2030 GMT: Explosions. The head of Kurdistan police reports that two bombs have gone off in Sanandaj. There are no casualties.
1845 GMT: Ahwaz Watch. An Ahwazi Arab activist site is claiming that a 37 year-old man, Abdulrahman Ghasem Badawi, was slain on Thursday night at a checkpoint 20 km (12.5 miles) outside Ahwaz.
2140 GMT: The Ahwaz Day of Rage. Activists in Ahwaz claimed at least nine protesters have died, scores have been injured, and hundreds have been detained by security services this week.
2130 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Student activist Foad Sojoudi-Farimani has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
Sojoudi-Farimani was arrested on 13 September 2010. After 45 days, he was released on $500,000 bail, but he was barred from pursuing his postgraduate education.
2010 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Two supporters of the Laleh Park Mothers of Mourning, Jila Karamzadeh and Laila Saifollahi, have each been sentenced to four years in prison.
1710 GMT: The President's Former Right-Hand Man. A bit more context on the battle around controversial Ahmadinejad ally and advisor Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, who officially left as Chief of Staff today....
Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, considered a spiritual advisor to Ahmadinejad, reportedly launched a furious attack on Rahim-Mashai. The cleric said the "fitna" (sedition) of 2009 around the Presidential election had ended, but now there was a new fitna on higher level.
And what could that challenge be? In a reference to Rahim-Mashai's promotion of an "Iranian model" for other countries to follow, Mesbah Yazdi asked, "Why replace Islam and Revolution with an Iran School?"
Western audiences, and especially Americans, don't like complicated, sad stories. We like good guys and bad guys, cowboys and Indians, terrorists and allies. We don't like to hear that 40-60% of the population of a country that we view as an enemy might very well be a friend. We don't like to hear that the government we are negotiating with is illegitimate, or weak. We also don't like to follow the slow development of an opposition movement that we can do little to help. We like sexy stories like weapons of mass destruction or revolution, and we certainly like clarity.
Unfortunately, as long as we're not paying attention, we're also not helping, and until the media starts to cover these stories, many more people may die before things improve in Iran.
(Photograph by Munzz)
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.
1935 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Al-Rai newspaper claims, citing a central bank circular, that Kuwait has asked Gulf emirate banks, investment companies, and money exchange firms to start implementing United Nations sanctions against Iran.
The instructions call for the freezing of assets and financial resources related to “Iran’s sensitive nuclear programmes or activities”. The circular bans the opening of branches or representative offices for Iranian banks in Kuwait and forbids Kuwaiti financial institutions from opening offices or accounts in Iran.
1830 GMT: Really, It's Coming. Yet another declaration, after weeks of delays, that the government's subsidy cuts programme is going to be implemented: according to Mehr, new energy prices will be announced within days.
1800 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The US Government has asked Japan to completely withdraw from the Azadegan oil development field in southwest Iran, according to Yomiuri Shinbun.
Japanese officials as saying that Washington wants the Inpex Corporation, which has a 10% stake in the field, to leave Iran. If it does not, it could be targeted for unilateral US sanctions.
Toyota Motors withdrew from Iran in June to avoid US sanctions.
1750 GMT: The Battle Within. And another analyst joins in (see 1235 GMT): Reza Aslan says, "[Ahmadinejad] is going home to a country in political turmoil, an economy on the verge of utter collapse, and a government in total deadlock."
1740 GMT: Yes, I Guess Social Media Really is Unimportant. In the context of this week's discussion on EA on social media and activism, I found that interesting....
Iranian state-controlled television is calling Facebook and Twitter the "hidden enemies" of Iran, used by Western intelligence agencies to recruit new members and gather data on individuals. Mardomak has posted a video.
2010 GMT: Rumour of Day. We have listened for days as chatter spread about the killings last week of two Tehran doctors, Abdolreza Sudbakhsh and Gholamreza Sarabi, by gunmen on motorcycles.
Iran officials said Dr. Sarabi was killed in revenge over a botched medical case while there were no comments about the case of Dr. Sudbakhsh.
Now Rah-e-Sabz has offered a political link in the case of Dr. Sudbakhsh, who was one of the physicians responsible for inmate health at the Kahrizak detention center, where post-election protesters were abused and killed.
The website claimed that Dr. Sudbakhsh had been ordered by Iranian security officials to give false diagnoses regarding Kahrizak detainees. For example, Mohsen Ruholamini, the son of the campaign manager of conservative presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei, was initially said to have died from meningitis. Later it was established --- and confirmed in a parliamentary report --- that he died from beatings at Kahrizak.
We're still cautious but the story has now spread to the pages of The New York Times.
Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 15:23