The Latest from Iran (1 April): A Burst of Green

2040 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kalemeh reports that detained activist Fakhrossadat Mohtashamipour is in a coma after a hunger strike and has been transferred to hospital.

Mohtashamipour, the wife of imprisoned reformist leader Mostafa Tajzadeh, had said she would fast if she was not allowed to visit her husband.

2030 GMT: Your Tehran Friday Prayer Update --- An Update. Well, I guess I owe Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami an apology --- while he was making a grand tour of Egypt-Libya-Yemen-Bahrain to blame the West for distortions, manipulations, and general evil, he did have a chat with the faithful about the situation in Iran today.

Khatami took his lead from the Supreme Leader's 2011 theme of "economic jihad" to declare there would be economic growth, a narrowed gap between those with high and low incomes, and a one-digit unemployment rate.

The Ayatollah assured that Iran would have 8% economic growth rate in the 5th 5-Year Plan (2010-2015), even though that plan has not been passed by Parliament, and said officials of the country have had successful projects for employment.

But he still didn't mention Syria.

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The Latest from Iran (18 March): A Gentle Day?

2040 GMT: Fighting On in Another Year. The opposition's Coordination Council for the Green Path of Hope, has issued a statement for Iranian New Year:

We are well aware that peaceful protests are our fundamental right, as has been recognized and emphasized by the Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We are also well aware that defending the rights of the minorities, ethnic groups, and women to create a better Iran is fundamental. We consider it our duty to do whatever we can, so long as we still have breath, to end the detention of the Green Movement's leaders and their wives, who are symbols of resistance and the effort to restore people's rights....We begin the new year with you [the people] with hope for victory.

1835 GMT: Footage, posted on Wednesday, which claims to be of the burning of a banner of the Supreme Leader and the late Ayatollah Khomeini:

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Iran Interview: Wife of Jafar Kazemi, Condemned to Death, "We Request the Help of All Our Compatriots"

Jafar Kazemi, a lithographer for textbooks and pamphlets for Amir Kabir University, was arrested on 18 September 2009, apparently for putting up posters supporting the opposition. Soon he faced more serious charges.

Kazemi was accused of "mohareb" (war against God), a crime which carries the death penalty. Like others who have been executed in Iran, the public support for the allegation appears to be that Kazemi has a relative --- in this case, a son --- who is in Camp Ashraf in Iraq. The camp is home to many members of the People's Mojahedin of Iran, a banned organisation which has sought the overthrow of the Iranian regime for more than 30 years.

Kazemi was convicted and sentenced to hang. In recent weeks, activists have expressed increasing concern that his execution is imminent.

Masih Alinejad, working for the oppostion site Rah-e-Sabz (Jaras), interviewed Roudabeh Akbari, the wife of Kazemi, this week. The translation is by Siavosh Jalili.

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The Latest from Iran (9 January): The Enemy are Facebook and Twitter

2200 GMT: Plane Crash. Fars is now reporting that 72 of the 105 passengers died when Iran Air's flight from Tehran to Oroumiyeh in the northwest of the country crashed near its final destination.

2010 GMT: Plane Crash. The Red Crescent Society says that "scores have been killed". There are at least 35 survivors, but many of these are in critical condition.

1855 GMT: The Assassinated Scientist. Fars News claims, from an "informed source", that those responsible for the killing of physicist and professor Masoud Alimohammadi in January 2010 have been arrested.

Alimohammadi was killed by an explosive as he left for work. Iranian officials have accused foreign elements of being behind the crime.

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Iran Feature: Activism and Human Rights --- The Story of Fati Masjedi (Bijnen)

Much has been said and written about Iran's hundreds of political prisoners. Some are well-known, others not at all. There are also hundreds if not thousands of ordinary Iranians who live in permanent fear for their future, who have been summoned to court, who have been briefly arrested and then released on bail. Their computers, documents with their life'swork and family stories have been taken away. They are waiting anxiously for another call to present themselves to a court and a judge that can ruin their lives forever. In the meantime they live in limbo and are slowly getting desperate.

Thinking of Qom, I see seminaries, women clad in black chadors, Grand Ayatollahs, pilgrims, shrines, and mosques. The city breathes holiness and piety.

In this holy city lives a brave human rights defender, an ordinary young woman called Fatemeh ("call me Fati") Masjedi with whom I happened to get in touch recently. And she told me her own story.

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The Latest from Iran (21 October): What if Nothing Important Happens?

2115 GMT: Khamenei Roadtrip --- Media Lowlight of the Day. Oh, dear, a pretty spectacular MediaFail from Reuters who, rather than going to their Tehran correspondent, rely on their reporter in Paris to get the story all wrong:

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appears to have scored a political success by gathering leading clerics in the holy city of Qom around him in a show of unity after months of in-fighting.

Iranian media highlighted pictures on Thursday of a smiling Khamenei sitting with several top Shi'ite Muslim dignitaries, including some who have been critical since the disputed re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year....

Among the sages pictured sipping tea with Khamenei was Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, a critic of Ahmadinejad, along with five other clerics who have the elevated status of "marja-e taqlid" (source of emulation), meaning that Shi'ite Muslims may choose them as a personal spiritual guide.

Their turnout belied rumors that senior religious figures would boycott Khamenei's annual visit to the center of Shi'ite learning in protest at a fierce crackdown on reformists and moves to isolate and intimidate dissident clerics.

About the only accurate information in this is that Makarem-Shirazi was present on Wednesday. None of the others at the meeting have the rank of "marja-e taqlid" --- indeed, no cleric with that status apart from Makarem-Shirazi has deigned to see Ayatollah Khamenei in the first three days of his Qom visit.

Yet, as stunning as this failure is, it may be dwarfed by the misunderstanding of the "senior Western diplomat" who fed the Reuters story: "(Khamenei's) trip shows the leader has the power to unite factions ... and it is a message to those who hoped the in-fighting may lead to the collapse of the system."

2025 GMT: Did the Supreme Leader Just Smack Down the Senior Clerics? Well, this is an interesting way to end the evening....

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The Latest from Iran (14 October): Paying Attention

2025 GMT: Economy Watch. Khabar Online claims that President Ahmadinejad will announce the start of subsidy cuts on television at the end of next week, as support payments to 15 million families begin.

2020 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. An activist reports that Islamic Iran Participation Front member Davood Soleimani has been released after 16 months in detention.

2015 GMT: Video of the Ahmadinejad speech in Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon:

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The Latest from Iran (6 October): Through the Looking Glass of "Justice"

1820 GMT: Gasoline Squeeze. Azerbaijani site Trend looks at Iran's energy situation, with experts sceptical that Tehran can achieve its declared goal of self-sufficiency.

1800 GMT: Extra, Extra, Read All About It. The leading reformist newspaper Shargh has resumed on-line publication.

Shargh has suffered a lengthy ban by the Iranian authorities until the print edition reappeared this summer.

The website features a series of articles on sanctions against Iran, including a feature on   Stuart Levey, the Undersecretary for Financial Intelligence in the US Treasury. He is recognised as the official who has been successful in swaying private banks and companies around the globe to support sanctions against Iran. The newspaper claims he has made 80 foreign trips, 8 to Dubai --- a key point for Iran trade and finance --- alone. 

1735 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Hashem Sabaghian, a leading member of the Freedom Movement of Iran, has been released from detention.

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The Latest from Iran (4 October): More of the Same

2100 GMT: Execution Watch. The death sentence of Kurdish activist Habibollah Golparipour, on charges of waging war through propaganda and membership in an illegal group, has been upheld.

2025 GMT: Musical Moment. US National Public Radio posts a profile of famous Iranian singer Mohammad Reza Shajarian, whose renditions of classical Persian songs have become the music of post-election protest.

2005 GMT: Come Together Right Now. Mehr has picked up on the "unity" theme in Ali Larijani's remarks at Mazandaran University (see 0725 GMT): "Given the current circumstances, the country will stand to lose from any dispute over unimportant issues, and thus officials should try to avoid making statements that would create discord."

I'm not sure about the meaning of the website's English translation of the Speaker of Parliament's remarks on sanctions: "The economic sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program should be viewed as an opportunity to make up for shortcomings in the country."

2000 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates has frozen some Iranian bank accounts in line with UN resolutions, according to Abdul Rahim Al Awadi, the head of the Central Bank's anti-money laundering unit.

Al Awadi announced, "The UAE, with its commitment towards the UN, implemented all UN resolutions against Iranians."

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The Latest from Iran (3 October): Sedition's Gonna Get Ya

2020 GMT: Economy Watch --- Revised. An EA source makes a vital correction to our [portrayal of the article in Peyke Iran that 48 million of Iran's 75 million people "live below the poverty line" (see 1900 GMT):

There is no official poverty line in iran.  All the article says is that 2/3 of Iranian families have incomes under $800 a month.  That is almost $10,000 a year/household. We know that Iran is a middle-income country, so that should not shock anyone.

2010 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch (Revolving Door Edition). So as Alireza Beheshti Shirazi leaves detention, Saeed Noormohammadi, a member of the youth branch of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, goes back to prison.

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