1835 GMT: A reader writes to clarify the “first woman” Minister reference in the Reuters report (1645 GMT), and just now repeated by a CNN reporter: “Iran’s first female minister, Mrs. F. Parsa, was appointed by the Shah to serve the Ministry of Education.” Parsa was arrested by the new Islamic Republic in February 1980 and executed three months later.
1645 GMT: A bit of a lull as most of the Western media condense today’s events to fit their agenda: 1) the approval of Cabinet should be linked to “an international dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program”; 2) the Minister of Oil is a “relative novice”; 3) Iran has its first female Minister; 4) the Minister of Defense is wanted by Interpol for a 1994 attack in Argentina. (Reuters wins the prize for getting all of this into two paragraphs.)
But here’s a wacky flashback from the morning (0808 GMT): remember the moment when an MP joked, “”If you say the confidence vote was rigged, we’ll take you to Kahrizak [Prison, where presumably you will be abused like other detainees]!” Well, the video is now posted in a separate entry.
1740 GMT: Checking the Scorecard on the Nuclear Talks.
What We Predicted (1145 GMT): “The foreign policy story to watch today is not in Germany, where there will be a ritual consideration of the “5+1″ powers of Iran’s reported new proposal over its nuclear programme but no substantive developments (because, if Iran has really submitted a new proposal, time will be needed to examine it).”
What Happened (The Statement): “World powers pressed Iran on Wednesday to meet them for talks on its disputed nuclear program before a United Nations General Assembly meeting later this month.
Volker Stanzel, political director in the German foreign ministry, made the comments in a statement after chairing a meeting with his counterparts from Russia, China, the United States, France and Britain to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.”
What Happened (Translation): Nothing.
EA Scorecard: Bullseye!
1545 GMT: Another Story to Watch. We saw a report earlier today but held off pending verification. The Assembly of Members of Parliament, made up of former MPs, was due to see opposition leaders including Mohammad Khatami, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Mehdi Karoubi at its general meeting.
The gathering was cancelled, however, after pressure from authorities, including — according to one MP — threatening phone calls from security forces.
Some of you may remember that last month some former MPs issued a call, invoking the Iranian Constitution, for reconsideration of the Supreme Leader’s position.
With regards to proposed health minister Marziyeh Vahid-Dastjerdi, [a bloc member] said that “certain reports about her business activities had reached the bloc which altered the opinion of the members about her”.
The Principlist Majlis deputy, who sits on another bloc as well, said about Sussan Keshavarz, who has been offered the education portfolio: “We have heard that she was active in the campaign headquarters of Mir-Hossein Mousavi.”…
The third candidate, Fatemeh Ajorloo, who was picked for the welfare post, was rejected because she “is too good”. “It would be a shame if she becomes welfare minister,” said the unnamed source, presumably because the ministry is due to be disbanded in the coming months.
Meanwhile, the reformist bloc of the Majlis has decided to vote in favor of Vahid-Dastjerdi.
1420 GMT: The Day’s Big (Unseen) Story? I saw this floating around yesterday — the storyinitially came out on the technology site of the Islamic Republic News Agency and then circulated on other Iranian websites — but it is only with the help of EA’s readers (see comments below) that I could put this together.
The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (Revolutionary Guard), which has become just as renowned in recent years for their role in Iran’s economy as for their security function, are set to buy a major stakeholding in the Iranian Telecommunications Agency.
Since 2005, Iran had planned to float the shares of the state company, which is one of three operators in the country. One of the other two is owned by Hashemi Rafsanjani, but its reach is limited to Tehran and some smaller smaller cities. The Revolutionary Guard already have a stake in Iran Cell, so if they were successful in their bid for shares of ITA, they would be in a leading position in Iran’s two major cellphone providers.
This is unlikely to be a case of the Guard showing up with chequebook in hand to buy the shares. Instead, as has been the case with other sectors such as pharmaceuticals and automobiles, the purchase will be made through a front company.
There is also an interesting international twist in this story. Earlier this summer, a Russian company was to be granted a license as the third national cellphone operator, but the process suddenly stalled last month (companies from the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait were also trying to get the license). The effective suspension is probably linked to the high process the Iranian Government was demanding, but it leaves the Revolutionary Guard in an even stronger position in the cellphone sector.
1400 GMT: In Case Anyone Really Cares. The actual address at Friday prayers in Tehran, as opposed to President Ahmadinejad’s introduction, was delivered by Hojetoleslam Sadighi. His headline declaration was that the “world’s exceptional crimes” are the crimes of Israel in Palestine.
1330 GMT: Today is turning into a contest of two statements and, in contrast to recent days, Western media are eagerly on top of the story. Former President Khatami’s statement to reformist leaders is being juxtaposed with current President Ahmadinejad’s speech at Friday prayers.
While there are a complex range of issues in this battle, from the legal issues of detentions/confessions/trials to the institutional challenges of who controls Iran’s bureaucracy and security forces to the political showdown over Ahmadinejad’s legitimacy, it is this sentence from Khatami that may represent the moment: “‘The sacred Friday prayer podium has been given to those who…call for the punishment of prominent figures…while they are accused in the eyes of the public for committing treason themselves.”
Even though Khatami was probably referring to Friday prayers past and addresses delivered by “hard-line” clerics such as Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami and Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, that sentence will be set next to Ahmadinejad’s none-too-subtle call for the arrests of protest leaders.
To put an immediate question: 48 hours after trying to avert a showdown with his own statement, the Supreme Leader finds the confrontation ratcheted up several notches. What does Khamenei do now? Read the rest of this entry »
The second story is potentially bigger. Press TV’s website reports that former President Mohammad Khatami met former members of Parliament and said, “We are the real protectors of the Islamic Republic not those who showed in recent months that they are uprooting the republic and Islamic nature of the establishment.” Khatami expressed concern about the “illegal” attitude adopted towards the Iranian nation after the election: “Certain ongoing moves run counter to legal principles.”
What Press TV fails to note is that those former members of Parliament issued a statement a few days ago raising the issue of the authority of the Supreme Leader. So this meeting may be part of the move to invoke Law 111 over the prudence and justice of Khamenei.
2005 GMT: Agence France Presse reports, “Iran released 24-year-old French academic Clotilde Reiss on bail Sunday six weeks after she was arrested on suspicion of spying, the French presidency said, adding that she is in good health.”
2000 GMT: Revolutionary Road has posted a summary in English, including the names of the defendants, in today’s third trial of post-election political detainees.
1905 GMT: And it’s not just Press TV that is giving airtime to the opposition and “enemies” of the regime. An EA correspondent reports that Iranian state television, including IRIB Channel 1, is also carrying the denial of charges by an attorney for one of the defendants in today’s trial in Tehran (see 1625 GMT).
1855 GMT: Press TV’s website is now summarising, in fact almost reprinting in full, the latest statement from Mir Hossein Mousavi: “Our election campaign was conducted under the Constitution and the principles which the Iranian nation holds dear. We still remain committed to the same slogans.”
The article prints, without any critical commentary, Mousavi’s memories of Election Night:
[At first] we thought that mismanagement was the cause of chaos. I, myself, made contacts with authorities of the country. On the election day, I called the Judiciary Chief [Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi] twice, the Prosecutor General [Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi] two times, the Majlis Speaker [Ali Larijani] twice, and the Office of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution [Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei] four times to raise issues about the pre-planned scenarios.
Mousavi, the former prime minister who worked under the founder of the Islamic Revolution, added that he had dispatched a team to see Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli, “but, surprisingly, he refused to meet” with them.
Mousavi’s challenge to the regime is also featured: “We are confident that an atmosphere of mistrust would not have been created in the country if a fair attitude had been adopted [after the election], to the demands of the Iranian people, and if the media had been prevented from attributing the nation’s will to foreigners and diverting facts.”
1835 GMT: A reader writes to clarify the “first woman” Minister reference in the Reuters report (1645 GMT), and just now repeated by a CNN reporter: “Iran’s first female minister, Mrs. F. Parsa, was appointed by the Shah to serve the Ministry of Education.” Parsa was arrested by the new Islamic Republic in February 1980 and executed three months later.
2000 GMT: Here is That Split in the Judiciary. For those who don’t think there is a battle going on within the establishment, take note that 
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