In an indication of growing concern over the campaign of moderate Hassan Rouhani, Fars News --- close to the Revolutionary Guards --- has declared, from an "informed source", that the Guardian Council will discuss the candidacy tomorrow.
The source said the Council will re-examine Rouhani's qualifications, considering charges that he is being supported by leaders of "sedition" and lawlessness.
Ssturday's campaign speech by Hassan Rouhani, with the crowd chanting the name of detained opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi
With 11 days to go before the first-round vote in the Presidential election, three points on the main contenders and a look at the possibilities....
1. JALILI MAINTAINING MOMENTUM?
2. QALIBAF, HADDAD ADEL, VELAYATI --- THE FAILURE TO GET A "UNITY" CANDIDATE
3. THE RISE OF ROUHANI?
4. THE RISE OF DISSENT?
Rouhani At Saturday's Tehran Campaign Rally (Credit: Xinhua)
"This year, 2013, will not be the same as 2009," moderate Presidential candidate Hassan Rouhani told crowds in Tehran on Saturday, as his supporters chanted political slogans and called for the release of Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
The 2013 Presidential campaign --- fairly anodyne so far --- changed at Saturday at a campaign rally at Tehran's Jamaran Mosque, during which police arrested several people at the rally, Saedollah Badashti, the head of Rouhani's youth campaign. Radio Farda, quoting the Reformist website Kaleme, also named Mohammad Parsi, Shirin Mirkarami and Mohsen Rahmani among those arrested.
A video published by the Rouhani campaign showed supporters calling for Iran's detained political prisoners to be released, including Mousavi. Rouhani demanded that the country's "securitized atmosphere" be stopped.
"Our people deserve more peace, more freedom, more prosperity, more honor and more security. This is only possible with your presence. Don't let them discourage you. If people don't show up to vote on election day, they have effectively left the field open to your opponents," Rouhani said.
As the crowd called for a coalition between Presidential candidate Mohammad-Reza Aref and Rouhani, Rouhani said that the first step was to "ensure that we have many people lining up to vote.
"I will say this in a vague way --- this year, that is 2013, will not be the same as 2009," Rouhani said.
During his speech at the Jamaran Mosque, Rouhani also told the crowd that: "With your support, we will open all the locks which have been fastened upon people's lives during the past eight years. You - dear students and hero youth - are the ones who have come to restore the national economy and improve the people's living standards. We will bring back our country to the dignity of the past."
Iran's powerful Parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, hinted at possible support for Presidential candidate and Tehran mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, lauding his achievements regarding construction of the Imam Ali Expressway in Tehran.
Larijani said the project showed Qalibaf's "jihadi efforts".
Regarding the election, Larijani said that there would be a good turnout and that the Iranian people could not be forced to vote a particular way by the West.
However --- in a hint that Presidential hopefuls need to unite behind a consensus candidate --- the parliamentary speaker warned candidates to be attentive, lest Western countries turned apparent disunity into internal divisions.
In recent days, we have been tracking the indications that former President Hashemi Rafsanjani --- reversing his position from March --- will stand in the Presidential election in June.
Now we can confirm, on the basis of absolutely reliable information, that Rafsanjani is close to a campaign.
What's more, he and his supporters are doing so in part as a challenge to the Supreme Leader. Further, others see the campaign as support for detained opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main challenge to President Ahmadinejad in the disputed election in 2009.
Hojatoleslam Hossein Jalali has said the "hard-line" Constancy Front, formed before the 2012 Parliamentary elections, will present a Presidential candidate next week in a speech by Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi.
Detained opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard have been allowed to meet Rahnavard's mother last week.
Mousavi, the primary challenger to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the disputed 2009 Presidential election, and his wife Rahnavard have been under strict house arrest since February 2011. They have been to allowed to speak to, let alone sse, their three daughters since Iranian New Year on 21 March.
Ali Nikzad2058 GMT:Foreign Affairs Watch (Egyptian Front). In another sign of improving relations, the Iranian government has agreed that Egyptian tourists no longer need visas to visit the Islamic Republic.
On Saturday, the first flight from Egypt to Iran in 34 years took off from Cairo.
Security services in Aswan took strong measures for the security of 58 Iranian tourists who arrived there Saturday, escorting them throughout their visit.
2035 GMT:Media Watch. Reader Arshama (see Comments) brings the story that Serat News, reportedly close to the Basij militia, is on-line again after being blocked by the Filtering Commission today.
Farda News claimed that the filtering occurred after Serat ran a story about a "certain political group". Reportedly the site posted a video linking the pro-Ahmadinejad group that interrupted Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani's speech, in Qom on the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, to the hard-line Constancy Front.
2032 GMT:Drone Watch. Pentagon officials have altered their story about the encounter between a Predator drone and an Iranian fighter jet (see 1848 GMT), over or near the Islamic Republic's airspace over the Persian Gulf.
"One of the US aircraft discharged a flare as a warning to the Iranian plane, which then broke off pursuit," spokesman George Little said.
Officials earlier suggested that two Iranian jets had "targeted" the Predator.
This week the mother of Neda Soltan, the young woman whose death was captured on camera during the demonstrations following the 2009 Presidential elections, reminds us of International Women’s Day. Ban Ki Moon makes a statement for an end to violence against women and children. Iran’s sociologists report on growing sexual freedom in Iran, while 250 female activists complain about the treatment of the daughters of Zahra Rahnavard and Mir Hossein Mousavi.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran issues a report, which is immediately branded biased by Iran’s media. A new cinema organization is launched --- state-sponsored and with a director who has worked hard to close the independent House of Cinema. A letter to Syrian President Assad from the Physicians' Association leads to its takeover by the Revolutionary Guards.
A message from well-respected economists warns of increased instability if the country’s economic problems aren’t addressed. Crime is on the rise, and the former Tehran Prosecutor General, Saeed Mortazavi, appears before the court in the defendant’s chair.
The death of Hugo Chavez is cause for (another) day of mourning in Iran.
Sunday, June 9, 2013 at 8:28 | 
Ali Larijani & The Supreme Leader --- Credit: Mehr News Fars: Guardian Council May Disqualify Moderate Rouhani
