The Latest from Iran (27 October): Domestic and Foreign Collide
Posted by Scott Lucas in Middle East & IranNEW Latest Iran Video: University Protests (27 October)
NEW Iran: More on Kian Tajbakhsh and Tehran’s “Velvet Revolution”
Latest Iran Video/Translation: Karroubi on Events in the Iran Media Fair
Iran’s Political Confusion: Khamenei, Ahmadinejad, and the Nuclear Agreement
Latest from Iran (26 October): After the Fair
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2015 GMT: 13 Aban Does Not Exist. Homy Lafayette offers more detail on the Government’s order to state media to “refrain from disseminating any news, photo, or topic which can lead to tension in the society or breach public order” during the demonstrations on 13 Aban (4 November).
The article includes an English translation of the document, issued by Deputy Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Alireza Malekian.
1810 GMT: Iran’s Nuclear Manoeuvre. If this story from Press TV is accurate, then Tehran is haggling over the details of third-party enrichment, rather than walking away from the deal.
The article re-quotes the source who spoke to Al Alam TV (see 1015 GMT), “Iran will announce its response to the proposal put forward by [International Atomic Energy Agency] Director-General [Mohamed] ElBaradei on Friday, October 30.” The official added that Iran did not want to send 80 percent of its uranium stock in a single shipment to Russia, as set out in the deal from the Vienna talks: “Iran as a uranium buyer knows best how much uranium, enriched to a level of 19.75 percent, it needs [for its medical research reactor]; based on this argument, it will raise certain issues with this proposal.”
In other words, Tehran will insist on a lower amount of uranium — currently, the deal is for 1.2 million out of 1.5 million tonnes — being sent to Russia in the first shipment. More would be delivered for enrichment as the medical reactor required new supplies.
The report is seconded by the head of Parliament’s Foreign Policy and National Security Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, “Iran can send the scheduled amount in separate shipments so that its fuel supply [provided by foreigners] is guaranteed….Iran can send only a part of its stockpile … and then as it receives its 20 percent enriched fuel it will send the next portion.”
A word of caution on this interpretation: Boroujerdi is close to President Ahmadinejad and is putting the pro-deal view. It is unclear whether the dissenting voices such as Ali Larijani (and possibly, behind Larijani, the Supreme Leader) have come around to this position.
1750 GMT: Back from a teaching break to find that Rooz Online, following up a story prominent on the Internet this morning, has published details of an alleged Government order to censor and possibly shut out any news of mass demonstrations on 13 Aban (4 November).
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