Iran Live Coverage: "America is Trying to Eliminate Islam from Iran"

See also Iran Special: Sanctions, "Analysis", and the Never-Ending Circle of Propaganda --- From NIAC to Neo-Cons
Thursday's Iran Live Coverage: Another Challenge to Ahmadinejad

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2041 GMT:Sanctions Watch. Turkey exported almost $120 million worth of gold to Iran in February.

The figure suggests the two countries' trade of gold for natural gas has resumed despite tighter US sanctions, though at levels below last year's surge.

Turkey sold no gold to Iran in January, as banks and dealers eyed the implementation of US restrictions on 6 February that tightened control over transfer of precious metals to the Islamic Republic.

TA six-month waiver exempting Turkey from US sanctions, because of its reduction of imports of Iranian oil and gas, is due to expire in July. Ankara, Tehran's biggest natural gas customer, has been paying for energy imports with Turkish lira, because sanctions prevent it from paying in dollars or euros.

Turkey sold $117.9 million worth of gold to Iran last month, while exports to the UAE, which has served in the past as a transit route to Tehran, rose to $402.3 million from $371 million in January.

Turkey's monthly gold sales to Iran peaked last July at $1.8 billion.

2011 GMT:Economy Watch. Mohammad Reza Bahonar --- Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Presidential candidate --- has said that only 20-30% of Iran's economic problems are because of sanctions. The rest, he said, are due to mismanagement.

Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has made a similar criticism of the Ahmadinejad Government.

Bahonar, citing "serious spikes in prices", sepcifically blamed President Ahmadinejad's subsidy cuts plans and the manner in which housing projects were implemented. He said many factories had closed or were in danger of doing --- thus the Supreme Leader's declaration of a "Year of National Production” had not been fulfilled.

1744 GMT:Nuclear Watch. Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has declared his optimism around nuclear discussions, from Iran's high-level talks with the 5+1 Powers last month in Kazakhstan to the follow-up negotiations in the Kazakh capital Almaty on 5-6 April: "Almaty I meeting bore positive results, and we also hope that in Almaty II this forward movement continues."

At the same time, Salehi pointed to an ongoing process, "This issue will not be solved overnight, and understanding this issue is very important and opens the way [to resolution]....The process of solving this issue has begun."

1308 GMT:Your Friday Prayers Update. Taking the podium this morning, Hojatoleslam Kazem Seddiqi warned the Iranian people and the candidates for June’s Presidential election against the separation of religion and politics.

Seddiqi suggested that the combination of religion and politics makes Iran strong and able to defy the sanctions imposed by Western countries.

Seddiqi's sermon follows the line of the statement this morning by Ali Saeedi, the Supreme Leader's representative to the Revolutionary Guards --- interpreted by EA's Joanna Paraszczuk --- that warns elements within the regime, namely the “deviant current” of President Ahmadinejad's supporters, about their activities for the election.

1209 GMT:Ahmadinejad Watch, It looks like President Ahmadinejad is happy to defy warnings that his statements promote a "deviant current" --- he has just told Iran's Ambassadors that they are the "representatives of the Hidden Imam".

Earlier this month Ahmadinejad was rebuked by others within the regime when, in an eulogy on the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, he said that Chavez would soon return with Jesus as an advent of the appearance of the Hidden Imam.

1205 GMT:Foreign Affairs Watch (Syria Front). Deputy Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, has criticised Qatar for allowing the Syrian opposition leader Moaz Alkhatib to open an embassy in Doha.

Without irony, Amir-Abdollahian stated that "It is in Qatar's interest to stop making hasty actions and intensifying the bloodshed in Syria."

1005 GMT:Defiance of the Day. Press TV has dedicated three of its lead stories today to gestures of defiance by Iranian officials.

First, Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, told officials and academics in Belarus that US-led sanctions have “failed to impede Iran’s progress.”

Instead, according to Mehmanparast, Iran is making strides in the field of nanotechnology - the article does not mention the Iranian economy.

Meanwhile, the head of the delegation to the 128th assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union gathering in Ecuador, Moayed Hosseini Sadr, “blasted world powers for rewarding the Israeli regime’s unchecked possession of atomic arms but penalizing nations committed to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).”

Sadr also repeated the Supreme Leader’s assertion that Islam forbids the use and production of nuclear weapons.

Another member of the delegation, Halimeh Ali, also declared that “The Islamic Republic of Iran will not negotiate with anyone” over the sovereignty of the strategically important Persian Gulf islands of Abu Musa, and the Greater and the Less Tunbs.

0745 GMT: Foreign Affairs Watch (US Front). Joanna Paraszczuk extends our opening entry about the significance of Thursday's statement by Ali Saeedi, the Supreme Leader's representative to the Revolutionary Guards....

In his comments, Saeedi pitted Islamic Iran against the "godless" US, saying that in contrast to America's "coercive powers" were those who stood by the Prophet as "standard bearers of the great "political jihad".

However, this was probably only a backdrop to Saeedi's mission: raising concern that factions inside Iran -- particularly President Ahmadinejad's "deviant current" -- could cause trouble in the June Presidential elections.

Saeedi said said that the Iranian people must be "vigilant" in defending the revolution and against those who had been "separated from that path". He declared that state officials should model their lives on the Islamic saints, rather than adorning their lives with "luxury". To seek luxury would mean government officials had lost their place among the people, he said, noting that the Supreme Leader had called on official to live like average Iranians.

0605 GMT: Foreign Affairs Watch (US Front). Even as the Supreme Leader holds to the line that it is possible to talk to Washington --- through the nuclear talks with the 5+1 Powers and even directly --- Ayatollah Khamenei's men are trying to maintain the pressure of public denunciation.

It was the turn of Ali Saeedi, the Supreme Leader's representative to the Revolutionary Guards, on Thursday:

Our country's present problem with America is regarding issues of faith, and the Iranian nation has stood with the Supreme Leader with all its might against these conspiracies.

America is seeking to eliminate Islam from Iran and knows well that, so long as religion is at the center of government affairs in this country, it cannot implement its ominous plans.

Question: is the damning of America primarily a manoeuvre for the nuclear discussions, with a high-level resumption next week? Or is because of the leadership's fear --- "eliminating Islam frmo Iran" --- of an American attempt at regime change?