The Latest from Iran (20 October): 240 Days of House Arrest

Iran Feature: A "Son of Stuxnet" Attack Against Tehran's Computers?
Iran Video: Anything to See Here? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Interview with Al Jazeera English
The Latest from Iran (19 October): Tehran Embraces Occupy Wall Street

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2030 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The six-year prison sentence of journalist Abdolreza Tajik has been confirmed by an appeals court.

Tajik was arrested in June 2010 and charged with acting against national security, propagating against the regime, and collaborating with the Centre for the Defence of Human Rights, co-founded by Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi.

Tajik has worked for several reformist newspapers.

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The Latest from Iran (14 October): The Plot and Beyond

See also Iran 6-Point Analysis: Obama and the Regime Walk Tightropes Over the Plot

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Manssor Arbabsiar1755 GMT: Parliament Watch. A sharp extract from the resignation letter of MP Ali Motahari, who is leaving Parliament because of its failure to interrogate the President, "The Supreme Leader's interference in Majlis matters is not advisable."

1748 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. Mehr names three more companies, all in Qazvin Province, in the $2.6 billion bank fraud: Setaregan Amir Mansour, Tejarat Gostar, and Amir Mansour Iranian.

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The Latest from Iran (25 September): Khomeini's Grandson "This is Not Islam"

2120 GMT: Claim of the Day. We close Sunday --- and foreshadow Monday's LiveBlog on the resumption of political conflict in Iran --- with this prize assertion from the hard-line publication Fararu: President Ahmadinejad's controversial Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai will not return to Iran with Ahmadinejad from New York because he has applied for a six-month visa to remain in the US.

2040 GMT: Shutting Down the Reformists. Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of the human rights section of Iran's judiciary, has put pressure on reformists, criticising them for claiming to be adherents to the principles of the Islamic Republic but in practice supporting a secular system.

Larijani said reformists were opportunist “sworn enemies of democracy” and were not qualified to run in Parliamentary elections next March.

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The Latest from Iran (19 September): Ahmadinejad Leaves An Embezzlement Behind

See also Iran Interview: Azerbaijani Activist Fakhteh Zamani Explains the Lake Urmia Protests

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1900 GMT: The Supreme Leader's Son and the "Election Coup". On Friday, we published the WikiLeaks-released cable in which Ayatollah Sayed Salman Safavi, the brother of the Supreme Leader's military advisor, told Western diplomats --- four days after the disputed 2009 Presidential election --- that there had been a "coup" orchestrated by a prison "close to the Supreme Leader".

The story is now in the Persian-language Digarban, with a link to the document and Safavi's assertion that the coup had split the Revolutionary Guards.

1645 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. 1535 GMT: BBC Persian has denied that it employed six people arrested by Iranian authorities (see 0630 GMT) for supposedly working for the service, saying they are independent filmmakers. BBC Persian said, as is common in the industry, that it had paid for the rights to show documentaries and programmes produced by the detainees.

Opposition websites identified the six filmmakers as Naser Saffarian, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Hadi Afarideh, Mohsen Shahrnazdar, Katayoun Shahabi and Mehrdad Zahedian.

A source involved in the arrests said, "This network of anti-Iran people were collaborating with the BBC in a cover-up to fulfil the needs of the British secret service in exchange for big sums of money. The anti-Iran intentions of the channel and its collaborators are clear."

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The Latest from Iran (14 September): Ahmadinejad's Public Relations Triumph

See also Iran Video: Full Ahmadinejad Interview with NBC News
Iran Interview: Ahmadinejad to Washington Post "If US Gives Us Uranium, We Will Stop Production"

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2110 GMT: Ahmadinejad's Public Relations Triumph? Another warning signal tonight for the President over his mention of the freeing of US hikers Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer....

Press TV features the remarks of MP Parviz Sarvari, a member of Parliament's National Security Commission, "If Iran was to release these two [spies] without receiving anything from the US Government in return, this would be against the spirit of the Islamic Revolution."

The significance lies not so much in the statement of Sarvari, who is known for heated remarks --- this week he called for the execution of Ahmadinejad's right-hand man Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai (see 0655) --- as in Press TV deciding to give it prominence.

2047 GMT: Omission of the Day. Press TV reports on the President's speech today:

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces government plans to introduce reforms in the banking system and to strengthen the country's currency.

“Reforming the banking system was placed on the government's agenda and, by God's grace, reforms in this system will begin this year,” Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday in a public address in the northwestern city of Ardabil, the official presidential website reported.

He added that the changes would prevent discrimination in the distribution of banking loans to Iranians.

“I am hopeful that, through banking reforms injustice in granting loans will be no more and the means [enabling] of misuse of public funds will be no longer.”

So what is missing from this report? (Hint: the magic number is 2.6 billion --- see 1445 GMT.)

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The Latest from Iran (23 August): Worried About Libya?

1950 GMT: Economy Watch. More on the attack on the Government's economic management by leading MP Ahmad Tavakoli (see 1410 GMT)....

Tavakoli, singling out Minister of Economy minister Shamseddin Hosseini for not appearing in Parliament, said huge embezzlements have been committed by government financial groups at the expense of the deprived. He asked, "Why have some received huge credits to establish banks during [Iran's] economic stagnation?"

1800 GMT: Unity Watch. Conservative website Khabar Online claims that conservative faction Islamic Constancy Front is falling apart only a month after its launch, deserted by former Minister of Interior and tycoon Sadegh Mahsouli.

In recent days, the Constancy Front has been embroiled in verbal battles with other conservative/principlist groups set up to promote "unity" before the 2012 Parliamentary elections.

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Iran Feature: Assessing Supreme Leader v. Ahmadinejad

We post this article by Afrooz Mahdavi, writing in the US journal The Nation, in part because it offers an overview of the complexity of the conflict within Iran --- involving the Supreme Leader, President Ahmadinejad, conservative/principlist factions, the Revolutionary Guards, and the reformists and being waged on economic as well as political fronts.

We also post it, however, because of a side story on media coverage of Iran.

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The Latest from Iran (10 August): Lawyers in Prison, Lawyers in Exile

Abdolfattah Soltani (see 0545 GMT)1930 GMT: Currency Watch. Aftab reports that the price of gold coins continues to rise --- now from 474,000 to 482,000 tomans (about $450 to $460) as Iranians put their faith in them amidst economic tensions. Meanwhile, the differential between the "free" and official rates for the US dollar continues to widen --- the Central Bank has set the rate at 1055 tomans to the dollar but the exchange rate on the street is 1200:1.

1735 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. More on the arrest of Parvin Mokhtare, the mother of journalist Kouhyar Goudarzi, as her son was being put in prison again --- while she was having a bath, the house was raided by security agents who climbed over walls to get into the property.

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Iran Document: Supreme Leader to MPs "Heckling of President Ahmadinejad is Disgraceful"

Ahmadinejad Faces Parliament after HecklingMy unhappiness is because of the disrespect that was provided to the President. You disrespected the President. You have the right to point out things to him, question him, and even censure him but you cannot insult anyone, particularly the President. The Presidency is a respectable office in the constitution. Look at the record, Presidents have always had opponents in the Majlis; but when were they insulted in such a manner? This insulting behavior was cruel, unjust and a sin.

My concern is about the Majlis. I was really concerned about the Majlis itself. What kind of a situation is this in which the Majlis, a forum that is presented as the representative of the virtues of people, engages in cries of "No, No", and prevents someone from expressing his view? I have repeatedly told Mr. Larijani to prevent such behavior. Why is there such disrespectful "No No" calling? The only thing they have not done is start a physical fight and jump all over each other, like they do in some countries.

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The Latest from Iran (25 July): A Glimpse of Political Prisoners

Claimed footage of frustrated people watching police as they attempt to remove satellite dishes from a neighbourhood in Sarvestan in southern Iran

1840 GMT: The Battle Within. The Supreme Leader has established a "Supreme Board of Arbitration and Adjustment of Relations among the Three Branches of Government" to "regulate the relations between the three branches of government in their interactions and resolve possible disputes".

Ayatollah Khatami appointed Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, former head of Iran's judiciary and current member of the Guardian Council, as the head of the Supreme Board.

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