The Latest from Iran (29 May): Putting Parliament in Place

Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani tells his defeated challenger, Gholam Ali Haddad Adel: "Even if Mojtaba [Khamenei, son of the Supreme Leader] cherishes you, this will be your fate for some time!" (Cartoon: Nikahang Kowsar)

See also Iran Letter: An Imprisoned Blogger Writes the Supreme Leader
The Latest from Iran (28 May): No More Nice Guy --- Tehran Shifts Line on Nuke Talks

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2024 GMT: CyberWatch. Iran’s Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre has issued a warning about the data-mining virus Flame, saying it is potentially more harmful than the 2010 Stuxnet virus, which affected the infrastructure for the Islamic Republic’s nuclear enrichment programme.

In contrast to Stuxnet, Flame is designed not to do damage but to collect information.

An Iranian cyber defense official, Kamran Napelian, claimed, "[Flame's] encryption has a special pattern which you only see coming from Israel. Unfortunately, they are very powerful in the field of I.T.”

Napelian said he was not authorised to disclose how much damage Flame had caused, but he guessed the virus had been active for the past six months and was responsible for a “massive” data loss.

1835 GMT: Spin of the Day. Fars alleges that a Qatari man was caught at Cairo's international airport with $20 million to influence the Egyptian Presidential election.

1755 GMT: Currency Watch. The Iranian Rial is on a slow slide after a brief bounce-back last month. The open-market rate now stands at 17600:1 vs. the US dollar, a drop of about 10% from its high point in the spring.

The official rate for the Rial is 12260:1 to the dollar.

The price of Iran's gold is steadily rising with old gold coin now at 6.73 million Rials.

1555 GMT: China Dammed by Guards. The Ministry of Energy has cancelled a $2 billion contract with China to build a hydro-electric dam and given the project to Khatam al-Anbia, the engineering arm of the Revolutionary Guards.

"The Iranian Central Bank has rejected the financial package proposed by the Chinese, and the energy ministry has decided to attribute the deal to Khatam al-Anbia," Minister of Energy Majid Namjoo said, according to Kayhan.

The project was for a 1,500-megawatt electricity plant and dam in southwestern Iran.

1515 GMT: Clerical Shift. Rooz Online reports a setback at the seminaries of the High Council of Qom for "hard-liners". Ayatollah Ostadi, who protested the regime's post-election crackdown on demonstrations in 2009, has been elected as Secretary. Two of Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi's students lost their positions, while Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, the outspoken Tehran Friday Prayer leader, was last in the ballot.

1505 GMT: Fashion Watch. Back from a speaking engagement to find the report from ISNA that Iranian police have begun forcing shopkeepers to remove their displays of ties.

Since the 1979 Revolution, many in the Iranian establishment have seen ties as un-Islamic and a sign of the spread of Western culture.

0845 GMT: Nuclear Watch. Foreign Ministry Ramin Mehmanparast has restated Tehran's line that the "West" must ease sanctions for any advance in discussions of Iran's nuclear programme: "This approach of pressure concurrent with negotiations will never work. These countries should not enter negotiations with such illusions and misinterpretations."

0745 GMT: Economy Watch. Khabar Online, linked to Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, has taken a swipe at the Government's economic record --- the site note that food prices have risen 89% between 2008 and 2002 while the minimum wage increased only 42%.

0645 GMT: Shhhh. Digarban notes a far-from-customary silence from Revolutionary Guards commanders --- from the furour over the statement of the Deputy Head of the Quds Force that the Guards' presence in Syria had "prevented a massacre" to the 10-year sentence passed on nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, who had been hailed as a hero when he "re-defected" from the US in 2010.

The head of the armed forces, General Hassan Firouzabadi, did offer the cautious comment, "We have supported Syria intellectually and morally."

0630 GMT: Parliament Watch. Grumbling after the vote for Speaker or just some kind advice? Ali Saeedi, the representative of the Supreme Leader to the Revolutionary Guards, has said MPs should act united, as there are "too many loners among them", and co-operate with the Government.

0530 GMT: In the end, the dramatic change never occurred. Ali Larijani, the high-profile Speaker of Parliament, easily turned back the challenge of former Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel. Despite talk of Haddad Adel's connections with the Supreme Leader and of "hard-line" support for his candidacy, he could only muster 100 of the 275 MPs who voted.

Larijani gave a pro forma speech thanking lawmakers, promising progress and co-operation with other branches of Government, and asserting the regime line on the nuclear talks with the 5+1 Powers: "The US and other bullying states should know that the 9th Majlis will struggle to the last breath to safeguard rights of the nation and they should not think that we do not pay heed to such artful deceits....If they seek to negotiate with Iran, they should be honest and avoid wasting time."

Now that the rhetoric is over, we will keep watch for any Parliamentary moves. It is unlikely that the body will have any role, despite Larijani's pronouncement, in the Islamic Republic's nuclear manoeuvres, now overseen by the Supreme Leader's office. Instead, the main arena will be economic, with the Government's budget belatedly passed but limited by the opposition of the Majlis, with the continuing argument over subsidy cuts, and with allegations of mismanagement and corruption always near-by.

And will there be another wave of antagonism towards President Ahmadinejad, with renewed chatter about his impeachment? Or has the Majlis decided that it is now best to leave a "lame duck", due to leave office next year, alone?