Iran Audio Feature: Can Iraq Stop Tehran Flying Weapons to Syria? --- Scott Lucas with Monocle 24

I spoke this morning with Monocle 24's The Globalist this morning about Iraq, Iran, and the Syrian conflict.

The discussion first considered Baghdad's declaration this weekend that it will command Syrian-bound Iranian planes overflying Iraq to land for inspection, following American claims that Tehran has been using the route to move military equipment and personnel to Damascus.

[Editor's Note: Iraqi officials have said today that they stopped and searched a Syrian-bound Iranian cargo plane for weapons, but allowed it to continue as no prohibited items were found.]       

The conversation then opened up to Iran's role in the Syrian conflict to discussion of the state of the Syrian insurgency and whether any political resolution is possible.

To listen, go to The Globalist homepage, click on the programme for 2/10, and go to the 10-minute mark.

Syria 1st-Hand: The Factions Within the Insurgency (Abdulhamid)

Fighters of the Martyrs Brigades in Idlib Province

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Pragmatists like Abu Khalid used to rely on their own resources and support from local communities, but are now receiving some funding from Saudi sources as well. Saudi authorities have historically had deep differences with the Muslim Brotherhood --- they look with gloom and dismay on its rise to power in Tunisia and Egypt --- and are uncomfortable with the group's attempt to control the Syrian rebellion as well as its cozy relations with their rivals in Qatar.

The result is a deepening divide between Islamists and pragmatists. And there are even splits within the Islamist camp: The Salafists are far more traditional and populist than members of the Brotherhood, who often come across to ordinary Syrians as too Westernized and elitist.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Propaganda and an American Journalist Held Hostage

2038 GMT: Syria. At the end of the day (it's nearly midnight in Syria) at least 150 people have been killed by Assad forces, according to the Local Coordination Committees:

50 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its Suburbs (most of them in Eastern Ghota and 17 in the shelling of Harasta); 30 in Aleppo (most were field-executed in Jami'yat Al-Zahra neighborhood); 29 in Daraa; 21 in Deir Ezzor; 12 in Homs; 5 in Idlib; and 3 in Hama (one of them was martyred in Aleppo).

See our note on the casualty figures put forth by the LCC.

The LCC's death toll often rises overnight as they confirm more deaths.

The number is shockingly high to many, but sadly it is about average now. However, the intensity of the violence in and around Damascus was nothing like average. While violence sometimes spikes for a day, or maybe a few days, it also may be a sign that the battle for the eastern suburbs is intensifying.

There is another story to carefully watch over the next few days...

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: And So Another Week of Killing....

2100 GMT: Syria. Meanwhile, the daily death toll is Syria has reached at least 164, according to the Local Coordination Committees:

52 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its Suburbs (including 13 in Douma and 10 in Harasta), 42 in Idlib (30 of them were martyred in a massacre in Seqlein), 41 in Aleppo (including 11 martyrs in Masaken Hanano, and 12 in Karm Al-Jabal), 20 in Daraa, 4 in Homs, 2 in Deir Ezzor, 2 in Hama and 1 in Lattakia.

See our note on the casualty figures put forth by the LCC.

2025 GMT: Syria. The newest information:

Now we know a little more about this video. It was originally posted on September 26th, but it was posted under a different description. The old description was "the American Journalist الصحفي الاميركي" but the new one is "Austin Tice still alive":

It was discovered on the 26th by an opposition Facebook page, but was shared without comment as to who is responsible for the kidnapping:

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The Latest from Iran (1 October): Can the "Resistance Economy" Continue to Resist?

See also Iran Snap Analysis: Watching The Currency Crisis
The Latest from Iran (30 September): "The West Is In Economic Crisis"

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2045 GMT: Currency Watch. ILNA reports that students have protested in front of Parliament because the banks are not giving them subsidised currency for study abroad.

2035 GMT: Press Watch. The daily newspaper Maghreb has been raided and its managing editor Mehdi Emami Naseri summoned by the judiciary.

Some reports say the editor was arrested. There is confusion over the cause. Some reports say it was the publication of a photo of former President Mohammad Khatami; others say it was a picture of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani.

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The Latest from Iran (30 September): "The West Is In Economic Crisis"

See also Iran Follow-Up: Fars News Apologises for Running Story from The Onion
The Latest from Iran (29 September): The Economy and the Divisions Within the Regime

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1422 GMT: Press Watch. One of the cameramen with President Ahmadinejad's entourage in New York has defected and has been granted asylum, according to Baztab.

1347 GMT: Press Watch. ISNA reports that a court has convicted Reuters and its Tehran Bureau Chief, Parisa Hafezi, of "publishing lies against the regime" and "disturbing public opinion".

Reuters was charged after a story in March briefly carried a headline characterising women training in ninjutsu as "assassins". The bureau was closed, as the press cards of staff were confiscated. Some observers saw a pretext for the authorities to shut down one of the few international agencies reporting from inside Iran.

Sentencing is expected within a week.

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The Latest from Iran (29 September): The Economy and the Divisions Within the Regime

See also EA Video Analysis: Iran --- Ahmadinejad in New York "He Came, He Spoke, He Slipped Away"
Iran Feature: Fars News and The Onion Agree --- "Rural American Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama"
The Latest from Iran (28 September): The Next Fall in the Currency

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1544 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Prominent human rights lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah has been summoned to Evin Prison to begin his nine-year sentence.

Dadkhah, one of the founders of the Center for Defenders of Human Rights, was arrested less than a month after the disputed 2009 Presidential election. He was sentenced in July 2011 on charges including membership of the CDHR and "spreading propaganda against the system through interviews with foreign media".

1531 GMT: Press Watch. Families of 25 martyrs and veterans of the 1980s Iran-Iraq War have expressed support for Hadi Heydari, cartoonist for the reform newspaper Shargh, in an open letter.

Shargh was banned and its managing editor imprisoned this week over a Heydari cartoon which showed men blindfolding each other in bright light. Authorities argued that the image was an insult to veterans on the 32nd anniversary of the start of the war.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Political Drift in New York, Military Confrontation in Aleppo

The historic Old Market of Aleppo in Syria on fire amid fighting between regime forces and insurgents

See also Syria Opinion: Heady Days of Revolution Give Way to Grim Reality
Bahrain Feature: 17-Year-Old Ali Hussain Neama is Killed by Police Birdshot
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Start of a "Decisive Battle" for Aleppo?

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1540 GMT: Bahrain. King Hamad has welcomed the election of a Bahraini representative to the Advisory Committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council as confirmation of "the international community’s confidence in Bahrain’s progress in the human rights’ field".

Said Al-Faihani, who was unopposed, was unanimously approved as the Asian group representative on Friday.

Meanwhile, we are updating on the death of 17-year-old Ali Hussein Neama, who became the latest victim of police birdshot on Friday night.

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Syria Opinion: Heady Days of Revolution Give Way to Grim Reality (Hanano)

Mass protest in Hama, 23 March 2012

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Now the lows exceed the highs. Now we talk about what has been lost more often than what will be gained. And the losses have been heavy: some of the people we once spoke to daily are no longer in Syria; some have abandoned the revolution; many have died. Peaceful protests have dwindled as the bombs drop onto our cities and villages. Civilians are caught in the crossfire; thousands have become refugees --- outsiders just like us.

And everyone is depressed.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Start of a "Decisive Battle" for Aleppo?

2225 GMT: Bahrain. We close our coverage tonight with news 17 year old Ali Hussain Neama has been shot and killed by security forces in Sadad tonight. Details are still emerging.

Said Yousif Almuhafda, Head of Monitoring at the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, tweeted the following picture of Ali:

#BahrainDeath of young boy just confirmed by MOI,ppl saying from pellet shotgun.. twitter.com/SAIDYOUSIF/sta…

— S.YousifAlmuhafda (@SAIDYOUSIF) September 28, 2012

He adds:

Riot police attacking women who went to see the 17 yo boy who was just killed #Bahrain”

— S.YousifAlmuhafda (@SAIDYOUSIF) September 28, 2012

The Ministry of Interior has confirmed the death in a tweet, referring to the incident that killed Ali as a "terrorist attack".

2054 GMT: Syria. According to the Local Coordination Committees, at least 160 people have been killed by the Assad regime so far today:

55 martyrs were reported in Aleppo; including 25 who were field executed in Rashedeen, 48 in Damascus and its Subrubs (including 10 martyrs who were field-executed in Barzeh, and 17 in Qudsaya), 20 in Deir Ezzor, 13 in Idlib, 10 in Daraa; including two people who were martyred in Damascus, 7 in Hama, 4 in Homs, 2 in Raqqa, and 1 in Lattakia.

See our note on the casualty figures put out by the LCC.

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