The Latest from Iran (19 March): Past and Future Elections

1710 GMT: A New Year's Message. The opposition Coordination Council has released another message for Nowruz, calling for patience, perseverance, and hope for victory. The poster with the message declares, "We are a wave whose calmness would mean our non-being":

1650 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. RAHANA has posted statistics on more than 1250 arrests in Iran in the past year, including 185 students, 165 members of religious minorities, 129 Kurdish activists, and 43 journalists.

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Iran Special: A Rafsanjani Alliance with "Moderate Conservatives"?

Watch these references to "unity" from Rafsanjani and the "moderate conservatives". They may indeed mark a unification --- one which is not of support for the Government, but of the forging of an alliance to challenge Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his closest allies.

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Iran Feature: Fire-Jumping with a Flavour of Protest (Ghazi)

Amid tight security, Iranians celebrated the most political fire-jumping festivities known as Chahar-Shanbe Souri, this Tuesday. This traditional Persian festival has been banned by officials of the Islamic republic and has been called “superstitious beliefs lacking religious basis and promoting corruption” even though these remain traditional rituals and national festivities for Iranians because they have been held since 1,700 years before the birth of Christ.

According to Rooz reporters, people in various Iranian cities and towns created small fires and jumped over them on Tuesday evening celebrating the Shahar-Shanbe Souri ritual under the watchful eyes of the security forces. But soon the festivities picked up a political tone as people began to shout “Death to the Dictator” and “Shame on You Dictator, Leave the Country.”

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The Latest from Iran (16 March): The Fire Festival

1955 GMT: The House Arrests. This just in from Saham News, translated by Banooye Sabz:

A few hours ago, Mohammad Taghi Karroubi, Mehdi Karroubi's second son published a short note on his personal site indicating that a close family friend has visited with his parents.

The following is an excerpt of the note on Mohammad Taghi Karroubi's site:

"A dear clergyman trusted both by the family and the ruling government contacted me today by phone stating that he had met with my mother and father last night in a friendly setting. This beloved person informed me that they are doing well, are in good health and peaceful."

Note the curiosity in the story: the clergyman did not meet the Karroubis in their residence, where they are supposedly under house arrest, but in "a friendly setting". (The same situation occurred last week with Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard when they met their daughters in a building "near their home".) That leaves open the question of the exact status of the Karroubis --- strict house arrest or detention? And it also leaves open the question of when the Karroubis will next be able to speak to someone.

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The Latest from Iran (14 March): All Hail Intelligence

1955 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The International Committee for Human Rights in Iran describes the case of 80-year-old Ebrahim Yazdi, whose trial has been postponed for the third time.

Yazdi, the Secretary-General of the Iran Freedom Movement, has been in prison since early October, charged with “acting against national security,” “propagating against the regime,” and “establishing the Iran Freedom Movement". He is in poor helath and is now detained in a Ministry of Intelligence house of detention.

1925 GMT: Human Rights Update. The Secretary-General of the UN has just released his interim report to the Human Rights Council on the situation in Iran:

The present report highlights many areas of continuing concern for human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Secretary-General has been deeply troubled by reports of increased executions, amputations, arbitrary arrest and detention, unfair trials, and possible torture and ill-treatment of human rights activists, lawyers, journalists and opposition activists.

The Secretary-General encourages the Government to address the concerns highlighted in the report and the specific calls to action found in previous resolutions of the General Assembly as well as the Universal Periodic Review process. The Secretary-General notes the important and constructive role the human rights lawyers and activists play in protecting human rights and encourages the Government of Iran to fully guarantee freedom of expression and assembly and to open up greater space for human rights lawyers and activists.

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Iran Analysis: Why This is the Political Demise of Hashemi Rafsanjani (Tehrani)

Rafsanjani and Mahdavi-KaniAfter 30 years of patient mediation as the Islamic Republic’s quintessential “crisis man”, Rafsanjani has been shunted aside because, in the words of his brother, “no one listens to him anymore”. Despite paying lip service to the Leader, maintaining control over the largely spent Expediency Council and calling for internal unity, Rafsanjani is moving closer and closer to becoming a ceremonial figure, one whose capacity for scheming and plotting is diminishing by the day.

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The Latest from Iran (9 March): More than Political Games

2210 GMT: Clerical Challenge. A different line of criticism from Grand Ayatollah Vahid Khorasani, who has been distancing himself from the regime, today....

Vahid Khorasani said that the Government was "losing Islam" by failing to prevent Iran's youth from being seduced by Christianity.

2150 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Ardavan Tarakmeh, student director, writer and film critic, has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Tarakmeh is the son of reputed writer and literary critic Younes Tarakmeh. He was arrested during the Ashura demonstrations of 27 December 2009.

Farnaz Kamali, a member of the One Million Signatures Campaign for women's rights, has been released on $300,000 bail.

Kamali was arrested in Tehran during the protests on 20 February and charged with actions against national security, membership in the Campaign to Free [student activist] Atefeh Nabavi, and participation in protests.

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WikiLeaks and The New Axis of Evil: Iran's Ahmadinejad = Owner of Baseball's New York Yankees

How to explain Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's personal involvement in Iranian football to the State Department in a meaningful way? How to get across how sports and politics can link controversial men from Tehran to New York?

A man named George Steinbrenner.

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The Latest from Iran (7 March): Avoiding Elephants in the Room

2115 GMT: The Assembly of Experts Meeting. The gathering of the 84 members of the Assembly of Experts begins tomorrow, but already there is a ripple: the office of Ayatollah Dastgheib, whos is the member for Shiraz, says the cleric has not received his invitation to attend and has demanded the release of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

2110 GMT: An Unscripted Moment for the Speech. Footage from Voice of America of a member of the audience interrupting today's speech in Shiraz by President Ahmadinejad:

1935 GMT: Economy Watch. An official at the Central Bank has said that Iran's annual rate of inflation, in the second month after subsidy cuts, has risen from 10.8% to 11.6%.

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The Latest from Iran (6 March): Catching Up with the Regime and Rafsanjani

2000 GMT: A Right Nuclear Mess. Looks like Iran has got itself in a real tangle over its first nuclear plant at Bushehr.

Last week reports emerged that Iran was having to withdraw fuel rods from Bushehr, opened last autumn, because of unspecified technical problems.

Although there was some discussion of whether the difficulty was the Stuxnet computer worm, allegedly introduced by the "West" and/or Israel into software running the plant, the issue might have stopped there. But then Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast on Tuesday denied reports that any fuel has been removed, saying operations at the facility "are running their normal course."

And now the deputy head of Parliament's Energy Commission, Abdollah Kaabi, has given the nuclear tension another stir with accusations against Moscow, contradicting the Foreign Ministry line that all is well. Kaabi said Saturday, “If Russia continues to delay the inauguration of Bushehr nuclear power plant, the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) will definitely table a motion to demand compensation from Moscow.”

Kaabi said the Russians had always been “unreliable partners in the course of history”, causing “unacceptable” delays in the project and imposing heavy costs on Iran.

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