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."

NEW Friends or Obstacles?: Iran, Human Rights, & US “Concern”
NEW Iran Analysis: When Allies Co-ordinate (Mousavi & Karroubi)
NEW Iran Analysis: When Allies Fight (Tehran and Moscow
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 (20 May): Back to Business

1955 GMT: Former Vice President Abtahi Attacked? Reformist and Green sites are circulating the claim of Mohammad Ali Abtahi, Vice President during the Khatami Government, that he was attacked by plainclothes militia today as he was attending a memorial service in the south of Tehran.

Abtahi wrote on his Facebook page that a vehicle suddenly blocked the route of his car, and he was attacked by motorcyclists with knives, cables, and tear gas. He reported, “I can say that I left the area with the broken glass and tear gas in a miraculous way. It was a very violent attage. No one came to help. They were very confident and dreaded nothing”.

Abtahi, who was detained for months after the June election and reportedly forced to make a public "confession", has published photos of the incident.

Iran Document: Simin Behbahani’s Poem for the Executed
Iran Videos: Former Diplomat Heidari Reveals the Regime
Iran’s Uranium: Why Can’t the US Take Yes for an Answer? (Parsi)
Iran’s Uranium: Washington “Can’t Afford to Look Ridiculous”, Makes Ridiculous Move (Emery)
Iran’s Uranium: US Shows a Middle Finger to Tehran…and Turkey and Brazil and… (Gary Sick)
Iran Document: Iranian Labour Unions “This is Not 1979″
The Latest from Iran (19 May): Fallout

1610 GMT: Film Corner. While two directors (Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Nourizad) are on hunger strike in Evin Prison, the film-meets-reality story of actress Kiana Firouz --- which EA featured on Tuesday --- continues:

A young Iranian actress named Kiana Firouz will attend the London premiere tonight of a film in which she plays a lesbian seeking asylum in Britain because the Iranian authorities are pursuing her. The Home Office rejects her application and sends her back to the Islamic republic, where homosexuality is a crime punishable by death.


Unfortunately for Kiana Firouz the film is not make-believe. It is based on her life. The Home Office has denied her asylum and she now faces the prospect of deportation to Iran followed by flogging, execution or both.

1400 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kalemeh claims that journalist and filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad has been severely beaten by guards at Evin Prison. According to the website, Nourizad was taken from his cell by five security personnel and has suffered concussion and vision problems. He has now started a complete hunger strike in protest.

Nourizad was detained for writing letters to the Supreme Leader and the head of the judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, criticizing their approach to the post-election confrontation of protesters. He has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison and 50 lashes.

1230 GMT: Larijani Takes a Side. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has declared that the response of the US and "Western" countries to the Iran-Brazil-Turkey agreement "proved that they are not sincere in the [discussion of] a fuel swap" over Iran's uranium stocks.

The significance of the statement is more internal than external: some Larijani allies, like Ahmad Tavakoli, had criticised the Ahmadinejad Government for agreeing to let Iran's uranium go outside the country. The Western response allows Larijani to focus on the perfidy of foreigners rather than engaging in that internal debate.

1220 GMT: The Executions. We've posted a poem by Simin Behbahani for the five Iranians executed on 9 May.

0915 GMT: Not Kahrizak. Alireza Avaee, the Chief Officer for the Ministry of Justice, has announced that a "new" and "good" prison has opened near the Kahrizak facility, infamous for post-election abuses and killing of detainees.

0855 GMT: The Detained US Trio. Press TV is carrying the "breaking news" that the mothers of three detained US nationals, arrested when they walked across the Iran-Iraq border last summer, have met their children in a hotel in north Tehran.

0845 GMT: Beating the Oil Squeeze? An article in The Wall Street Journal claims that tankers of both Royal Dutch Shell and France's Total, who claim to have restricted activities in Iran, are secretly shipping Iranian oil.

0835 GMT: Today's All is Well Statement. Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi puts out the assurance that security forces have managed to quell post-election disturbances: “Sedition has been brought to an end by suppression.”

Moslehi's accuracy in reporting may be judged by his subsequent statement that he had not been informed of the story that the head of Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s security had been arrested. And his political line may be ascertained by his insistence that an arrest warrant had been issued for Mehdi Hashemi, the son of Hashemi Rafsanjani, who will be detained upon entry into Iran.

0830 GMT: Clerical Warning. The "conservative" Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi has put out another unsubtle message for the Government and possibly the clerical regime: "if we have no mercy for the people, God will inflict political, cultural and social evils upon us".

0715 GMT: Corruption Watch. First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, who has been under pressure over alleged fraud and mismanagement, has issued a threat: the use of Government funds by some newspapers and websites must be stopped.

0710 GMT: Uranium Deal --- The Discussion Within. Member of Parliament Elias Naderan, who has led the campaign against the Ahmadinejad Government over "corruption", has given his support to Monday's Iran-Brazil-Turkey agreement. Naderan said, "A positive outcome would be paving the way for the cooperation of Iran and IAEA which makes the international situation a win-win scene for the Islamic Republic. It means that the deal both provides the necessary security and guarantees our rights in nuclear fuel swap, and provides the ground for international economic cooperation which has been blocked by the sanctions imposed."

0705 GMT: Sanctions. The New York Times is featuring briefings from American and European officials that a "passing" reference in the sanctions resolution, introduced to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, gives a legal basis in the future for choking off financial transactions between Iran and banking centers in Europe and elsewhere.

However, to get Russia and China to even accept the introduction of the resolution, the US had to give up any specific reference to Iran's central bank. Instead the American and European officials are saying that there will be a call for "extreme vigilance" in dealing with Bank Melli.

0700 GMT: A New Campaign and a Suggestion. Rah-e-Sabz reports that Green supporters have founded the "National Campaign of Mousavi's and Rahnavard's Children".

Ebrahim Nabavi, warning of rising pressure on the Green Movement, calls for the spread of information to the people, from outside and inside Iran and especially via the Internet.

0530 GMT: With just over three weeks before the anniversary of the 2009 Presidential election, a good time to let others fuss over sanctions and Tehran's uranium enrichment and to look inside Iran....

Reviewing the Election

Dissected News carried out a detailed dissection of the "official" Presidential results and of the political context before, around, and beyond them. It concludes:

Within even a few days of the election, the Green Movement had become bigger than the June election; it had become a referendum on the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic itself, and the place in the world occupied by the educated Iranian youth. It had become about human rights, freedom of speech, the rights of women, and establishing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for a 21st century Iran.

And no rigging of an election can stop that.

And For This Year....


United for Iran carries the news that almost 40 cities have already scheduled events to mark 12 June (22 Khordad) and its significance for rights and justice.

Political Prisoner Watch

Alireza Ezzabad, a student at Allameh Tabatabei University, has been sentenced to one year and 74 lashes for participation in demonstrations.