"Politics make for strange bedfellows", I believe they say, and --- if only until President Ahmadinejad's entourage is evicted --- it appears the Supreme Leader is looking for a sleep-over with the reformists, even those who used to be part of the "sedition current".
Iran Feature: The Economy --- The State of the Nation
Iran Feature: The Economy --- Assessing The Real Rate of Unemployment
Iran Feature: The Supreme Leader Is Worried --- Three Developments You Probably Don't Know
Iran Feature: The EA Story That Made It Big in Iranian Media
The Latest from Iran (14 December): Tehran Loses Another Friend?
Iran Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi & Saudi Crown Prince Nayef1541 GMT: Economy Watch. A member of Iran's Development Commission has a solution for economic difficulties: rely on the investments of Iranians living abroad.
1531 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Yaghoub Maleki, a member of Mir Hossein Mousavi's campaign staff, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
1321 GMT: All-is-Well Alert. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the head of the Basij militia, has claimed that more than 20,000 people, given the proper "guidance", have repented for the errors of their protests after the 2009 Presidential election.
The Supreme Leader is flanked by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Jannati, Tehran Friday Prayers leader and head of the Guardian Council.
I'm thinking the expression on their faces resembles that of people who have watched the video of Rebecca Black's "Friday". Or Justin Bieber's "Baby".
But have a go and see what you can come up with. We are setting this low bar to hurdle: "Iran's leadership pout as the world ignores their failed attempt at selling a papier mache drone to the world as a sign of America's evilness."
See also Iran Video: Free Nasrin Sotoudeh
Iran Analysis: Fact and Fiction on the Crash of an Advanced US Drone
The Latest from Iran (5 December): A Regime in Deadlock Drones On
2045 GMT: The House Arrests. An EA correspondent reports that Mohammad Hossein Karroubi, the son of the detained opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi, has revealed that he met his father for 30 minutes on Saturday afternoon.
The younger Karroubi, writing on Facebook, said that he was joined by his mother Fatemeh, who has also been held under strict house arrest since mid-February. The meeting took place at the family's new home in Jamaran in north Tehran.
Mehdi Karroubi was reportedly in good spirits and improving health, having suffered from respiratory problems this autumn. He now has an entire floor of the house where he is held and is given two daily newspapers, Ettelaat and Jam-e Jam, to read.
1845 GMT: Virtual Diplomacy Watch. The US Government has launched its "Virtual Embassy" to "work as a bridge between the American and Iranian people", with "latest news", visa services, and information on "Study in the USA" and "Open Societies".
Maya Neyestani compares protest and Iran's security forces 2009 with protest and Iran's security forces 2011: "Nah, they are students. Take it easy."
See also Iran 1st-Hand Special: Basij Student's Account of the Attack on the British Embassy
Iran Analysis: The Embassy Attack --- "A Serious Mis-Calculation" by the Regime
The Latest from Iran (1 December): A Spot of Bother
2120 GMT: The Embassy Attack. The British Ambassador to Iran, Dominick Chilcott, has given his account of Tuesday's occupation of the Embassy --- interestingly, it matches up with that of one of the Basij militia who took over the building. Chilcott said:
One of our staff was on his own in his keep (safe area) and he barricaded the door with a heavy safe and a bed, and braced himself against the wall. And for 45 minutes he could hear people bashing down the door, smashing the windows and trying to get in because they knew he was there. It must have been a very frightening experience — until eventually the door gave way and they got him.
Chilcott said seven staff --- Iranian accounts say six --- were taken to another building and made to sit quietly, some of them being "quite roughly handled", until they were escorted away by security forces. He said of his experience:
We could hear them trying to smash the doors and buildings down below. But they couldn't get into our part of the building. Except in one point, where they got into one of the consular offices and started a fire. And in the end it was the fire and the smoke coming up onto the third floor corridor which forced us out.
;)
A photograph from Fars of smoke rising above the British Embassy and the Iranian flag flying instead of Britain's Union Jack
See also Iran Latest: Students Storm British Embassy
Iran Snap Analysis: Assessing The Isfahan Explosion
The Latest from Iran (28 November): The Bank Fraud Expands
2025 GMT: Tough Talk Alert. In case anyone needed more tough talk on the day the British Embassy was attacked....
The head of the Basij militia, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, has explained in a television interview tells TV that the US cannot fight back if it is attacked by by the Islamic Republic.
1915 GMT: On the Air. Zanan (Women's) TV has been launched on the Internet.
The celebration that led to lengthy suspension for two members of Iran's national football team (see 0835 GMT)
2148 GMT: Explosion Watch. An EA correspondent does some checking on the claimed location of today's blast in Isfahan (see 2020 GMT). Not only is it near the Military Academy, but it is just to the east of Darvazeh Shiraz (Shiraz city gate) is the Sepah Badr airbase.
Fars resurfaces, after dropping its original story to report --- from ISNA --- that the head of Isfahan's judiciary heard the sound of an explosion but got no information from officials.
And Tabnak has the latest rationale from Deputy Governor Mohammadi Mehdi Esmaili: "Perhaps a water boiler exploded."
Graffiti of the Day. "The Greens Are Awake and Alert"
2125 GMT: Labour Front. ILNA reports on the protests of Tabriz workers and retirees in East Azerbaijan against changes in Iran's labour laws.
2037 GMT: Habil Darvish, the Chief Executive Officer of the Tehran Metro, has criticised the Government for paying only 20% of the allocated subsidies this year.
And Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf has struck a note of defiance: 400 new metro carriages will run until the end of year, even though the Government has ordered banks not to cooperate with the Metro.
Claimed footage, posted yesterday, of a recent strike by workers in Tabriz in northwest Iran
2045 GMT: The Lesser-of-Two-Evils Watch. Kayhan editor Hossei Shariatmadari, criticising the Green Movement for saying the Iranian system should apologise to the people, has remarked, "We would rather bribe the US than the people."
2035 GMT: Elections Watch. Solat Mortazavi, the head of Iran’s Elections Headquarters, has repeated that two leading reformist organizations, the Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution, will not be allowed to field candidates in March's Parliamentary elections.
Mortazavi told a workshop for provincial elections officials that the Supreme Leader has instructed officials to ensure that the “enemy” does not turn the elections into a challenge to the Islamic Republic. He said individual reformists are not barred from the elections so long as the Guardian Council declares them eligible.
The two reformist organisations were dissolved by court order last year. Many of their members have been arrested and given long prison sentences.
Nikahang Kowsar's Mehdi Hashemi2045 GMT: Currency Watch. The Iranian rial, already at a historic low against the US dollar (see 1250 GMT), has slipped another 0.9% to 13560:1.
2035 GMT: The Battle Within. Alef, the website linked to key MP Ahmad Tavakoli --- a leading critic of the Government --- complains that the President has extended his "red line" against prosecution from his Cabinet to his advisors.
Another Government critic, MP Ali Motahari, has criticised both the raid on Iran newspaper and the ban on the reformist Etemaad. At the same time, he said that if Ali Akbar Javanfekr, the Presidential advisor and managing editor of Iran sentenced to a year in prison, and his colleagues had protested over the brutality against post-election protesters, they would not have experienced such a disaster.
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 8:16