The Latest from Iran (28 May): A Pause in Discussion?

1410 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Omid Sharifi-Dana, arrested just after the Ashura protests of 27 December, has been sentenced to six years in prison.

1400 GMT: Your Tehran Friday Prayer Summary (Nukes! Nukes! Nukes!...and Some Poor People). Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani taking the podium today, and he has decided that the international dispute over Iran's uranium deserves religious priority. He wags a clerical finger at the "5+1" powers (US, UK, Germany, France, Russia, China): "The P5+1, instead of welcoming the [Iran-Brazil-Turkey] declaration [on a swap of uranium] goes to the [United Nations] Security Council and threatens sanctions against Iran."

And from there, Emami Kashani makes his big leap: "This is a world of barbarity and rapaciousness."

It wasn't all nuclear gloom, however. Emami Kashani expressed hope that the country under the guidance of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, would see greater success and progress.

That's when the Ayatollah looked beyond uranium and noticed Iran's poor people: "The well-to-do and all who have [financial] prowess should think of providing shelters for those who cannot afford one."

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NEW Iran Analysis: When Allies Co-ordinate (Mousavi & Karroubi)
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The Latest from Iran (27 May): Cooperation and Feuds

1330 GMT: Today's Propaganda Highlight (with a Cameo Appearance by EA). We noticed this morning that hundreds of readers were linking from a Rah-e-Sabz story to an EA video of reformist activist Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, in debate with Government supporter Seyed Mohammad Marandi.


I ran this past an EA correspondent, who uncovered a tale of Iranian state propaganda:

The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting have produced a "report" on Haghighatjoo, which is a masterpiece of distortion (Fars News will go green with envy). Marandi is not mentioned at all, only Haghighatjoo, allegedly soon to receive a prize from an American institution soon (a lie). She is presented as a traitor to Iran, by editing her speto demonstrators in Boston where she allegedly said "Do not accept Iran!". Haghighatjoo's reference to "the government/ president of [Iran]" is cut out from her "(rayis jomhure) Iran ra be rasmiyat nashenasid".

IRIB proceeds to explain that all other reformists are traitors and human rights organisations are foreign operatives. Iranian commentator Alireza Nourizadeh is a British Intelligence officer, and Amnesty International is a Zionist organisation.

1325 GMT: Concern over Tavakoli. Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard have made phone calls to the mother of Majid Tavakoli, the imprisoned student activist, to express deep concerns about Tavakoli’s condition and to ask her and her son to end their hunger strike.

Reports claim Tavakoli has been transferred to hospital because of health issues during the hunger strike.

0855 GMT: Economy Watch. Deutsche Welle, via Peyke Iran, reports on Turkish companies who are leaving Iran and/or refusing to invest in the country.

0850 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Peyke Iran claims two more teachers have been arrested in Yazd Province, bringing the total detained to 10.

0845 GMT: Assessing the Movement. Taghi Rahmani --- writer, journalist, activist, and member of National Religious Front --- offers extensive thoughts about the state of the Green Movement. He says a powerful Iran is not possible without civil society and civil society is not possible without instruction and discussion.

0830 GMT: Fashion and Politics. Looks like "bad hijab" is going to persist as a front-line theme in Iran during current tensions. Ayatollah Javadi Amoli has declared the source of improper veiling by women is "ignorance".

0820 GMT: Finger-Pointing. Well, it might be quieter today but that hasn't put a stop to the fighting within the Iranian establishment.

President Ahmadinejad's attack on local and provincial officials, which we noted in Thursday's updates, still resonates. Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi has another target: he has asserted that the "anti-revolutionary current" started during the era of President Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989-1997).

0815 GMT: Rights-First? We have published an analysis, "Friends or Obstacles?: Iran, Human Rights, & US 'Concern'".

0810 GMT: A Political Fast. Khaje Nasir University students have asked all university candidates 2 join them in a day without food to protest the current political situation and detentions of students.

0530 GMT: A quiet start to the Iranian weekend. Not even the pretext of the uranium dispute offers headlines today, with President Ahmadinejad apparently maintaining silence after his clash with the West/US/Israel/Russia earlier this week. Press TV tried to stir the pot 12 hours ago with the "Breaking News" that "Iran Navy Detects US Nuke Sub in PG [Persian Gulf]", but nobody seemed to take much interest.

On the domestic front, there was also  a pause in opposition statements after the interview of Mehdi Karroubi in Rah-e-Sabz, now translated in full into English, and the reach-out of Mir Hossein Mousavi to political parties (including Karroubi's Etemade Melli).

We started yesterday, in the aftermath of those statements, looking for the ripples of organisation and challenge amongst groups and individuals. We'll maintain watch but, so far, it looks like today will be one to gather breath.

The Latest from Iran (7 May): The Original Post-Election Muddle

1415 GMT: Hunger Strike. Students at Azad University in Shahrekord in western Iran have entered the third day without food to protest limitations imposed by authorities on student activists.

1400 GMT: We Will Punch You in the Mouth (without Irony). Your Tehran Friday Prayers update....

One of our favourites, tough-talking Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami laying down the religious law today, especially to other nations: A senior Iranian cleric on Friday warned the world powers that if their threats continued, "If you threaten or attack our nation and religion, we will reply and you will get yourself a punch in your mouth and jeopardize all your world."

Khatami spun his clerical six-shooters and continued, "These people of ours are not afraid of sanctions and threats and the language of force against such people is irrational and futile. Whether you like it or not, Iran is already in the nuclear club and it would be better to acknowledge it."

Having calKhatami called on the world powers to adopt a "polite and logical dialogue" with Iran rather than using threats and intimidation.

1215 GMT: Nuclear Deal or Just Posture? After Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's flutter earlier this week about Brazil mediating a deal on uranium enrichment --- denied by the Brazilians --- Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said he will pay a surprise visit (which I guess is no longer a surprise) to Istanbul to discuss an arrangement for a uranium swap with his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu.

0850 GMT: Banning Books. We reported earlier this week that the stall with the works of the late Ayatollah Beheshti, a key figure in the Islamic Revolution, had not been allowed at the Tehran Book Fair because of the views of his son, Mir Hossein Mousavi's advisor Alireza Beheshti.

Now Rah-e-Sabz claims that the works of Grand Ayatollah Sane'i and the late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri were also barred.

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The Latest from Iran (6 May): Rattling the Cage

0845 GMT: A New Website and New Information. The "Center to Defend Families of Those Slain and Detained in Iran" has established an on-line presence.

Rah-e-Sabz has posted a list of names of 32 students detained in Evin Prison.



0840 GMT: A Hospital Visit. Former President Mohammad Khatami has seen Ahmad Motamedi, a Minister in Khatami's Government and now professor at Amir Kabir University. Motamedi was stabbed earlier this week in his office.

0830 GMT: A Clerical Jibe. Ayatollah Javadi Amoli has declared that, if bribery is eliminated from Iran's judiciary, the country will prosper. He added, in a reference to an Ali Khamenei, "a certain cleric was Hojatoleslam, but became an Ayatollah when he got an office".

0745 GMT: After a night covering the British General Election and writing the assessment that it's all a big mess, it's kind of a relief to get back to the relative clarity of post-election Iran.

We open this morning, however, not with clarity but with fantasy. We've posted extracts from an extraordinary interview with Ahmadinejad right-hand man Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, who declares, "There are not too many people in the prisons."

The International Front: "Have Some Food"

To put forward Iran's case on its nuclear programme, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has hosted diplomats of other countries at a dinner in New York, amidst the United Nations conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

And, yes, an American official showed up.

Fighting for the University

Rooz Online has an interesting article about manoeuvres for control of Iran's private system of universities, Islamic Azad, reading them as  "a coming battleground [for the 'hardliners'] against [former President Hashemi] Rafsanjani".