The Latest from Iran (9 June): Spiralling to a Nuclear Breakdown

See also Iran Interview: Rapper Shahin Najafi on His Music, the "Death Fatwa"...and Kurt Cobain
The Latest from Iran (8 June): Preparing for the Fallout

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2032 GMT: CyberWatch. Iranian police have claimed that computer experts have tracked an April cyber-attack on Ministry of Oil computers to two IP addresses in the US.

Police General Seyed Kamal Hadianfar said the US should disclose the identities of the two IPs to Iran so that the country can identify those who have embarked on the act of sabotage and file a lawsuit against them.

1649 GMT: Economy Watch. A sign of nerves that the nuclear talks are collapsing? The Tehran Stock Exchange has fallen 270 points today to 26365.

1642 GMT: All-is-Well Alert. 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi has insisted that the economic situation of the people is good "We have created 1.4 million new jobs since 2010."

1403 GMT: Currency Watch. The Iranian Rial has weakened further vs. the US dollar to a rate of 18130:1.

The Rial, which plummeted 75% from last autumn to early 2012 --- reaching a low of 21000:1 --- recovered some of its losses after a series of Government and Central Bank steps this spring, but it has lost about 17% of its value in the last month.

1353 GMT: Economy Watch. ISNA is reporting that a steep increase in the price of wheat has resulted in a similar rise in bread prices in some Iranian provinces.

The news agency writes that a 29% increase in the price of wheat has pushed up the cost of bread in areas such as Yazd and Gilan.

Last week, the Tehran Provincial Government refused to approve a price increase for bread and said bakers could not raise the charge arbitrarily. However, some bread-makers have reportedly done so, most by up to 30%.

This is the third time in the past 18 months that the price of bread has gone up sharply, according to ISNA.

1225 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Author, translator, and women's rights activist Noushin Ahmadi has been sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for five years.

1023 GMT: Irony Watch. Press TV reports that President Ahmadinejad has told authorities to press cases against human rights violations by the US and Britain.

The Iranian Parliament has passed legislation, approved by the Guardian Council, to inform the global community about the violations. The measure allocates $20 million and designates a working group, supervised by the Ministry of Intelligence, to produce reports.

1015 GMT: Nuclear Watch. Amid the disappointment of the International Atomic Energy Agency over Friday's talks about nuclear facilities (see 0530 GMT), Iran's envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh has tried to offer a reassuring statement:

We are ready to remove all the ambiguities and prove to the whole world that our nuclear activities are exclusive[ly] for peaceful purposes and none of these allegations are true.

But we need time and patience and quiet environment. Therefore, I request and appeal to all to let the agency and Iran do their work wisely.

0915 GMT: When the Cameras Are Turned On.... Nick Kristof of The New York Times, travelling through northern Iran, offers a couple of snapshots:

Typical conversation with an Iranian businessman. Very candid at first, turned pro-regime when the camera went on.

— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) June 9, 2012

People in Iran are more fearful and cautious than on my last visit 7 yrs ago.But still wonderfully friendly to Americans.

— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) June 9, 2012

0905 GMT: Oil Watch. A sign of nerves and concern? Iran's OPEC representative, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, has criticised Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates as oil quota "violators", accusing them of depressing global prices by over-pumping.

Khatibi's attack has a more immediate cause, as Iran faces tightening sanctions on its exports with the US and European Union pressing customers to take alernative supplies and working with Saudi Arabia to provide that oil.

Khatabi said Tehran had officially protested to OPEC that Saudi Arabia was "saturating the market" under pressure from the US and EU: "It is not right that two or three countries compensate for a country that is being sanctioned. OPEC members should not work against each other."

In another sign of the restrictions on Iran, the Tianjin refinery, owned by China's Sinopec Corp, has announced that it will stop buying oil condensate from Iran's South Pars field from July through September, ostensibly because of a "major plant overhaul".

Tianjin said it was shutting down its 300,000 barrels per day crude processing facilities and a one million tonne per year ethylene complex from mid-August until the end of September.

0855 GMT: Religion Watch. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reports, from a "local source", that Iranian authorities have forced the Assembly of God church in the western Tehran neighborhood of Jannat Abad to close its doors and discontinue services.

According to the source, the authorities told the church leaders, “You must close the church, and if you don’t do this and we have to formally close the church, then there is no hope of you even keeping the building afterwards to sell.”

The Jannat Abad church held its last services on 28 May 2012, having operated in the same building for more than 15 years and owned it for the last fiveo. The churc provided two services per week for 80 to 100 attendees, as well as prayer sessions and bible studies.

The ICHRI reports authorities have shut down several other established Persian-language churches in Iran in the last six months, arresting members.

Church leaders have told the Campaign that around 2005, coinciding roughly with the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the government ramped up its repression of Protestant groups, and since 2009 the arrests of church members and limitations on churches have increased markedly.

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The "local source" noted that the Intelligence Organization of the Revolutionary Guards was instrumental in shutting down the Jannat Abad church. The Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) has assumed responsibility for overseeing church activities in Tehran, according to the director of the Iranian Christian news agency Farsi Christian News Network.

“In the past month, all of a sudden the individual government agents responsible for contacting church leaders and giving them orders in Tehran changed,” the director said. “Prior to this, the people who did this work were experts in Iranian minority groups from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and Ministry Intelligence. The new people who appear to [oversee churches] introduce themselves as agents of the Revolutionary Guard.”

0530 GMT: Friday's news reinforced my belief that the nuclear talks between Iran and the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, Germany, China, and Russia). Both sides leaked letters to blame the other for the suspension of preparatory talks before the formal negotiations resume in Moscow on 18-19 June. The Iranians said the US and European Union were refusing their requests for expert discussions. The European Union said the issues had been raised at the high-level Baghdad talks two weeks ago and the Iranians needed to address the political substance of the 5+1 proposals on uranium enrichment.

The further, public signal of difficulty came from Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency said its talks with Iranian officials over a protocol for inspections had been "disappointing", with no date set for a further round. The outcome was strikingly different from that in Tehran 18 days ago, when IAEA head Yukiya Amano said talks with the Islamic Republic had been positive and a deal on inspections was imminent.

In contrast, the IAEA's global head of inspection, Herman Neckaerts was gloomy on Friday: "There has been no progress. And indeed Iran raised issues that we have already discussed and added new ones."

US and European officials used the setback to pile on pressure. "It should by now be clear to everyone that Iran is not negotiating in good faith," one "senior Western diplomat" said, while a European envoy asserted, "This is a dismal outcome....Iran is simply wasting time with its evasions and refusal to engage."

Nackaerts said his team had come to the meeting with a desire to finalize the deal and had presented a revised draft that addressed earlier stated concerns by Iran.

"However, there has been no progress," he told reporters.

"And indeed Iran raised issues that we have already discussed and added new ones. This is disappointing. A date for a follow-on meeting has yet to be fixed."