The Latest from Iran (23 October): Ahmadinejad v. the Judiciary

Head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani refuses President Ahmadinejad's request to visit Evin Prison: "Not now! In one year you can visit this place every day!" (Cartoon: Nikahang Kowsar)

See also Iran Audio Feature: The Real Story about the "US-Iran Nuclear Talks" --- Scott Lucas with Monocle 24
Iran Feature: Which Tehran Officials Are Buying Up Turkish Gold?
The Latest from Iran (22 October): A Mysterious Currency Dealer, Real Executions

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1811 GMT: President v. Supreme Leader. Adding to today's political tension is a dispute between aides to President Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei....

Ali Saeedi, the Supreme Leader's representative in the Revolutionary Guards, sparked the argument yesterday wit the assertion, "We didn’t have occult foreknowledge to know what is going through the mind of Mr. Ahmadinejad and in the future what he will want to do."

The Political Deputy of the President’s Office, Mohammad Jafar Behdad, responded that Ahmadinejad is “hundreds of times more Principlist than the likes of Mr. Saedi and is more concerned about Islam, the Revolution, and the Leader". He said that Saeedi was in no position "to announce that Ahmadinejad doesn’t act in accordance with the acceptable standards and conditions of the regime".

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The Latest from Iran (6 September): What Strategic Reserve?

The Supreme Leader and the head of the Assembly of Experts, Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani, today (see 1227 GMT)

See also Iran Analysis: Participate or Boycott? Reformists Debate the 2013 Presidential Election
The Latest from Iran (5 September): Admission --- The Sanctions Hurt Both the People and the Regime

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2015 GMT: Currency Watch. The confusion over the state of the Iranian Rial continues. Khabar Online, which had early put the Rial as weak as 22510:1 vs. the US dollar --- another historic low --- claims the currrency is now back at 22180:1. Mesghal.ir has said all day that the Rial strengthened on Thursday to 21930:1, but Mesghal.com --- which posted a different rate --- is now off-line.

1955 GMT: Supreme Leader Watch. The Foreign Ministry's Mojtaba Ferdowsipour has asserted that defence of Syria is a "red line" for Iranian foreign policy.

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The Latest from Iran (4 September): Back to Business?

See also Iran Feature: Regime to Media "Print Only Hope and Joy About Sanctions"
Iran Snapshot: The Military's New Weapon --- "Deceit Perfume"
The Latest from Iran (3 September): "This Country is Broken"

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2039 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Looks like the President did not heed the command of his officials, noted in our separate feature, to spread only "hope and joy" about the economy and sanctions....

Western media headline Ahmadinejad's statement in his interview, "There are some problems in selling oil and we are trying to manage it," and his effective admission of the impact of sanctions through his accusation that "the enemy" was using "psychological warfare".

The President said the sanctions were "blocking off conduits... like the conduits of selling oil, foreign exchange, our banks and the central bank....We are working to bypass them day and night...[but] most of the time when an obstacle is created, it takes a long time to remove it."

Ahmadinejad did finally find some hope: "We have oil and the world needs it," adding that his government was also running a "very rigid budget".

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The Latest from Iran (20 August): "Time's Up for Bullying Oppressors"

The Supreme Leader, President Ahmadinejad, Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, and head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani at Sunday's ceremony for Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan

See also Iran Opinion: Why Real Negotiations Have Not Occurred --- And Why We Still Need Them

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2031 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. An appeal court has upheld a 10-year prison sentence for physics student Omid Kokabee, detained in February 2011 when he returned to Iran on vacation from the University of Texas.

Kokabee was charged with “communicating with a hostile government” and “illegitimate earnings". He was sentenced in May 2012, with 12 others, on the collective allegation of collaborating with Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad.

2021 GMT: Forgiveness Watch. Ali Saeedi, the Supreme Leader's representative to the Revolutionary Guards, has said reformists can participate in elections if they "repent, confess mistakes, and confirm allegiance".

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The Latest from Iran (10 June): Tough Talk Takes Over

See also Iran Feature: Lost Files --- Families of 55 Post-Election Victims Still Seek Justice
The Latest from Iran (9 June): Spiralling to a Nuclear Breakdown

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1627 GMT: CyberWatch. Kamal Hadianfar, the head of a special police cyber-unit, has repeated that Iran is poised to launch a crackdown on Virtual Private Networks.

VPNs use a secure protocol to encrypt users' data, circumvent online blocks by Iranian authorities.

"It has been agreed that a commission (within the cyber police) be formed to block illegal VPNs," Hadianfar said. He claimed "about 20 to 30%" of Iran's 36 million web users employed VPNs.

Hadianfar said legal VPNs would only be used by "the likes of airlines, ministries, (state) organisations and banks", and these would be monitored.

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The Latest from Iran (8 June): Preparing for the Fallout

See also Iran Analysis: US Officials on Nuke Talks "We Have A Cunning Plan" (Not Really.)
The Latest from Iran (7 June): Nuclear Talks Fallout

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1705 GMT: Nuclear Watch. The International Atomic Energy Agency has said that no progress was made in "disappointing" talks with Iranian officials today at at IAEA headquarters in Vienna.

Herman Nackaerts, the IAEA's global head of inspections, said no further talks had been set.

1642 GMT: Loyalty Watch. Ali Saeedi, Ayatollah Khamenei's representative to the Revolutionary Guards, has said that the Islamic Republic's leadership is exercised on the three levels of prophets, Imams, and velayat-e faqih, the system in which the Supreme Leader's rule is paramount, that are equivalent.

Saeedi continued that obeying velayat-e faqih is required (vajeb) and that religious rule has no value without the Supreme Leader.

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The Latest from Iran (7 June): Nuclear Talks Fallout

See also Iran Letter: An Appeal for the Iranian Journalists and Activists in Turkey
The Latest from Iran (6 June): The Oil Squeeze

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2025 GMT: Book Corner. Bahman Dorri, a deputy in the Ministry of Culture, has said that the prominent publishing house Cheshmeh lost its license because it "insulted religious beliefs".

2011 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. While President Ahmadinejad is in Beijing trying to bolster his domestic position by displaying his international status, his critics are offering a challenge.

Following the disruption of the President's speech last weekend on the anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's death, Tehran Friday Prayers leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, the temporary , has criticised Ahmadinejad for strengthening the sense of Iranian nationalism, rather than an Islam-first approach: "He either does not read the Qur'an or does not understand the Shahnameh [the "Book of Kings" by the poet Ferdowsi].”

Khatami added, “For 33 years, religion has run this country. Those who are in power today should be careful about what they say. Strengthening the sense of nationalism is one of [President] Obama’s priorities."

On another front, Mustafa Pourmohammadi, Iran's Inspector General, has again accused Ahmadinejad of preventing investigations into the $2.6 billion bank fraud: "The Government tried so hard to prevent the outbreak of the fraud news in the first place and then the follow-up investigations with the excuse that this case will harm the economic system.”

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The Latest from Iran (29 May): Putting Parliament in Place

Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani tells his defeated challenger, Gholam Ali Haddad Adel: "Even if Mojtaba [Khamenei, son of the Supreme Leader] cherishes you, this will be your fate for some time!" (Cartoon: Nikahang Kowsar)

See also Iran Letter: An Imprisoned Blogger Writes the Supreme Leader
The Latest from Iran (28 May): No More Nice Guy --- Tehran Shifts Line on Nuke Talks

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2024 GMT: CyberWatch. Iran’s Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre has issued a warning about the data-mining virus Flame, saying it is potentially more harmful than the 2010 Stuxnet virus, which affected the infrastructure for the Islamic Republic’s nuclear enrichment programme.

In contrast to Stuxnet, Flame is designed not to do damage but to collect information.

An Iranian cyber defense official, Kamran Napelian, claimed, "[Flame's] encryption has a special pattern which you only see coming from Israel. Unfortunately, they are very powerful in the field of I.T.”

Napelian said he was not authorised to disclose how much damage Flame had caused, but he guessed the virus had been active for the past six months and was responsible for a “massive” data loss.

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The Latest from Iran (1 May): The Supreme Leader Pins Economic Blame on Ahmadinejad

2025 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani has joined in the criticism of the Government over the economy, claiming it is increasing imports rather than supporting domestic production.

2015 GMT: Justice Watch. On Monday, we reported that Ali Akbar Heydarifar, a deputy to former Tehran Prosecutor General Saeed Mortazavi, was arrested over alleged involvement in the abuses at the Kahrizak detention centre in autumn 2009. Mortazavi, despite heated criticism from MPs and a file against him, has so far escaped prosecution and retains his post as a Presidential advisor.

A curious footnote from Radio Zamaneh:

Heydarifar, who reportedly signed the [Kahrizak] detainees’ transfer order, was involved in a recent altercation at a gas station in Esfahan.

He was reportedly trying to jump the line at the gas station when other customers complained. Media reports indicate that Heydarifard took out a gun and began shooting into the air. He was released after Security Forces called to scene checked his ID.

The Iran Prosecutor has announced that Heydarifar is also facing prosecution for the incident at the gas station.

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The Latest from Iran (29 April): The Ayatollahs and the Revolutionary Guards

See also Iran Feature: Tehran Sees US Nuke Proposal as "Good Start"?
The Latest from Iran (28 April): Nuclear Step Forward, Nuclear Step Back

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1947 GMT: Currency Watch. The head of the Central Bank, Mahmoud Bahmani, has admitted that the effort to establish a single currency rate --- sought earlier this year after the Iranian Rial fell 50% in value --- has failed. He said there was "no possibility" to consolidate the rate against the US dollar. "Floating" (open-market) rates would continue, although there would be subsidised rates for importers and students.

1940 GMT: Supreme Leader Watch. Ayatollah Khamenei has declared today that those who get huge loans are equal to "traitors and looters of national income" and should be confronted. He continued, "The right way to promote national production is confronting disturbers and looters of national wealth."

An Iranian correspondent for EA ponders, "So when will the Supreme Leader confront those who have taken national wealth, say, his son Mojtaba, some senior clerics, and the Revolutionary Guards?"

The correspondent continues, "This is a clear order to the judiciary to sentence main agents of [the $2.6 billion] bank fraud --- with usual exceptions of course."

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