The Latest from Iran (22 September): Yesterday the US Hikers, Today the UN

See also Iran Video: President Ahmadinejad's Address to the United Nations
Iran Special Analysis: US Hikers Released --- Everyone, including Ahmadinejad, is a Winner (for Now)
Iran Interview: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Runs Circles Around ABC News' Stephanopoulos
The Latest from Iran (21 September): The In-Fighting Over the US Hikers

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2135 GMT: The UN Speech. An EA correspondent notes that, in his attention to the centuries-long perfidy of the West, President Ahmadinejad failed to mention the current issue of Palestine and its quest for statehood. Any significance?

What is definitely significant is the marker set down by Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of Parliament's National Security Council, over Ahmadinejad's signals that he would like a resumption of talks with the US: Boroujerdi that is not within the Government's power to decide Tehran's relationship with America.

1945 GMT: Analysis of the Day. Interesting that Press TV opened its de-brief of the Ahmadinejad speech not with praise for the address but by asking about the walkout by many delegates. And Dr Seyed Mohammad Marandi ran with the theme:

I think it shows the intolerance that is dominant in the United States and in Europe...at least at the official level. They are unwilling to even listen to a person who has an alternative viewpoint, yet ironically the United States allows the Mujahedin-e-Khalq [MKO], the terrorist organisation, to rally outside the United Nations at the time of President Ahmadinejad's speech.

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Iran Feature: So What Would You Ask Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? (Sadjadpour and Milani)

There is evidence that your chief adviser, [Esfandiar] Rahim Mashai, helped secure loans for the leading suspect in a $2.6 billion bank fraud case, the largest embezzlement scandal in Iranian history. You came to office vowing to “cut off the hands” of the corrupt; how will you deal with Mashai?

Your opponents in 2009, Mir Hossein Mousavi, 69, and Mehdi Karroubi, 73, have been held incommunicado for nearly a year. On what basis are they confined? If they have no influence, as you have said, why are they under house arrest?

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The Latest from Iran (16 September): Lashings and Travel Bans

See also Iran Snapshot: The Flogging of Somayeh Tohidlou
Iran Feature: Parliament, the Regime, and the Influence of the Clerics

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Mohammad Maleki

1900 GMT: Amnesty International has highlighted the case of journalist Faranak Farid, who has allegedly been abused in detention after she was arrested during the demonstrations over the drying Lake Urmia.

Farid was reportedly beaten severely after her arrest on 3 September in Tabriz in northwestern Iran. She has apparently been accused of “insulting the Supreme Leader”, “propaganda against the system”, and “acting against national security”.

According to activist and opposition media, Farid temporarily lost hearing in her left ear and was left unable to move one of her arms after the beatings. She was interrogated at length before a judge ordered that she be detained for 10 days. Since her jailing, her sister has only been allowed to visit her once for 45 minutes. and her requests to see a doctor have not been allowed.

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Iran Snapshot: The Flogging of Somayeh Tohidlou

On Wednesday, Somayeh Tohidlou, a Ph.D. student in sociology at Tehran University, was given 50 lashes for "insulting the President".

The sentence has been hanging over Tohidlou, a supporter of Mir Hossein Mousavi, since the days after the disputed June 2009 Presidential election, when she was arrested for participating in protests. She was lashed in Evin Prison, her hands and feet reportedly chained.

On Thursday, groups inside and Iran condemned the flogging. The Social Science Faculty of Tehran University issued a statement that authorities "were intent on playing the scourge of humanity and humiliating their opponents", lashing "the voice of innocence".

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The Latest from Iran (15 September): So What Happens to the US Hikers?

2040 GMT: The Battle Within. Mehr --- a conservative, not a reformist, website --- has posted in English the news we reported earlier: Ali Saeedi, the Supreme Leader's representative to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, has met President Ahmadinejad and criticised him for not living up to his ideals.

Advising the President to readjust his attitude, Saeedi said Ahmadinejad's sympathisers are displeased with some of his actions and behaviour. He added that the President still has time to make up for his past.

2020 GMT: Claim of the Day. He has been criticised by leading economists, the reformist opposition, by conservative MPs, and by Government officials, but that is not going to stop President Ahmadinejad from loudly repeating an unsupported claim.

In a speech today, Ahmadinejad said, "With the support of the Iranian nation and by mobilizing all capacities, 2.5 million jobs will be created annually for [each of] two years to solve the unemployment problem." He said the challenge would be "no more difficult" than the development of Iran's nuclear programme.

And his critics who say the Government has not even created the 1.6 million new positions it claims, let alone five million new jobs? "When a revolutionary measure is to be taken, some people here and there express pessimistic views that nothing can be done. But I emphasize that creating 2.5 million jobs is not impossible for the Iranian nation."

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Iran Witness: On the State of the Economy and Standing in Line (Tohidlou)

[Officials] don't like to speak about the rise of prices. The [lack of transparency] is the factor that is leading people to try hoarding what they can. And this is how the lines for gasoline get longer and longer.

All the news is about rising prices. For example, the 30 percent rise in the price of plane tickets, which means a rise in the price of other things and also a rise in the price of rice and oil, which has led many to go to shops to buy rice and oil at the old price.

There is worry these days over an uncertain future. A future that will bring a shock to the economy and to people's lives like the 10 percent increase in the dollar rate did. These days in different lines that are spreading, you can hear the concern of the people about their way of life now and in the future.

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