See also Iran Feature: Muffling the Drumbeats of War? Israel, Azerbaijan, and the US
The Latest from Iran (30 March): After Turkey's Prime Minister Went Home....
1530 GMT: Nuclear Watch. During her visit to Saudi Arabia, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has confirmed that Iran and the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, and China) will begin talks on Tehran's nuclear programme on 13 April in Istanbul.
1430 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Press TV, which has reported for weeks that sanctions were not forcing Ankara to curb trade with Tehran has been forced to headline, "Turkey to Decrease Iranian Oil Imports".
The admission follows Friday's announcement by Minister of Energy Taner Yildiz and Turkey's largest refiner that purchases of Iranian oil will be cut by 20%, with supplies coming instead from Libya.
Taner Yildiz also said Turkey is in talks with Saudi Arabia on spot oil purchases and longer term contacts: “We plan to increase the number of countries we buy oil from and the routes we use.”1030 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Uruguay has said it will trade rice for Iranian oil, amidst issues of financing for Tehran's exports.
"If Iran is willing to barter oil for rice we will do it," said Agriculture Minister Tabare Aguerre.
Uruguay, the world's seventh-largest rice supplier, exported 90,000 tonnes of rice to Iran in 2011.
0620 GMT: Economy Watch. Another ripple in the apparent calm....
Nine days after the Supreme Leader's declaration of the "Year of National Production", Friday Prayers across the country were far from cheerful about the prospects. Instead, prayers leaders from Tehran to Sari to Gorgan spoke of inflation, corruption, and unemployment.
0530 GMT: After the flutter around the two-day visit of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Iranian politics has fallen back into a lull this morning. Press TV has only one Iran update in the last 13 hours. State news outlet IRNA prefers to look at the Land Day protests across the world in support of Palestinian calls for territory and rights, while Fars chooses the speech of Hezbollah leader Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah --- parallelling this week's statement of the Supreme Leader --- on the Syrian crisis.
Amidst the quiet, whether from a lack of events or an agreement to let tensions lie, there is one innovative ripple. Alef, the website linked to MP Ahmad Tavakoli, uses a supposed historical review to slap at the Government. Its article on the "Global Value of Iran's Money from 300 Years Ago to Today" closes with its intended message: amidst "the most rapid fall in the national currency", the Central Bank "has the duty to preserve the value of money".
The Iranian Rial is now 19000:1 vs. the US dollar on the open market, a fall of almost 50% from its value last September.