Iran Live Coverage: "600 Journalists Work With the Enemy"

See also Iran Caption Competition: The Supreme Leader Plants A Tree

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1809 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Gholam Hossein Elham, a former spokesman for the Government, has complained about the "unfair" interpretation that a State TV documentary about Abolhassan Bani Sadr --- the President who was impeached and fled Iran in 1980 --- was a coded jab at President Ahmadinejad.

Elham said there was no resemblance between the two men, including the implication that Bani Sadr's dispute with Ayatollah Khomeini was analogous to Ahmadinejad's relationship with the current Supreme Leader.

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Iran Live Coverage: Ahmadinejad's All-Is-Well Economic Message

See also Monday's Iran Live Coverage: Engineering June's Presidential Election

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1905 GMT: Labour Front. Workers of the Tehran Steel Company have protested for the second day over 2 1/2 pages of unpaid wages.

1805 GMT: Censorship Watch. Looks like some pictures of Ayatollah Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, have disappeared from the Fars website.

The site still has plenty of photographs of Jannati's visit to Iraq, but this is not one of them:

Could the problem be the royal implications of Jannati on a would-be throne?

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Iran Live Coverage: Ahmadinejad Refuses to Back Down

See also Iran Analysis: 4 Reasons Why Supreme Leader is Still Open to Direct Talks with the US
Iran Document: Supreme Leader's Speech on "The Battle Within" & Talks With US
Sunday's Iran Live Coverage: Admitting the Battle Within

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1855 GMT: Economy Watch. Radio Zamaneh summarises the reports from Iranian State agencies and the Central Bank that put Iran's inflation rate at the sixth-worst in the world.

The stated rate varies from agency to agency, but most estimates put the current annual rise in prices at 32 to 37%, the greatest increase since 1996. Unofficial estimates put forth an even higher figure.

1755 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch (Press Edition). Twelve local journalists have reportedly been arrested in Ilam in Iranian Kurdistan.

1748 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. VOA Persian reports on Kurdish detainee Semko Khelghati, presented by Press TV as a spy in the programme "A Time to Betray" --- Semko's mother reports that her son, an "excellent" university student in metallurgy, was tortured to confess before he received a 15-year sentence.

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Iran Feature: Detained Reformist Leader Tajzadeh Writes the Supreme Leader

Today we are witnessing the uprising of one Muslim nation after another, standing up against tyranny and humiliation, overthrowing dictatorial regimes in their quest to experience a new world and a better life. If their goal is to pursue science and technology and the further development of their country and their personal financial well-being, then without a doubt, given the current inflation, unemployment rate, zero growth in GDP and declining economic conditions, all a direct result of the mismanagement, incompetence and inefficiencies of the current ruling government, it is best if you and I recommend that they not use Iran’s current model as one to emulate!

If their goal on the other hand, is to adhere to a high standard of ethics and spirituality, qualities that were integral to the message of our revolution and distinguished it from all other revolutions, as the leader of the Islamic Republic, are you able to provide them with any tangible and practical examples of such achievements by the regime? Do you plan to point them to the lies, deception and most significant corruption in the history of our nation? Or will you speak of the generosity and humanity that government officials have shown towards our citizens?

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The Latest from Iran (10 July): Sifting the Claims on Khamenei v. Ahmadinejad

Mojtaba and Ali Khamenei1900 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Masoumeh Dehghan, the wife of lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani, has been released on $30,000 bail after her detention last week.

1625 GMT: The Revolutionary Guards Do Politics. Yadollah Javani, the head of the political bureau of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has followed up the declaration of the IRGC commander, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, by declaring that former President Mohammad Khatami, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Mehdi Karroubi are "leaders of fitna (sedition) and subversion".

Javani emphasised that the IRGC had a central role in stopping the reformists' scenario of sedition, with Jafari's words this past week as a continuing alert.

Amir Mohebian, the editor of the Resalat, has begged to disagree, however: calling Khatami "anti-revolutionary" is a damage to the Iranian system.

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Iran Analysis: Supreme Leader's Son Turns Against Ahmadinejad? --- What We Really Know

We note a sensational claim from Muhammad Sahimi at Tehran Bureau of a "crucial shift of sentiment by the Supreme Leader's son" --- Mojtaba Khamenei has supposed turned against President Ahmadinejad.

The problem with the claim, at least in this article, is the limited support for it. Sahimi's sole source for the assertion that the younger Khamenei "is now pressuring his father to allow the Majles to go forward with Ahmadinejad's impeachment" is an interview with former President Abolhassan Bani Sadr, exiled in Paris, who cites a source in Iran.

So what do we know?

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Iran Cartoon of the Day: A Mousehole for Presidents, Past and President

Nikahang Kowsar, drawing for Rooz Online, envisages former President Abolhassan Bani Sadr --- chased from Iran in 1981 --- speaking to current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "Look, they won't allow you to go anywhere. Stick to this mouse hole!"

Iran Analysis: "The Green Movement Has Achieved Its Goal" (Jahanbegloo)

No doubt, the price of speaking truth to power was higher than expected for the Iranian civic actors. It resulted in massive arrests, Stalinist-style show trials, torture, rape, and murder. Also, the nature of Iran’s system, with its power split between two centers --- the president and the supreme leader --- has complicated and slowed down the process of change.

Even so, the Green Movement has achieved its goal by gaining the moral high ground, revealing to the world the true face of the Islamic regime, and draining away much of its political legitimacy. Further, it has hastened the end of Khomeinism by exposing the existent political rifts within the Iranian political power.

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The Latest from Iran (26 May): Paving the Way for Dictatorship?

Footage of the blaze at the Abadan oil refinery on Tuesday

2015 GMT: A Fire at the Refinery. Siemens AG, Germany’s largest engineering company, has denied that it supplied compressors for Iran’s Abadan oil refinery, where a blast on Tuesday killed at least four people and wounded at least 25.

An Iranian newspaper had claimed that Siemens supplied the compressor that exploded, causing the blaze.

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Iran Special: 5-Point Guide to Ahmadinejad v. Supreme Leader --- What Caused It, What It Means, and What Will Happen

1. IS THIS SERIOUS?

Yes --- as an Iran-based EA correspondent summarised, "It is more than cosmetic and it is more than a minor spat."

For confirmation, look at the signals from all sides. The President's disappearance since last week is more than a "sulk": with his failure to attend meetings of the Cabinet as well as other important bodies like the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, he is effectively boycotting government with his colleagues.

The Supreme Leader staked out his position, first in a letter (leaked to supportive media) and then with a public statement, that he would not accept the forced "resignation" of the Minister of Intelligence, Heydar Moslehi. The Ministry would remain in his domain, not Ahmadinejad's.

And others around and linked to the two sides have staked out serious positions. Clerics, politicians, and officials have supported the Supreme Leader or the Government --- usually the former --- and there have been threats that Ahmadinejad could meet the fate of Iran's first President, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, who was forced from office and barely escaped with his life in 1981.

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