The Latest from Iran (16 February): Cutting Off the Opposition, A Year Later

Nikahang Kowsar portrays the competition for votes and influence between President Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Leader>

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2130 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. State outlet IRNA features President Ahmadinejad's photo opportunity with his Pakistani colleague Asif Ali Zardari during tripartite meetings between Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran in Islamabad.

There are no details in the article, only the rhetorical posture: "The presidents of Iran and Pakistan have emphasised the Western and colonial conspiracy against peace and stability in the region, creating insecurity to prevent the development of independent countries. They stressed the need for vigilance by the governments and peoples of the region.

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The Latest from Iran (27 January): Pilgrims and Soldiers

A photo of five abducted Iranian "engineers", with their Syrian cook --- are they the five captured "Iranian soldiers" shown in a video from Syria?

See also Syria Video Special: Free Syrian Army Captures "Iranian Soldiers"

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2119 GMT: Warning the Supreme Leader. Earlier this month Hossein Alaei, the former Revolutionary Guards commander, caused a stir with an article implicitly warning the Supreme Leader against the consequences of repression. Twelve Guards commanders called Alaei an agent of the enemy and an angry crowd gathered outside his house and defaced it, while other former commanders and some conservative politicians defended him.

Now Alaei has put out another statement, in Jomhouri Eslami, about dictatorships. This one, however, is carefully worded to avoid accusations that the former commander is challenging Ayatollah Khamenei. He states that dictatorships have come to an end, referring to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and continues that "dictators cannot rule with tyranny".

2059 GMT: The "Iranian Soldiers" in Syria. The Iranian Embassy in Syria's Press attaché, Leva'a Roudbari, has declared that none of the seven Iranians held by the Free Syrian Army are in the military, “The kidnappers’ claims is baseless."

Roudbari, in an interview with Syrian State TV, also appeared to say that two of the seven men would be released, "Iran welcomes the kidnappers’ decision to free two of the kidnapped engineers.”

In statements to Reuters (see 1932 GMT), members of the Free Syrian Army said that, while the first five Iranians seized were not engineers but were snipers assisting the Assad regime's military, the two men who came to Syria to enquire about them were civilians.

There is a curiosity in the article with Roudbari's statement, however. The six men in the accompanying photograph, shown in a power plant, do not appear to be match up to the "engineers" seized in Syria.

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The Latest from Iran (4 October): When You Know A Bank Fraud is Serious....

2030 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Mardomak offers a summary of the President's interview on State TV tonight....

Ahmadinejad tried to make the case that he was the way forward for Iran, especially on economic issues. Saying that his provincial tours were to remedy a "weak" and "Western model" bureaucracy with the display of popular management, he declared that his subsidy cuts plan got an "A" grade and there was no 60% inflation. He insisted that employment was on a good path, with a considerable increase in jobs and investments in the first half of the year.

That is all to be expected, as was Ahmadinejad's assertion that he had out-shone President Obama in last month's statement at the UN --- "Obama's speech was weak, ours was strong and much discussed". What is intriguing is the President's declared persistence in a quest for talks with Washington: he said he was ready for discussions if the US withdraws its ships from the Persian Gulf.

And this may also be notable: there were reportedly "broadcast problems" when Ahmadinejad spoke about his provincial tours and the US.

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Iran Guide: Ahmadinejad, Rafsanjani, and the Battle in the Assembly of Experts (Khalaji)

The power struggle within Iran's political elite will be on full display during the March 8-9 semiannual meeting of the Assembly of Experts [Editor's Note: We are working with the dates of 7-8 March], the body charged with selecting the country's Supreme Leader and, in the case of the imminent meeting, electing a head of the assembly for the coming year. The assembly is now led by Rafsanjani himself, who twenty-two years ago played the lead role in selecting Ali Khamenei to succeed Ruhollah Khomeini as the country's Supreme Leader. In the present predicament, President Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad and other hardliners are trying to prevent Rafsanjani from maintaining his leadership of the assembly, yet removing him would further narrow the field of Iran's religious and political elite who support Khamenei.

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