1700 GMT: More, Much More on that Assembly of Experts Meeting. The Executive Committee’s agenda appears to have been a delay in the next meeting of the Assembly, which was due to take place within the next 10-12 days, for a month because of Ramadan.
This rules out any quick intervention by the Assembly in the political crisis.
But the big question: who asked for the delay? Was it the head of the Committee, Hashemi Rafsanjani, to give himself time for his next moves? Or was it the other members — former head of judiciary Hashemi Shahroudi, Mohammad Yazdi, Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dorri Najafabadi, and Ahmad Khatami — all of whom are more supportive of President Ahmadinejad?
2025 GMT: Mowj-e-Sabz, which has been very active today in portraying division within the Government, leaves another explosive story tonight. It claims that a member of Parliament from the “majority (conservative) faction” has “revealed that Hossein Fadaii, Tehran’s pro-Ahmadinejad MP and chairman of [the hardline pro-Ahmadinejad organisation] Isargaran was responsible for the crimes committed in Kahrizak prison [where some detainees were killed] and this has been proven for the Parliament”.
2005 GMT: Another ominous (and official) signal. The political director of the Revolutionary Guard, General Yudollah Javani, has reissued the threat to arrest opposition leaders. Having sent out the message in the Guard’s journal last week, Javani said yesterday that prosecution of Mir Hossein Mousavi would end opposition and the “blow that has been dealt to the prestige of the establishment.”
After criticising Mohammad Khatami, Javani identified his main target: “This flame of sedition cannot be put out unless through clarifying and trying the real elements [of the movement]. Mousavi should stand before the court to be enlightened.”
2000 GMT: All day there has been Twitter chatter about leaflets, circulated at Friday prayers in Tehran, calling for an attack on the main office of Etemade Melli, the party of Mehdi Karroubi, tomorrow at 4 p.m. local time.
Mowj-e-Sabz, the website of the Green movement, has picked up the story, saying that the leaflets were circulated by Ansar-e Hezbollah on the fringes of the prayer meeting. It notes websites and Facebook pages calling for Green activists to show up at the office. Read the rest of this entry »
The saga of Mehdi Karroubi’s letter to Hashemi Rafsanjani on detainees moves on. We’ve analysed the political significance, after Hashemi Rafsanjani pressed the Iranian judiciary for action, in a separate post. In an interview with Saham News, Karroubi spoke about the letter and Rafsanjani’s response:
Those [critics of my letters and their allegations] who are making the atmosphere of society tense should instead try to provide a safe and calm space [for those who are abused] and try to put together an independent delegation of individuals to investigate these abuses. The delegation should be comprised of individuals whom the abused prisoners can trust so that they can relate to the delegation how they have been treated. The abused prisoners must be convinced that the members of this delegation will defend their rights to the end. Read the rest of this entry »
2200 GMT: Ahmadinejad appears to be trying to give Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai greater influence by giving him responsibilities traditionally reserved for the vice president.
2110 GMT: Closing the Evening with an Urgent Question. Last night we reported the breaking news that Hashemi Rafsanjani would be leading Friday prayers in Tehran on 14 August. Tonight there is doubt. Seyed Reza Taghavi, the head of the committee responsible for Friday prayers, has stated, “The presence of Ayatollah Hashemi is not yet clear and depends upon his health and the queue before him.”
2045 GMT: Ayatollah Dorri-Najafabadi, the chief prosecutor of Iran, has stated that the recent televised confessions, “although collected legally, will have little effect upon the outcome of the court and sentencing”. Dorri-Najafabadi also claimed, “[Detained politician Mostafa] Tajzadeh is in good health”
The chief prosecutor made clear that he would have preferred to have court proceedings behind closed doors. ”If we were consulted about having these open trials, we may have had a different opinion.”
2025 GMT: Ahmadinejad’s Payoff for Moscow? The Russian mobile phone operating company Megafone, which is alleged to belong to the wife of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, has reportedly obtained a license to open a branch in Tehran. Initially the UAE company Etisalat won the auction to be the third mobile operator in Tehran but then suddenly the Kuwaiti company Zain was put in its place. Now it is alleged that Megafone is going to be the operator.
This news is entirely unconnected, of course, to the fact that Russia was the first country to give significant recognition of Ahmadinejad’s “re-election”, receiving him at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit a few days after the 12 June vote.
1950 GMT: We’re just adding footage of a “Death to the Dictator” protest in Vanak Square, Tehran, this evening.
1940 GMT: The Facebook pages of Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Mousavi’s wife, Zahra Rahnavard, still cannot be accessed. A source close to Enduring America believes attacks on Facebook pages “almost confirmed” as coming from Iran and attacks on Twitter “probably” as well. Read the rest of this entry »
2105 GMT: Still no confirmation of the release of Saeed Hajjarian from detention, which was supposed to take place today. Gooya.com, reporting of behalf of the “Green Wave”, says the news should not be trusted.
2025 GMT: Another Arrest. Now it is Khatami advisor Shayesteh Amiri who has been arrested.
2015 GMT: The Latest from the Police. It’s not just the Ministry of Intelligence that is being shaken up (see separate story). Three high-ranking officers — the head of preventive forces, the head of the traffic section, and the head of airport police — have been replaced.
Meanwhile, the overall head of the security forces, General Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, is adjusting his position. Hours after the Prosecutor General insisted that officers show restraint, Ahmadi-Moghaddam said, “The security forces try to install calm and justice in society…..however no type of provocation must cause the security officers to step out of the law….Some members of the security forces have overreacted.”
Ahmadi Moghaddam added, “In response to the complaints of 440 of our countrymen we have compensated 197 of 300 people that have sustained damages….The total amount of compensation paid was $50,000.” (Correspondent Mani thinks the General is being a bit of a cheapskate, since the cost of a car in Iran starts from $8000.)
2005 GMT: Press TV Coverage Meter – Mousavi Up, Mahmoud Down. There is an overload of indicators of the shifting view of state media in this story from Press TV’s website, “Amid growing dissension among Iran’s ruling elite over the president’s conduct, former presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi says the post-vote crisis is the product of undervaluing the will of the people.”
Who is the troublemaker now?
2000 GMT: Don’t Give Up the Story Now. Press TV may have stopped treating the murder of Neda Agha Soltan as a foreign plot (0720 GMT), but others are not ready to quit. A Revolutionary Guard commander has told an audience that the “accident was completely planned”.
1905 GMT: Mahmoud, We Want Our Vote Back. An editorial in Ya Lassarat newspaper, associated with Ansar al Hezbollah activists, has demanded, “Mr. Ahmadinejad, apologize to the nation!” The editorial continued,
We must tell you, Mr. Ahmadinejad, that our criteria in voting for you was your indisputable allegiance to the Leadership. But now we see that you, in the past week, have done things that raise questions about your allegiance to the Leader. The appointment of [First Vice President] Rahim Masha’i, the removal of the ministers, leaves doubts about allegiance to the Leader whose only fault was reminding you to obey the order of the Leadership. Your hesitation in carrying out the Leader’s orders has led us to begin to assume that your love for a person such as Masha’i is far greater than your love for the Leader. Of course we hope that we are mistaken.
We would like you to be aware that in the event you repeat, persist with such behavior, we will have no choice but to ask you to return our votes.
1900 GMT: Some Come Out, Some Go In. Further illustrating that the release of 140 detainees is a limited concession, Iranian authorities have reportedly arrested Saeed Shariati, a leading member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front.
1800 GMT: Press TV’s English website reports from Iranian security services: “An underground network providing foreign media outlets with photos and footage of the post-election unrest has been identified and arrested in Iran.” No further details of the network, the foreign outlets, or the footage is given. Read the rest of this entry »
The saga of Mehdi Karroubi’s letter to Hashemi Rafsanjani on detainees moves on. We’ve analysed the political significance, after Hashemi Rafsanjani pressed the Iranian judiciary for action, in a separate post. 
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