The Latest from Iran (25 August): Bigging Up the Non-Aligned Summit

See also Iran Feature: Kafka in the Islamic Republic --- An Interview with Cartoonist Mana Neyestani
The Latest from Iran (24 August): Nuclear Talks Resume With IAEA

---

1522 GMT: The House Arrests. Prominent Tehran-based analyst Sadegh Zibakalam has said that the house arrests of opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi Karroubi are "useless" and that Mousavi's popularity remains unchanged: "Mousavi and Rahnavard cannot be eliminated from people's minds."

1520 GMT: Economy Watch. Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammad Jafar Assadi has said the Iranian economy is "in the situation of Shaab Abi Taleb", the 7th-century conflict in which Prophet Mohammad and his followers were forced to live under an economic and social blockade for three years.

The Supreme Leader, who has called for a "resistance economy", had dismissed the allusion in January.

1440 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Blogger Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, arrested earlier this week while trying to help victims of the East Azerbaijan earthquake, has reportedly been transferred to Tabriz Prison on charge of "distributing contaminated food".

Ronaghi Maleki was recently released from prison, having served part of a 15-year sentence imposed after the disputed 2009 Presidential election.

1435 GMT: Security Watch. Tehran Police Chief Ahmad Reza Radan has given an assurance of safety for next week's Non-Aligned Movement summit, saying there will be 110,000 officers guaranteeing security.

1430 GMT: Currency Watch. The Iranian Rial is close to its all-time low, set early this year, vs. the US dollar. Mesghal, the leading currency website, puts the Rial at 21910:1, while the Iranian Students News Agency reports that the currency broke the 22000:1 level.

The official rate for the Rial is still set at 12260:1.

1037 GMT: Foreign Affairs Watch (Syrian Front). Senior Revolutionary Guards official Hossein Taeb has declared that Iran has a responsibility to back the Assad regime, "We all have a responsibility to support Syria and not allow the line of resistance to be broken."

Taeb, a former head of the Basij militia, said a legislative committee would visit Syria to strengthen bilateral relations and consult officials.

1030 GMT: The House Path. The Green Messengers of Hope is the latest group of activists to call on delegates attending the Non-Align Movement summit to raise the case of detained opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, asking Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi --- the nominal head of this week's proceedings --- to enquire about the situation of the two men.

Mousavi and Karroubi have been held under strict house arrest since February 2011. On Thursday, Mousavi was hospitalised for 24 hours with heart problems, returning to his detention after a stent was put in a heart vein.

1000 GMT: Iran has been signalling for weeks that it will use the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran, scheduled for 26-31 August, as the display case for its leadership. The Islamic Republic --- facing the economic tensions at home, pressure over its nuclear programme, and the effects of the Syrian crisis --- is trying to counter its isolation with the message that it is in the vanguard of the fight against Western domination.

This morning's headline is the statement by Mohammed Reza Forghani, the official supervising the preparations for the Summit, that "senior experts" will arrive today, with Foreign Ministers showing up on Mondays and some heads of states making an appearance on Wednesday. He emphasised that the Presidents of Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Ghana and the Indian Prime Minister  would be among those attending.

Forghani was so keen to emphasise the high level of the delegates that he declared that the head of state of North Korea would be present. However, this is not the country's leader Kim Jong-Un, who was wrongly said by Iranian media to have accepted an invitation, but the head of Parliament.

The challenge for the Islamic Republic, however, is to convert next week's show into something more than short-term propaganda, and other headlines point to the scale of the task. Beyond the rather mundane "NAM Set to Put Economic Role on Agenda" and "NAM Summit, Chance to Resolve Regional, Global Issues", Press TV gives away Iran's concern: "US [Has] Failed to Make Changes in Syria".