See also Iran Propaganda Special: US Intelligence "Trust Us --- We Know Everything"
The Latest from Iran (7 April): Nuclear Confusion
2113 GMT: Picture of the Day. The Supreme Leader with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hashemi Rafsanjani after Ayatollah Khamenei and the President joined today's meeting of the Expediency Council:
See also Iran Snap Analysis: Is Tehran Pulling Back from the Nuclear Talks?
The Latest from Iran (3 April): Protesting Discrimination
1952 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. The back-and-forth over former President Hashemi Rafsanjani's call for better relations with Saudi Arabia and the US continues. Responding to criticism from conservative politicians (see 1420 GMT), Rafsanjani has insisted, "If Ayatollah Khomeini had problems with relations with US, he addressed them with me."
1942 GMT: Sanctions Watch. King Juan Carlos of Spain has travelled to Kuwait to seek oil exports to cover the shortfall from a Spanish reduction or ban of crude from Iran.
Spain, which takes about 15% of its oil from Tehran, is facing the European Union's edict to cut off Iranian imports from 1 July.
Is Iran pulling back from the nuclear talks with the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, and China), only nine days before they were supposed to begin?
We thought the discussions had been agreed for Istanbul. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the meeting would be in Istanbul. The Iranian Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, had said Istanbul.
All of us may have been wrong.
2025 GMT: Tough Talk of the Day. It looks like the regime is getting seriously worried about the Syrian situation, and in particular the prospect of significant intervention by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.
Masoud Jazayeri, the deputy head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has declared, "It is time to punish imperial, Arab, and foreign countries who interfere in Syria." Gholam-Reza Karami, a member of Parliament's Defence Subcommittee, warns Riyadh that its defeat in Syria "is certain".
2020 GMT: Loyalty Watch. Kayhan reports that a literary congress, "Narrative of the Flower", is to be held in Isfahan, praising the Supreme Leader.
A protest last night in the Kafarsouseh section of the Syrian capital Damascus
See also Syria Analysis: "Peace" Only Buys Time for All Sides
Turkey Live Coverage (28 March): Any Outcome from Tehran Talks?
Wednesday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Peace Plan Accepted?
2130 GMT: Another update from our correspondent in Bahrain, "At the moment protests have blocked Budaiya Highway and police are tear-gassing, trying to reopen the roads."
2055 GMT: Syria isn't the only place with protests, and problems, this evening. An EA correspondent in Bahrain reports in:
"It's almost midnight and clashes still going on?!"
In fact, a quick check on Twitter and it appears that there are widespread reports of teargas and clashes between protesters and police. This picture was reportedly taken just a little while ago in Abu Saiba:
;)
See also Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- Sanctions, Human Rights, and Israel-Iran Love
Middle East and Iran Videos: 4 Activists on Women's Rights After the "Arab Spring"
Turkey Live Coverage (28 March): Any Outcome from Tehran Talks?
The Latest from Iran (27 March): The Lull Before the Talks
Iran Foreign Minister Salehi Greets Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan2030 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Back from a break to find yet more Iranian firms, connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, sanctioned by the US Treasury....
A day after imposing economic restrictions on several Iranian firms and Guards commanders, for alleged sales of arms to Syria and Gambia, the Treasury sanctioned engineering firms and sanctioned individuals and shipping companies with ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL).
The companies sanctioned include Iran Maritime Industrial Company SADRA, which has offices in Iran and Venezuela and is owned by Khatam al-Anbiya, the engineering arms of the Revolutionary Guards. Deep Offshore Technology PJS, which the Treasury said was a subsidiary of SADRA, was also punished.
Malship Shipping Agency Ltd and Modality Limited and two individuals, Seyed Alaeddin Sadat Rasool and Ali Ezati, were sanctioned because of alleged connections with IRISL.
The satirical newspaper The Onion features the latest development in US-Iranian tension over nuclear programmes:
Amidst mounting geopolitical tensions, Iranian officials said Wednesday they were increasingly concerned about the United States of America's uranium-enrichment program, fearing the Western nation may soon be capable of producing its 8,500th nuclear weapon.
"Our intelligence estimates indicate that, if it is allowed to progress with its aggressive nuclear program, the United States may soon possess its 8,500th atomic weapon capable of reaching Iran," said Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi, adding that Americans have the fuel, the facilities, and "everything they need" to manufacture even more weapons-grade fissile material. "Obviously, the prospect of this happening is very distressing to Iran and all countries like Iran. After all, the United States is a volatile nation that's proven it needs little provocation to attack anyone anywhere in the world whom it perceives to be a threat."
Iranian intelligence experts also warned of the very real, and very frightening, possibility of the U.S. providing weapons and resources to a rogue third-party state such as Israel.
Ali Akbar Salehi, Israel, The Onion See also Iran Feature: The Bluster That Hides Human Rights
The Latest from Iran (29 December): Ahmadinejad on the Campaign Trail
A Hovercraft in This Week's Naval Exercises2055 GMT: Sedition Watch. Mohammad Reza Khatami, a prominent reformist and the brother of the former President, has issued a public statement challenging the "false, baseless, and repetitive claims" in the report sent to Parliament, claiming a foreign-backed plot at "velvet revolution" after the 2009 Presidential election.
2045 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Lawyers for Iran’s Central Bank are preparing to file a motion in a New York federal court to release nearly $2 billion of frozen funds at Citigroup Inc.’s Citibank unit.
The assets were frozen in 2008 after a group of 1,000 victims of international terrorism sought the money as partial payment for a $2.7 billion judgement made against Tehran for its alleged role in the 1983 bombing of a Marine Corps barracks in Beirut that killed 241 people.
0755 GMT: Elections Watch. Yesterday we highlighted a statement by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, a leader of the Islamic Constancy Front, positioning it before March's Parliamentary elections with declarations of loyalty to the Supreme Leader but support for the camp of President Ahmadinejad. An EA reader extends the analysis by noting Mesbah Yazdi's assault on the reformists, whom anti-Ahmadinejad conservatives are hoping to bring into the elections --- he summarises Yazdi's comments:
Reformists started the "deviations" right after [the Iran/Iraq] war, because they could not during the war. Reformists denounced velayat-e faqih [clerical supremacy] and started the separation of Islam from politics and democracy. We chose Ahmadinejad [in 2005] because he had the guts to run with Islamic slogans, unlike everyone else afraid of losing people's votes....The Constancy Front is worried, for the sake of "unity", that seditionists will be allowed to join as "principlists" and gain power again.
Iranian State TV's presentation of the US "spy", Amir Mirzaei Hekmati
See also Iran Special: The Battle Within --- Ahmadinejad v. Rafsanjani in 5 Scenes
The Latest from Iran (18 December): Ahmadinejad Throws Down Another Challenge
2125 GMT: Spy Watch. The father of Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, the Iranian-American accused by Tehran of espionage (see 0725 GMT), has said the allegation is "absolutely, positively" wrong: "My son is no spy. He is innocent. He's a good fellow, a good citizen, a good man. These are all unfounded allegations and a bunch of lies."
Ali Hekmati said his son did join the military in 2001 --- as the Iranians claimed --- but served the U.S. Marines, not the Army, and worked in linguistics as an Arabic translator, not in military intelligence. He added that Amir Hekmati never did any intelligence work for the Pentagon or the CIA and that, after the military, he went to work for a private security contractor.
The Hekmati fmaily first reported Amir's arrest in September. Ali Hekmati said that he had not been able to see his son, who was only allowed a couple visits by his Iranian grandmothers and who has not been provided a lawyer. US officials have requested access but have yet to received approval.
