Iran Live Coverage: Seizing the Children of the Detained Opposition Leaders

See also Syria & Iran Follow-Up: The Real Story of "Syria's Iran-Hezbollah 50,000-Man Militia" in 3 Easy Steps
Monday's Iran Live Coverage: "Viva Spring" --- Ahmadinejad Launches An Election Campaign

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1845 GMT: The Battle Within. The "Council of Explaining Basij Student Positions of Greater Tehran" has warned President Ahmadinejad, Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, and head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani that they will be branded "traitors" if they continue their disputes.

The Council said that, if the disagreement persisted, "[We will] certainly confront you in the way that is suitable."

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Iran Live Coverage: Banging the Drum Against the US

See also Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- From Ahmadinejad in Egypt to "Tribal Voices" in Tehran
Friday's Iran Live Coverage: Supreme Leader to His Officials "Stop Your Temper Tantrums"

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2055 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Activists claim that dozens of Arab youths have been detained in Ahvaz.

One activist said more than 50 men were seized. Family members said they were in an unknown location.

1335 GMT: US-Iran Watch. The first half of this Al Jazeera English discussion on US-Iran relations and the nuclear issue is wasted, with a failure to get to grips with the context, motives, and significance of the Supreme Leader's speech on Thursday. However, there is some value in the second, with former Administration official John Limbert and analyst Ali Reza Eshraghi --- overcoming the pro-regime platitudes of Flynt Leverett --- offering some insight into the complexities hindering negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

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Iran Live Coverage: Tehran Mayor --- Why We Are Engineering the Presidential Election

See also Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- Monkey in Space, Journalists in Prison< /br>
Thursday's Iran Live Coverage: Imprisoned Journalists, Elections, & the BBC

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2015 GMT: Free Elections/Sedition Watch. Still 4 1/2 months until the Presidential election, but this was a Friday for many in the regime to throw rhetorical punches at "sedition" --- first, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami:

Be careful for slogans in the next elections. "Free elections" completes the enemy’s puzzle because all elections have been free and competitive. One should not undermine the achievements of the system by using slogans, so be awake and aware because future seditions will begin with such words.”

Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi, the Cultural Deputy of the Revolutionary Guards on people's insight countering sedition: "This revolution took place among a people who are insightful and follow the velayat, and with self-awareness and through following the velayat they have familiarized the world with the revolution.”

Hossein Naghavi of Parliament's National Security Committee on the recent arrests of journalists:

American and British intelligence agencies are attempting to identify information sharing agents in the country and use it against the Iranian nation in a security puzzle through their dependent networks such as BBC and Voice of America, but proper vigilance and awareness and the praiseworthy Intelligence Ministry neutralized this conspiracy.

American and British intelligence agencies have been no match for the Unknown Soldiers of the Imam of the Age [Ministry of Intelligence agents].

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Iran Live Coverage: Imprisoned Journalists, Elections, & the BBC

Journalists Arrested Last Weekend2136 GMT: Currency Watch. Radio Farda supports the report in Kalemeh (see 1746 GMT) that the Iranian Rial has dropped sharply to break the 40000:1 level vs. the US dollar.

The site also says that the price of gold is rising, with a 15% premium on prepayment for gold coins to be delivered next month.

2036 GMT: Press Watch. The mother of journalist Saba Azarpeyk, speaks of her daughter's arrest:

Fifteen to twenty minutes after Saba left the house, someone knocked on the door, I asked who it was and I heard Saba saying, "Mum don't open the door, they do not have a warrant." After some very tense moments, she was taken down to the car.

Then my son arrived, and one of the officials that was standing behind the door slapped him on the face several times.

The mother then ran to Azarpeyk as she was being taken away and urged her to remain strong.

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Iran Live Coverage: President v. Parliament

See also Iran Analysis: The Real Explanation for the Delay in New Nuclear Talks
Iran Live Coverage: Don't Mention the "Free Elections"

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2220 GMT: Nuclear Watch. After a few days talking down the possibility of renewed nuclear talks --- and putting the blame on Tehran --- Western diplomats said today that discussions could still resume in January.

The shift follows a phone call on Monday between Helga Schmid, the deputy negotiator for the 5+1 Powers, and her Iranian counterpart Ali Bagheri.

"Consultations to prepare a next round of talks are ongoing," spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said.

"The powers and Iran are still discussing possible dates for nuclear talks in January," one Western envoy said.

See also Iran Analysis: The Real Explanation for the Delay in New Nuclear Talks

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Iran Live Coverage: The Regime Admits the Oil Squeeze

See also Monday's Iran Live Coverage: Threatening the Reformists

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2055 GMT: Economy Watch. The Central Bank has put Iran's November rate of inflation at 27.4%, a rise of 1.3% from October and of 5.6% from April.

1527 GMT: Elections Watch. Ali Saeedi, the Supreme Leader's representative to the Revolutionary Guards, has said that it is the duty of the Guards to ensure a "reasonable engineering of the elections".

Saeedi put that duty within the context of the claim that the US is pursuing a "proxy war" against the Islamic Republic.

1353 GMT: All the President's Men. Senior Presidential aide Ali Akbar Javanfekr, summoned back to Evin Prison on Monday from a 12-day hospital stay, has been freed on another furlough after a few hours in detention.

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Iran Live Coverage: The Smog Shuts Down Tehran

Tehran skyline on Saturday

See also Iran Feature: The Economy in 2013
Saturday's Iran Live Coverage: Nuclear Talks to Resume?

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1644 GMT: Foreign Affairs Watch (Turkish Front). The State news agency Anatolia reports that a cargo plane carrying 1.5 tons of gold, currently being held at an İstanbul airport, is en route to Iran.

Turkey has been paying for Iranian natural gas with an increase in gold exports of 11,000% in 2012.

The Airbus A-300, owned by a Turkish private company, landed at Atatürk Airport for refuelling and personnel reshuffle on 1 January. It reportedly flew from an African country, possibly Ghana, with a listed destination of Dubai.

The plane is currently locked, with its front door and cargo gate sealed and a special security team on guard. Anatolia said the plane will depart after the necessary documents are presented.

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Iran Live Coverage: Tehran Picks A Fight Too Far with Turkey

See also Iran Analysis: Rafsanjani Strikes Back (and Why the Supreme Leader is Allowing It)
Wednesday's Iran Live Coverage: "Supreme Leader Ordered House Arrests of Mousavi and Karroubi"

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2255 GMT: Nuclear Watch --- Retraction Edition. Earlier today, Iranian media circulated this quote from Deputy Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi indicating a possible deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency, "If external threats were defused, then they --- the IAEA could be enabled to inspect [the military facility at Parchin" (see 0925 GMT).

Somebody in the regime was none too happy with this apparent shift in the Iranian position because Qashqavi has issued a convoluted "clarification" tonight:

In my speech which I delivered in Tehran University, there are two subjects in this speech. In one of them I delivered my speech regarding national security of Iran and the other was about the nuclear issue.

One of the correspondents who was in this speech mixed two subjects from two separate issues and in his personal perception of this speech, he delivered his perception regarding this matter but in the text of my speech there was not any kind of this sentence because [there were] two separate issues which were delivered by me and there is no connection between the two matters."

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Iran Live Coverage: "Supreme Leader Ordered House Arrests of Mousavi and Karroubi"

See also The Latest from Iran (25 December): Is the Currency Falling Again?

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2117 GMT: Economy Watch. Radio Zamaneh summarises the gloomy report of Parliament's Research Center, surveying 98 economic organizations over the past year, that production has fallen 40% and employment is down 36%. The downturn has been fed by price rises of 87.9% for produced goods and 112.1% for primary materials.

The Center adds that in the past year, only 50 production facilities have been established while 566 have shut down.

Meanwhile, in an example of the problems with production, 300 workers at the Fajr Petrochemical factory in Mahshahr have gone on strike protesting the lack of job security.

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The Latest from Iran (7 December): Maintaining the Oil Squeeze

See also The Latest from Iran (6 December): "We're Still Winning"

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2210 GMT: Oil Watch. An industry source claims Iranian oil exports will fall to a new low of 834,000 barrels per day in December.

This would be a sharp drop from Iran's October figure of 1.3 million barrels per day and a declinemore than 60% from last year's level of 2.2 million bpd.

Iran's recorded low this year was 860,000 barrels per day in the summer.

2200 GMT: Sanctions Watch. We return to our opening entry (see 0720 GMT) of the extension of US waivers from financial sanctions for those countries which reduce imports of Iranian oil.

The State Department announced further six-month extensions for nine countries tonight. As expected, waivers for renewed for India, South Korea, and Turkey before next Tueday's expiration. The US also acted now rather than waiting for the deadline later this month for China, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan.

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