The Latest from Iran (14 June): Tough Talk Based on Bad Economics

See also Remember Iran: The Protests, the Repression...and the "Hope That Runs The World"
Remember Iran Flashback: "The Obama Administration Fails to React" (14 June 2009)
Remember Iran Flashback: 14 June 2009 Live Coverage --- "More than 100" Arrested as Greens Prepare Rally
The Latest from Iran (13 June): The Reformists and the Next Election

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Supreme Leader Addresses MPs, 13 June1515 GMT: Suppressing the Lawyers. Shadi Sadr summarises the regime's efforts to curb activism and dissent through intimidation and imprisonment of attorneys:

Between June 2009 and July 2011 at least 42 lawyers were arrested and at least 7 lawyers were forced to leave the country. Mohammad Ali Dadkhah was recently sentenced to 9 years' imprisonment and a 10 year ban on practicing law. The security officials have told him that either he will give a televised interview in which he will state that he was given money by foreign governments for defending his client or he has to go to prison....

Harassing the lawyers is not limited to their detention and sentencing. Most of the lawyers who have been detained are repeatedly questioned for having defended their clients. They are summoned and interrogated by security forces in short intervals. Many have been forced to promise not to give interviews to the media regarding the conditions of their clients. For this reason, methods of providing information regarding the conditions of the political prisoners are being blocked more and more every day. Some of the lawyers are told that they cannot accept political case files. For this reason, many prisoners of conscience are deprived of their right to a defense, prescribed by the Iranian constitution.

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Iran Special: The Nuclear Scientist, WikiLeaks, and the Executed Kickboxer

Reuters' report on the execution of Majid Jamali Fashi

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Majid Jamali Fashi did not seal his fate by speaking with the US Embassy in Baku in August 2009, only for his words to appear publicly months later. That fate may have influenced by an Iranian official who made inaccurate guesses about the source in the original WikiLeaks document or who thought that, regardless of the truth, it could be a prop for Jamali Fashi's arrest, trial, and execution. Given the absence of public evidence in this case, we will never know.

But then, at least for me, there is the bigger story, which is similar to that of others in the Islamic Republic. Majid Jamali Fashi lost his life as an act in the continuing political theatre, both for the domestic script and for that of Iran's relations with Israel and the US. When Iranian officials needed to establish that they were doing something about the slayings of the country's scientists, he played his part as the confessing suspect. When they needed to show their continuing strength and determination, amid the pressure of sanctions and US and Israeli rhetoric, the kickboxer was sentenced to die. And when the Islamic Republic needed to show that its version of justice would be done, in the face of the "enemy", he was hung.

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The Latest from Iran (6 May): After the Election

See also Iran Snap Analysis: Some People Were Selected for the Parliament --- Does It Matter?
The Latest from Iran (5 May): The Threat of Inflation

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1630 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Journalist Meysam Mohamadi has been sentenced to four years in prison and a five-year ban from print or online journalism.

The same punishment has been handed down to journalist Omid Mohades.

1543 GMT: Parliament v. President. Najmeh Bozorgmehr of The Financial Times reports that the Majlis, in its first post-election session, has challenged the Government with two complaints to the judiciary, one over “incurring irreparable damages” to the country’s economy by violating foreign exchange laws “at a time the country faces numerous sanctions” over its nuclear policies.

Bozorgmehr also notes that the Supreme Court has approved a death sentence for Majid Jamali Fashi, who was convicted in a closed-doors trial of the murder of nuclear scientist Massoud Aliohammadi, in January 2010.

The regime has accused Jamali Fashi, a former kickboxing champion who reportedly beat up protesters after the 2009 Presidential election (see EA feature), with collaborating with Israeli intelligence services.

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The Latest from Iran (13 January): Beyond "Safe and Sane" --- Watching The Economy

President Ahmadinejad, on his trip to Cuba, pronounces that former Cuban leader Fidel Castro is "safe and sane"

See also Iran Snap Analysis: Are the Oil Sanctions Tightening on Tehran?
Iran Video: Scott Lucas on Al Jazeera - Tehran, China, & US Sanctions
The Latest from Iran (12 January): After the Tehran Bomb

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2015 GMT: Chest-Thumping.of the Day. Fars has picked up the story from The New York Times (see 0900 GMT) that the Obama Administration has sent a warning to the Supreme Leader that closing the Strait of Hormuz is a “red line” that will bring an American response.

1940 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has pulled back from the support of his Finance Minister, Jun Azumi (see separate analysis), for tougher sanctions by Tokyo on Iran.

Azumi had said Thursday, after talks with US Secretary of Treasury Tim Geithner, that Japan would reduce oil imports but Noda said today that the Government has yet to decide because businesses implications need to be considered. He described Azumi's remarks as a "personal view".

Noda continued, "Japan's basic stance is to resolve such matters diplomatically and peacefully. We need to consult with the business community, and we need to work out details with U.S. officials. We have to think about the implications for Japanese banks, and what measures are needed to resolve possible negative impact."

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Iran Snap Analysis: Car Bomb's Victim Was Not A "Nuclear Scientist", But Can This Still Mean "War?

The Body of Mostafa Ahmadi Rostan After the BombUPDATE 1210 GMT: An EA correspondent offers a vital addition to the analysis:

I think that caution should be applied on the theme of whether Ahmadi Rostan was a nuclear scientist or not. His links with the technical aspects of the nuclear programme are much clearer than, for example, those of Masoud Ali-Mohammadi [the scientist killed in January 2010 in a similar manner to yesterday's bombing]. His scientific curriculum fully fits the crucial gas stage of the uranium conversion and, according to Mehr, he was questioned recently by IAEA inspectors, who in turn are accused of making him known to the US and Israeli intelligence communities.

Unless the IAEA just questioned him to understand his procurement activities, there must have been valid technical reasons for them doing so, hence the label "nuclear scientist", which after all is a rather generic one. What Ahmadi was not was professor or even lecturer of any substantial level --- he wouldn't have been able to hold such a position with only a bachelor's degree.<

EA reader "M. Zand" (see Comments) points us in a similar direction, noting an article by Somayeh Soltani at Tehran Emrooz, "What was Engineer Ahmadi’s project?":

It is said that Martyr Ahmadi Roshan through a joint project was in particular working with polymer membranes to separate gases. To enrich Uranium, one uses polymer membranes such that Uranium is turned into Uranium hexafluoride gas, and then this gas is filtered through polymer membrane. With this Uranium 235 is filtered through polymer membrane and therefore enriched to Uranium 238.

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Expect a lot more media sound and some fury today over Wednesday's car bomb in Tehran, in which a motorcyclist killed Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan and his driver by attaching an explosive to their automobile.

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The Latest from Iran (11 January): A Car Bomb in Tehran

State media Press TV's coverage of the bombing this morning in Tehran, killing Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, deputy head of procurement at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility (video via The Guardian)

See also Iran Feature: The Regime Isolates the Rafsanjani Family
Iran 1st-Hand: How the Currency Crisis Began
Ahmadinejad's Men Strike 1st Blow in the Elections
The Latest from Iran (10 January): "A Big Atomic Bomb Will Come Out"

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2108 GMT: The Tehran Bomb. According to Mehr, today's victim in the Tehran bombing, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan --- scientist and deputy head of procurement at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility --- had met officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency, who are in Iran reviewing the nuclear operations.

Roshan's driver, wounded in the attack, later died from his injuries.

2058 GMT: Elections Watch. Rasa News reports that Soulat Mortazavi, the head of Iran's Election Commission has asked clerics in Qom to tell people that there is no fraud in the elections and that high turnout is important.

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Wikileaks & Iran Flashback: How A Kickboxing Champion Became "Israeli Spy" & Was Sentenced To Death

We reported last week on the sentencing of 26-year-old Majid Jamali Fashi to death after he was convicted of the assassination of physicist Masoud Alimohammadi in January 2010.

The case always had intriguing elements, given Alimohammadi's supposed connections with Iran's nuclear programme; however, in January 2011, EA uncovered an entirely new dimension.

Jamali Fashi, a professional kickboxer, supported the regime by beating up protesters after the 2009 Presidential elections --- so how could he have be an enemy of the regime by working for Israel to murder an Iranian scientist and hinder Tehran's nuclear research?

Read on....

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The Latest from Iran (28 August) It's the Ecology, Stupid

An overview of the ecological problems facing Lake Orumiyeh in northwest Iran

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1420 GMT:The US Hikers. The lawyer for US citizens Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, sentenced earlier this month to eight-year prison sentences on charges of espionage and illegal entry has said that he has filed an appeal.

Fattal and Bauer were arrested, along with American Sarah Shourd, who in July 2009 while hiking along the Iran-Iraq border. They had 20 days to appeal the sentence.

Shourd was freed on $500,000 last September and did not return for trial.

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The Latest from Iran (24 August): Oil and Gasoline --- It's All the Way You Look at It....

2030 GMT: Trouble on the Russian Front. Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi, Iran's ambassador in Russia, has said that Tehran has filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice against Russia for not delivering S-300 missiles ordered by Iran.

Sajjadi also criticised Russia's Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of state-owned Gazprom, for a delay in developing Iran's oil reserves. He said Gazprom Neft has delayed the development of the Azar field for nearly two years since signing a tentative agreement with the National Iranian Oil Company in November 2009 to jointly develop its resources.

"Big damage has been done by Russian oil companies to the Iranian people," Saijadi said through a translator at a news conference. "I have already told the Russian side about the danger of this approach."

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The Latest from Iran (21 August): Punishing the US Hikers

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal (see 0650 and 0910 GMT)1910 GMT: Energy Watch. Minister of Energy Majid Namjoo is not a happy man: he says the Government owes $8 billion to banks and companies, and the power producers' union fears bankruptcy. Namjoo says he asked the Supreme Leader for help, but experts do not expect any government payments to the banking system and power plants in the near future.

1525 GMT: Justice Watch. A couple more snippets from the press conference of Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi (see 1400 GMT)....

Doulatabadi said the file of 15 "spies" for Israel would go to court within 10 days. Even more interesting, however, was his claim that four members of the "deviant current" --- often used as a label for the advisors around President Ahmadinejad --- would be tried soon.

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