Iran Live Coverage: Banging the Drum Against the US

See also Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- From Ahmadinejad in Egypt to "Tribal Voices" in Tehran
Friday's Iran Live Coverage: Supreme Leader to His Officials "Stop Your Temper Tantrums"

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2055 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Activists claim that dozens of Arab youths have been detained in Ahvaz.

One activist said more than 50 men were seized. Family members said they were in an unknown location.

1335 GMT: US-Iran Watch. The first half of this Al Jazeera English discussion on US-Iran relations and the nuclear issue is wasted, with a failure to get to grips with the context, motives, and significance of the Supreme Leader's speech on Thursday. However, there is some value in the second, with former Administration official John Limbert and analyst Ali Reza Eshraghi --- overcoming the pro-regime platitudes of Flynt Leverett --- offering some insight into the complexities hindering negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

1215 GMT: The Battle Within. Ayatollah Vaez Tabasi has warned "officials in power": "You should know that people will oppose you, if you are even a bit cross with the Supreme Leader."

1142 GMT: The Battle Within. The ripples from the corruption allegations between President Ahmadinejad and Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani contrinue....

Tycoon Babak Zanjani, caught up in accusations around a meeting between controversial Presidential advisor Saeed Mortazavi and Ali Larijani's brother Fazel, has accused the Baztab website of funding from the "terrorist" Mujahedin-e Khalq and monarchists.

Baztab had identified Zanjani as a key actor in the Mortazavi-Larijani meeting, with implications of corruption, political favouritism, and misuse of Government funds.

1137 GMT: Brain Drain. MP Hossein Dehdashti, a member of Parliament's Economy Committee, has warned that oil experts leaving Iran are "irreplaceable".

0812 GMT: Iranian Exile Camp in Iraq Attacked. Dozens of mortars and rockets have been fired on Camp Liberty, which hosts members of the insurgent group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), killing at least five people and wounding at least 40.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The United Nations called for an immediate investigation and said monitors were following up on the deaths, the first confirmed fatalities since MEK members moved to the camp last year from another site in Iraq.

The MEK, whose leadership is based in Paris, said that six people were killed and 50 wounded.

0802 GMT: Economy Watch. Opposition site Kalemeh reports price rices of up to 35% in the last week for basic foods, with rice now at 7000 Toman per kilogramme, frozen chicken at 6300 Toman per kilogramme, and a tray of eggs at 7500 Toman.

0752 GMT: The Battle Within. New information on the corruption allegations between President Ahmadinejad and the Larijani family, sparked by Ahmadinejad's attempt to play an audio tape proving Larijani crimes during his speech in Parliament on Sunday....

Presidential advisor Saeed Mortazavi, who waa on the tape allegedly being asked for a political favour by Fazel Larijani --- brother of Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani and head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani --- said he had recorded the conversation.

Meanwhile, eight people from the Social Security Funds, headed by Mortazavi, have been summoned by prosecutors for questioning after the Presidential advisor's detention and release on bail this week.

0748 GMT: Elections Watch. President Ahmadinejad has implemented the new election law, revising the supervision of the ballot.

The change reduces the power of the Ministry of Interior, which oversaw the disputed 2009 vote, with a committee that includes representatives from the three branches of Government.

0657 GMT: Trade Watch. Turkish Minister of Economy Zafer Caglayan has said Ankara will not be swayed by US sanctions pressure to halt gold exports to Iran, although Tehran's demand for the metal may fall this year.

Turkish export of gold to the Islamic Republic soared in 2012 as a way to pay for natural gas amid the restrictions on Iran's financial transactions. However, reports indicate the transfer via Dubai is drying up as banks and dealers increasingly refuse to buy the gold bullion to avoid sanctions risks.

0645 GMT: No Talks with the US. Tabnak sees the new US sanctions, announced months ago but coming into force on Wednesday, as significant in the Supreme Leader's declaration of "no direct talks" on Thursday. The website asserts, "The Americans are trying to increase pressure and sanctions every day" to force Iranian concessions, "after which the US will reduce the very sanctions that it imposed the day before".

The hard-line Mashregh quotes MP Alireza Zakani, "If talks with America were a panacea, then Iran's problems would have been solved during the Shah's time." Instead, the country was "underdeveloped".

Zakani, echoiing other officials said US was proposing negotiations because "the enemy" is in a state of complete desperation.

0615 GMT: It is only two days before the 34th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, but in much of the Iranian press, the headlines are about the US.

Officials across the regime  trumpeted the Supreme Leader's line, announced on Thursday, that --- while Iran is meeting the 5+1 Powers on 26 February --- there will no direct talks with the Americans about the nuclear programme.

Esmail Kowsari of Parliament's National Security Commission --- ignoring earlier Iranian statements that there were "no red lines" on talks --- declared that the US had only proposed discussions because it was losing in Syria. He continued, "If they are telling the truth [they] should demonstrate change in their behavior, withdraw their forces from the region, and lift sanctions. It is at that time that we will review whether negotiations take place or not."

Mansour Haghighatpour, the deputy chairman of the Committee, indicated that the shift in the Iranian position had occurred because of American sanctions, including additional measures that came into effect on Wednesday:

The US can create trust in the Iranian nation by lifting [the sanctions]...Of course, we have not witnessed any sort of honesty in American behavior....In recent days we have witnessed intensification of American sanctions against Iran. From one aspect they seek to sanction Iran and from another they say they are ready for negotiations; these attempts are absolutely unacceptable.

From the Revolutionary Guards, Deputy Commander Hossein Salami said, "The wise leader of the revolution in his speech....annulled negotiations with America and this demonstrated that the root of velayat [clerical leadership] in the country is deep and strong and our country does not fear [foreign] powers."

Salami asserted, "Our country has become self-sufficient in its defense production and we can soon export our military products abroad." 

In the Foreign Ministry --- where Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi had said on Monday that direct talks with the US were possible if the Americans showed a constructive attitude --- spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast echoed the Supreme Leader's red line against such discussions.

Note, however, that he retained Salehi's reference to a positive "attitude" --- is this the signal that Iran is demanding an easing of sanctions as the goodwill gesture from Washington?

Based on a framework defined by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, negotiation with the US is not possible and is not in the cards unless they [the Americans] reconsider their attitude and apologize to Iran for 60 years of hostile and oppressive actions.