Iran Live: Senior Clerics Endorse Tehran Mayor Qalibaf for Presidency

See also EA Video Analysis: Introducing "The Love Triangle of Profileration" --- Iran, Syria, North Korea
Friday's Iran Live: An Ahmadinejad Election Comeback?

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Tehran Mayor Qalibaf1647 GMT: Economy Watch

The opposition site Kalemeh claims that the price of meat has risen up to 60% since Iranian New Year in mid-March.

1140 GMT: Oil Watch

Minister of Oil Rustam Qassemi has said has said Tehran has plans to sell oil to North Korea, according to reports in State media today.

Qassemi commented on the presence of his North Korean counterpart at " the 18th Exhibition of Oil, Gas, Refining and Petrochemicals in Tehran, saying Iran had invited a number of countries to participate in the show. Tehran had conducted talks with the North Korean minister about oil exports, he added.

Qassemi said the North Koreans were "willing to import oil from Iran" and that more talks would take place.

0801 GMT: Military Watch --- Iran "Unveils" More Hardware

The commander of the Iranian Army's Ground Forces Brigadier General Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan has announced new military developments including a T-72 tank simulator, and a launcher for Iran's Sahand-3 missiles.

The Sahand-3 is a short range shoulder-launched rocket. Fars reported that the T-72 simulator would create a virtual environment for training tank crews. Pourdastan implied Iran had developed the simulator itself, but it is worth noting that they are available for sale in former Soviet countries including Russia and Ukraine.

0600 GMT: Election Watch

In a rush of Presidential election news on Friday, perhaps the most important development came in the holy city of Qom where Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf --- who has not yet declared his intention to stand but is widely expected to do so --- met senior clerics.

Fars News --- close to the Revolutionary Guards --- published what it described as a "full report" of the meeting.

Several of the Ayatollahs endorsed Qalibaf, who is on the Supreme Leader's 2+1 Committee tasked with finding a "unity" candidate for the poll. Ayatollah Javadi said, "The measures you have taken in the city of Tehran and the city's management were very gratifying", while Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi declared:

Perhaps many of your measures were outside the mayoral gamut, but when you saw that there were works that did not have trustees or weren't addressed by their trustees you entered the field and took responsibility and this is a very good job.

Grand Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani and Ayatollah Amini, Qom's Friday Prayer Leader, also praised Qalibaf. Hamedani said, "Candidates in future elections must be individuals who are courageous, cultured, and valor-creating and can resolve economic, inflation, unemployment, [rising prices], and international issues."

Meanwhile....

• The supposed campaign effort of President Ahmadinejad and his right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, with a Thursday ceremony in Tehran's Azadi Stadium serving as an election rally, appears to have fallen flat. 

Crowds were reportedly well below the size Ahmadinejad expected in the 100,000-seat stadium, and Rahim-Mashai --- possibly because of political backlash against the rally --- stayed away, instead using an appearance at the grave of a recently-deceased actress to make his mark.

• In another blow to the "unity" drive of the Supreme Leader's camp, yet another principlist effort --- the Front of the Epic Makers of the Islamic Revolution (FEMIR) ---- has been declared, with MP Ali Reza Zakani as the candidate.

Earlier this month, leading principlist politicians --- including four Presidential candidates --- formed a "Committee of 5" to pursue the campaign.

• The "hard-line" Endurance Front, formed before the 2012 Parliamentary elections, has named its candidate, former Minister of Kamran Bagheri Lankarani.

 Lankanari's moment of political fame came in 2009 when President Ahmadinejad declared, "He is my peach."