The Latest from Iran (30 July): Declaring The "Resistance Economy"

See also Iran Feature: PhotoShopping a "Decent" Assad Family
The Latest from Iran (29 July): US Presents "Contingency Plan" for Attack to Israel

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1351 GMT: Espionage Watch. According to The Times of India, Delhi Police have alleged that members of the Revolutionary Guards were involved in the 13 February bomb attack on an Israeli diplomat in the Indian capital.

The investigation report states that the five Guards members had discussed the plan to attack Israeli diplomats in India and other countries with Indian journalist Syed Mohammad Ahmad Kazmi in January 2011, after Iranian nuclear scientists were allegedly attacked by Israeli intelligence services.

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The Latest from Iran (21 April): Getting It Right on Politics and Nuclear Talks

See also Iran Snap Analysis: The New Battle Within Tehran Over the Nuclear Talks
The Latest from Iran (20 April): A Golden Sign of Trouble?

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1855 GMT: All-Is-Well Alert. Little did we know how our Caption Competition, "Ahmadinejad and Rafsanjani --- Best Friends Forever?", would capture the spirit of the day....

Mehr proclaims, "Rafsanjani Greets Ahmadinejad's attandance in EC [Expediency Council] Meeting", noting that it was the first time in three years that the President had troubled himself to attend a Council session.

Mehr further notes, "The secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, presented a report of the negotiations that were held between Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) in Istanbul on April 14."

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The Latest from Iran (2 March): The Parliamentary Elections

Maya Neyestani on today's "historic" election

See also Iran Special: A Beginner's Guide to Today's Parliamentary Elections
Iran Snap Analysis: So Who is "Winning" These Elections?
The Latest from Iran (1 March): The Issue Is Legitimacy

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2055 GMT: ANd now a good-news story from the elections....

The 100-year-old man in Hamedan voted and died (see 1215 GMT), and the 95-year-old man in Damavand said, ""God, please accept this vote from me" and passed away (see 1645), but the 117-year-old man in Gonbad-e Qabus cast his ballot and lived.

2030 GMT: Well, I now have first-hand experience of how Iranian media handle news and analysis about this election.

Fars has not only noted my interview with BBC Persian; they are presenting it as if I had spoken to them. The headline is a selective extract, reflecting Fars' emphasis, of my comments, "The Western Leaders Don't Have a Clear Understanding of the Iranian Elections".

To be fair, Fars does fairly repeat some of my remarks, such as this election is too complex to be "Conservatives v. Clergy" and "The election is less about foreign policy than it is about Iran's internal affairs, economics, political accountability, and even topics such as judicial and legal rights."

What is interesting is what is left out or abbreviated. Fars' "interview" forgets to include my remarks that this election --- crucially --- is about the legitimacy of not only the Government but also the regime. And while the site does accurately mention my comment, "Reformists had no chance in this election of achieving some kind of political power", it indicates this was the main reason for their boycott of the vote --- conveniently omitting the rest of my analysis that the strategy was to raise question marks about the regime: "The message, following the 2009 Presidential election protests ie not just "Where is my vote?" but "Where is my government's responsibility?"

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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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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 (5 March): The Conflict Just Got Bigger

1320 GMT: The Next March? The Los Angeles Times summarises the call by the opposition for demonstrations on Tuesday in support of International Women's Day.

Mardomak writes about statements endorsing the demonstrations, including one by Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi: "On this day, shoulder to shoulder with our brothers, we will come to the streets to support the popular and broad democratic demands, because achieving ‘equal rights’ is possible only if voiced in a democratic system. But, we must not allow anyone to disregard our demands under the auspices of preventing crisis or avoiding divisiveness."

1310 GMT: The Arrests. We have been reporting, based on the translation of a letter from Mehdi Karroubi's son Mohammad Taghi, that the detention of Mehdi and Fatemeh Karroubi occurred on 17 February. A source informs us that the actual date should be 21 February --- we have corrected entries appropriately.

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The Latest from Iran (4 March): 19 Days and Counting

2230 GMT: Three more claimed videos of last Tuesday's protests:

"Mousavi, Karroubi Must Be Freed!"

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Iran Document: Karroubi's Son "When My Parents Were Taken Away and Illegally Arrested"

Mehdi and Fatemeh KarroubiMohammad Taghi Karroubi, the son of the prominent opposition figures Mehdi and Fatemeh Karroubi, writes of the night last month that his parents were seized by security forces and taken to an unknown location, either in a house of detention or prison:

On Monday, 17 [[Note: other sources have said this should be 21] February 2011, coinciding with the birth of Imam Jafar Sadegh [6th Imam of the Shiites], security forces raided my father's residence, putting an end to the house arrest [of my parents]. In order to conceal the truth, they informed my brother [Ali] that my father's house arrest had ended and that his children were now free to visit with him. Upon hearing the news, Ali and his wife immediately went to my father's home, only to find 30 masked security agents inside their residence. My father was locked in a room on the first floor and my mother was being held on the 5th floor.

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