A rather strange “interview” of Mehdi Karroubi on BBC’s flagship news programme Newsnight last evening. The correspondent, Jon Leyne, frittered away the first minutes talking about how “extraordinary” it was that Karroubi was able to speak to a Western media outlet, surfing on the cleric’s own words about the Iranian regime’s clamp-down on communications.
In fact, Karroubi has been interviewed by the Los Angeles Times and Le Monde in recent weeks, so the situation is more complicated than presented here. The regime will allow a window for Karroubi to speak to the “outside” world; it is his profile inside Iran that is of more concern to them. So Leyne’s “headline” on the interview — that this was just Ayatollah Khomeini speaking to the Western media on the eve of the 1979 Islamic Revolution — seems to be hyperbolic.
The second half of the clip is better, with Karroubi’s (too-brief, as edited by the BBC) reflections on the abuse of detainees, as well as his comments on President Ahmadinejad and the possible emergence of a “radical” Green Movement.
2140 GMT: A Special Note for Closing (and for Opening Tomorrow). In another portion of his press confernce, Iran Prosecutor General Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei took aim at the son of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani: “If there are any charges against Mehdi Hashemi, he should be summoned and his case investigated. If he is found guilty, he should be punished without any mercy.”
Subtext? The Government is pulling out the threats because it is worried that Rafsanjani is up to something big.
And guess what? He is. Tune in first thing tomorrow morning.
2100 GMT: Cyber-Protest. The Green Movement has hacked the website of Gilan University. The homepage still features a protest poster and the slogan, “Green Movement is Alive”.
2100 GMT: The Assault on Zahra Rahnavard. More on the alleged attack on Mir Hossein Mousavi’s wife this afternoon at Tehran University: Persian2English has an English summary.
2055 GMT: Britain Leads, Will US Follow? British Foreign Minister David Miliband has taken notice of today’s events in a statement:
I share the concern of many people about the use of force to stifle demonstrations on Students’ Day. This follows the large scale abuses of human rights that have taken place since the presidential elections on 12 June.
Freedom of speech and freedom of political expression are fundamental values which all governments should respect. We look to the Iranian authorities to up-hold the freedoms of their own citizens, not stifle them.
Will Britain’s allies in Washington also issue a declaration of concern over “human rights”? Read the rest of this entry »
1935 GMT: A Note from the Media Fair. As the rumors and discussion continue over the events and protests of the week, another incident, reported by the Iranian Labor News Agency and passed on by an EA correspondent:
A stand for the “Wave of Law” website (a deliberate twist of the term “Green Wave”) was dismantled at the press exhibition in Tehran for collecting signatures for a petition seeking a complaint against Mir Hosein Moussavi. The stand faced reluctance from exhibition visitors.
Permission to set up the stand for this new website was given in circumstances in which eligible applicants had been refused. Warnings from the organizers of the Tehran Press Fair were instrumental in the stand’s ejection.
1920 GMT: The reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front has intervened again with an open letter to the former prosecutor of Tehran, judges, Revolutionary Guard, and the Ministry of Intelligence:
We do not open this letter with “greetings”, as it is a symbol of all that you and your colleagues have denied us and those like us….The mass assault of the agents of the former Tehran prosecutor on the central office of the Participation Front, the election headquarters, and newspapers as well as the mass arrest of the members of the Participation Front, other political, and media activists happened not long ago, and the wave of arrests still continue.
This time you and your colleagues have created a new wonder. Thirty years after the establishment of the “Islamic” system, you silenced the “O God! O God!” prayer in the throats of this nation’s sons and daughters and the innocent families of [political] prisoners by your weapons and handcuffs. We remind you of this because it is the duty of every Muslim to stop their religious brothers and sisters from committing bad deeds that we hope are not being committed deliberately and knowingly but rather unintentionally and under pressure.
Before it is too late come to your senses and don’t be the tools of oppression for the tyrant masters of power. Someday that God willing is coming and is not too far away, they will be too caught up as the results of their words and actions to be able to help you.
1715 GMT: We haven’t forgotten you. It is just a relatively quiet period in Iran, and we’re heading out to catch up with friends and colleagues. Back later to round up the day’s events.
1530 GMT: Saturday Football Story. Looks like the Green wave has made it into a photo of the Iran national team on the Press TV website — see separate entry.
1455 GMT: The Curious Development with the Nuclear Deal. Something very strange is happening as the Iranian Government deliberates whether to accept the Vienna proposal on uranium enrichment.
2140 GMT: A Special Note for Closing (and for Opening Tomorrow). In another portion of his press confernce, Iran Prosecutor General Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei 
2150 GMT: To end the day, we’ve 
1935 GMT: A Note from the Media Fair. As the rumors and discussion continue over the events and protests of the week, another incident, reported by the Iranian Labor News Agency and passed on by an EA correspondent:
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