Nikahang Kowsar links the Supreme Leader's defiance to current worries about the rising price of chicken: "Rethink our economic policy? A chicken has one foot! (a Persian euphemism for stubbornness)"
1736 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Amin Zargarnejad, a leftist political activist in Tabriz, has been released after 45 days in detention.
1721 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Salar Abnush, the Qazvin commander of the Revolutionary Guards, has declared that sanctions have been imposed against the Islamic Republic because Iranians are waiting for the return of the Hidden Imam.
The site reports that some Iranians cannot afford essential food such as bread and cheese because of inflation and sanctions. Asking MPs to stop price rises, Fars warns of unrest in the Bazaar and the fear and disappointment of people.
And there is another voice admitting difficulties --- Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has said 20% of the country's economic problems are due to sanctions.
1945 GMT: Oil Watch. A South Korean official has said that Iran offered to supply oil to Seoul in its own tankers, after European Union sanctions threatened to cut South Korean purchases of Iranian crude.
South Korean officials indicated earlier this week that Seoul would halt shipments from 1 July because of the lack of insurance cover on tankers. That cover is provided by European companies, who will suspend service as EU sanctions take effect.
1945 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The US has exempted China and Singapore from sanctions over purchases of oil from Iran, hours before restrictions would have entered into force against their banks.
Earlier Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said (see 1413 GMT) that China and Singapore had “significantly reduced” their imports of Iranian crude.
1745 GMT: Nuclear Watch. Iranian state media says chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili has written his counterpart for the 5+1 Powers (US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China), Catherine Ashton, declaring the Islamic Republic of Iran is always ready to contribute to initiatives for successful talks.
However, Jalali cautioned that such talks are only possible in the framework of cooperation and when they are aimed at winning the trust of the Iranian nation. He said those who replace logic with illegitimate measures, i.e., sanctions, must be held accountable for any harm to the talks.
The Islamic Republic, beset by production problems, complications from subsidy cuts, and payments difficulties, is facing wheat shortages, and the price of bread has risen sharply this spring.
Earlier this year, India and Iran struck an arrangement for Delhi to pay 45% of the cost of Iranian oil in rupees, which are not convertible but can be used to purchase Indian products.
President Obama, 19 June 2009: "I'm very concerned, based on some of the tenor and tone of the statements that have been made, that the Government of Iran recognize that the world is watching"
Looking back, 19 June 2009 may have been a turning point in the crisis after the Presidential election. The Supreme Leader delivered the Tehran Friday Prayer in which he declared --- even though the Guardian Council was supposed to be considering a re-counted of the disputed vote --- a "great election" in which there was no question of manipulation. He also re-affirmed his anointment of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the victor, explaining that there was no way that Ahmadinejad's supposed winning margin was too large to be overturned by any "correction": "There might be 100,000 or 200,000 or 1 million in mistakes but 11 million is not possible....Nothing can be changed."
Ayatollah Khamenei blamed the mass protests on a foreign attempt at a counter-Revolution. Then there was this ominous warning, as we noted it on the day:
Leaders of campaigns "should be careful how they are acting, careful what they are saying". Otherwise, this could provoke "extremists"....The Supreme Leader talks of disruption of "normal life" by "terrorist plots" while people are carrying on demonstrations. If this happens, or if there is trouble with the paramilitary Basiji, "who will take the responsibility?"
If these "terrorist" activities continue, "I will have to come back here and speak more clearly and straightforwardly." Huge response from crowd.
1715 GMT: The rally, estimated by BBC as "100,000" people, has taken place peacefully in Tehran, with Mir Hossein Mousavi addressing the crowd.
I have just finished an interview with BBC World. It was clear, from preparation as well as the actual discussion, that BBC --- with their correspondent in Tehran effectively under "lockdown" --- is increasingly relying on "talking heads" with connections to Iran to provide information on detentions and political manoeuvres.
2115 GMT: We're closing off our coverage for the night with news that Mousavi has called for the release of protesters arrested in the past days' rallies. That news comes via CNN, who also have more on the Iranian football team's green wrist bands.
1700 GMT: Al Jazeera says state-run media in Iran briefly showed this afternoon's rally. SkyNews and CNN (albeit briefly) also are now showing images.
One of the banners from the Iran-South Korea World Cup football qualifier: "Go to Hell Dictator".
Re-reading our coverage from three years ago today, I was surprised. The following months of conflict and repression had eroded any memory of the moment when --- perhaps unsettled by the mass march of the previous day demanding a fair election, perhaps playing for time --- the regime had offered a glimmer of compromise.
At least eight protesters had been slain the previous evening, several students at Tehran University were dead after raids by security forces, and hundreds of people were detained, but the Supreme Leader was ordering the Guardian Council to consider a re-count of the Presidential ballots and was meetings with representatives of all four candidates, asking them to pursue "national unity".
There are other surprises as well. On 16 June 2009, I was on Al Jazeera's Inside Story with Professor Anoush Ehteshami and Tehran University's Seyed Mohammad Marandi --- whom I had known for almost a decade --- to discuss the mass protests of the previous day and the Supreme Leader's moves for a possible recount.
Marandi is now known as one of the most strident defenders, in English-language media, of the regime's legitimacy and its crackdown on opposition. Yet in this episode, he has yet to adopt the position that Presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have pursued "sedition" by calling out riotous supporters on the streets. Instead, he notes without criticism the presence of "both sides" --- the Green Movement and Ahmadinejad's supporters --- in making their cases over the election.
And my own position? I don't think I would change a single word of this, three years later: "I don't think we'll ever know if there was fraud committed last Friday....I think the issue is transparency....And I think there's also a power struggle going on within the political and clerical elites."
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 at 10:47
