Iran Special: Taking Apart the Supreme Leader's Speech --- Another Perspective (Correspondent)

Internally, there were at least three significant things the Supreme Leader said:

A) “Contrary to the opinion of some, rationality doesn’t call us to try to reconcile with the enemy and step back; no, the very opposite, it is rational to stand fast and hold our ground” --- in other words,  no detente with America, gentlemen. Khamenei's declaration of this means there had to be some discussions of rapprochement with Washington within the circles of power;

B) the spirituality reference --- a jab at President Ahmadinejad's Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai perhaps but I can’t read it exactly

C) “Those whose views differ from ours but who don’t betray or try to topple the regime –-- they have to be treated justly”. This may be an answer to former President Mohammad Khatami’s plea for reconciliation and/or a signal for former President Hashemi Rafsanjani that he is welcome again.

Click to read more ...

Yemen, Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Celebration Amidst Uncertainty

Sunday protest in Safi in Morocco --- the crowd mourned Kamal Amari, allegedly beaten to death by police on Thursday

2047 GMT: We're wrapping up for the day. Tomorrow we'll try to untangle the story, from Syria, that 120 policemen have been killed. We'll follow up on the air campaign against Tripoli and the rebel advances near Zintan. We'll figure out if Saleh is going to return to Yemen, and we'll see if there is more fallout in Bahrain.

Thanks for reading. We'll be back tomorrow morning. 

2030 GMT: A Damascus lesbian-blogger, Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari, has been kidnapped, potentially be security forces, according to her cousin who has updated her blog. Her father cannot find her, and her family is attempting to contact police stations in Damascus to discover her location. 

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (6 June): A Call for An Investigation

Funeral of Haleh Sahabi

1650 GMT: Fars News is reporting that Manouchehr Gharavi, the former CEO of the Iranian car maker, Iran-Khodro, and a few others were arrested last Monday.

1640 GMT: On Saturday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei called for a political cease-fire between Ahmadinejad and his most vocal critics inside the conservative party. Those calls, apparently, have gone unheaded.

Mehr News reports that Khamenei's representative to the Republican Guard Corps, Hojatoleslam Mojtaba Zolnour, insinuated today that Ahmadinejad is a threat to the core of the Islamic Republic:

"The current of deviation seeks to weaken the foundations of the Islamic establishment... I believe this movement is the gravest danger in the history of Shiite Islam.

"The head of this new sedition should be removed if the government wants to be clean... We hope this problem will be resolved, but it seems very unlikely such a thing will happen in the near future."

The insinuation is that Ahmadinejad, and his presumed choice for a successor, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, are behind the "current of deviation," a phrase used before to criticise the current president. Zolnour's disregard for political calm, and his association with the IRGC, is a notable event.

1200 GMT: Ali Larijani has warned Ahmadinejad that delegating decisions on oil matters special representatives appointed by the president is illegal.

Click to read more ...

Iran Event: "The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran's Future"

Photo: MunzzThis evening, I will be joining a panel in London for the UK book launch of The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran's Future. Other speakers, all of whom contributed to the book, include scholars Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Ali Alizadeh, and Nader Hashemi and New York Times columnist Roger Cohen.

For me, the book is a record --- enthusiastic, tragic, poignant, hopeful, concerned --- of the year after the disputed 2009 Presidential election. However, and perhaps more importantly, it is a reminder that the issues, and the movement to act upon it, are still alive today.

The event will be at 6 p.m. at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Iran Comment Reloaded: The Power of the Gradual (8 June 2010)

There are no proclamations of the final outcome in these contributions, no ringing of the bell to say that all is complete. Instead, the victory is in the process, the pursuit of the “gradual”. As long as the search for rights is persistent in these words of sorrow or hope, then rights cannot be denied. As long as the vision of fairness is offered in these reflections, then others have not succeeding in making us --- inside or outside Iran --- blind.

The power of the vote may have been taken away on 12 June 2009. Some may try to pronounce that Iranians --- repressed by their Government, bedazzled by false hopes of Twitter --- are reduced to the powerless. But Aa long as the power to express is put in the simple but effective phrases by these authors, then the power of expression remains.

A marathon, not a sprint.

Click to read more ...

A US Politics Story: The 2012 Campaign, Cuts, and the Effect on Pregnant Women and Children

Mitt RomneyLast Thursday, Mitt Romney, the former Governor of Massachusetts and a 2008 candidate for President, announced his intention to run for the Republican nomination for 2012. His speech, made at a family farm in the critical primary state of New Hampshire, concentrated on criticising President Obama's economic record. Noting the administration's failures to stimulate the job market, Romney accused the President of creating his own “misery index” for the American people.

The speech was standard campaign fare --- short on details and full of rhetoric –-- but it did contain one commitment that stood out among the run-of-the-mill language. Romney, front-runner in the betting markets for the Republican nomination, and probably the most moderate candidate that Republican conservatives will consider, pledged, “Government under President Obama has grown to consume almost 40% of our economy. We are only inches away from ceasing to be a free market economy. I will cap federal spending at 20% or less of the GDP and finally, finally balance the budget.”

Click to read more ...

Yemen Feature: Who's Who in the Battle for Power (Al Jazeera English and Johnsen)

Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar & His 10 SonsGovernment sources in Yemen said on Sunday that Saleh's sons and nephews have not left the country. That gives Saleh a strong power base inside Yemen; the president has spent years consolidating power within his family.

The elite Republican Guard is headed by Saleh's son, Ahmed, long viewed as a potential heir to the presidency. His nephew Yahya leads the riot police; another nephew, Tariq, is the head of Saleh's personal bodyguards.

Several other brothers and nephews hold key positions in the military and intelligence services as well. Collectively, Saleh's family commands tens of thousands of troops, many of them the best-trained and best-equipped in Yemen.

Click to read more ...

Latest Bahrain Video: Scattering Sunday's Protests

On Sunday, Bahraini security forces tried to disperse a series of protests and Shia religious ceremonies in towns across the country. The incidents come four days after the regime formally lifted the state of emergency that had been in place since mid-March.

A group of women cautiously challenge, then run away from, security forces in Sanabis:

Click to read more ...

Yemen, Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: While We Waited for the President...

2120 GMT: Videos of a pro-reform demonstration today in Casablanca in Morocco --- estimates are circulating of 20,000 to 30,000 in the crowd:

And an image of thousands more in Tangier:

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (5 June): And Then After the Ceremony....

Iran's political and religious leadership at Saturday's ceremony

1845 GMT: A Death at the Funeral. More than 750 women activists have issued a statement commemorating the death of Haleh Sahabi by saying that the fight for "freedom, peace and equality" continues and the rulers of Iran "will not calm it".

1825 GMT: Economy Watch. The chairman of the Food Industry Association has projected that food prices will rise 10% in the next two weeks.

Click to read more ...