2115 GMT: We’ve posted video, originally shown on BBC Persian, of the attack on Tehran University halls of resident on 15 June, three days after the Presidential election.
2100 GMT: Sanctions Follow-up. Earlier today (1555 GMT) I got a bit wound up about an editorial in The Wall Street Journal pushing — I thought dishonestly — for sanctions. Matt Duss follows up by taking apart the editorial’s claim “prominent Iranian dissidents [have] moved from adamant opposition to severe sanctions to hesitant acceptance of the idea”.
2050 GMT: Back to “Dirt and Dust”. Ruhollah Hosseinian, the head of Islamic Revolution party in the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) and a fervent supporter of President Ahmadinejad, has choice words for the opposition in an interview with Khabar Online: “The opponents received a firm response from the people….Before February 11, I have said that on its way, the raging flood of people on the anniversary of Islamic revolution victory will remove any dirt and dust.”
“”Dirt and dust” was Ahmadinejad’s infamous description of his opponents in his “victory” speech the day after the 12 June Presidential election.
UPDATE 1225 GMT: The prominent Iranian exile, Mohsen Sazegara, has declared in a video message that the claimed letter and audio will be significant in assuring people that Iranian military forces are with them.
UPDATE 0845 GMT: The claimed audio of the announcement of the eight regiments has now been posted.
The letter, on the reformist website Gooya, appeared last evening: “The Army is the Refuge of the People”. This morning it is still causing excitement and uncertainty: is a section of the Iranian army and air force preparing to stand against the Government and “with the Iranian people” if the regime’s violence continues?
2135 GMT: The Best Rumour of the Day (1745 GMT) is now Fun Fact of the Day. Iranian state television did show tonight’s football match in black-and-white, and we’ve got the video.
2040 GMT: An Important Note to Close (For Now). I was going to hold this until morning, but as a reader has noted on the discussion thread, it is far too important a development to be treated lightly.
Advar reports what we have been observing since yesterday: there are worrying signs that the Internet is being strangled inside Iran, with slowing speeds. An EA correspondent adds reports from Iran that other services, such as Yahoo Messenger and Gmail, are unreachable and anti-filter mechanism are also almost completely down. He asks, “Could this be the start of the Government’s [next] crackdown?”
2006 GMT: I’m Going to Tell You One More Time, New York Times (1155 GMT). Your headline writer has his priorities wrong: “Amid Large Protests, Iran Leader Calls Holocaust a Lie”.
Here’s your rewrite: “Despite President’s Israel Diversion, Large Protests Challenge Government”.
(I swear that I wrote this seven minutes before reading this from the National Iranian American Council, “The NYT editors need some help today. Their coverage shouldn’t be entitled, ‘Amid Large Protests, Iran Leader Calls Holocaust a Lie’. The real headline should be ‘Thousands Protest at Rallies Despite Threats’.”)
1950 GMT: A Good Mystery to End the Night: Why Did Ali Larijani Meet the Clerics?
2010 GMT: On a relatively quiet evening, the Comedy Moment of the Day comes in. The Supreme Leader’s representative to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Hojatoleslam Ali Saeedi, explained that the reason for the “quick confessions” of political detainees was the “humane and Islamic” behaviour of the Revolutionary Guard.
1810 GMT: Scoop of the Day. The Times of London “Terror suspect Saeed Jalili set to become Ahmadinejad’s Defence Minister“. (Saeed Jalili is the secretary of the National Security Council. The nominee for Defence Minister is Ahmad Vahidi, who is wanted by Interpol for alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Argentina.)
1720 GMT: During this lull before tomorrow’s votes of confidence, here’s one story, originally in Farda News, to make you go Hmmm…..
Mohsen Kouhkan, a spokesman for the Majlis governing body, said lawmakers were asked to turn down any dinner invitation other than those coming from parliament or the presidential office until after the vote-of-confidence session for the 10th cabinet has taken place.
“As minister designates and lawmakers may be invited to Iftar [breaking of the daily Ramadan fast] parties held outside Parliament, the Majlis governing body has sent a text message to all lawmakers asking them to refrain from participating in any dinner parties outside of parliament and the presidential office,” he said.
1655 GMT: One disturbing story to note. As Iranian universities prepare for the start of the academic year, Gooya reports that dozens of Tehran University students have been summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence for questioning.
1630 GMT: We’re back after an afternoon break for an EA staffer’s birthday but, to be honest, there’s very little to update on the domestic front, since the votes of confidence on Cabinet appointments will be tomorrow rather than today. Instead, the two stories causing chatter amongst “mainstream” media are on the international front: the Iran Government’s announcement that President Ahmadinejad will attend this month’s United Nations General Assembly (which isn’t news at all, since he was always intending to go) and the declaration by the Government that it has “prepared an updated nuclear package” for Wednesday’s meeting of the “5+1″ countries (US, UK, France, Russia, China, Germany) in Frankfurt on Wednesday.
And to be honest, while the nuclear proposal will dominate media headlines over the next 24 hours (since US media, in particular, find the script easier with the Nuclear Threat story than with the complex politics inside Iran), it isn’t news either. The Iranian Government has been sending out signals for a few weeks that it might like to sit down and chat about the nuclear programme, not as much as a response to Western threats of sanctions as much as a diversion from internal conflict.
2115 GMT: We’ve posted video, originally shown on BBC Persian, of the attack on Tehran University halls of resident on 15 June, three days after the Presidential election.
UPDATE 1225 GMT: The prominent Iranian exile, Mohsen Sazegara, has declared 
2135 GMT: The Best Rumour of the Day (1745 GMT) is now Fun Fact of the Day. Iranian state television did show tonight’s football match in black-and-white, and 
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