The Latest from Iran (17 November): The Regime Mobilises...for Occupy Wall Street

2118 GMT: Rumour of the Day. The hard-line Raja News claims that the President cancelled his attendance of the meeting of gas-exporting countries in Doha at the last minute because of Qatar's support for the suspension of Syria from the Arab League.

2115 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. According to the "hard-line" Arya News, MP Mahmoud Ahmadi-Bighash has asked the judiciary to publish the names of 10 legislators involved in the $2.6 billion bank fraud.

2105 GMT: Press Watch. Rah-e Sabz reports that Parliament has banned critical journalists from covering its proceedings.

Click to read more ...

Iran Analysis: "The Supreme Leader Has Tied His Fate to That of Ahmadinejad" (Siavashi)

Ahmadinejad's domestic opponents, including the Supreme Leader would like to contain Ahmadinejad, and I am certain that if it was politically expedient or even possible, they would have already done so.

The problem for the Supreme Leader, is that he made some judgement calls which have reduced his options. He has essentlally cornered himself. He cannot get rid of Ahmadinejad without the potential of incurring potentially fatal damage to his own reputation.

Ayatollah Khamenei's fate is, in this way, tied to Ahmadinejad's.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (16 November): Non-Appearances

A Green Movement poster opposing any military attack on Iran

See also Iran Analysis: Ahmadinejad --- A Phoenix Rising from the Ashes?
The Latest from Iran (15 November): After the Explosion

---

2100 GMT: The Explosion. Digarban goes back into the question of the death toll of Saturday's blast at the Revolutionary Guards base and --- contrary to the latest claim of the Guards of 17 deaths --- comes up with the names of 36 people who were killed.

The list is taken from accounts in IRNA, Fars, and Mehr.

2050 GMT: CrimeStoppers. MP Hosein Harati has declared that the Supreme Leader is the leader of the movement preventing crime in Iran.

If so, Ayatollah Khamenei has gone a big task --- Harati said that, in a country of 75 million people, there are 10 million criminal files.

Click to read more ...

Iran Analysis: Ahmadinejad --- A Phoenix Rising from the Ashes?

Ahmadinejad may slip some of the immediate shackles. As we noted yesterday, he is no mug, with a tenacity and determination that has prevailed over many of his political foes. But he faces checks at every turn. His economic high-point of the subsidy cuts packages has quickly descended, amidst problems with the programme, wider economic tensions, and the $2.6 billion bank fraud. His play for renewed discussions with the US appears to be going nowhere fast (thanks to both the US and to his domestic opponents). And his political base is shrinking rather than than expanding.

The pendulum does not swing that far. Rocky does not throw a climactic punch. The Phoenix does not rise.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (15 November): After the Explosion

The Supreme Leader at the funeral of Revolutionary Guards personnel killed in a Saturday explosion

See also Iran Gift Idea Special: The Ahmadinejad Teapot
The Latest from Iran (14 November): Playing the Foreign Card

---

2115 GMT: Opposition Watch. The opposition website Rah-e Sabz, which appealed last month for funds, has said that it will remain live, thanks to the help and encouragement of supporters.

2110 GMT: Clerical Intervention. Grand Ayatollah Sane'i, in greetings to the people of Iran and opposition leaders for Eid Ghadir, has demanded the release of political prisoners and free speech.

Click to read more ...

Iran Gift Idea Special: The Ahmadinejad Teapot

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is far too shrewd and tough a politician to be called a mug.

However, that is no reason why you cannot have him on your dining room table, as you host relatives and friends. To add the Presidential touch to your gatherings, we present the Ahmadinejad teapot:

(hat tip to Angie Nasser at NOW Lebanon)

The Latest from Iran (12 November): The Rise of the "Cotton Hero"

The Revolutionary Guard base, west of Tehran, struck by an explosion today (see 1515 GMT)

See also Bahrain 1st-Hand: Friday's "Festival of Loyalty" Opposition Rally
Arab Spring/Iran Special: Is This a Music-Driven Revolution?
The Latest from Iran (11 November): Chest-Thumping

---

2135 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Influential MP Ahmad Tavakoli, a prominent critic of the President, has denied that he asked Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to stand for election in 2005. He says instead that he stepped aside in favour of a candidacy by Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, now Mayor of Tehran.

Ahmadinejad claimed in a speech last week that a number of important conservative and principlist figures implored him to run for President.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (11 November): Chest-Thumping

See also Iran Analysis: The Pattern of Confrontation --- Obama Wins, Regime Wins, Iranian People Lose
Iran Snap Analysis: The US Strikes a Military Pose
The Latest from Iran (10 November): Tag-Team Politics

---

1655 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Farzaneh Mirvand, the wife of detained journalist Siamak Ghaderi, talks about the abuse of her husband in Evin Prison:

Even thinking about the days that my husband was in Ward 209 is very difficult for me. He was in solitary confinement for 34 days under harsh interrogations, was blindfolded, beaten up with a baton and threatened in order to force him to give a false confession.

At one of his interrogation sessions, an interrogator slapped him on his face so hard that he and the chair he was sitting in hit the ground. My husband is still suffering from the injury to his neck that he suffered during that fall.

Yes, for these pressures and other violations. I have gone to every place I could and have told the authorities about them, but they just laughed at me.

Even during his trial, my husband told the judge about his tortures, but he, without paying any attention to my husband’s remarks, issued a verdict based on the false confessions taken from my husband.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (10 November): Tag-Team Politics

1646 GMT: Radio Zamaneh is now confirming that opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi has been moved to a "more appropriate location," according to his son.

Karroubi was being held in a small office apartment, and his family had stressed that the cramped conditions were highly detrimental to his health.

Mohammad Taghi Karroubi wrote that the rent for the new apartment is being shared by the Karroubi family and the Ministry of Intelligence, due to the presence of their forces in the apartment. He added that the authorities have been refusing to allow his mother, Fatemeh Karroubi, to stay with her husband.

1325 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kalemeh reports that Mostafa Tajzadeh, prominent reformist and former Deputy Minister of Interior, is being denied visits in prison.

Tajzadeh, detained soon after the 2009 Presidential election, is serving a six-year sentence.

1145 GMT: Nuke Watch. We posted the second part of our analysis of the IAEA report on Iran's nuclear programme, "Not All Sources Are Equal". Meanwhile....

Click to read more ...

Iran Analysis: The IAEA Nuclear Report --- Everyone's a Winner!

Whatever the IAEA document actually proves is up in the air, but what it does provide is a chance for everyone to claim a victory. The Israeli government, without resorting to military attack, can say that the world is standing up to Iran; its US and European counterparts can enter discussions with Tehran claiming a stronger hear; the Iranian regime can create more space for its suppression of dissent.

That --- more than any claim of nuclear equipment or foreign scientists helping Tehran towards a Bomb --- is the overriding "accomplishment" of this report.

Click to read more ...