The Latest from Iran (25 January): A Government Committing Economic Treason?

Cartoon: Nikahang Kowsar1755 GMT: Elections Watch. Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei says about 80% of the 5400 applicants to stand in March's Parliamentary elections have been approved.

1750 GMT: Oil Watch. French oil refiner Total has stopped buying oil from Iran in line with new European Union sanctions, according to Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie.

De Margerie said Total had been buying about 80,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil.

1740 GMT: The Government Moves --- But Will It Make a Difference? The currency website Mesghal is claiming that the Government's steps (see 1730 GMT) have made a difference to exchange rates and gold prices. Old gold coin has plummeted almost 20% in price to 820,000 Toman (about $400) while the Iranian Rial has supposedly recovered 20% of its value to stand at 19000:1 vs. the US dollar.

There are other claims, however, that the effect has not been so marked. Hamshahri reports that the open market was actually trading Rials for dollars at 21700:1, with vendors on the streets and foreign exchange offices displaying official rate but selling the dollar at a higher rate.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (24 January): "Iranian Economy is Humming Along Nicely"

Nikahang Kowsar's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad deals with the currency crisis, using a wishing well and "Heads or Tails?"

See also Iran Featured Question: Is the Currency in Free Fall?
The Latest from Iran (23 January): Hibernating While The Currency Falls

---

2154 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Former student activist Saeed Razavi Faghih was arrested at Imam Khomeini International Airport and sent to Evin Prison on 18 January.

1924 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Minister of Interior Mostafa Mohammad Najjar assures,“The sanctions [imposed] by the European Union will not affect Iran and will further deteriorate the economic condition of the European countries. We do not mind the implementation of sanctions by Europe because we have constantly faced such sanctions in the past 30 years."

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has apparently explained how Europe is self-harming with the sanctions by summoning the Danish Foreign Minister. Denmark is the current President of the European Union.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (7 January): "We are in an Economic War"

See also Iran Appeal: Rejecting the "Islamic Penal Bill" Against Human Rights
Iran Audio Feature: Scott Lucas on Iran, Europe, and the Oil Sanctions
The Latest from Iran (6 January): Squeezing the Regime

---

1830 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kurdish blogger and human rights activist Rojin Mohemedi was released from Evin Prison on Monday.

Mohemedi, who studies at Manila Medical School in the Philippines was arrested at an airport in Tehran and imprisoned on 23 November, accused of incitement of propaganda against the regime.

1730 GMT: Currency Watch. A senior Central Bank of Iran official has denied the rumour (see 1558 GMT) that Bank head Mahmoud Bahmani has resigned amidst the currency crisis and other economic problems.

"Mr Bahmani will remain firmly in his job and whoever has published this false report has made a mistake," Deputy Governor Ebrahim Darvishi said.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (21 December): It's The Economy, Mahmoud

See also Iran Snap Analysis: The Currency Falls --- What Does It Mean?
The Latest from Iran (20 December): The Strains Within

---

1705 GMT: Oil Watch. A bit of good news for Tehran amidst the economic pressure on the regime, including the possibility of a European Union ban on supplies of oil from Iran....

Turkey's biggest crude oil importer Tupras has renewed its annual deal to buy crude oil from Iran for 2012, at almost the same volumes as this year, according to industry sources.

China's top refiner Sinopec Corp said that buy less than half the crude it normally imports from Iran in January.

1655 GMT: Najmeh Bozorgmehr of The Financial Times offers valuable interpretation of the currency crisis:

The managed float mechanism has collapsed for much of this year. The central bank’s adoption of a multiple-rate system has also failed to bring back stability to the market and to foil the impact of international sanctions aimed at Tehran’s nuclear programme. Sanctions have caused the cost of financial transactions to increase, by forcing them to go through numerous back channels, and have hit foreign currency markets by reducing the supply of cash.

But there are also domestic dynamics at play. While the market remains anxious about the possibility of a European Union oil embargo and the US imposing sanctions on the central bank, local media have accused the government of Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, president, of engineering a deliberate devaluation to boost the rial value of its oil income in the final months of the fiscal year to March.

Economists and parliamentarians have predicted this year’s budget deficit could be as high as $30bn, or 7 per cent of the country’s GDP.

The government is due to present its budget bill to parliament soon and some analysts believe the government is allowing the rial to weaken to reset the official exchange rate to the dollar in the budget, which has traditionally sat around the 10,000 mark.

But Iran’s minister of economy and finance, Shamsoddin Hosseini, on Wednesday denied any such intention. “The government has had no, [absolutely] no deliberate plan to strengthen the dollar rate,” he said, and promised to announce “a plan to manage the market” soon.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (15 December): A Bigger Question in the Saudi Mystery

Iran Feature: The Economy --- The State of the Nation
Iran Feature: The Economy --- Assessing The Real Rate of Unemployment
Iran Feature: The Supreme Leader Is Worried --- Three Developments You Probably Don't Know
Iran Feature: The EA Story That Made It Big in Iranian Media
The Latest from Iran (14 December): Tehran Loses Another Friend?

---

Iran Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi & Saudi Crown Prince Nayef1541 GMT: Economy Watch. A member of Iran's Development Commission has a solution for economic difficulties: rely on the investments of Iranians living abroad.

1531 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Yaghoub Maleki, a member of Mir Hossein Mousavi's campaign staff, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

1321 GMT: All-is-Well Alert. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the head of the Basij militia, has claimed that more than 20,000 people, given the proper "guidance", have repented for the errors of their protests after the 2009 Presidential election.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (13 December): Shoes Are Thrown at the President

2140 GMT: Parliament Watch. Speaking at Tehran University today, MP Ali Motahari, a vocal critic of the Ahmadinejad administration, has criticised the crackdown on students after the 2009 Presidential election. Considering why the repression occurred and why it continues, he said that there is an atmosphere of "fear and terror" in the Iranian Parliament because of the actions of some legislators.

2135 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The executive board of Nokia Siemens Networks has said that it will not take on any new business in Iran and will gradually reduce its existing commitments from 1 January 2012.

The Finnish company said in a letter to its staff in Iran that the decision was taken because US-led sanctions "make it almost impossible for Nokia Siemens Networks to do business with Iranian customers".

Nokia Siemens has been criticised for providing telecommunications equipment allowing the Iranian regime to maintain surveillance of protesters after the 2009 Presidential election.

2100 GMT: Economy Watch. Former Minister of Labor Hossein Kamali has claimed that more than 50% of Iran's workers now live below the poverty line.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (12 December): Paranoia --- It'll Destroy Ya

See also Iran Interview Special: What Has Happened to the 1000s Wounded After the Election?
The Latest from Iran (11 December): Being Tough...To a Point

---

Mohammad Javad Larijani1925 GMT: Ahmadinejad Shoe-Throwing Watch. Ghased News offers more on today's hurling of shoes, by a 45-year-old unemployed textile worker, at the President during his visit to Sari in northern Iran.

The website claimed the shoe-thrower is a recidivist, having tossed a tomato at Mohammad Khatami when he was President. After his effort today, spectators beat him up --- “If the police was not present, nobody knows what would have happened to him,” Ghased pondered.

There is no mention of the President's tour, let alone the incident, on the homepage of State news agency IRNA. Fars News mentions the visit, but not the shoe-throwing, on its English-language site; however, its Persian-language homepage is silent --- earlier today, the website deleted an article which mentioned the shoe-thrower's motive as 17 months of unemployment.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (11 December): Being Tough...To a Point

See also Iran Video: Authentic Footage of The Capture of the US Drone?
Iran Sunday Special: It's Another Caption Contest....
Iran Analysis: Will The European Union Ban Imports of Tehran's Oil?
The Latest from Iran (10 December): After the Drone Show

---

1950 GMT: Drone Watch. Tonight's rhetoric comes from Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior official at the judiciary, who says the violation of Iran's airspace by the US RQ-170 drone will bring legal action. Claiming US intervention in the affairs of other countries is usually accompanied by terrorist measures, Larijani said, "We believe respecting the rights of other nations is a necessity. Today's world will no longer accept US and Western leadership. Interfering in [internal] affairs of other countries is a dark habit of the US and [other] Western countries, and we (Iran) oppose all forms of intervention in the affairs of Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Syria and other countries."

Larijani took time to praise the Islamic Republic: “What has been done is important, but our abilities are higher than this and even if we had not captured the aircraft, our abilities in this area would have been still stunning.”

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (25 November): Down, Down, Down

Claimed footage, posted yesterday, of a recent strike by workers in Tabriz in northwest Iran

---

2045 GMT: The Lesser-of-Two-Evils Watch. Kayhan editor Hossei Shariatmadari, criticising the Green Movement for saying the Iranian system should apologise to the people, has remarked, "We would rather bribe the US than the people."

2035 GMT: Elections Watch. Solat Mortazavi, the head of Iran’s Elections Headquarters, has repeated that two leading reformist organizations, the Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution, will not be allowed to field candidates in March's Parliamentary elections.

Mortazavi told a workshop for provincial elections officials that the Supreme Leader has instructed officials to ensure that the “enemy” does not turn the elections into a challenge to the Islamic Republic. He said individual reformists are not barred from the elections so long as the Guardian Council declares them eligible.

The two reformist organisations were dissolved by court order last year. Many of their members have been arrested and given long prison sentences.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (23 November): Noticing Human Rights

See also Iran Special Analysis: The Security Forces Cross Ahmadinejad's "Red Line"
The Latest from Iran (22 November): The Security Forces v. Ahmadinejad's Senior Advisor

---

Political Prisoners in Iran2020 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Student activist Rojin Mohammadi, studying medicine at the University of Manila, has been arrested at the airport on her return to Iran.

1955 GMT: Tough Talk of the Day. The Supreme Leader's military advisor, General Yahya Rahim Safavi, assures, "The IRGC [Revolutionary Guards] control the identity and destination of every US warship which intends to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. "And Americans fully respond to the IRGC's telecommunications center with complete answers."

.

An estimated 40% of the world's oil supply passes through the Straits of Hormuz, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf.

Rahim Safavi also said that air defences protecting Israel were "inefficient" against Iran's arsenal: "“These missile shields which they have deployed in Turkey, occupied Palestine, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cannot hit all our missiles. They may hit some of our missiles, but the number of our missiles is so large that they will not be able to target our missiles."

Click to read more ...