslam Jafar Shojouni, who launched a high-profile attack on President Ahmadinejad last week and has followed up this week (see 0720 GMT), adds, "Those who run with Ahmadinejad's mark for Parliamentary elections will get no votes."

1455 GMT: $200,000 to Ensure No More "Do Do". Last month, we reported on the "Do Do (Two Two)" protests of President Ahmadinejad by some MPs.

Two is the number of the button used to record a "No" vote. So when Ahmadinejad showed up in the Majlis to nominate his Minister of Sports --- a move that caused friction when the President wrote a letter sharply criticising the Ministry and how it was overseen, including by Parliament --- legislators shouted, "Do Do".

Now, at a cost of $200,000, there will be no more "Do Do". The buttons for votes will no longer be numbers --- 2 for No, 4 for Yes --- but "I Agree" and "I Don't Agree".

1450 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Journalist Mehran Faraji has been given a one-year prison sentence.

Faraji was arrested in December 2010 and freed after two months on $100,000 bail.

1445 GMT: Elections Watch --- Yes, They're Banned, No, They're Not. Abbaszadeh Meshkini, the Secretary of Iran's Article 10 Commission has insisted that the reformist Mosharekat (Islamic Iran Participation Front) has been dissolved by court action.

For months, Iranian judiciary officials and members of Parliament have given conflicting stories over whether or not the IIPF, as well as the Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution, have been formally banned.

1440 GMT: Non-Story Officially Called Diminishing Story. Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that attacks on US forces in Iraq by Iran-backed militia have fallen sharply thanks to American and Iraqi military operations and political engagement by Baghdad:

We've done this. The Iraqi security forces have done it. The political leadership has addressed it. And so you've seen in the last two to three weeks a dramatic reduction in that (violence). I'm still in the wait-and-see mode to see whether or not this can be sustained.

In recent weeks, US officials have been alleging that Tehran is behind Iraqi groups carrying out the attack on American troops. Fourteen US service members were killed in hostile incidents in June.

1436 GMT: India has made its first payment for Iranian oil in 5 months. The payment, more than 100 Million USD, was paid from Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) to the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) in Tehran via wire-transfer through Turkey.

MRPL's was a test payment and now more refiners will use the same route to pay Iran. Essar Oil, the nation's second biggest importer of Iranian oil after MRPL, is to transfer money today and will be followed by state-owned Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum, each sending USD 50 million.

This is the first payment Indian refiners have made to Iran since February when it had paid 1.5 billion euros through German-based Iranian bank Europisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG (EIH Bank). But soon after that payment, US convinced Germany to block that conduit.

0710 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. In a speech in Parliament, MP Eghbal Mohammmadi has demanded that the intelligence services release three Kurdish environmental activists.

0720 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Cleric Jafar Shojouni, who caused a ripple last week when he declared that President Ahmadinejad is a "repair-and-maintenance project", has followed up: "People will never forgive Ahmadinejad for disobeying Khamenei and his 11-day withdrawal" after the Supreme Leader blocked his attempt to get rid of the Minister of Intelligence.

Shojouni asserted that hard-liners --- rather than Ahmadinejad's allies --- "have first say" in forthcoming elections.

0635 GMT: Reformist Watch. Saadollah Naseri, a leading member of the reformist Imam Khomeini Line, has said that former Mohammad Khatami's conditions for participation in the 2012 Parliamentary elections are "minimum demands". He said people would not take part unless political prisoners were released and the Constitution was observed.

0630 GMT: Brain Drain. A bit more on our opening theme --- an official of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education has said that 97% of Iran's Ph.D. candidates go abroad for study.

The question, of course, is how many of the 97% return to Iran after completion of their doctorates?

0600 GMT: A couple of individual items from Iran that give a sense of the wider political conflict and nervousness about the situation....

Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani used a presentation this weekend to criticise the Government for policies and actions that encouraged a "brain drain", with many of Iran's best and brightest leaving the country. Iran ranks in the top 10 countries --- the opposition outlet Rah-e Sabz claims #1 --- in a number of international anlayses of loss of expertise.

Rafsanjani was responding to both Minister of Science and Higher Education Kamran Daneshjoo, who said recently that the idea of a brain drain was "media hype" which insulted Iranians, and President Ahmadinejad, who said Iranians travelled around the world to support fellow citizens. 

On a different front, Hamidreza Taraghi, a leader in the conservative Motalefeh Party, has said in an interview that the "deviant current" --- the President's advisors and officials --- is Ahmadinejad's "brain tumour". The charge is especially striking because Taraghi gave it to a foreign outlet, the German news service Deutsche Welle. 

Taraghi praised key conservatives such as Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani, the head of the Assembly of Experts, and Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi for initiatives that could bring "unity". This, linked to the "brain tumour" analogy, puts the President on notice.

Motalefeh, a key player in Iranian politics, would like Ahmadinejad on-side for the moves towards a common front for the 2012 Parliamentary elections --- recently embodied in a "7+8" committee to discuss measures to end conflict and promote co-operation. But "on-side" means that the President has to dispense with those advisors who, in the opinion of Motalefeh and others within the establishment, are dragging him down.