US nationals Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, freed after 26 months in an Iranian prison, offer remarks in New York
1650 GMT: The US Hikers. Iran Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei has taken offence at the comments of US national Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, free on $500,000 bail each after 26 months in detention in Tehran, on their return to New York (see top of entry and 0445 GMT).
Fattal and Bauer said they had been held for no more than being Americans at a time of tension between the US and Iran and had described hearing the abuse of other detainees in Evin Prison. Mohseni-Ejei declared, "It's predictable, each time we release [people like] them, saying these words against Iran." He continued, "It is clear that these remarks are contrary to fact, and of course, we expected no more than this."
Mohseni-Ejei dismissed any political issue over the judiciary's delay in releasing Bauer and Fattal for more than a week after President Ahmadinejad told US media they would be freed: "Any individual may call for the arrest and freeing of a prisoner, but ultimately it is up to the judge who issued the warrant."
Fattal and Bauer's State-appointed lawyer Massoud Shafiee also was unhappy with the remarks of the two Americans --- it was "not true" that they had been mistreated in prison. He said, "If my clients contact me, as an Iranian national, I will definitely inform them of my protest at their baseless claims....Why have they made such allegations when their problem has been resolved and they have left the country?"
1450 GMT: Unity Watch. Khabar Online reports that more than 150 conservative and principlist MPs have met Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani to discuss principles and electoral strategies.
Meanwhile, former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to the Supreme Leader, has been appointed speaker of the "7+8" committee pursuing a unity front for next March's elections.
1445 GMT: Currency Watch. Earlier today (see 0735 GMT) we reported that Shargh was projecting that the falling Iranian rial would soon reach 13000 --- compared to an official rate of about 10800 --- vs. the US dollar.
Well, it's not just the reformist newspaper making the prediction --- economic expert Reza Hosseinabadi says the 13000:1 mark will be broken in the next few days.
1440 GMT: Oil Watch. Emad Hosseini of Parliament's Energy Committee has said Minister of Oil Rustam Qassemi's deadline to fulfil his promises has expired and has asked, "Where is $11.2 billion in oil income?", supposedly missing from the Iranian Treasury.
1040 GMT: Corruption Watch. Former Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi has said that "any means necessary" need to be employed to battle corruption.
Amidst the $2.6 billion bank fraud dominating news in Iran, Saffar-Harandi said,"When issue like the recent corruption become a running joke in the streets, the market should be alarmed. The problem within our system of government...is that it provides a background of corruption."
1035 GMT: Economy Watch. The Iranian Labor News Agency reports that 80% of contract workers in Iran are living below the poverty line, with earnings of less than $400 per month.
0735 GMT: Currency Watch. Shargh also claims that the falling Iranian currency, the rial, will soon reach 13000 v. the US dollar.
The official Central Bank rate is just under 10780 rials to the dollar. The open-market rate at currency exchanges has remained higher than that since Iran intervened a year ago to stop the slide of the rial, and it has steadily moved upwards in recent months.
0725 GMT: Economy Watch. The reformist newspaper Shargh reports that the International Monetary Fund --- which only this summer proclaimed the "success" in Iran's economy, based on material given to it by regime officials --- has found that the Iranian inflation rate is the third-highest in the world.
The State news outlet Tehran Times acknowledges an IMF projection of 22.5% inflation, but its headline is the declaration of Minister of Economy and Finance Shamseddin Hosseini that the rate will fall from December: “Before implementation of subsidy reform plan some experts forecast that the inflation will rise to 60-70 percent, but this exaggerated prediction did not occur.”
While acknowledging inflation from the Government's subsidy reforms, the Tehran Times says the rate will be only 12.5% percent by the end of 2012.
0715 GMT: Labour Front. Workers at the Bandar Imam Petrochemical Plant have restarted their strike after the suspension of negotiations over management and working conditions.
0645 GMT: The Battle Within. Another sign of the resumed political conflict --- Mansur Arzi, the regime "eulogist" who provoked attention last month when he said he would pay someone to kill the President's Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, has again called Rahim-Mashai a Jew who denies Islam.
Minister of Higher Education and Science Kamran Daneshjoo and conservative MP Elyas Naderan have clashed in Parliament over the academic qualifications of 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi.
Rahimi --- like Daneshjoo --- has been accused of claiming a fake Ph.D. degree.
0445 GMT: So much for the lull in Iranian politics while Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was trying to hold the spotlight in the US.
The report by one hardline Iranian publication that Ahmadinejad's controversial Chief of Staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, had requested a six-month visa to remain in America should be treated as a bit of mischief-making. Far more significant, however, were the shots fired by MPs, especially the well-placed Ahmad Tavakoli, over the President's openings for talks with the US.
At the very least, the public statements should be treated as an attempt to check any Presidential initiative for discussion --- on the nuclear question or on wider issues over the Middle East and Central Asia. Remember that Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, Tavakoli's brother-in-law, undermined Ahmadinejad's October 2009 effort to reach a deal on uranium enrichment with the 5+1 Powers, including Washington.
But the attack also has wider objectives. The effort is now to ensure that Ahmadinejad is a lame duck for the last 20 1/2 months of his Presidential term and that his allies, including Rahim-Mashai, do not hold Parliament in March 2012 and the Presidency from 2013.
On another front, the saga of the detained US hikers appeared to come to an end with the return of Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer to New York, after 26 months in detention, and their prepared remarks in a press conference. Fattal and Bauer, arrested with Sarah Shourd while walking on the Iran-Iraq border in July 2009, said Tehran did "not deserve undue credit for ending what they had no right and no justification to start in the first place...."From the very start, the only reason we have been held hostage is because we are American....Iran has always tied our case to its political disputes with the U.S."
Shourd was released in September 2010.
The two men claimed that they had been limited to 15 minutes of phone calls with family in two years and had to go on repeated hunger strikes to receive letters. Eventually, Iranian officials lied that relatives had stopped writing.
Fattal added that the three Americans knew of abuses in Evin Prison: "Many times, too many times, we heard the screams of other prisoners being beaten and there was nothing we could do to help them....How can we forgive the Iranian government when it continues to imprison so many other innocent people and prisoners of conscience?"