The Latest from Iran (10 May): Supreme Leader Comments on Detained Mousavi and Karroubi

2020 GMT: Sanctions Watch. For weeks, we have questioned public proclamation of India defying sanctions and increasing oil shipments from Iran, arguing that private discussions were weaning Delhi off Tehran's crude with assurances of alternative supplies.

Confirmation comes today in the report that India's oil imports from Tehran fell about 34% in April compared with March.

Reflecting the Government-to-Government talks between Washington and Delhi, including a visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week, State-run buyers are at the forefront of reductions, leaving privately-owned Essar the biggest Indian client of Iran.

India's total oil imports from Iran in April fell to about 269,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 409,000 bpd in March and from about 449,000 bpd in April 2011.

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The Latest from Iran (3 May): The Oil Squeeze

See also Iran Feature: Celebration and Censorship --- At the Tehran International Book Fair
Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- Journalists and Students in Prison, Workers' Day Cancelled, & More
The Latest from Iran (2 May): Books and Politics

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2123 GMT: Elections Watch. Alef claims that the Internet TV of the conservative/principlist Islamic Constancy Front has been filtered ahead of tomorrow's second round of Parliamentary elections.

The Constancy Front has been the rival of the Unity Front, the main faction seeking to represent conservatives and principlists.

2115 GMT: Clerical Intervention. Ayatollah Dastgheib has challenged the regime's definition of "mohareb", those who commit "war against God". Dastgheib said the mohareb were those who "confront people with arms", not those who criticise rulers.

Dastgheib added tht all clerics should ask officials to release political prisoners. He said opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, in their 15th month under strict house arrest, "have just demanded that the Qur'an and Constitution should be observed".

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Iran Interview: What Happened on Election Day in 2009? (Mehrabi)

At the commission, the news went around by word of mouth. One news was that Mir Hossein Mousavi was planning to come to the commission. But no real news came into the headquarters.

Even prior to the voting, the Ministry [of Interior] appeared to be poised to win the election. We sensed that they seemed confident that they (the Ahmadinejad campaign) would win in any way. When we told the other reformist kids, who called us from the outside, of the atmosphere inside the building, they brushed us off as being influenced by the events inside.

We had no idea that they planned to rig the elections at this scale. When we spoke with reporters from the other side (i.e., supporting the administration), they told us that Ahmadinejad would win with 24 million votes.

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The Latest from Iran (18 April): Trust Us, All is Well

See also Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- From The "Butcher of the Press" to Speaking Out Against War
Iran Video Feature: The Unemployed and Hungry Beg Ahmadinejad for Help
The Latest from Iran (17 April): Splitting Europe from the US Over Nukes and Sanctions

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Minister of Oil Rustam Qassemi1444 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The wife of detained labour activist Reza Shahabi says he has begun a dry hunger strike.

Robabeh Rezai said the fast began on Saturday when Shahabi, a leading member of the bus drivers' union, he received a six-year prison sentence.

Shahabi has been detained since June 2010.

1440 GMT: President v. Parliament. MP Ruhollah Hosseinian, a supporter of President Ahmadinejad, has claimed that Parliament, with its criticism of the Government, has tried to "destabilise" the Iranian system.

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The Latest from Iran (14 April): The Nuclear "Talks About More Talks" Open in Istanbul

See also The Latest from Iran (13 April): Before the Nuclear Show

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Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and Saeed Jalili, the Secretary of Iran's National Security Council, on Friday in Istanbul

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1445 GMT: Nuclear Watch. In contrast to the full account of this morning's discussions leaked by Western diplomats to The Guardian (see 1355 GMT), Iranian outlet Fars has no detail in its report, "Iran, World Powers End 1st Round of Talks in Istanbul"; however, the site does establish that there will be no second day in Turkey, quoting Ali Baqeri, the Undersecretary of the Iranian National Secretary Council.

Instead, Tehran will be looking for agreement on a second round of talks in its preferred location of Baghdad.

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Iran Special: How the Myth of the Green Movement and "Regime Change" Was Created

Protesters in Tehran's Azadi Square, 15 June 2009

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Three weeks ago, the Iranian site Khabar Online published an extended interview with Alireza Marandi --- the physician who returned from the US to become the Islamic Republic's first Minister of Health, a minister under Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi in the 1980s, and now a prominent MP from Tehran. While his name may not be well-known in the "West", Marandi's record and his "straight shooter" reputation make him a bastion of the establishment --- so when he speaks, the words carry weight.

The discussion is an extended denunciation of Mousavi, both in the 1980s and during the 2009 Presidential election. In that sense, with the former Presidential candidate now entering his 15th month of strict house arrest, it is far from surprising.

But amidst the damning of the Green Movement's figurehead, one passage deserves a feature. For Marandi's explanation of why Mousavi turned in 2009 from candidate to the would-be mastermind of "regime change" reveals how the myth was spread that Iran's protesters were merely the puppets of the "West" and the "seditious elements" within the Islamic Republic.

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Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- The Regime's Attack on Publishers (Arseh Sevom)

The Islamic Republic’s clash with private publishers has reached alarming levels. According to a recent report in Kalemeh, authorities have warned active publishers that they are working “due to the benevolence” of officials and “had they wanted to punish all offending publishers, many more of their publishing houses would have been closed". The closures are reportedly part of an organised attempt by the state to intentionally cause a crisis in this sector and further weaken it.

Some have expressed concern that the publishing guild is insufficiently strong to defend its members from government pressure.

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The Latest from Iran (6 April): Is Tehran Pulling Out of Nuclear Talks?

Iran Special: Forget the News --- Let's Tell Scary Stories
Iran Feature: Bush Administration Trained MKO "Terrorists" From 2005
The Latest from Iran (5 April): How Serious Are the Economic Problems?

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1845 GMT: All the President's Men. Mohammad Dehghan, a member of the Presiding Board of Parlament, has declared that if the Arbitration Council asks Saeed Mortazavi --- the Presidential aide recently named head of the Social Security Fund --- to resign, he must do so.

Mortazavi's appointment has been challenged because he was the Tehran Prosecutor General during the abuses and killings at the Kahrizak detention centre in summer 2009.

Dehghan and other MPs have called for the impeachment of Minister of Labor Abdolreza Sheikholeslami, who has supported Mortazavi, if the Presidential aide does not stand down.

1815 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. See if you can spot the common theme in Friday Prayers across Iran and the Number One person who is being addressed: "Political Arrogance of the Foreign Anti-Iran Movement"; "America's Involvement with Arrogance"; "America's Threats"; "Bringing Up The Topic of Negotiations With America is Tragic"; "We Cannot Deal with America"; "Negotiating with America Does Not Have Any Meaning".

Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, are you listening?

Just to drive the point home, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said in Tehran Friday Prayers, "[Making decisions on] the case of the U.S. falls within the authority of the Supreme Jurisprudent [Supreme Leader], and no person is in a position to express views in this regard and take action. I believe those who think that we should negotiate with the leading (member) of the (global) arrogance, namely the U.S., either have a simplistic view or have been intimidated.”

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The Latest from Iran (27 March): The Lull Before the Talks

See also The Latest from Iran (26 March): Ahmadinejad Grabs the Spotlight

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1845 GMT: Foreign Affairs (Syrian Front). President Ahmadinejad, meeting a Syrian envoy in Tehran, has praised the Assad regime: "I am very happy that Syrian officials are managing the situation well....I hope the situation in Syria improves day after day."

Ahmadinejad said there was no limit to expanding ties with Syria, and Iran would do "all in its power to support this country".

The President also castigated the US, "By chanting false slogans of defending people's freedom, the Americans want to take control of Syria, Lebanon, Iran and other countries and we should be aware and stand firm against their plots."

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The Latest from Iran (14 March): Questioning Ahmadinejad

One of a set of photos of President Ahmadinejad's appearance in Parliament

See also The Latest from Iran (13 March): "Tehran is a Pioneer of Human Rights in the World"

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1805 GMT: Drumbeats of War Watch. Some of the better journalists on the Iran beat have noticed the "intriguing signs of potential diplomatic progress over Iran’s nuclear program", but that should not stop others from fishing for readers with the "Could It Be War?" bait.

CNN simply asks, "Will Israel Strike Iran?", opening:

It's late in Iran on a dark night, moonless or with heavy clouds. Suddenly the silence is broken by sonic booms, followed by the sound of jets roaring overhead.

Flying in tight formation, Israeli fighter planes drop bunker-busting bombs on a nuclear enrichment plant built into the side of a mountain.

Iranian pilots race for their own jets to fight back, but by the time they take to the sky, it's too late. The Israeli jets streak away.

And The Atlantic, which introduced "The Iran Doomsday Clock", seeks profit by arguing against itself --- James Fallows derides speculation without knowledge...by speculating without knowledge:

While I am skeptical of the journalistic bias toward guessing what might happen rather than analyzing what has actually occurred, in the current climate I'll hazard this prediction: the United States is in fact not going to bomb Iran, and in anything like the current set of facts not even Netanyahu's Israeli administration is likely to do so. Indeed we will look back on the hyped-up bomb-Iran frenzy of the past two months with an air of wonder and dismay.

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