The Latest from Iran (1 March): The Issue Is Legitimacy

See also Iran Snap Analysis: So Who is "Winning" These Elections?
The Latest from Iran (29 February): Playing the Numbers Game

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Worker sweeps up campaign flyers, 25 February 1915 GMT: The "Engineers" in Syria. Seven Iranian engineers and technicians, abducted in Syria in December, have not been freed.

Last month, Iranian media reported that the men had been released, but Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister has said that they are still in the country, albeit in "perfect health".

The Free Syrian Army claims that five of the men are actually military snipers who were in Syria to assist President Assad's forces.

1845 GMT: Assurance of the Day. An Iranian official announces, “About 1,300 domestic and 350 foreign reporters working for 174 international media will provide coverage for the ninth election of the Majlis on Friday."

Which only leaves the question: how exactly will they be allowed to "provide coverage"?

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The Latest from Iran (15 September): So What Happens to the US Hikers?

2040 GMT: The Battle Within. Mehr --- a conservative, not a reformist, website --- has posted in English the news we reported earlier: Ali Saeedi, the Supreme Leader's representative to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, has met President Ahmadinejad and criticised him for not living up to his ideals.

Advising the President to readjust his attitude, Saeedi said Ahmadinejad's sympathisers are displeased with some of his actions and behaviour. He added that the President still has time to make up for his past.

2020 GMT: Claim of the Day. He has been criticised by leading economists, the reformist opposition, by conservative MPs, and by Government officials, but that is not going to stop President Ahmadinejad from loudly repeating an unsupported claim.

In a speech today, Ahmadinejad said, "With the support of the Iranian nation and by mobilizing all capacities, 2.5 million jobs will be created annually for [each of] two years to solve the unemployment problem." He said the challenge would be "no more difficult" than the development of Iran's nuclear programme.

And his critics who say the Government has not even created the 1.6 million new positions it claims, let alone five million new jobs? "When a revolutionary measure is to be taken, some people here and there express pessimistic views that nothing can be done. But I emphasize that creating 2.5 million jobs is not impossible for the Iranian nation."

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The Latest from Iran (20 August): Regime's Cyber-Warriors "We Don't Get No Respect"

US citizens Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, shown with fellow hiker Sarah Shourd, who were convicted today of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison (see 1350 GMT)

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1422 GMT: Some People are So Ungrateful Watch. The head of State broadcaster IRIB, Ezzatollah Zarghami, has declared that he said to the "losing" candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi after the 2009 Presidential elections, "You got these 13 million votes only with the help of IRIB."

The official returns, challenged by millions of Iranians in the days after the ballot, showed President Ahmadinejad with 24 million votes v. Mousavi's 13 million.

Zarghami said IRIB, with the permission of the Supreme Leader, had shown campaign ads for Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, even though Karroubi's ads "crossed red lines" by showing "prohibited persons".

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The Latest from Iran (17 July): A Temporary Freedom

1525 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Aftab reports on the case of actress/filmmaker Pegah Ahangarani, arrested earlier this month, noting that two years ago the hard-line Keyhan warned her not to "sell out the country".

1520 GMT: Economy Watch. Javad Zamani, an MP for Kangavar in western Iran, has said the increase of prices in the country is indisputable, with energy costs for production units rising 20 times.

1515 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The first photo of student activist Bahareh Hedayat after her release from prison, where she is serving a 9 1/2-year sentence, on a four-day furlough (see also 0520 and 0900 GMT):

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The Latest from Iran (21 June): The Hunger Strikers

1910 GMT: At the Movies. Lebanese authorities have banned the screening of the Iranian film "Green Days" about the protests after the 2009 Presidential election.

The ban was implemented after a request by the Iranian Ambassador. When the organiser of the Beirut International Film Festival, asked Lebanese officials for a reason, they said, "This is not our decision, we are only carrying out orders."

The film was to be screened at the Festival's "Forbidden Films Festival". It is directed by Hana Makhmalbaf, 22, the daughter of prominent filmmaker Mohsen Makhamalbaf, who is close to opposition figure Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Lebanese authorities also banned the screening of "Green Days" at a festival last October, at the same time that President Ahmadinejad visited Beirut.

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The Latest from Iran (31 March): Mousavi and A Funeral

2100 GMT: A Poster for Sizdeh Bedar. Anticipating the festival of Sizdeh Bedar, when Iranians leave the house and enjoy the outdoors, activists have put out the message on this poster, "Sizdeh Bedar 90 --- Khamenei Must Go":

2030 GMT: Economy Management Watch. Mohammad Taghi Bakhtyari of Parliament's Development Commission has said that breaches by the Government of the 2008/9 budget prove that the Majlis has insufficient control. Bakhtyari claimed that the Government has not paid billions in debts.

Another MP, Ezzatollah Yousefian, has said a fourth of Iran's liquidity is in the hands of "special people".

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The Latest from Iran (20 January): Running on Empty?

2135 GMT: Economy Watch. Ayande News, blaming subsidy cuts on fuel, says car sales have fallen by 50% with the market in imported cars almost dormant.

Khabar Online, linked to Ali Larijani, continues to push the Government on economic claims. The latest case is a challenge to the claim of 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi that 1.5 million new jobs have been created: Khabar says only 600,000 of these were new jobs and 900,000 replaced other positions.

2115 GMT: Running on Empty? Back to where we started this morning. MP Ali Motahari, pressing his argument that the Government is not only unwilling but unable to provide the funds for expansion of the Tehran Metro, claims that Minister of Economy Shamseddin Hosseini has said the Government does not want to implement laws mandating $2 billion in support of the expansion.

Motahari said the Government must at least allocate part of the $2 billion and asserted that he will President Ahmadinejad in the Majlis about the issue.

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The Latest from Iran (1 January): And Today's Threat Is....

>1900 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Labour activist Mansour Osanloo has suddenly been transferred to solitary confinement. Osanloo has reportedly been punished for participating in a commemoration of Ali Saremi, the Kurdish detainee executed on Tuesday.

Osanloo has been in prison since 2007 and is serving a five-year sentence in Evin Prison.

1730 GMT: Execution Watch. The son of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman condemned to death for adultery and complicity in murder, has been released on $40,000 bail and has given a press conference in Tabriz.

Sajad Ghaderzadeh told reporters, "In my opinion my mother is also guilty but since we have lost our father we do not want to lose our mother too. Consequently, we ask for a commutation of the penalty. The stoning sentence is on the file but it may not be carried out. At least this is what we are hoping."

Ghaderzadeh was detained in early October, along with Ashtiani's lawyer, as they gave an interview to two German reporters. The German journalists and attorney Houton Kian are still in prison.

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The Latest from Iran (12 December): Messages, "Confessions", and Those Behind Bars

2035 GMT: Economy (Oversight) Watch. Kalemeh reports that the Central Bank has not published data on economic growth for 28 months.

Economist Mohsen Renani, in comments published in the conservative Aftab, has alleged that academic studies on effects of subsidy cuts are censored and media are not allowed to publish data. He asserts that subsidy cuts will stop development for several generations and cause social crisis.

MP Hassan Ghafourifard chimes in, warning the Govt does not know how to implement subsidy cuts.

2030 GMT: The Battle Within. Meanwhile, even as Ayatollahs Mahdavi Kani and Mesbah Yazdi declare that unity will emerge amongst principlists, the feuding within the establishment continues. Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi has lashed out at former Minister of Justice Gholam-Hossein Elham, who criticised the prosecutor for supporting sedition. Doulatabadi responded that "obviously a new fitna movement is taking shape" within the system.

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