The Latest from Iran (13 August): Unified...But For/Against What?

See Also Iran Snapshot: IMF Defends Its Cheerleading for Tehran's Economy

Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: After Another Deathful Friday

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2006 GMT: Press Freedom alert - A phenomenal source of information, Arshama, has updated a list of at least 70 journalists and bloggers who remain in Iranian prisons.

1958 GMT: The "Khatoom (lady)" special - Ahmadinejad may have really stepped into the fire this time. The Iran Daily, closely tied to the President, published a 1 page special, called "Khatoom," which the conservatives believe was a direct attack on Hejab, even going as far as to suggest that it was a French fashion symbol, not a mark of modesty. Jahan news has branded the special an "unprecedented insult," and the Tehran prosecutor has even filed a complaint against the Iran Daily for "insulting public morality."

1917 GMT: Where did the money go? Shakour Akbarnejad, of the Majilis economic committee, said today that the government failed to transfer any money into the Forex reserve accounts during the entire year of 1389. That revenue traditionally makes up 20% of the oil revenue per year.

1911 GMT: Oil alert - Iran has resumed the importation of gasoline to meet domestic demand. According to Khabar Online, Iran is currently importing 12 million liters of gasoline per day to meet the 60 million liter demand.

1900 GMT: The President isn't Islamic enough alert - A major voice for the hardliners, Nedaye Enghelab, has noted that Ahmadinejad has not attended Friday prayers in months, with the exception of when he has appeared with the Supreme Leader.

1734 GMT: Faezeh Hashemi, daughter to Ayatollah Rajsanjani, goes to court on tomorrow to face charges that she participated in anti-regime protests. Hashemi is likely to deny the charges, claiming that she was on the streets for other purposes on the occasions being mentioned in the charges.

1713 GMT: The "Wanted Watching the Watchers" update - Since riots broke out in London this week, Iran wants to send human rights observers to Britain, but Britain has pushed for UN human rights observers to be sent to Iran, since the post-election violence in 2009. The new twist? The British have offered to exchange observers. Iran's Foreign Minister Ramin Mehmanparast's response: We have no answer for the moment.

1703 GMT: At the Isfahan Friday Prayer, Ayatollah Tabatabainejad said that the pledges, made by some politicians, to end unemployment and hunger within 2 years were just empty slogans. He added that, even in Iran, some things were just not possible.

1643 GMT: The Shia clerics in Iran are attempting to establish more control over the Sunni seminaries. This is being done by implementing the so-far unenforced "Bylaws of the Council for Planning Curricula of Sunni Seminaries" (CPCSS) which, among other things, required each Sunni seminary to be under the control of a council that reports to Ayatollah Khamenei (the council is run by President Ahmadinejad, though the Supreme Leader has ultimate veto power).

On June 21, Hojatoleslam Abbas Farzi, the secretary of the CPCSS, told Fars news agency that 98 percent of Sunni seminaries in the country had been reorganized, restructured, and registered. "The aim of the CPCSS is to give services to Sunni clerics...[by] evaluating their qualification, issuing appropriate certificates...and increasing their allowance from September this year," he said.

Based on an edict of Ayatollah Khamenei, he added, "all [Sunni] seminaries, as well as maintaining their own traditions, should be equipped with up-to-date knowledge of the world."

While the Sunni leadership has accepted, thus far, the political system of the Islamic Republic, they have resisted the idea that the government has a direct role in the seminaries, or in the religious life of their followers:

"Our national pact is the constitution. The constitution grants us religious freedom and therefore we cannot leave the [running] of our mosques and seminaries to the government," said Zahedan Friday Prayer leader Molavi Abdul Hamid. "We cannot trust [the government] on this issue."

Hamid rejected the interference of the clerical regime in Sunni affairs and indentified religious beliefs as a "red line" for Sunnis and Shi'a. "If the government wants to supervise, then we accept it. We obey the government and the exalted leader [Khamenei], but we cannot leave our religious matters to you," he said. "These matters should never be left in the hands of a government, be it the Islamic government or any government after it. Do not try to frighten us with jail or summons. God knows that we are not even scared of death."

The issue has a broader context than just the Sunni/Shia divide. Most Kurds, and indeed most foreigners living within Iran, are Sunni. This is considered by many experts to be another piece of a political struggle in a contentious region of the country.

The question now is, will it backfire?

1608 GMT: Iran has agreed to help Syria build a military base in Lattakia, a multi-million-dollar facility that will help Iran move military equipment directly to Syria, with less chance of interception, according to Western intelligence reports:

Last week, Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, confirmed that Turkey had seized a truck full of weapons travelling from Iran to Syria. The seizure was made on April 30 by Turkish officials at the border city of Kilis but was only made public this month after details of the haul were published in the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung.

Turkey seized the cargo of an Iranian plane bound for Syria in March because the shipment violated UN sanctions. The Turkish media reported that an Iranian Yas Air freight plane, which was bound for the Syrian city of Aleppo, was allowed to pass through Turkish airspace only on condition that it made a "technical stop" at Diyarbakir airport in south-east Turkey. On March 21, Turkish officials found that equipment listed as "auto spare parts" on the plane's documents were a consignment of weapons, including assault rifles, machine guns and mortars. The arms shipments are a clear breach of sanctions imposed against Iran by the UN Security Council over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, which expressly forbids arms exports.

1556 GMT: Execution watch - High school teacher Abdolreza Ghanbari, who was arrested on Ashura (December 27) 2009, is in imminent danger of execution. He was sentenced to death for video taping the protests and distributing the video to opposition groups. According to HRANA:

About a month after his arrest, without access to a lawyer, or knowing his legal rights, Ghanbari was put on trial on January 30, 2010. He was found guilty of all charges and was sentenced to death in the court room of Judge Salavati.

In an illegal act, the death penalty verdict issued by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court was sent to Judge Zargar’s Branch 36 Appeals Court instead of being sent to the Supreme Court. Judge Zargar upheld Ghanbari’s death sentence.

His wife filed an appeal and requested a new hearing which was rejected. she then sent a letter to the Amnesty and Clemency Commission. One year after her request for clemency, the case has now been sent to the sentence Implementation Division.

1542 GMT: Daneshjoo News has posted a letter from 41 former political prisoners to Ahmed Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for Iran, declaring the importance of his work and their intent to support him. The former prisoners are also willing to testify in court.

Though they listed many complaints, they focused on a few higher-profile cases as examples of why these efforts are so important:

The extreme oppression within prisons has forced many prisoners to resort to hunger strikes as the only means to express the injustices imposed upon them. Nevertheless, an act committed as a result of the complete frustration, has not led to an improved sense of humanity and compassion on the part of the judicial authorities. In some cases judicial authorities refuse to grant medial furlough or provide prisoners who are in dire physical condition as a result of their hunger strike with timely access to medical care, leading to dire consequences. As you are aware, Reza Hoda Saber who launched a hunger strike protesting the killing of Haleh Sahabi during the funeral ceremony for her late father, is one of the most recent victims of such neglect by the Iranian government, losing his life in the month of June. 64 prisoners subsequently testified that Hoda Saber was attacked by security forces on the day that he died, when he had been transferred to the prison infirmary as a result of his deteriorating physical health.

1508 GMT: Turkey's TRT has said that their claim (the capture of PKK's Murat Karayilan) has not been approved by state officials, and the Iranian Embassy also said that they cannot verify this news.

1425 GMT: Ali Yenidunya gives us our second update:

According to Turkey's TRT, PKK's second man, Murat Karayilan, is claimed to be captured by Iranian forces.

The PKK's news source, Firat, is denying the report.

1423 GMT: Scott Lucas writes in with this update:

In a limited Friday of news from Iran, two statements caught the eye, both from withing the ruling establishment.

Leading MP Mohammad Reza Bahonar gave the assurance that the principlists --- the majority faction in Parliament --- were "more united" than on any occasion since the election of the reformist President Mohammad Khatami in 1997.

Bahonar's declaration came as another prominent MP, Hamidreza Katouzian, said that President Ahmadinejad had "crossed several red lines" in his recent actions, including his 11-day retreat from Government service after the Supreme Leader blocked his dismissal of the Minister of Intelligence.

So does Bahonar's "unity" means an alliance driven by the objective of ensuring that Ahmadinejad and his camp do not control the Parliament and the Presidency in 2012/2013, when Ahmadinejad's term ends?

Or is "unity" more an aspiration than a reality for the principlists at the moment?