Latest from Iran (7 September): Revolutions and Dervishes

More video claiming to show the security crackdown against protesters in Urmia on September 3rd

See also Iran Special: Mousavi's Moment Outside House Arrest "The Future is Bright"

Iran Video: Bringing Out the News, Remembering the Victims --- An Interview with Masih Alinejad
The Latest from Iran (6 September): Water Fights, Soggy Papers

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1800 GMT: Justice Watch. Mohammad Esmail Mollazehi, charged with “spying in an attempt to act against Iranian national security”, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Mollazehi was arrested in Zahedan in southeastern Iran in October 2010, charged with delivering information to a foreign embassy in Dubai." The embassy was not named.

The Zahedan prosecutor also said cryptically, “This individual also followed the files of certain detainees in Iran and was trying to release them.”

Because Mollazehi has no previous record, the 10-year sentence was reduced to four years in prison plus five years’ suspended sentence.

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The Latest from Iran (16 July): "They Will Opt for Turmoil"

1830 GMT: Energy Watch. Deutsche Welle summarises a series of recent statements by Deputy Minister of Energy Mohammad Behzad, including that the Government owes $5 billion to the Ministry and that the country is that less than 2,000 megawatts from a general blackout.

Minister of Energy Majid Namjoo has been summoned to Parliament next Tuesday to answer questions.

1655 GMT: Genie Watch. Hojatoleslam Hassan Ramezani, a scholar in the religious city of Qom, has said that contact with djinns can only be with the permission of "God's vali" (the Supreme Election). He adds, however, that if you can get this permission, these djinns will be of political use: they can predict elections.

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The Latest from Iran (9 July): "Somewhat Uncertain"

2155 GMT: And Now For Something Completely Different. I was interviewed this evening by the international service of Iranian State radio.

The topic? The closure of Rupert Murdoch's newspaper News of the World, first printed in 1843, because of a scandal over the hacking of private mobile phones, including the families of murder victims, those slain in the 2005 London bombing, and British troops killed in action.

2145 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Mansoura Behkish, human rights activist and member of the Mothers of Mourning, has been released from detention.

The reason for Behkish's arrest and the charges against her are still unknown.

2120 GMT: The Battle Within. Digarban summarises this week's dispute over gender separation in universities --- by ordering a halt to implementation, President Ahmadinejad has opposed parts of the clergy, including the Supreme Leader.

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The Latest from Iran (23 June): Welcome to Phase Zero

2045 GMT: Elections Watch. Yesterday, we reported the rumour that the Supreme Leader's representative to the Revolutionary Guards, Mojtaba Zolnour, is resigning to run for Parliament next March. Khabar Online continues the story with the claim that pro-Ahmadinejad officials such as Deputy Minister of Defense Javad Darvishvand, Hojatoleslam Mohammad Reza Mirtajoddini, and Ali Shahidi are leaving position to campaign for the Majlis.

2025 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Sharif University student activist Tara Sepehri has been sentenced to seven years in prison and 74 lashes.

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The Latest from Iran (9 June): Devaluing

2055 GMT: Diversion Watch. Back from a conference break to find that Iranian authorities, the press, and State broadcasting have teamed up --- well, sort of --- to offer a spy story as an alternative to real-life political tension.

Both State broadcaster IRNA and Fars have claimed that the Ministry of Intelligence has foiled a US plan to form a "government in exile" for Iran.

The scheme, which included scholars Gene Sharp and Joseph Nye and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, was headed by former Repvolutionary Guard commander Mohammad Reza Madhi. The American organisers arranged for Madhi to travel to Washington, where he met with Vice President Joe Biden, who promised full support.

Meanwhile, Dennis Ross of the National Security Council tried to establish the government in exile. Candidates included Amir Hossein Jahanshahi, a businessman with dual French-Israeli citizenship who is close to Ashraf Pahlavi, the twin sister of the late Shah; Abdollah Mohtadi, leader of Kurdish dissident organisation Komala; Hassan Sharafi; Alireza Nourizadeh, a London-based political analyst; Reza Hosseinbor, the leader of a secessionist group; and filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, all of whom participated in a conference at the Atlantic Hotel in Paris.

The US provided $7 billion for the effort, but it fell apart when the identity of Ahmad Maleki, a diplomat in the Iranian embassy in Italy and a nephew of Mehdi Karroubi, was revealed.

A grand story, although there have been glitches. For Fars claimed that Madhi, working for the Ministry of Intelligence, had penetrated the "counterrevolutionaries", while IRNA and Kayhan referred to him as a "CIA spy".

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The Latest from Iran (25 May): Oil and Politics

The funeral of legendary footballer and manager Nasser Hejazi in Azadi Stadium, Tehran (see 0750 and 1625 GMT)

2035 GMT: The Fire at the Refinery. Ebrahim Nabavi, reviewing yesterday's blaze at the Abadan oil refinery, notes that President Ahmadinejad ordered widespread purges in the National Iranian Oil Company and Oil Ministry during the past two years.

Meanwhile, the NIOC has denied that the refinery was opened too early, leading to errors in construction.

2025 GMT: Football and Politics. Mardomak reports clashes at the funeral of revered footballer Nasser Hejazi (see 0750 and 1625 GMT), with at least 15 people arrested.

The site also posts claimed video of women at the funeral.

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The Latest from Iran (12 May): So You Thought the Battle Was Over?

2025 GMT: At the Movies. The Cannes Film Festival is honouring filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof --- both sentenced to long prison terms --- and Iranian officials are not amused.

Mohammad Hosseini, the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance said, “The festival takes a political stance on certain specific cases, which is unacceptable and we condemn it. We think that since Cannes is an international event, it should keep its artistic and professional biases to itself."

Last week, Cannes organizers said they would show Rasoulof’s “Good Bye” and “This Is Not a Film”, Panahi’s depiction of a day in his life as he waits for the verdict of a court appeal.

Panahi will also be awarded the Carrosse d’Or (Golden Coach) prize by the SRF (Film Directors’ Society) in absentia as a tribute to the “innovative qualities, courage and independent-mindedness” of his work.

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The Latest from Iran (7 April): We Have Met the Enemy, and They are Facebook and Twitter

2015 GMT: Line of the Day. President Ahmadinejad gives short shrift to the New Year message from President Obama, "What do you know about Nowruz?"

2005 GMT: Currency Watch. Peymane claims that the Iranian toman has dropped to a rate of 1115 v. the US dollar.

The Iranian Government has been trying to keep the toman's value around 1050 to the dollar. Last autumn, after the announcement of subsidy cuts and amidst sanctions, it intervened with influxes of foreign reserves when the toman fell, on the "free market", to 1200 to the dollar.

Peymane also reports that gold prices are rising amidst economic uncertainty.

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The Latest from Iran (24 January): Two More Political Executions

Jafar Kazemi2040 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Prominent reformist Ali Shakouri Rad has been released from detention.

Shakouri Rad was arrested last month after he said in a public debate that the head of Iran's judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, had congratulated Mir Hossein Mousavi on his "victory" on Election Day in June 2009.

1945 GMT: Claim of Day. President Ahmadinejad speaking in Gilan Province in northwest Iran: targeted subsidy cuts are the work of the 12th (Hidden) Imam.

1940 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Journalist and blogger Siamak Ghaderi has been sentenced to four years in prison for “propaganda against the regime”, “disturbing public opinion”, and “spreading lies”.

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The Latest from Iran (11 January): Remembering Hundreds of Political Prisoners

2100 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The son-in-law of detained journalist Emaduddin Baghi, Ali Maghami, has been released on bail.

Maghami was arrested last month. Baghi, detained in December 2009, was sentenced last autumn to seven years in prison.

Eight students of the Islamic Society of Arak University have reportedly been arrested.

2040 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. On Sunday we noted a speech by former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, marking the anniversary of a January 1978 protest that helped spur the Islamic Republic. A correspondent commented Rafsanjani made his historical parallel to jab directly at Ahmadinejad aide Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai and indirectly at the Supreme Leader: "those who build their power on cobwebs". He pointedly referred to the situation then of "fire under the ashes", a possible reference to the state of protest today, and blamed those who practiced "lies and hypocrisy".

Well, the newspaper Kayhan is not impressed.

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