The Latest from Iran (1 June): A Silent Protest for the Election Anniversary?

Video of Haleh Sahabi with the body of her father, shortly before she died after a scuffle with security forces disrupting the funeral procession

2020 GMT: A Death at the Funeral. The interview of the opposition channel RASA TV with Haleh Sahabi, broadcast the night before her death, has been posted on YouTube.

2010 GMT: Arrests at the Funeral. Habibollah Peyman, a leader of the National-Religous Coalition, Hamid Ahrari, and Hamed Montazeri, grandson of the late Grand Ayatollah, were arrested at the funeral of opposition figure Ezzatollah Sahabi.

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Protest Special: Why Tunisia Can But Iran Can't (Eshraghi)

The surprising rapidity with which Tunisians unseated President Zine el-Abidin Ben Ali has been watched keenly in Iran, not least by the political opposition known as the Green Movement.

As Iranian blogs and Facebook messages abound with the punning phrase, “Tounes tounes, Iran na-tounes” –-- meaning “Tunisia could, Iran couldn’t” --- there has also been sober reflection on why this was the case; why the massive protests that followed the disputed presidential election of June 2009 came to nothing in the end.

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Bolivia Analysis: The Failed Attempt to Cut Fuel Subsidies

Yesterday we carried the report that the Bolivian Government of Evo Morales had abandoned, after only five days, its attempt to remove subsidies on fuel. Here is the wider context....

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Bolivia: Amidst Protests, Government Withdraws Subsidy Cuts on Fuel

Photo: David Mercado (Reuters)Faced with spreading civil unrest, the Bolivian president has scrapped a government decree that significantly raised fuel prices and provoked violent protests.

Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, presided over back-to-back government meetings on Friday aimed at crafting a strategy for quelling civil unrest in La Paz, Cochabamba and other major cities sparked by the decision to remove price controls.

Alvaro Garcia, the Bolivian vice president, filling in for Morales, had issued the decree on Sunday removing subsidies that keep fuel prices artificially low but cost the Bolivian government an estimated $380m per year.

As a result fuel prices went up by as much as 83 per cent in the sharpest increases since 1991.

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Israel-Palestine Analysis: US Congress Blasts Recognition of Palestinian State but International Pressure Increases

On Thursday, US lawmakers condemned the Latin American wave of recognition of the "State of Palestine". The House of Representatives approved a resolution opposing the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, claiming "true and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties".

The resolution calls on the US administration to "deny recognition to any unilaterally declared Palestinian state and veto any resolution by the United Nations Security Council to establish or recognize a Palestinian state outside of an agreement negotiated by the two parties".

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