Iran Live Coverage: "Positive" Nuclear Talks?

Iran Analysis: 7 Things We Know --- And Do Not Know --- About the Nuclear Talks
Iran Analysis: What Tehran's Nuclear Negotiator Actually Said About the Talks
Wednesday's Iran Live Coverage: No News is Good or Bad News at the Nuclear Talks?

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1812 GMT: Clashes over Water Shortages? BBC Persian is claiming that farmers, protesting over water shortages, have been injured in clashes with security forces in Isfahan.

Supplies have reportedly been limited for more than 40 days after a burst in a water main. Security forces were deployed yesterday to disperse protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Images have circulated on the Internet of a bus, carrying Government troops, which was set on fire:

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The Latest from Iran (4 January): If You Yell Victory, Does It Count?

See also Iran Feature: Explaining the Currency Crisis
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The Latest from Iran (3 January): Desperately Seeking Reformists

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2145 GMT: Foreign Affairs (Turkish Front). Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has made an unexpected trip to Tehran today, briefly meeting his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi.

No details of the discussion or of the agenda were given in Mehr, which said only that Davutoğlu would be meeting Iranian officials tomorrow.

2045 GMT: Currency Watch. Amidst the currency crisis, the Central Bank has ordered a decrease in the amount that can be exchanged under a preferential "traveller's rate" from $2000 to $1000.

Under the "traveller's rate" of about 13000:1, the Iranian rial is weaker than the official rate of 11800:1 but still stronger than the open market rate of 15700:1, thus enabling Iranians going abroad to get more US dollars or foreign equivalents for their Iranian currency. Iranians can carry out the transaction once a year.

(Hat tip to Moandor, who provided information earlier today and predicted the Central Bank would soon take a step over the traveller's rate in .)

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The Latest from Iran (2 July): Watching Out for the Tehran Mayor

Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf1925 GMT: Reformist Watch. Mojtaba Vahedi, an opposition spokesman based in the US and an ally of Mehdi Karroubi, has criticised former President Mohammad Khatami for his call for "reconcilation" with the regime.

Vahedi said there is nothing is left of Parliament to contest in 2012 elections, as everything is controlled by the Supreme Leader and Guardian Council. He specifically denounced leading MP Mostafa Kavakebian as "no reformist" --- "All real reformists are in prison".

1920 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaking to scholars of Qom universities and seminaries, has declared, "If we don't keep a majority of ppl satisfied, there will be no bright future" for the Iranian system.

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