1855 GMT: Girls and Boys. Ayatollah Alamolhoda, the Friday Prayer leader of Mashhad, has explained that a woman who wears her headscarf back is "more dangerous than any insect". When seen on a bike, she "shatters a boy's faith".
The opposition website Peyke Iran helpfully illustrates the Ayatollah's point with this photograph:
2055 GMT: Diversion Watch. Back from a conference break to find that Iranian authorities, the press, and State broadcasting have teamed up --- well, sort of --- to offer a spy story as an alternative to real-life political tension.
Both State broadcaster IRNA and Fars have claimed that the Ministry of Intelligence has foiled a US plan to form a "government in exile" for Iran.
The scheme, which included scholars Gene Sharp and Joseph Nye and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, was headed by former Repvolutionary Guard commander Mohammad Reza Madhi. The American organisers arranged for Madhi to travel to Washington, where he met with Vice President Joe Biden, who promised full support.
Meanwhile, Dennis Ross of the National Security Council tried to establish the government in exile. Candidates included Amir Hossein Jahanshahi, a businessman with dual French-Israeli citizenship who is close to Ashraf Pahlavi, the twin sister of the late Shah; Abdollah Mohtadi, leader of Kurdish dissident organisation Komala; Hassan Sharafi; Alireza Nourizadeh, a London-based political analyst; Reza Hosseinbor, the leader of a secessionist group; and filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, all of whom participated in a conference at the Atlantic Hotel in Paris.
The US provided $7 billion for the effort, but it fell apart when the identity of Ahmad Maleki, a diplomat in the Iranian embassy in Italy and a nephew of Mehdi Karroubi, was revealed.
A grand story, although there have been glitches. For Fars claimed that Madhi, working for the Ministry of Intelligence, had penetrated the "counterrevolutionaries", while IRNA and Kayhan referred to him as a "CIA spy".
2035 GMT: Oil and Politics. Talks at the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries broke down over oil output, with Saudi Arabia failing to convince the cartel to raise prodcuation.
"We were unable to reach an agreement --- this is one of the worst meetings we have ever had," said Ali al-Naimi, Minister of Oil for Saudi Arabia.
Iran held out against an increase in output, fearing it might bring down oil prices.
The Iranian Government has based its 2011/12 budget on an oil price of $85 per barrel. The price for crude oil today is just over $101 per barrel; the price for Brent crude is just under $118 per barrel.
2010 GMT: Labour Front. Opposition media is reporting that 1600 workers of the South Pars energy complex, mainly in the electrical and mechanical sections, have been on strike since last Wednesday over unpaid wages.
Owners of industrial and agricultural enterprises who initially welcomed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's plan to reduce subsidies by lifting the price-support system for basic goods have now become its chief critics.
Six months after the controversial plan took effect, these producers are still awaiting the promised financial support for their companies and worry that, with the sharp rise in fuel prices, they will not be able to stay afloat.
"What do people think? That we make so much profit that despite astronomical cost increases we can still produce?" asked one food producer in exasperation, who spoke to IPS on condition of anonymity. "The reality is that sectors of production can't continue and are reducing their production, if not being shut down altogether."
Nikahang Kowsar captures our LiveBlog's theme of the day --- his journalist encounters Ahmadinejad and declares, "A sorcerer should exorcise him":
1740 GMT: Parliament v. President. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has sent his 4th letter in two days to President Ahmadinejad, claiming 14 additional infringements of the law by the Government.
1710 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. So Mr. President, what about the staff from your office arrested as sorcerers and exorcists?
Ahmadinejad replied to the question at his press conference today, "Let's just think about Government service."
He continued, again without reference to any sorcerers, "The Government is on track under the guidance of the Supreme Leader."
However, Ahmadinejad acknowledged, with reference to advisors like Abbas Amirafar, the head of Friday Prayers in his office, and Abbas Ghaffari, the alleged sorcerer, "They arrested those people. Good for them."
Now it was time to move on: "They should let us continue our job. The Government is seeking for nothing rather than serving the people and fulfilling the revolutionary aims." He refused to answer further questions, "Our position at the moment is to stay silent. An inspiring unity silence."
Internally, there were at least three significant things the Supreme Leader said:
A) “Contrary to the opinion of some, rationality doesn’t call us to try to reconcile with the enemy and step back; no, the very opposite, it is rational to stand fast and hold our ground” --- in other words, no detente with America, gentlemen. Khamenei's declaration of this means there had to be some discussions of rapprochement with Washington within the circles of power;
B) the spirituality reference --- a jab at President Ahmadinejad's Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai perhaps but I can’t read it exactly
C) “Those whose views differ from ours but who don’t betray or try to topple the regime –-- they have to be treated justly”. This may be an answer to former President Mohammad Khatami’s plea for reconciliation and/or a signal for former President Hashemi Rafsanjani that he is welcome again.
Funeral of Haleh Sahabi
1650 GMT: Fars News is reporting that Manouchehr Gharavi, the former CEO of the Iranian car maker, Iran-Khodro, and a few others were arrested last Monday.
1640 GMT: On Saturday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei called for a political cease-fire between Ahmadinejad and his most vocal critics inside the conservative party. Those calls, apparently, have gone unheaded.
Mehr News reports that Khamenei's representative to the Republican Guard Corps, Hojatoleslam Mojtaba Zolnour, insinuated today that Ahmadinejad is a threat to the core of the Islamic Republic:
"The current of deviation seeks to weaken the foundations of the Islamic establishment... I believe this movement is the gravest danger in the history of Shiite Islam.
"The head of this new sedition should be removed if the government wants to be clean... We hope this problem will be resolved, but it seems very unlikely such a thing will happen in the near future."
The insinuation is that Ahmadinejad, and his presumed choice for a successor, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, are behind the "current of deviation," a phrase used before to criticise the current president. Zolnour's disregard for political calm, and his association with the IRGC, is a notable event.
1200 GMT: Ali Larijani has warned Ahmadinejad that delegating decisions on oil matters special representatives appointed by the president is illegal.
There are no proclamations of the final outcome in these contributions, no ringing of the bell to say that all is complete. Instead, the victory is in the process, the pursuit of the “gradual”. As long as the search for rights is persistent in these words of sorrow or hope, then rights cannot be denied. As long as the vision of fairness is offered in these reflections, then others have not succeeding in making us --- inside or outside Iran --- blind.
The power of the vote may have been taken away on 12 June 2009. Some may try to pronounce that Iranians --- repressed by their Government, bedazzled by false hopes of Twitter --- are reduced to the powerless. But Aa long as the power to express is put in the simple but effective phrases by these authors, then the power of expression remains.
A marathon, not a sprint.
1940 GMT: The security presence blocking the silent protest for Haleh Sahabi at a religious complex in north Tehran this afternoon:
1925 GMT: Preventing Haleh's Memorial. Witnesses say Iranian security forces fired in the air to disperse several hundred people who had gathered for silent protest over the death of activist Haleh Sahabi (see 1505 GMT).
The forces reportedly used batons as well to disperse the crowd outside the Hosseini Ershad mosque in northern Tehran.
Kalemeh reports that a "few dozen" protesters were arrested and some were "severely beaten".
Friday, June 10, 2011 at 11:33