The Latest from Iran (4 September): Back to Business?

See also Iran Feature: Regime to Media "Print Only Hope and Joy About Sanctions"
Iran Snapshot: The Military's New Weapon --- "Deceit Perfume"
The Latest from Iran (3 September): "This Country is Broken"

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2039 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Looks like the President did not heed the command of his officials, noted in our separate feature, to spread only "hope and joy" about the economy and sanctions....

Western media headline Ahmadinejad's statement in his interview, "There are some problems in selling oil and we are trying to manage it," and his effective admission of the impact of sanctions through his accusation that "the enemy" was using "psychological warfare".

The President said the sanctions were "blocking off conduits... like the conduits of selling oil, foreign exchange, our banks and the central bank....We are working to bypass them day and night...[but] most of the time when an obstacle is created, it takes a long time to remove it."

Ahmadinejad did finally find some hope: "We have oil and the world needs it," adding that his government was also running a "very rigid budget".

2017 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. President Ahmadinejad used his televised address tonight to proclaim Iran's leadership for peace and security through the Non-Aligned Movement's summit. He exalted the "Islamic Awakening" but said that the "demand for justice, humanity, and freedom" was more important than the name.

In contrast to IRNA and Fars, Khabar Online focuses on Ahmadinejad's comments on domestic matters. He blamed economic problems on "enemies" and asked his critics, "Why are you suggesting that the people who voted are wrong?"

1749 GMT: Campus Watch. According to Etemaad, Minister of Science and Higher Education Kamran Daneshjoo has said that, since "universities are where human power is trained proportionate to revolutionary values and ideals", secular professors cannot teach --- they "will harm the academic atmosphere."

Daneshjoo claimed that 12,000 new staff have been added to university faculties to change their orientation, as those who are not "aligned with the regime" and "show no practical commitment to the supreme leadership" will be dismissed.

Since 2009, Government ministers have promoted changes in university for "Islamic principles", with policies such as gender segregation, removal of "Western" subjects from curricula, and forced retirement of many professors.

1740 GMT: At the Movies. Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini has told an audience at Sanaati Sharif University, "We must reconsider our presence in international festivals; we have arranged matters so that films that depict a false view of Iran and Iranians do not find their way into festivals."

Hosseini declared that the liberalism of the Khatami Government had led to a "retreat of Revolutionary values." Referring to Minister of Culture Ataollah Mohajerani, who resigned in 2000, he continued, "We now see that the leaders of that line of thinking are now in London and have completely separated their path from the path of the Revolution."

Mohajerani has been targeted by conservatives in the Islamic Republic for "lenient" policies in arts and culture and for his support of the Green Movement.

1700 GMT: Energy Watch. A Fars interview with the head of the Isfahan Petrochemical Complex reveals that it has a debt of 230 billion Toman (about $190 million at official rate) to the Isfahan Refinery, leading to a serious quarrel between the two.

1545 GMT: Protest Watch (No to War Edition). The Israeli site YNet reports that Iranian activists,, as part of a joint project with Israeli counterparts, spray-painted "No to War" in Hebrew, Farsi, and English in four different sites in the city of Shiraz earlier this week.

The graffiti were found on a bus station, a wall surrounding a school, and the walls of two buildings. They are part of a Tehran-Haifa-Tel-Aviv project known as TeHTel.

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1525 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Blogger Ahmad Nourmohammadi Abadchi, arrested in Ahvaz last Thursday, has been transferred to Isfahan Prison.

1520 GMT: Nuclear Watch. Writing for Tehran Bureau, Muhammad Sahimi summarises and critiques both the latest International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran's nuclear programme and the presentation of it by media.

1100 GMT: Economy Watch. The Central Bank has posted an annual inflation rate of 23.5% for July/August, up from 20.9% the previous month.

The Bank's figures differ from those of Iran's Statistics Center, which said earlier this week that inflation was now more than 27%.

1020 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Reports indicate the President will address the public on State television tonight.

1016 GMT: Tough Talk Alert. Habibollah Sayyari, the commander of Iran's navy, has said the Islamic Republic's warships can move up to 12 miles from the US coast within a few years.

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1011 GMT: Energy Watch. Mojtaba Sheikh Bahai, the general manager of the National Gas Company has said that industrial debtors, including power stations, have had their gas supply cut off.

1006 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Akbar Amini, who became known for his protest atop a crane during demonstrations of 14 February 2011, has been released on bail.

0651 GMT: Law Enforcement Watch. The opposition site Iran Green Voice claims that a commander of the NAJA police force broke the teeth and jaw of the wife of blogger and former political prisoner Mohammad Esmailzadeh, putting her in hospital.

0752 GMT: Food Watch. Farda News reports that dairy products such as cheese, milk, and yoghurt have been removed from the shopping of poor families because of high prices.

Fars gives an example, with the cost of milk surging from 380 Toman (about $0.32 at official rate) per litre last year to 1250 Toman (about $1.02) this year.

0745 GMT: Fraud Watch. HRANA reports that Mahafarid Amir Khosravi and two other defendants have been sentenced to death in the $2.6 billion bank fraud case.

Khosravi, also known as Amir Mansour Aria, was accused of embezzling money through lines of credit from major Iranian banks to buy companies and form consortia.

0645 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, effectively responding to the Supreme Leader's representative Ali Saeedi, has complained that "people have no place in the Islam of reactionaries", whose "voices have become louder now".

Saeedi said earlier this week that the Islamic Revolution could not rest solely upon the people but had to be embodied in the Supreme Leader.

0640 GMT: (Suspicious) Budget Watch. MP Mousalreza Servati has alleged that the Government has had a 800 billion Toman (about $650 million at official rate) annual budget for unknown foundations and persons since the start of the Ahmadinejad Presidency in 2005.

0634 GMT: The Battle Within. Inspector General Mostafa Pourmohammadi, pressing his campaign against the Ahmadinejad Government, is claiming that the fraud investigation of 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi was halted in its final stage.

Rahimi has faced allegations of involvement in a major insurance fraud but has continued to escape prosecution.

0630 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. While the regime's elite gathers in Tehran, the President is off on another tour, inaugurating several projects in Sirjan in Kerman Province.

0615 GMT: After more than a week dominated by the promotion of the Non-Aligned Movement's summit, the regime returns to domestic business with the two-day meeting of the 86-member Assembly of Experts. The body, which formally names the Supreme Leader, also gathers periodically to consider the state of the Islamic Republic.

In the ceremonial opening, the head of the Assembly, Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani, emphasised that last week's summit had proved that Iran is not isolated in the world. He referred to last month's deadly earthquake in East Azerbaijan,spoke of the need for security and the "enthusiastic participation of people" in all aspects of Iranian life, and reinforced the Supreme Leader's call for the three branches of Government to work together.

The session was then closed to journalists.