The Latest from Iran (2 July): Ahmadinejad v. Larijani?

1930 GMT: The Battle Within. Back from a break to find what may or may not be a significant incident in the internal tension between the President and Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani.

Iranian Labor News Agency reports that, after Qom Friday Prayers, a number of supporters of the Ahmadinejad Government issued a statement --- signed "People of Hezbollah" --- saying that they no longer regard Larijani as their representative in the Parliament and "want their votes back".

The statement claimed, "“It is said that you voted for Mr. Ahmadinejad’s opponent.”

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1755 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. HRANA reports that Hamed Rouhinejad is in critical condition in Evin Prison due to complications related to multiple sclerosis and a lack of proper medical care.

Rouhinejad, a philosophy student, has been in detention since April 2009 on charges of membership in an anti-government organization and has been refused medical leave. He was sentenced to death in a trial last autumn but this was later commuted to 10 years in prison.

The website also writes that authorities in Karaj’s Rajae Shahr Prison have extended Behrouz Javid Tehrani’s time in solitary confinement, which has now lasted more than a month, at the request of the Ministry of Intelligence.

Javid Tehrani is the last remaining political prisoner from the 1999 student protests, the anniversary of which takes place next week.

1420 GMT: Friday Prayers Goes to Penalties Update. Looks like Ayatollah Emami Kashani may have made it through to the next round with a couple of late, hard challenges in his Tehran Friday Prayers sermons (see 1320 GMT).

Having played a conventional, unexciting game, Kashani suddenly got aggressive and put his boot into lawyers: "Defending the false is religiously prohibited and court attorneys should only defend the rightful. When they read a file and realize that the client is not in the right, they should not defend them.”

1415 GMT: Assessing the Situation. The full interview with Professor Ardeshir Amir-Arjomand, an advisor to Mir Hossein Mousavi, which we noted noted this morning (0725 GMT), is now in English.

1320 GMT: Your Friday Prayer Summary. Ayatollah Emami Kashani giving it his best today on the Tehran podium but I'm not sure he is going to eclipse World Cup fever.

Emami Kashani played it safe by going with a bash-the-West approach, "They accuse Iran of [efforts aimed at] producing nuclear weapons while Iran's [nuclear] program is scientific and industrial. Producing nuclear weapons has no place in Iran's nuclear pursuit."

There was the "they're keeping us down line" --- "They are well aware of this but they do not see Muslim states prosper. They do not want Islamic glory and awakening" --- which moved into the rallying call, "[Let's] join hands and through cooperation manage the country's affairs in the best possible way, particularly at present when the enemies are attacking the Islamic Republic with false accusations."

And Kashani went to the tried-and-true of Palestine, notably Gaza: "If Muslim states awaken and fulfill their duties, this land (Palestine) will not be swallowed up by the enemy."

So a competent performance but nothing too creative: I'm not sure if that would get Kashani past the quarter-finals of a major competition.

Then again, when are we likely to see the champions of recent years. e.g., H. Rafsanjani, vie for the Friday Prayers Cup?

1015 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Peyke Iran claims that Ghaemshahr Prison with a capacity of 250 prisoners, now has 763 detainees.

The website also has published this list of detainees in Rejai Shahr Prison:

Behrouz Javid Tehrani, 9 years imprisonment
Kobra Banazadeh, 5 years
Zahra Joushan, 1 year
Mansour Radpour, 8 years
Mansoor Osanloo, 5 years
Alireza Karami-Kheyrabadi, sentenced to death
Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, unclear status
Mostafa Eskandari, unclear status
Masoud Bastani, unclear status
Ahmad Zeyabadi, unclear status
Mehdi Mahmoudian, unclear status
Reza Rafiee, unclear status
Behnam Foyuji, unclear status
Rassoul Bodaghi, unclear status
Isa Saharkhiz, unclear status
Davoud Soleymani, unclear status
Ali Saremi, sentenced to death
Mohammad Ali Mansouri, 17 years of prison
Saeed Massouri, lifetime sentence
Houd Yazorlou, 3 years
Meyslogh Yazdannejad, 13 years
Ali Moubedi, 3 years
Afshin Baymani, lifetime sentence
Seyed Mehdi Fetrat, 3 years
Karim Marouf-Aziz, lifetime sentence
Hossein Tofah, 15 years
Shir-Mohammad Rezaie, 4 years
Farhang Pour-Mansouri, lifetime sentence
Reza Joushan, 1 year
Shahram Pour-Mansouri, lifetime sentence
Nasseh Yousefi, 5 years
Esmail Ordouie, 15 years

1010 GMT: More on the Drug Issue (see 0915 GMT). Abbas Deylamizadeh, the head of an Iranian welfare organisation, claims 300,000 poor drug users are in danger of becoming street addicts.

1005 GMT: The Battle Within. Hojatoleslam Mohammad Ashrafi Esfahani has warned that "radicals", with their unwillingness to discussion, have divided the "hard-line" camp in Iran, splitting it into two groups.

0959 GMT: The Budget Battle. The Parliament has passed President Ahmadinejad's 5th Plan on Monday with the cancellation of three articles. One of the cancelled provisions would have given the President millions in spending for "cultural purposes". Ahmadinejad's representatives reportedly were offended and left the session.

0955 GMT: The Oil Squeeze. Rah-e-Sabz reports that the Kuwaiti Independent Oil Group has joined the international suspension of gasoline sales to Iran.

0945 GMT: Labour Front. Peyke Iran claims that dismissed workers in Sanandaj in Kurdistan have gathered in front of the work ministry and that workers of Tabriz Tile Company have not been paid for four months.

0940 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. RAHANA reports that detained student Zia Nabavi is in serious condition after hysteria and convulsions in Evin Prison.

0915 GMT: "Psyche Spinners" in Tehran. Writing for The Huffington Post, Setareh Sabety takes a look at disillusionment and drug use in Iran's capital.

0910 GMT: The Labour Front. Iran Labor Report claims that many Tehran Bus Company employees with more than 20 years of service have been offered a "buyout" of $15,000. The website adds that, to put pressure on  the workers, the company has moved depots farther from the city and even to other cities such as Karaj while reducing employee bus shuttles.

Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran asserts the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps is starting a takeover of the company with purchase of buses and new bus lines. The chief executive of the company is alleged to be Revolutionary Guards commander Ardeshir Moghimpour, using the pseudonym Hossein Bijani.

There is still no news from detained bus union members Saeed Torabian and Reza Shahabi.

0905 GMT: We have posted a separate feature on the establishment of the world's first "anti-censorship shelter".

0735 GMT: The Oil Front. Amidst our discussion today of Iran's energy sector, a point to note about its internal production: Deutsche Welle claims that a fire at the Naft Shahr wells is still burning 40 days after it started.

And, with thanks to EA readers, another item about foreign investment: "South Korea's GS Engineering & Construction ( said on Thursday that it has called off a 1.42 trillion won ($1.2 billion) gas project in Iran following sanctions on the Middle East nation."

0730 GMT: The Battle Within. The Motalefeh party, fighting back against pressure from Ahmadinejad supporters, has asserted its "good" credentials, declaring that the hope for leaders of "fitna" (sedition") to return to the Revolution has faded.

0725 GMT: Challenging the Radicals. Mohammad Salamati, secretary-general of the reformist Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution, says that radicals have "no real understanding of leading a country". Professor Ardeshir Amir-Arjomand claims "hardliners" are implementing a new constitution and declares that an independent media is needed.

Those criticisms do not appear to have had any effect, however, on Gholam-Hossein Elham, a member of the Guardian Council. He says those who want to change the religious regime into a secular state, on the basis of the Constitution and "wrong" reformist currents, are a symbol of division.

0715 GMT: Nuclear Front. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Andrei Nesterenko has announced that the P5+1 group (US, UK, Russia, France, Germany, China) will meet today in Brussels.

0605 GMT: We start today with a look at Iran's economic position and sanctions. In a separate feature, Pierre Noël looks at Europe's sanctions and their effect on Iran's oil and gas sectors.

The Christian Science Monitor runs with the "Ahmadinejad bans Coca-Cola" story, which links up with Tehran's public spin of defiance: Press TV is headlining, "Iran Sanctions May Hit Japanese Firms".

More significantly, Press is featuring a sign of hope amidst the growing international pressure on Iran. Turkey's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz said in an interview, "Turkey will continue to cooperate with Iran because the sanctions did not include any specific restriction on energy deals....Energy is not part of the UN sanctions."

Oh, I guess we should also mention that President Obama has signed the new US legislation passed by Congress earlier this week: "With these sanctions --- along with others --- we are striking at the heart of the Iranian government's ability to fund and develop its nuclear programmes."

Obama added:

To date, Iran has chosen the path of defiance. The door to diplomacy remains open. Iran can prove that its intentions are peaceful. It can meet its obligations under the [nuclear non-proliferation treaty) and achieve the security and prosperity worthy of a great nation.

China This Week: Trade Pact But No US Arms Sales to Taiwan, Manoeuvres on North Korea, Google Accepts Chinese Law

China-Taiwan Trade Pact: Beijing and Taipei signed anEconomic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) on Tuesday, seeking to boost economic ties and ease political tensions that have haunted cross-Straits ties for most of the past six decades.

The deal, focusing on easier access to markets, will remove tariffs within two years on 539 Taiwan export items worth $13.84 billion and 267 mainland export items to Taiwan valued at $2.86 billion. Taiwan firms will be granted access to 11 service sectors on the mainland, including banking, accounting, insurance, and hospitals. Follow-up consultations will try to remove the obstacles for economic and trade activities.

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The pact will also boost bilateral trade already totaling about $110 billion a year, made up of some $80 billion in goods flowing to the mainland and $30 billion to Taiwan.
Analysts from the Peterson Institute for International Economics project that the deal could help Taiwan increase its GDP by up to 5.3 % by 2020, compared to 0.8% without the ECFA.

US arms sales to Taiwan on hold: According to the US-based Defense News, Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council, has said arms sales are on hold until at least spring 2011.

While there is no confirmation of the report by official US sources, the Pentagon-backed Defense News has at times released US military decisions in advance.

Earlier this month, China called off a planned visit by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates after Beijing told the Pentagon the timing was "inconvenient". despite an earlier invitation for Gates to visit. This was an apparent snub over a $6.4-billion arms package unveiled in January for Taiwan, including helicopters, Patriot missiles, and mine-hunting ships.

China rebuffs US criticism over North Korea: China has rejected opposition to its stance over the Korean peninsula, saying it would never "pour oil on the fire" at a time when calm and restraint were needed.

Chinese media reports said President Obama had criticised China's "willful blindness" to the actions of North Korea the sinking of a South Korean warship.

"China borders on the Korean Peninsula, and we have our own feeling on the issue, different from that of the countries tens of thousands miles away. We have more direct and intense concerns", said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

Qin said that for long-term development and stability, there must be abolition of nuclear weapons: "We are willing to make joint efforts with parties concerned to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through pushing forward the six-party talks".

Google Abides by Chinese Law to Renew License: Guxiang Information Technology Co. Ltd, the operator of Google.cn, has pledged to "abide by the Chinese law" in a letter of application to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to renew its permit to run websites in China.

The application was made "almost at the same time" that Google's chief legal officer David Drummond wrote a blog post saying Google is committed "not to self-censor", according to the official.

Guxiang said it will "ensure the company will provide no law-breaking contents as stated in the 57th statement in China's regulations concerning telecommunications”.