The Latest from Iran (4 October): When You Know A Bank Fraud is Serious....

2030 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Mardomak offers a summary of the President's interview on State TV tonight....

Ahmadinejad tried to make the case that he was the way forward for Iran, especially on economic issues. Saying that his provincial tours were to remedy a "weak" and "Western model" bureaucracy with the display of popular management, he declared that his subsidy cuts plan got an "A" grade and there was no 60% inflation. He insisted that employment was on a good path, with a considerable increase in jobs and investments in the first half of the year.

That is all to be expected, as was Ahmadinejad's assertion that he had out-shone President Obama in last month's statement at the UN --- "Obama's speech was weak, ours was strong and much discussed". What is intriguing is the President's declared persistence in a quest for talks with Washington: he said he was ready for discussions if the US withdraws its ships from the Persian Gulf.

And this may also be notable: there were reportedly "broadcast problems" when Ahmadinejad spoke about his provincial tours and the US.

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The Latest from Iran (2 October): Down, Down Goes the Currency

2000 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Another political showcase for the President, as he closed the International Conference on the Palestinian Intifada today....

Ahmadinejad used the occasion for his standard script, declaring the West created Israel to control the Middle East and Western support for the crimes committed by the "Zionist regime".

The President then built on the West-Israel platform for wider points, such as the claim that democracy and the human rights are a "mere show" in the West and that the International Atomic Energy Agency has served the US and Israel by publishing the names of Iranian nuclear scientists so they could be targeted by the "Zionist regime". He added that Zionism symbolizes the essence of the materialistic Western schools of humanism and liberalism.

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The Latest from Iran (1 October): Problems with Banks and Oil

See also The Latest from Iran (30 September): Where's the President's Right-Hand Man?

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1845 GMT: Cyber-Question of Day. So who is behind the fake BBC Persian website, with the lead story that its editor raped a female employee, but she returned to work?

1835 GMT: Do You Think the Supreme Leader Knows? Hours after Ayatollah Khamenei opened Tehran's International Conference on the Palestinian Intifada by denouncing the Palestinian Authority's leadership, including Mahmoud Abbas, and its approach to the UN for recognition of Palestinian leadership, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal sang a different tune, even in the cautious wording of the Tehran Times....

The article frames Meshaal's position as "the plan presented by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is worth mulling over", but in expressing his criticism that "the United States and the Zionists exposed their true face as they have started efforts to stymie the plan", the site portrays support for his Palestinian rival:

Meshaal said Abbas is resisting pressure exerted by the U.S. and Israel. “In this moment of history that the true face of the Zionists has been revealed, Mahmoud Abbas and our brothers in the Fatah movement as well as other independent figures should make efforts to achieve unity,” the Hamas political leader stated.

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Iran Feature: Has the Regime Decapitated the Green Movement? (Hafezi)

Attempts to revive street protests have fizzled. The opposition, which says its fight for a freer Iran will continue, is following the Arab uprisings with a mixture of envy and regret for its own failure, analysts and moderate former officials say.

"The opposition is leaderless and lacks any strategy. The opposition leaders are under house arrest. Dozens of prominent reformists are jailed. Their supporters have no choice but to wait and see," said a close ally of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who asked not to be named.

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The Latest from Iran (24 September): The Imprisonment of the Filmmakers

Mojtaba Mirtahmasb1635 GMT: Press Release of the Day. And, as it's slow, let's give some airtime to General Yahya Rahim Safavi, senior military advisor to the Supreme Leader: “The US and Zionists are desperately seeking to rein in, restrict, replace...or take control of some of these revolutions” in the Middle East and North Africa.

Rahim Safavi, whose brother has told Western diplomats of the "political coup" of the 2009 Presidential election from the Supreme Leader's office, said the "West" started a “division of labour” system with France tasked to help bring Western-supported individuals to power through the National Transitional Council. He declared the US was seeking to infiltrate Egypt's Parliamentary Presidential balllots and interfere in the proposed changes to Egypt's Constitution.

Safavi urged Libyans and Egyptians to prevent this foreign interference, adding that the US was about to lose its political position in the region and said Israel was also facing a difficult situation.

Moving to Central Asia, Safavi said that terrorist groups in Afghanistan were linked to "Western hegemony", but the US would suffer the same fate as the former Soviet Union and finally leave the country after a humiliating defeat.

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The Latest from Iran (22 September): Yesterday the US Hikers, Today the UN

See also Iran Video: President Ahmadinejad's Address to the United Nations
Iran Special Analysis: US Hikers Released --- Everyone, including Ahmadinejad, is a Winner (for Now)
Iran Interview: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Runs Circles Around ABC News' Stephanopoulos
The Latest from Iran (21 September): The In-Fighting Over the US Hikers

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2135 GMT: The UN Speech. An EA correspondent notes that, in his attention to the centuries-long perfidy of the West, President Ahmadinejad failed to mention the current issue of Palestine and its quest for statehood. Any significance?

What is definitely significant is the marker set down by Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of Parliament's National Security Council, over Ahmadinejad's signals that he would like a resumption of talks with the US: Boroujerdi that is not within the Government's power to decide Tehran's relationship with America.

1945 GMT: Analysis of the Day. Interesting that Press TV opened its de-brief of the Ahmadinejad speech not with praise for the address but by asking about the walkout by many delegates. And Dr Seyed Mohammad Marandi ran with the theme:

I think it shows the intolerance that is dominant in the United States and in Europe...at least at the official level. They are unwilling to even listen to a person who has an alternative viewpoint, yet ironically the United States allows the Mujahedin-e-Khalq [MKO], the terrorist organisation, to rally outside the United Nations at the time of President Ahmadinejad's speech.

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WikiLeaks & Iran Special (June 2009): The Election Was "A Power Grab by Mojtaba Khamenei"

Ali and Mojtaba KhameneiLast week we featured a cable, released by WikiLeaks, in which Ayatollah Syed Salman Safavi --- four days after the disputed 2009 Presidential election --- told Western diplomats in London that a person "very close to the Supreme Leader...working in the Supreme Leader's office" had orchestrated the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Safavi's implication was that the Supreme Leader's son, Mojtaba Khamenei, even if he did not direct the manipulation, was fully supportive of it and that the operation was backed by the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Mohammad Ali Jafari. Safavi further claimed that the IRGC had been split by the decision to rig the election in favour of Ahmadinejad, whom he said had the backing of only one senior cleric, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi.

And now, in another cable from WikiLeaks, the other half of this intriguing tale....

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The Latest from Iran (18 September): The Supreme Leader's Grand Claim on the Region

See also Iran Feature: Is Civil Disobedience Taking Off?

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1905 GMT: Peyke Iran reports that Thai airports have stopped the refuelling of some Iranian aircraft.

1900 GMT: CyberWatch. Iran has achieved the distinction of being ranked 170th out of 170 countries for Internet speed by Net Index.

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WikiLeaks & Iran Special (June 2009): Brother of Supreme Leader's Military Advisor "The Election Was a Political Coup"

Released in this month's mass "drop" of US documents by WikiLeaks, this may be the most explosive document I have seen about the disputed 2009 Iranian Presidential Election. That is not just because of the content --- a graphic description of an election stolen under the direction of a member of the Supreme Leader's office (his son, Mojtaba Khamenei?) amidst a divided establishment, with the Revolutionary Guards split over support for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad --- but because of the support.

The claims are not made by a foreign agency or by the Iranian opposition. For the first time, they come from a source close to the highest levels of the regime. It is the brother of the military advisor to the Supreme Leader who outlines:

1. The election was a "political coup", with disruption of Mir Hossein Mousavi's organisation and communications, an exaggerated vote for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and a very quick announcement of the supposed results. The fraud was orchestrated by someone "very close to the [Supreme] Leader" and involved the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari.

2. The decision to manipulate the election was prompted by the perceived surge of support for Mir Hossein Mousavi, especially after his performance in a 1-on-1 debate with Ahmadinejad.

3. The Revolutionary Guards split over the manipulation, with a majority opposed Jafari and the Basij militia's command.

4. The political establishment were also divided. Only a minority of conservatives supported Ahmadinejad before the vote, and he was only backed by one senior cleric, Mesbah Yazdi.

5. To bolster the opposition, which had turned out in the hundreds of thousands (millions?) the previous day in Tehran, the US should promote a message of human rights and should not recognise Ahmadinejad.

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THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT

¶1. (S) Summary: Syed Salman Safavi, brother of ex-IRGC commander and the Supreme Leader's military advisor Rehman Safavi, on June 16 told London Iran Watcher (Poloff) and a small group of diplomats that "a majority" of leaders within the government of Iran and the IRGC want the United States, while continuing to avoid interference in Iran, to continue and even strengthen its public messages on human rights, so as to support popular protests in Iran and prevent any consolidation of Ahmedinejad's electoral win. Safavi said "a majority" of the IRGC have split from the Basij and from IRGC commander Jafari over the manipulation and aftermath of the June 12 elections. He added that a person he "cannot name, very close to the Supreme Leader," and "working in the Leader's office," conceived and ordered engineering of the election and of attempted suppression which has followed. Safavi claimed no senior clergy other than Mousavi in fact support Ahmedinejad. Safavi offered no compromise solution among contending parties in Iran, and indicated throughout that either Moussavi or Ahmedinejad would be politically vanquished. He explicitly played down the prospect of a "civil war" raised by a European interlocutor. End summary.

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Iran Feature: Parliament, the Regime, and the Influence of the Clerics (Alem)

Today, the role of the clerics in parliament from both factions can be described as negligible. There are only a few exceptions to this rule.

Does the trend in parliament reflect clerical influence in other spheres of power?

No. Clerics are still at the crux of all the three branches of government.

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