The Latest from Iran (20 March): Happy Nowruz

1759 GMT: Tough Talk of the Day. The Supreme Leader, following his declaration of the "Year of National Production", has put out this warning, “We do not possess a nuclear weapon and we will not build one, but we will defend ourselves against any aggression, whether by the US or the Zionist regime, with the same level [of force].”

Significantly, Ayatollah Khamenei added a new line to the reasons for US-led aggression: "The real reason behind their enmity against Iran is their thirst for the nation’s oil."

He continued, "Global arrogance chiefs, those in positions of power and wealth, and their agents in our region are trying to intimidate the Iranian nation with all their financial, propaganda and political resources."

1750 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The family of Ehsan Houshmand set up a small "haft sin" (the traditional table for Nowruz) in front of Evin Prison.

Houshmand, a Kurdish journalist, has been detained since January.

1330 GMT: CyberWatch. The crackdown on websites is not just about the Green Movement and reformists --- the Iranian Hezbollah blog Zahra has been filtered after criticising "hard, closed, and inflexible structures of power".

1325 GMT: Missing the Supreme Leader's Message? Ayatollah Khamenei may want to remind his people that he just pronounced the last Iranian year as a "great success" and the next one as the "Year of National Production" --- Abdollah Haji Sadeghi, the Supreme Leader's representative to the Revolutionary Guards, has warned that the "economic blockade has alarmed people".

1315 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. The good news for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's is that Khabar Online, the website linked to Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, has noticed the President's interview with German television last night (see Monday's Live Coverage).

The bad news is that it appears Khabar has cut him out of the photograph:

1305 GMT: All the President's Men. Three prominent Iranian student organisations have issued a statement condemning the appointment of Presidential aide Saeed Mortazavi as head of the Social Security Fund.

Activists want Mortazavi held account for the abuses and deaths at Kahrizak detention centre in summer 2009. He was Tehran Prosecutor General at the time.

0905 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. The President has added his Nowruz message to that of the Supreme Leader: “Like previous years, support for national production, exports, capital and labor is on the government agenda for this year,”

0615 GMT: Economy Watch. Some context for the Supreme Leader's proclamation of the "Year of National Production"....

Two of the top four Iran stories on the Press TV website: "Pakistan to Export 1 Million Tons of Wheat to Iran" and "India to Export 60K Tons of Sugar to Iran".

A spokesman for Pakistan’s Ministry of Water and Power said of the wheat deal: “A delegation will go there (Iran) next week or in the beginning of April to work out what is possible. We would prefer to get fertilizer in return but have to see what is on the table. There is also a possibility of iron ore being part of the deal.”

Reuters adds this context:

Like everyone, Iranians need diapers. Fred Harrington has built a business by selling Iran the raw materials to make them.

The Redmond, Washington, businessman, who exports to Iran under a humanitarian license from the U.S. Treasury Department, says he is owed close to $3.8 million by Iranian companies who cannot pay him because of the latest U.S. and European Union sanctions....

U.S. firms from major drug makers like Merck & Co. to mom-and-pop outfits like Harrington's American Pulp & Paper Corp. are finding it hard to get paid even for medicines and other humanitarian exports explicitly allowed by the U.S. Treasury, according to officials, sanctions lawyers and the companies.

"Everything from aspirin to multivitamins - you name it - it's all jammed up," said Cari Stinebower, an international trade lawyer.

0600 GMT: We begin with best wishes for Nowruz to our readers, wherever they might be celebrating today.

The Supreme Leader has declared the Iranian year 1391 to be the year of "National Production, Supporting Iranian Capital and Labor", as he proclaimed the great success for the Islamic Republic over the last 12 months:

What one witnesses is that these events generally were to Iran’s benefit and conductive to the [country’s] objectives. Those in Western countries who pursue malevolent objectives against Iran and Iranians are having various problems.

Those countries in the region that the Islamic Republic has always supported have achieved great goals, [some] dictators were overthrown and constitutions based on Islam were passed in some countries.”

The number one enemy of the Islamic Ummah and the Iranian nation, namely the Zionist regime, has been surrounded.

Ayatollah Khamenei announced last March that Iran would have a "Year of Economic Jihad", in which which the Islamic Republic would defy international sanctions "thanks to policies of our officials and the cooperation of the nation". 

This morning he offered the update that  Economic Jihad was "never-ending": "If domestic production prospers, most of the enemies’ efforts will undoubtedly fail."