Iran Today: Presidential Election --- Last Day Of Candidate Declarations

President Ahmadinejad and his right-hand man, Presidential candidate Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, at the election centre today

See also Iran Special: EA's Guide to the Presidential Election
Iran Video of Day: People Chant "Rafsanjani Has Arrived"< /br>
Friday's Iran Today: Presidential Election --- Still No "Unity" Candidate

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Election Watch: Rafsanjani Edition

Former president Hashemi Rafsanjani has told the ISNA news agency that he "has come to serve and the people have the right to elect me or not."

Meanwhile, MP Alireza Zakani, Presidential hopeful and head of one of the factions seeking to fight the election, has said he will support Saeed Jalili --- Secretary of the National Security Council --- to stop the "sedition" of Rafsanjani.

The news agency was suspended, and its head threatened with prosecution, over an April 2012 video report on martial arts training by Iranian women.

The report initially appeared with a headline that the women were training to become assassins.

Rallying Behind Rafsanjani

In another major development pointing to a serious challenge by former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, the "Advisory Council of the Reformists" has put out a statement that --- after a meeting with former President Mohammad Khatami --- all reformists will be formally backing Rafsanjani.

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The Latest from Iran (2 December): After the Embassy, It's Back to the Economy

Maya Neyestani compares protest and Iran's security forces 2009 with protest and Iran's security forces 2011: "Nah, they are students. Take it easy."

See also Iran 1st-Hand Special: Basij Student's Account of the Attack on the British Embassy
Iran Analysis: The Embassy Attack --- "A Serious Mis-Calculation" by the Regime
The Latest from Iran (1 December): A Spot of Bother

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2120 GMT: The Embassy Attack. The British Ambassador to Iran, Dominick Chilcott, has given his account of Tuesday's occupation of the Embassy --- interestingly, it matches up with that of one of the Basij militia who took over the building. Chilcott said:

One of our staff was on his own in his keep (safe area) and he barricaded the door with a heavy safe and a bed, and braced himself against the wall. And for 45 minutes he could hear people bashing down the door, smashing the windows and trying to get in because they knew he was there. It must have been a very frightening experience — until eventually the door gave way and they got him.

Chilcott said seven staff --- Iranian accounts say six --- were taken to another building and made to sit quietly, some of them being "quite roughly handled", until they were escorted away by security forces. He said of his experience:

We could hear them trying to smash the doors and buildings down below. But they couldn't get into our part of the building. Except in one point, where they got into one of the consular offices and started a fire. And in the end it was the fire and the smoke coming up onto the third floor corridor which forced us out.

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