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Friday's Iran Live: An Ahmadinejad Election Comeback?
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.
Footage from Wednesday's closure of the Tehran Bazaar and nearby protests
2051 GMT: Currency All-is-Well Alert. Mohammad Keshti-Aray, the head of the Gold-Sellers Union, has said that the Rial strengthened to 30000:1 to 31000:1 vs. the US dollar --- Tuesday's rate, the last posted on leading website, was 35500:1 --- and that the price for gold coin is down as well.
Keshti-Aray assured that dollar and gold rates would be "clarified" on Saturday,
2047 GMT: Loyalty Watch. Prominent conservative politician Habiballah Asgarouladi has said that "fitna" (sedition) and the "deviant current" do not accept national unity, which is possible only around the Supreme Leader.
Nikahang Kowsar;s Ahmadinejad promises, "I will disclose the source of corruption," to which the Supreme Leader asks, "Will you please stop this?"
See also Israel 1st-Hand: "Imagine if Iran Were in the West Bank!"
Remember Iran Flashback: 15 June 2009 --- The March of the Millions
The Latest from Iran (14 June): Tough Talk Based on Bad Economics
1005 GMT: Prisoner Watch. Dissident filmmaker Mohammad Reza Nourizad was arrested on Thursday and released after 12 hours in solitary confinement.
Nourizad was imprisoned for several months for letters he sent to the Supreme Leader. An activist sees the latest detention as a punishment for the filmmaker's remarks on a Voce of America broadcast.
0935 GMT: Oil Watch. The Japanese legislature's lower house has passed a bill to provide government guarantees on insurance for tankers carrying Iranian oil, mitigating the effect of European sanctions beginning 1 July.
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
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.
1340 GMT: Your Tehran Friday Prayer Summary (Ahmadinejad Watch Edition). Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami takes the podium and has a straightforward message: "Enemies want to convey that there are differences in Iran, and media who follow them inflame the situation."
Khatami made no direct reference to the dispute over President Ahmadinejad's forced "resignation", later rescinded by the Supreme Leader. of Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi (see separate analysis).
However, Khatami had this message: "The President should know that the majority vote for him was not absolute but conditional on his obedience towards the orders by the Supreme Leadership. The top of the system is the constitution, which has clarified the power structure."
2040 GMT: In an interview with RASA TV, Nooshabeh Amiri speaks about her interview with Said Tajik, the man accused of verbally assaulting Hashemi Rafsanjani's daughter Faezeh Hashemi in February.
Amiri says Tajik, who was briefly detained over the incident, was released out of fear of his supporters. She said he questioned why he had been interrogated and was "very arrogant towards the judiciary".
Amiri has also written an article in Rooz Online about the encounter.
1945 GMT: Setting the Election Rules. Conservative MP Habibollah Asgaroladi tries to set the ground rules for the 2012 Parliament elections --- those who are against the Iranian system (nezam) and the clerical supremacy of velayat-e faqih cannot run. He continues with the observation that reformists are not yet "off the record", i.e., eliminated"; they are, he says, "serious rivals" in the elections.
2010 GMT: The Birthday Boy's Speech. A big finish to Saturday? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has tried to sell his subsidy cut plan in a nationally-televised interview by emphasising that cuts actually means receiving money.
Fars highlights the President's declaration that support payments of 81,000 tomans (about $80) every month will be paid to those on lower incomes.
IRNA goes another direction, emphasising Ahmadinejad's statement that the 1979 Islamic Revolution was the end of a dark era of history.
Press TV mentions the subsidy statement but prefers to lead with his comparison of Iran's progress --- "We have achieved many feats in agriculture, industry,...and science. We have made a leap. --- with the end of the West: "There is no hope in America and Europe."
Saturday, April 20, 2013 at 6:57