The Latest from Iran (12 January): Challenging the Guardian Council

2120 GMT: On the Border. The Los Angeles Times summarises the fuel dispute between Iran and Afghanistan, with Tehran still holding up to 2500 tankers on the border.

1720 GMT: The President's Right-Hand Man. There now appears to be a dedicated campaign amongst some Iranian "hard-liners" to force out Presidential Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai. Stay tuned for an EA exclusive on Thursday, but meanwhile this claim from Mashregh News....

Rahim-Mashai supposedly gave $150 vouchers to clerics who came to his speech at a community meeting.

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Iran Interview: Mousavi's Response to The Regime's Propaganda --- "Promoting Awareness Peacefully"

For us being Green does not mean that we want to turn everyone into our colour and into a single colour, the same way the totalitarians and authoritarians prescribe their own colour and view for everyone. Green is living side by side each other while understanding the differences, varieties in views, opinions and tastes. If the totalitarians and their propaganda try to highlight the gaps created in families and society, by accepting these differences, we must try to propose a prescription for peaceful living side by side with each other. Promoting awareness peacefully is the most effective weapon against violence and the spread of division and ignorance.

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Iran Analysis: Former President Khatami's Manoeuvre on Elections (Sahimi)

"Our demands in the past as well as the present are clear, and have been emphasized even in the aftermath of the recent [2009 presidential] election. [Favourable] conditions for broad participation of people [in the elections] and guaranteeing their rights must be provided. In addition, the elections must be held in such a way that there will be minimum hindrance of free voting by the people and maximum conditions for materializing their demands and ideals.

"The minimum conditions for the Reformists' participation in the elections are the release of all the political prisoners, freedom for all political parties and groups and removal of all limitations [on their activity], commitment of all, particularly the officials, to the Constitution and the execution of all of its articles, especially its true spirit and holding free and fair elections."

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Iran Video and Transcript: Revisiting The Opposition Case for an Illegitimate Election (21 June 2009)

During the Presidential campaign and election of 12 June 2009, Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour was the head of the Committee to Protect the Vote. On 21 June, two days after the Supreme Leader had reaffirmed at Friday Prayers that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won the election, Mohtashamipour made a lengthy public statement in which he set out the case for a flawed ballot and set the conditions for a proper review.

Mohtashamipour's basic demand --- for an independent committee to enquire into the vote, as the Guardian Council, the Islamic Republic's body overseeing political matters, had been compromised by support of its members for President Ahmadinejad --- was quickly rejected. The Council conducted a limited recount of ballots and issued a report in July declaring that there was no irregularities in the election.

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The Latest from Iran (30 December): A Year After the Regime's Display

2255 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. Fares for taxis have risen up to 15% today. No one seems to have addressed the economic question, though: how does this cover a tripling or quadrupling of fuel prices?

2250 GMT: Economy Watch. The price of gold and gold coins are rising, and the toman has fallen to 1080 per US dollar.

1840 GMT: Taxing the Nobel Prize Winner. Shirin Ebadi's property has been seized for alleged non-payment of taxes, and the Nobel Prize laureate has been banned from leaving the country.

Ebadi is currently outside Iran, and her lawyer Nasrine Sotoudeh has been detained since early September.

1835 GMT: Diplomatic Criticism. Former Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Sadegh Kharrazi has asserted that the Foreign Ministry has no strategic perspective on global developments.

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Iran Document: Karroubi Strikes Back "The People Call You Seditious"

Mr Jannati! You accuse these people (the political prisoners) of sedition. They call you seditious because of what you say and the sedition that you are creating. You should be responsive for your actions. If there was a just system in the country with a jury, then we would show you what you did during the past 21 years and how much you violated the rights of people. You sit down with armed and security forces and review and approve or disapprove [from being eligible for election] whomever you like....You are responsible for things that have happened....

At the end I urge all Grand Ayatollahs and senior religious figures to act in order to preserve the dignity of Islam and clergy and also to prevent the violation of rights of prisoners so that...in the future we would not witness actions for which we cannot compensate.

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The Latest from Iran (15 November): Watching Rafsanjani, Listening to Karroubi

2045 GMT: Dropping the Sword. Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi publicly confirmed the regime's handling of post-election detainees who are allowed out of jail: "If political prisoners hold meetings, issue statements and pursue activities within their political parties, their right to temporary leave of absence from prison will be removed."

2025 GMT: Execution Watch (Prime-Time TV Edition). Looks like the Iranian regime is feeling a bit of pressure on the "human rights" front.....

How else to explain yet another "confession" on national television by Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, condemned to death for adultery and complicity in her husband's murder.

The blurred face of a woman, claimed to be Ashtiani, said, "I am a sinner". (The "confession" was voiced over, as Ashtiani speaks only Azeri.)

The report also contained purported statements by Ashtiani's son, Sajad Ghaderzadeh, and her lawyer, Houtan Kian, both of whom were arrested last month, and of the two German journalists who were trying to interview them.

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The Latest from Iran (16 October): Prisoners and the Economy

1905 GMT: Currency Watch. Green Correspondents is claiming that Iranian banks are offering European financial institutions a 16% brokerage fee, four times the typical rate, for wire transfers of currency.

1845 GMT: Iranian-American National Freed. A family spokesman says Iranian-American dual national Reza Taghavi, detained in Iran since 2008, has been freed from Evin Prison and will be leaving the country soon.

Tehran accused Taghavi, 71, of passing $200 in cash to an Iranian man linked to the monarchist group Tondar. There was no reason given for his sudden release.

Taghavi's lawyer had asked for the businessman's freedom on humanitarian grounds. His family claim Taghavi has diabetes and was in poor health.

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Iran Snapshot: The Regime Show Moves to Qom

There is still post-game cheerleading for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's trip to Lebanon. Press TV headlines the joint statement of the Shi'a parties Hezbollah and Amal expressing gratitude to the President for his assurances of support for the Lebanese people and adds the praise of Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati at Tehran Prayers (while ignoring Jannati's sharp criticism of Ahmadinejad over impending subsidy cuts). IRNA hands over a chunk of space to Ahmadinejad's media spokesman to declare, "A New Chapter in Relations Between Iran and Lebanon Has Been Opened".

But make no mistake: the lights are going out on this show. And it is only the prelude to a much bigger, much more important one.

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Iran: How the Government Created a Rafsanjani-Led "Conspiracy" with Wiretaps (Ghazi)

Last week we noted a remarkable article in Rooz Online by Fereshteh Ghazi about a 110-page report from the Revolutionary Guard, ordered by President Ahmadinejad in summer 2009 and approved by the Supreme National Security Council in March 2010. The document outlined a "conspiracy", using the June 2009 Presidential elections, to topple the Government and remove the Supreme Leader. The "evidence" included lengthy extracts of statements obtained by surveillance and wiretapping.

This English version of Ghazi's report does not have the extracts, but it is still a dramatic testament to how far the Government will go to defend the Ahmadinejad "victory" of 2009 and to tarnish the opposition. Indeed, there are important lessons even beyond Ghazi's account.

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