2055 GMT: Reports that writer and blogger Ali Pirhousienlou and hsi wife Fatemeh Sotoudeh have been arrested.
1930 GMT: In addition to the assassination of the Assembly of Experts member (1750 GMT), it is reported that the Chief Prosecutor in Kurdestan has been shot.
1750 GMT: In the latest of a series of assassinations in the province, the Kurdistan representative on the Assembly of Experts was killed today.
1705 GMT: An EA source sends us this from a Tehran resident: “People will come out but many are also leaving Tehran as it is a long weekend. Saturday is half closed and Sunday is a holiday. Many who participated in previous demonstrations are leaving Tehran or have left already and many are much scared of what happened to their colleagues, friends and other citizens.”
1640 GMT: The Marches. Iranian activist HomyLafayette has posted the routes for tomorrow’s marches in Tehran (7 routes ending at the University of Tehran; start at 10 a.m. local time; 0530 GMT), Isfahan, and Tabriz. Read the rest of this entry »
2030 GMT: No Criticism Here. Press TV’s website writes out the admonition of the Supreme Leader to President Ahmadinejad and the Cabinet to take heed of “benevolent criticism” (see 1830 GMT). Instead the report emphasizes Ayatollah Khamenei’s declaration about the legitimacy established by the election, “The nation and the Islamic Revolution have proven their republican nature. If officials, elites and political experts understand this fact, many of the country’s problems will be resolved.”
1930 GMT: Is the Regime Targeting Leaders’ Children? That’s the question asked by one of our readers, who noticed the arrest of Atefeh Emam, the 18-year old daughter of Mir Hossein Mousavi’s Chief of Staff, Javad Emam, who is still detained himself. She was reportedly released earlier today, after 24 hours of continuous interrogation, near a Tehran cemetery.
Earlier in the crisis, the regime arrested several members of the family of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, and pressure has been placed this week on the son of Mehdi Karroubi.
1830 GMT: Khamenei Manoeuvres. In a line which is not that far from the “conservative” Society of Militant Clergy criticism of the President, the Supreme Leader has advised Ahmadinejad and his Cabinet: “There is internal criticism backed by foreign media with the aim of sabotage but there is also benevolent criticism which may not come from supporters of the government but they contain good comments.”
1710 GMT: Clerics Warn Ahmadinejad. The reformist Association of Teachers and Researchers of Qom have issued a statement warning that the regime cannot be maintained with military force, arrests, and brutality.
We ask the president and the government to seriously try to solve people’s problems and the country’s economic and social issues, and avoid talking about unnecessary and provocative issues. The comments made and the disrespect committed in the debates, speeches and rallies before and after the election caused divergence.
The Society criticised the opposition for pursuing demands “outside law”, but it also called for “consoling” those harmed in the unrest.
Possibly Relevant Fact: One of the members of the Society is former President Hashemi Rafsanjani.
1645 GMT: A Norooz News article, featured on Mir Hossein Mousavi’s Facebook page, says that:
“Security Forces attacked the Staff office of Mir Hossein Mousavi which was resposible for following the issues of the detainees, without any legal premisson. All documentations were confiscated and taken out to… an unknown destination. As Staff members asked for receipt, security forces answered that no documents will be given back, thus there will be no receipt !!”
(Thanks to Mike Dunn for covering, as I was stuck in traffic when this came through. We have posted as a separate entry, cleaning up some of the text and adding a brief analysis.)
One area of the Iranian post-election crisis that we’ve been watching carefully is the possibility of clerical opposition to the regime. On the one hand, we’re wary of stories — such as the wayward New York Times article last Sunday — that portray a rebellion of the clerics. On the other, we do think the opposition of some ayatollahs may have some significance, especially if that intersects with other political moves against the current leadership.
Mehdi Khalaji of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, in contrast, dismisses the notion of a clerical challenge, at least for now:
While a handful of marginal clerics and religious groups dispute the official result of Iran’s recent presidential election, the Shiite clerical establishment as a whole currently supports Iran’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Although this support has been demonstrated through silence, the fact that most Shiite clerics have not intervened in the public debate over the election or the government’s use of force against protesters has been particularly effective in strengthening Khamenei’s position. Read the rest of this entry »
A couple of fine examples of how to wedge events in Iran into personal and political prejudices and agendas. In Asia Times Online, Mahan Abedin charts “The Rise and Rise of Ahmadinejad” with the claim:
[He is] the most formidable leader of a faction that has incrementally broadened and deepened the scope of its reach and influence within the regime to the point where it is now completely dominant. Factional politics in the Islamic Republic – as we know it – has collapsed….All the other factions, particularly the once-powerful Islamic left, are in complete disarray. Their leaders have been exposed as losers and their supporters have been left demoralized by the entire state machinery’s acquiescence in the final victory of the Islamic right.
A confession. After several hours, we were still not certain of the significance of yesterday’s statement by the Association of Teachers and Researchers of Qom, who declared that the Government was “illegitimate”. Our initial thought was that the group was just one of a number of clerical factions, in this case a “reformist” faction such as the Assocation of Combatant Clerics linked to former President Khatami. We were not sure who the members were or what relationship they had to prominent critics of the Government such as Ayatollah Montazeri, Ayatollah Sane’i, or Ayatollah Taheri. Read the rest of this entry »
2055 GMT: Reports that writer and blogger Ali Pirhousienlou and hsi wife Fatemeh Sotoudeh have been arrested.
One area of the Iranian post-election crisis that we’ve been watching carefully is the possibility of clerical opposition to the regime. On the one hand, we’re wary of stories — such as 
A couple of fine examples of how to wedge events in Iran into personal and political prejudices and agendas. In Asia Times Online, 
A confession. After several hours, we were still not certain of 
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