Iran Interview: Daughters of Opposition Leader Mousavi Speak Out...and Take Risks Doing So

Mir Hossein Mousavi & Zahra RahnavardThe country is in crisis. In addition to denying this crisis they seek to hide it through creating diversions. In reality they should be resolving the issues facing the nation and allow the citizens to live in peace. Behaviour such as raiding people’s homes and creating terror and fear amongst families is neither ethical nor will it lead to any positive results. They sow the seeds of anger and hatred with their behaviour and this type of condition will not lead to positive results for them in the long run.

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Iran Exclusive: Did Supreme Leader's Top Advisor Meet US Officials in Qatar?

Ali Akbar Velayati & Supreme LeaderAccording to well-placed EA sources, the Supreme Leader's top advisor for foreign policy, Ali Akbar Velayati, has met US officials in Doha in Qatar earlier this month. Velayati and the Americans discussed the renewal of high-level talks over Tehran's nuclear programme.

The account from our sources follows more than a week of reports and rumours about "back-channel" US-Iran discussions.

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Iran Special: Mousavi's Moment Outside House Arrest "The Future is Bright"

According to reports received by Kalemeh, 200 days after their house arrest, Mousavi and Rahnavard were accompanied by a number of male and female security agents to the residence of one of their daughters.  This sudden and unprecedented visit, with all three of their daughters present, was the first time Mousavi and Rahnavard were allowed to leave the confounds of their house arrest in a period of seven months.

The future is bright…

In the meeting with his three children, Mir Hossein Mousavi made the following statement regarding the current developments in the country: “The future is bright.”  While pointing to the upcoming [Parliamentary] elections, the former Prime Minister during the eight-year holy war against Iraq stated: ”Given the current climate in our country, one cannot be hopeful regarding participation in the upcoming elections.”

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Iran Special Analysis: 5 Points for Discussion of the "New Green Manifesto"

UPDATE 1920 GMT: insideIRAN has posted a copy of the Persian version of the "New Green Manifesto"
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"Cells" need outlets and actions to represent them not as isolated pockets of activists but as part of a large, widespread challenge to those who claim authority. Mousavi and Karroubi also put forth a self-serving naivete on this issue: "We are the Media" is an essential call, but it has to be connected to representatives --- students, politicians, lawyers, advocates of gender rights, unionists, and other activists --- who can put out a message with resonance. 

So far the "New Green Manifesto" is reliant on that wider appeal through an overseas site with a "niche" readership. And that for the moment --- as the representatives' latest statement highlights, with its narrow response to critics abroad --- limits any impact of the "several recommendations for the reform and strengthening of the Green Movement".

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Iran Flashback: When EA Became the Supreme Leader's Facebook Friend

Earlier this week The Guardian of London, noting an article on the opposition site Kalemeh, wrote in astonishment: even though Twitter and Facebook are blocked in Iran, the Supreme Leader had come out on both.

Only thing is: it's an old story. 

We know this because we were one of Ayatollah Khamenei's first Facebook Friends. Here are the EA story and updates, run unedited, from August 2009:

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UPDATE 16 August, 2035 GMT: Supreme Leader wants to click "Get New Nokia N97" ad on his page but worries he will put himself under surveillance.

Ayatollah Khamenei still has 39 friends.

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Iran Interview: Mousavi's Response to The Regime's Propaganda --- "Promoting Awareness Peacefully"

For us being Green does not mean that we want to turn everyone into our colour and into a single colour, the same way the totalitarians and authoritarians prescribe their own colour and view for everyone. Green is living side by side each other while understanding the differences, varieties in views, opinions and tastes. If the totalitarians and their propaganda try to highlight the gaps created in families and society, by accepting these differences, we must try to propose a prescription for peaceful living side by side with each other. Promoting awareness peacefully is the most effective weapon against violence and the spread of division and ignorance.

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The Latest from Iran (6 January): Spying Fantasy, Death Sentence Reality

2100 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The Financial Times reviews the Washington-led effort to shut down the operations of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, "US Takes Aim at Iranian Shipping".

2055 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Two activists from the Tehran Bus Workers Union in Iran, Morteza Komsari and Aliakbar Nazariis, have been released in prison. Four others --- Gholamreza Gholamhosseini, Ebrahim Madadi, Mansour Osanloo, and Reza Shahabi --- remain in detention.

1720 GMT: Striking at the Lies. Alireza Beheshti, Chief of Staff to Mir Hossein Mousavi during the 2009 campaign, has written an open letter challenging the regime's line of "sedition" around the Presidential election as a "flood of slander and insult".

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The Latest from Iran (13 September): The Revolving Door of Freedom?

2020 GMT: Latest on US Detainee Sarah Shourd. Masoud Shafiee, the lawyer for detained US citizen Sarah Shourd, says that her family is appealing to Iran's authorities to drop or reduce. the $500,000 bail demanded for her release because of difficulties raising the money.

Shafiee said authorities had given no response to the bail request.

Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley said, "The United States government does not fund prisoner bail."

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said the Obama Administration is in close contact with the families of the three detained US hikers --- Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Josh Fattal --- and the Swiss Embassy, which represents American interests in Iran.

"The situation is continuing to develop," Vietor said. "We remain hopeful for a positive outcome."

Shafiee said authorities had given no response to the bail request.

2000 GMT: Diplomat Number Four. The Norwegian paper Dagblodet reports that Farzad Farhangian, the Iranian Press Attache in Belgium, has resigned his post and is now in Oslo seeking asylum.

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