The Latest from Iran (1 April): Nuclear Postures

2030 GMT: Sanctions Watch (Syrian Front). This weekend we noted the claim of US officials that an Iranian company was shipping $84 million of Syrian oil to China, evading international sanctions on Damascus.

Now the Maltese Foreign Ministry has said it is delisting the Maltese-flagged, Iranian-owned tanker allegedly carrying the crude.

The M.T. Tour loaded the 120,000 tonne cargo of light crude at the Syrian port of Tartus last weekend.

1800 GMT: Ninja Watch. EA's coverage of the Iran Female Ninja Warrior story --- which has resulted in the effective shut-down by Iranian authorities of the Reuters bureau in Tehran --- continues to resonate. The National declares, "Ninjutsu Headline Gets Reporters Kicked Out of Iran", concluding with EA's analysis:

Tehran's measures against Reuters represented a "significant victory" for a regime trying to shield itself from public scrutiny of its economic tensions and political infighting.

1309 GMT: The Syrian Front. Claimed footage of Iranians abducted in Syria, amid confusion over the fate of dozens of Iranian citizens seized at the end of last year --- last week Iran State media initially reported that five engineers were released, but it later emerged that the five people freed had been on pilgrimage when they were taken:

1209 GMT: Surprise of the Day. Saeed Kamali Dehghan of The Guardian posts breaking news via Twitter:

Iran's parliament voted in majority today to allow gay marriage. In his speech Ahmadinejad said "some ppl are gay, get over it" #sizdahbedar

— Saeed Kamali Dehghan (@SaeedKD) April 1, 2012

Stunned? I was, until I realised today's date.

Happy April Fool's Day.

1205 GMT: Foreign Affairs (Syrian Front). Back from an extended break covering the Syrian situation to find the regime's response to today's Friends of Syria international conference....

State news agency IRNA highlights the claim of Bashar Jaafari, Damascus's representative at the United Nations, announced that the "armed opposition" has killed 6143 people since the start of the mass protests in March 2011.

0525 GMT: As all sides position themselves for the start of talks on Iran's nuclear programme on 13 April in Istanbul, we begin with a few of the poses:

For Tehran, the task is to establish that it is coming to the table from a position of strength, not from weakness and the pressure of international isolation and sanctions. So Ali Asghar Soltanieh, the Islamic Repubic's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, declared on Saturday, "Iran will not suspend enrichment [of uranium]. No one dares attack us."

For the US, the task is to welcome the discussions but to warn Iran that this is its last, time-limited chance before further punishment is wielded. So US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used an appearance with representatives of the Gulf Co-operation Council states to assert:

It is up to Iran’s leaders to make the right choice. We will see whether they will intend to do so....What is certain, however, is that Iran’s window to seek and obtain a peaceful resolution will not remain open forever.

Far more interesting than either of these --- because, frankly, I have heard the tunes many times before --- was the positioning of Russia. Moscow does not want to appear as part of a bloc beating on Iran so Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) group that the Iranians  "have done a lot to show their constructiveness" and world powers "shouldn't be tempted into using military force".

Yet Russia also does not want to put itself into unconditional backing of Tehran and thus opposition to the US and European powers so Ryabkov, without supporting tougher sanctions, declared, "The scale of the Iranian nuclear program is expanding, which is in direct violation of UN resolutions". And he even hinted that Moscow would have to watch a "very alarming...escalation", including military strikes on Tehran's nuclear facilities, if discussions bore no fruit.