Latest from Iran (9 September): Ignoring Ahmadinejad on Syria

See also Iran Special: Mousavi's Moment Outside House Arrest "The Future is Bright"
Latest from Iran (8 September): Fearing Persian Spring

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1610 GMT: Ahmadinejad and Syria. Fars reports on President Ahmadinejad's meeting with Kuwaiti media. Its English-language website highlights Ahmadinejad's caution to Turkey not to host a NATO missile defence system: "Turkey is among our brothers and sincere friends, but when enemies deploy a missile system there and admit that it is against Iran, we should be careful."

Fars, however, does not utter a word about Ahmadinejad's proposal (see 1400 GMT) for an Islamic summit on the Syrian crisis.

Mehr News, however, does mention the President's comments, well into an article on the meeting, on a summit and on reforms in Syria.

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The Latest from Iran (19 August): "A Lonely Purgatory"

1940 GMT: Fashion Watch. The hijab controversy (see 1330 GMT) showed up in the Friday Prayer of Ayatollah Alamolhoda in Mashhad, as he took direct aim at the special issue of the pro-Ahmadinejad Iran, "Black chador was approved by the Prophet and not Qajar kings!"

Iran had featured an interview with a former senior advisor to President Ahmadinejad, who allegedly said that 19th-century Shah had brought the chador to Iran after seeing women dressed in black for evening parties in Europe.

Alamolhoda said that those responsible for the "Khatoon" special issue must be judged in court.

1500 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Zoleykha Mousavi, the mother of detained Hossein Ronaghi Maleki (Babak Khorramdin), has said that she has been warned by authorities, "If you continue to give interviews, we will arrest your daughters too."

Mousavi said earlier this week that Maleki had been beaten in prison.

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The Latest from Iran (24 May): Ahmadinejad's Son-in-Law v. Ahmadinejad's Advisors

2015 GMT: Human Rights Watch. Seyed Mohammad Marandi of Tehran University explains why Iranian officials are declaring that they will imposed sanctions on named US individuals, including former military commanders and Administration officials: "The United States and its allies, including certain EU members, are violating human rights more than any other country in the world."

2005 GMT: Election Watch. Minister of Interior Mostafa Mohammad Najjar has given an assurance that the Government will not interfere in the 2012 Parliamentary elections.

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The Latest from Iran (23 May): The Net Closes on Ahmadinejad's Inner Circle

1530 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Mousavi campaign activist Reza Safavi has been arrested in a raid of his home by six agents, with his computer and other items confiscated.

1515 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch (cont.). More on the unusual interview in which the President's son-in-law tears apart the President's advisors....

Mehdi Khorshidi says that the leader of "deviant group" --- presumably Presidential Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai --- never studied theology but dares to comment on religious matters. Indeed, Rahim-Mashai is so arrogant that he challenges Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, who is esteemed by the Supreme Leader and has 30 years of experience.

Khorshidi continues that Rahim-Mashai has endeavoured to sabotage and eliminate useful people around Ahmadinejad, replacing them with his cronies.

And Khorshidi's reference to the "deviant group" splashing out money on "problematic" people such as actors? Well, in January, Hojatoleslam Mohammad-Taqi Rahbar, the head of the clerical faction in Parliament, noted Rahim-Mashai’s meeting with an Iranian actress, Hedyeh Tehrani, at the Presidential office:

Anyone with a bit of Principlist zeal will not approve of the lowly acts of the Head of the Presidential office. All Principlists especially the President’s true supporters are ashamed that such a character is running the office of the president.....I don’t know what an actress’s [photograph] exhibition has to do with the head of the presidential office that he has to fund it with $80,000 from the Treasury. These loans are handed out by him [Mashai] at a time when many farmers are struggling with repeated droughts and are starving. Yet the government refuses to give them a $1,000 loan.

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Iran Analysis: Guardian Council Smacks Down Ahmadinejad over Oil Ministry

I returned from an academic break just now to get a question from a journalist, "The Guardian Council have just said that President Ahmadinejad cannot be Minister of Oil. Is this significant?"

Yes, yes, and most definitely yes.

First, the news. The Guardian Council, which rules on disputed issues between the Iranian branches of government has declared that Ahmadinejad committed a "constitutional violation" when he named himself caretaker Minister of Oil last weekend.

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The Latest from Iran (14 May): Say Uncle! (Again)

1925 GMT: Syria Watch. Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of Parliament's National Security Council, has said Iran is supporting the Assad regime because Damascus is backing the opposition to Israel’s occupation of Arab lands: “Syria is providing great assistance to resistance, therefore the position that we have taken is very natural.”

1915 GMT: The Next Wave of Attacks (cont.). Uskowi adds weight to our interpretation in the previous entry, pointing to Ahmad Tavakoli's criticism of Ahmadinejad's Ministerial dismissals (see 1305 GMT) as unduly hurried, sending a message of political “instability” and his specific denunciation of “that famous, deviationist and problematic character” --- read the President's Chief of Staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai --- as the instigator of the latest move.

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The Latest from Iran (20 February): So What Happens on 1 Esfand?

2225 GMT: More Political Prisoners. Tehran University School of Science student Sohrab Jafari and law student Habib Farahzadi were arrested today.

2135 GMT: More 1 Esfands. In an interview with Radio Farda, Mehdi Karroubi's advisor Mojtaba Vahedi gets to the point: he is impressed with the turnout today and there will be more protests until demands are met.

Vahedi adds that mounting casualties will only have the same effect as 1979, building up a rally of mourning.

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Iran Analysis: Walking the Same Green Tightrope

The regime knows that it must contain Mousavi and Karroubi. Karroubi and Mousavi know that they have to increase pressure on the regime. The people know that they must march. Yesterday's call for more protests finally hint that neither Mousavi or Karroubi are in a mood to compromise; the rhetoric to prosecute or execute the reformist leaders indicate that the regime is unwilling to negotiate.

Someone is going to fall off this tightrope. Someone is going to concede ground, or charge ahead further than they have ever gone. If this happens, expect widespread unrest and chaos in the streets, because this will be the minute the opposition moves from dissent to rebellion.

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The Latest from Iran (16 January): An Execution Passes But Stuxnet Breaks Up the Quiet

2125 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Student activist Mohammad Hossein Mozafari has been released from detention.

A court has confirmed the six-year sentence of teachers' union activist Rasoul Badaghi.

Security forces have raided the home of journalist Peyman Aref, who was arrested in June 2009 and sentenced in March 2010 to one year in prison. He was given temporary release for medical reasons in April.

2035 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Radio Zamaneh summarises the statement of families of political prisoners about the dire conditions for women detainees in the quarantine section of Evin Prison.

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The Latest from Iran (13 January): President's Right-Hand Man in Trouble?

2145 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The US Treasury added 26 firms to its sanctions list, claiming that 24 have ties with state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines --- linked to the Revolutionary Guards --- and two were affiliated with Aerospace Industries Organization, a subsidiary of Iran's Ministry of Defense.

Still, such news is a trifle for Press TV: it gleefully reports that Italy's oil imports from Iran are up 92%.

1730 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. More than 170 activists have signed a letter calling for the release of female detainees Reyhaneh Tabatabai, Nazanin Khosravani, Sajadeh Kianoush-Rad and Farzaneh Roustaei.

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