The Latest from Iran (15 December): Ahmadinejad Jabs at the Revolutionary Guards

President Ahmadinejad at a public appearance on Friday

See also Iran Letter: Nasrin Sotoudeh from Prison "Why I Went on Hunger Strike"
Iran Feature: "Accept that the Regime is in Its Final Days" --- Dr Maleki's Letter to Supreme Leader
The Latest from Iran (14 December): An Advance in the Nuclear Talks?

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2025 GMT: What's Missing from This Story? Press TV proclaims:

South Korea imports of Iranian crude oil have increased 2.9% in November compared to a month ago despite West’s unilateral embargoes against Iran's oil and financial sectors.

According to the data released by Korea Customs Service, Seoul purchased 814,797 metric tons, equivalent to 5.97 million barrels, of oil from Iran in November...

South Korea halted crude purchases from Iran in August and September after its refiners lost insurance coverage on ships because of the sanctions imposed on Iran. However, Iran responded by using state-owned tankers to carry cargoes, a move that would allow South Korea to receive crude shipments without concerns over insurance guarantees.

Press TV, however, appears to have missed this report on longer-term prospects:

South Korean refiners will cut imports of Iranian crude during the six months to May by about a fifth from a year earlier, to avoid sanctions by Washington, government and industry sources told Reuters on Monday....

"The cut in next year's imports is expected to be by about 20 percent year on year," an industry source who has direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

South Korea gave the assurance on the size of the cuts in talks with the United States following discussions with Korean refiners, the sources said.

Such a cut would imply South Korean imports of about 147,814 bpd over the period to next May, since it imported 184,767 bpd of Iranian crude from December 2011 to May 2012.

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Iran Feature: "Accept that the Regime is in Its Final Days" --- Dr Maleki's Letter to Supreme Leader

Accept that the regime is in its final days. Do not trust in the information your allies provide you. Their only concern is their interests. At the end they will leave you on your own. Now, Iranians see you as responsible for all their problems. It was you who denied, and is still denying, the endless problems of the people. It was you who made incorrect decisions and let foreigners impose sanctions on Iranians and make their lives miserable. It was you who implemented strategies that brought the entire world against Iran. It was you who showed a green light to his men to take terrorist actions everywhere and shed the blood of Iranian intellectuals. You, as former President and current Supreme Leader, are responsible for mass killings of the 80s and martyrdoms of Hoda, Haleh, Neda, Saba, Sattar and many others.

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The Latest from Iran (14 December): An Advance in the Nuclear Talks?

The 40th day memorial for blogger Sattar Beheshti, allegedly killed during interrogation in prison on 3 November

See also Iran Video Analysis: "Tehran Is Not Making a Mad Dash for the Bomb"
Thursday's The Latest from Iran (13 December): Nuclear Talks with the IAEA

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1914 GMT: Assurance of the Day. Ayatollah Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, has assured that "there is no possibility of another election intrigue" in the 2013 Presidential campaign, and those responsible in the 2009 disputed Presidential election "do not even have the illusion" that they can puruse this.

Jannati said those "guilty of sedition" will not be able to participate in the election.

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Iran Snap Analysis: Speculating about the Next President

Supreme Leader & Ali Larijani"The most important vote in Iran’s presidential election is that of Ayatollah Khamenei" --- And the Supreme Leader and his office, weighing all the political possibilities and pitfalls, do not cast that vote until late in the jousting for the Presidency and the ballot in June. As analyst Essikhan Sadeghi Boroujerdi summarises, echoing one of our top EA correspondents, "Everything on presidential election is pretty much speculation, rumour, and hearsay till March."

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The Latest from Iran (11 December): "We Have Confused the US"

Supreme Leader to international conference today: "Any notion that the global arrogance, led by the US, may come to terms with Islamic movements is wrong" (see 1445 GMT)

Iran Analysis: Why There is Much Posing --- But No Progress --- On Nuclear Talks
The Latest from Iran (10 December): Worries over Opposition Leaders Under House Arrest

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1525 GMT: Nuclear Watch. The Supreme Leader may have closed the door on direct talks with the US (see 1445 GMT), but Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has reiterated that Tehran is seeking a renewal of negotiations with the 5+1 Powers (US, Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia): “Our proposals to the P5+1 are clear and they should respond to us. If they show goodwill, the way is open to talks and to prove their goodwill they can start with the steps we have already said."

Araqchi also noted the scheduled talks on 13 January between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency to define a framework for inspection and supervision.

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The Latest from Iran (9 December): Talking Tough on Sanctions

See also Iran Feature: How a US Neo-Con Pundit Is Helping Tehran's Propaganda
The Latest from Iran (8 December): Tehran to Hit New Low in Oil Exports?

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2030 GMT: The House Arrests. Habibollah Asgarouladi, a leading member of the conservative Motalefeh Party, has called for the release of former Presidential cnadidates and opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi --- held under strict house arrest since February 2011 --- if they distance themselves from the protests after the disputed 2009 Presidential election.

Asgarouladi said, "We never say that the 2009 candidates took [seditious] actions because they are basically not seditious. We believe they were falling in line with seditious elements."

1720 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. The lawyer for Mehdi Hashemi, the son of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, said his client's detention order has been extended for another two months.

The attorney claimed that Hashemi, seized in September when he returned from a three-year exile in Britain, is under pressure to agree to a television interview.

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The Latest from Iran (8 December): Tehran to Hit New Low in Oil Exports?

See also Iran Snap Analysis: A Regime Still Worried About the Green Movement? (Yes.)
The Latest from Iran (7 December): Maintaining the Oil Squeeze

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1740 GMT: Nuclear Watch. The "hard-line" paper Kayhan, using a historical reference, has warned that leading political figures are seeking to force the Supreme Leader to "drink from the "poison chalice" and hold direct talks with the US over the nuclear issue.

The expression refers to Ayatollah Khomeini's statement when he reluctantly agreed to the punishing conditions of a cease-fire in the Iran-Iraq War in 1988.

The regime pursued "back-channel" discussions with the US in the autumn, but these appear to have come to a halt in October. Since then, Tehran has grown frustrated with an apparent failure of Washington and its allies to talk about an Iranian proposal trading enrichment of 20% uranium for sanctions, and this week Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani indicated the Islamic Republic is backing away from the idea of direct talks.

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The Latest from Iran (4 December): Regime Concern over Political Prisoners?

State outlet Press TV on Revolutionary Guards' capture of a US dronem, announced today

See also Iran Analysis: A Debate Over Ahmadinejad's Political Future
Monday's The Latest from Iran (3 December): Medicine and Sanctions

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2100 GMT: Book Corner. More than 100 Iranian writers, poets, and translators have called for an end to book censorship in an open letter.

The literary figures want the abolition of the requirement that writers obtain authorisation from the Culture Ministry before publishing:

Iran is one of the rare countries in the beginning of the 21st century where authors have to ask for a license from the state in order to publish their books, even though the requirement is not stated in the constitution....

In reality, this method amounts to hostage taking of freedom of expression, creativity, and the livelihood of writers by the government in order to impose its ideas on the authors.

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Iran Analysis: A Debate Over Ahmadinejad's Political Future

2. Ahmadinejad’s reshuffling of the deck of close allies and his open contempt for all the other State institutions is not in itself a signal of his regaining strength. He has been consistently assertive and cocky all the way through the power struggle simply because he has no other choice. Any sign of meekness and his supporters would abandon him.

I think that even inside the system, among the mid-ranking officials and security men, nobody is really sure what is the balance of power and who is calling the shots. So they all want to play safe. I wouldn’t cross Ahmadinejad out just yet, but I wouldn’t see a sudden reversal of fortunes either.

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The Latest from Iran (3 December): Medicine and Sanctions

See also The Latest from Iran (2 December): Ahmadinejad Puts His Right-Hand Man in a New Post

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2055 GMT: Foreign Affairs (Egyptian Front). After a period of uncertainty over how to play its relationship with Egypt --- given President Morsi's slapdown of Iran over Syria this summer, his key role in ending the Gaza War, and then his sudden grab of powers --- it looks like Tehran is back to the promotion of an Iran-Egypt alliance to reshape the Middle East.

Kazem Jalali, a leading MP with role at the Parliamentary Research Center and the National Security Committee, puts out the line, “Egypt and Iran can play an important and effective role in the Middle East region for promoting peace and security, and providing proper grounds for unity of the Muslim world."

Jalali hailed Egypt’s 2011 revolution as a “great achievement for the regional nations,” adding, “Every revolution is usually followed by a transition period which has to be passed and the Egyptian revolution is no exception to this rule. We hope to see stability and calm in this country very soon.”

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