The Latest from Iran (18 May): Helping Damascus

The regime-supported rally denouncing the US and Saudi Arabia over Bahrain (see 1359 GMT)

See also Iran Special: The Nuclear Scientist, WikiLeaks, and the Executed Kickboxer
Iran Feature: How Tehran is Shipping Syria's Oil
The Latest from Iran (17 May): Arms to Syria?

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1948 GMT: The Bahrain Card. More about the regime's propaganda offensive based on the (now dormant) Saudi initative for "union" with Bahrain....

One of the Tehran Friday Prayers leaders, Ayatollah Emami Kashani, has said that the Bahraini people, "thanks to their alertness", will not allow the US "and its mercenaries" to implement the union.

Far more colourful is the declaration of the head of the Basij militia, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, “Al Khalifa and Al Saud regimes should come to realize that their American masters are simply looking for new lackeys in the region. What happened ultimately to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Saddam Hussein, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak and other dictators, now awaits them.”

1943 GMT: Nuclear Watch. The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Director-General Yukiya Amano will "discuss issues of mutual interest with high Iranian officials" in Tehran on Monday.

Amano will meet Iran's lead nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and other senior officials. He will be accompanied by Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts, who has led the IAEA's recent trips to Iran, and Assistant Director General for Policy Rafael Mariano Grossi.

1439 GMT: Propaganda of the Day. A note on today's regime-supported rally using the pretext of the (now suspended) notion of Saudi-Bahraini "union"....

Have a look at the "Down with USA" signs in the photograph, taken from State news agency IRNA, at the top of the entry and the "Down with USA" signs in the "file photo" used by Press TV:

Either IRNA is passing out a past picture as current or someone in the regime is making use of propaganda material for "spontaneous" expressions of protest.

1419 GMT: Nuclear Watch. Reuters reports, from "diplomatic sources", that Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will visit Tehran on Monday. The trip would come two days before Iran met the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, Germany, China, and Russia) in high-level talks in Baghdad.

The IAEA would not comment on the claim.

IAEA officials and an Iranian delegation were already scheduled to meet on Monday in Vienna, after a "positive" discussion last Monday and Tuesday on technical arrangements over inspection of Iran's nuclear programme.

Interpretation? It appears the IAEA and Iran are laying the technical foundation to support a possible deal over Tehran's nuclear enrichment. Amano's trip would be confirmation at the progress of those talks and a signal that the "West" and Iran were advancing towards an agreement at and beyond Baghdad.

1359 GMT: Your Tehran Friday Prayers Update (Bahraini Update). The notion of Saudi "union" with Bahrain may have come and gone, with the collapse of any attempt this past Monday, but no reason for Hojatoleslam Kazem Seddiqi to give up the theme for his sermon: “Though some Arab countries describe it as union, the reality is that the Bahraini regime is surrendering its identity to another country with utter ignominy, instead of paying heed to the demand of its own nation."

Siddiqi continued by taunting Riyadh, “Saudi Arabia is in a weak position", saying that if it had any power it would wrest back two islands, Tiran and Sanafir, under Israeli occupation since 1967.

The Friday Prayer was followed by a regime-supported rally, attended by thousands, and the Foreign Ministry summoned the Bahriani Charge d'Affaires to voice its complaints.

1139 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch (Ahwazi Edition). Amnesty International has expressed concern that six members of the Ahwazi Arab community will be on trial on 20 May, having been detained without charge for almost a year in connection with their activism for Ahwazi Arabs.

1134 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch (Nuclear Edition). Michael Theodoulou of The National offers a hard-hitting summary of the nuclear talks and Iran's domestic political battle:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will look on from the sidelines when Iran's high-stakes nuclear negotiations with the United States and five other world powers enter a critical phase next week.

He has been unceremoniously shut out of the process by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who will instead take credit for any face-saving breakthrough that would ease choking western sanctions.

Reflecting the president's frustration, media outlets close to him have been sniping at Tehran's handling of the negotiations, which opened in Istanbul last month after a long hiatus and will resume in Baghdad on Wednesday.

Websites linked to his conservative opponents have hit back hard, with one accusing him of trying to sabotage the talks because he is not involved.

1104 GMT: Claim of the Day. Mostafa Pourmohammadi, Iran's Inspector General, has declared that the Islamic Republic's great advantage is its observation of womens rights. He said that, in comparison, there were high divorce rates in the West because of violence and the lack of rights for women.

1053 GMT: Currency Watch. The Arab Times reports that purchases of gold from Turkey rose more than 30-fold in March, as Iranians sought a hedge against currency fluctuations and the effect of sanctions.

Data from Turkey’s Statistics Institute showed gold exports to Iran rose in March to nine tonnes, worth $480 million, compared with 286 kilogrammes a year earlier and only 30 kilogrammes in February 2012.

1048 GMT: Oil Watch. OPEC reports that Iran's oil production fell more than 10% from the end of 2011 to April 2012.

In the last quarter of 2011, Tehran produced 3.563 million barrels per day. In April, output was 3.196 million bpd.

OPEC's production rose more than 4% in the same period.

1041 GMT: Education Watch. The opposition site Kalemeh claims 3.5 million Iranian children have no access to school because of unemployment, growing social inequality, and other problems.

0644 GMT: The Battle to Be Speaker of Parliament. Prominent figures have lined up behind Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani as he tries to stave off a threat from a former Speaker, Gholam Ali Haddad Adel.

Hossein Ebrahimi, a member of Parliament's National Security Committee, has declared that Larijani has more support than Haddad Adel, while the head of the Committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, said Larijani has been good for the nezam (system).

Unsurprisingly, both endorsements appear in Khabar Online, linked to the current Speaker.

0639 GMT: Foreign Affairs (Saudi Front). Mohsen Rezaei --- Secretary of the Expediency Council and Presidential candidate in 2009 (and in 2013?) --- has been vocal this week in his denunciation of the spectre of Saudi-Bahraini union. In his latest statement, Rezaei warned, "If Saudi Arabia continues like this, the Islamic Republic will lose its patience."

0631 GMT: Death-to-the-Rapper Watch. Sobh-e Farda, a students' magazine at Tehran University, has been banned because of its defence of the rapper Shahin Najafi, condemned to death by clerics and hard-line media for his song "Naqi".

Meanwhile, the prominent songwriter, playwright, and theatre director Iraj Jannati Ataie has publicly supported Najafi.

0625 GMT: Economy Watch. How serious is the problem of inflation? Baztab Emrooz reports that prostitutes in northern Tehran are now charging 200,000 Toman (about $165 at official rate).

0620 GMT: For the second day in a row, we begin with a look at Iran's manoeuvres on the Syrian front, this time with a side benefit for the Iranian economy. We post a separate feature, "How Tehran is Shipping Syria's Oil".