The Latest from Iran (20 August): "Time's Up for Bullying Oppressors"

The Supreme Leader, President Ahmadinejad, Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, and head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani at Sunday's ceremony for Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan

See also Iran Opinion: Why Real Negotiations Have Not Occurred --- And Why We Still Need Them

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2031 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. An appeal court has upheld a 10-year prison sentence for physics student Omid Kokabee, detained in February 2011 when he returned to Iran on vacation from the University of Texas.

Kokabee was charged with “communicating with a hostile government” and “illegitimate earnings". He was sentenced in May 2012, with 12 others, on the collective allegation of collaborating with Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad.

2021 GMT: Forgiveness Watch. Ali Saeedi, the Supreme Leader's representative to the Revolutionary Guards, has said reformists can participate in elections if they "repent, confess mistakes, and confirm allegiance".

2014 GMT: Assurance of the Day. Days ago, Tehran was trumpeting that United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon was joining the Non-Aligned Movement's summit in Iran at the end of August. Now the Secretary General has said he will not be attending.

Not to worry, says Speaker fo Parliament Ali Larijani --- Ban Ki Moon's absence is no problem and will only diminish the role of the UN,

2009 GMT: Loyalty Watch. Fatemeh Alia, the head of Parliament's Human Rights Committee has asserted that President Assad will stay because the Syrian people accept him.

1957 GMT: Economy Watch. Back from a vacation break to find Musalreza Servati, member of Parliament's Budget Committee saying that the Government has created only 600,000 new jobs in total since 2005 rather than its declared 900,000 per year.

1057 GMT: Oil Watch. Sources in the South Korean Ministry of Economy say that the country's refiners will resume imports of up to 200,000 barrels per day of Iranian crude from September, ending a two-month suspension due to a European Union ban on insurance cover on tankers carrying the oil.

Imports in 2012, down 17% in the first half of 2012, will still be almost 20 percent lower than last year.

Iran will provide insurance cover for the September loadings.

0744 GMT: Family Watch. A census has found that 12% of Iran's households --- more than 2.5 million --- are now led by women, a rise of 900,000 from 2006.

0738 GMT: CyberWatch. Farda News reports that the heads of several news websites and daily newspapers have been summoned in the last two weeks by intelligence services for "improper reporting".

Farda News did not give details of the summoned publications or the reporting in question.

0725 GMT: CyberWatch. Digarban claims the websites of three Grand Ayatollahs --- Makarem Shirazi, Vahid Khorasani, and Iraq's Sistani --- were hacked after they declaring the end of Ramadan for Monday, challenging the Supreme Leader's proclamation of Sunday.

Digarban asserts that seven leading clerics set Monday for the end of Islam's holiest month.

0700 GMT: We begin with Sunday's speech by President Ahmadinejad to officials and foreign ambassadors --- in the presence of the Supreme Leader and the heads of Parliament and judiciary ---  in which he, according to Press TV, declared "the time for bullying policies of the oppressors is over and they will soon meet their doomed destiny".

It should be added that Ahmadinejad did not appear to be referring to his Government or to those on the stage with him. Instead, he said that, when the divine ideals of humans are realised, "there will remain no sign of bullies and Zionists and of tyranny, injustice and humiliation of human beings”:

The Iranian nation will join hands with other nations...to stand more resolutely and more powerfully up to bullying and arrogant powers in order to restore its rights and establish monotheism, justice and human dignity across the world.

The Supreme Leader was a bit more specific in his assessment: "Zionism as a threat for all humanity."