2130 GMT: For What It’s Worth. The Supreme Leader’s office has issued a statement saying that Ayatollah Khamenei is jolly happy that today’s gathering has shown the unity of Iran in the face of the “arrogance” of Western nations.
2100 GMT: A Correction and a Question. One of the hot stories this morning was that reformist Mohammad Reza Khatami and his wife, Zahra Eshraghi, the granddaughter of Ayatollah Khomeini, had been briefly detained before being released with their promise they would not return to the streets (see 0815 and 0832 GMT).
A reliable EA source from Iran offers this, based on inside information, “The husband and wife were led to their car by security forces in plain clothes to leave the area for their own security.”
But that in turn raises a question, “Security from whom?”
2000 GMT: We have just posted our special analysis of 22 Bahman, “Ahmadinejad Wins Ugly (This Time)”. I hope it takes discussion beyond today to the political complexities of weeks and months ahead: it is one of the toughest pieces I’ve ever had to write.
2240 GMT: Balatarin Lives (for Real). An update and possible correction on our earlier story (1914 GMT) about the fate of Balatarin, the Iranian news portal. The site is back up, and some Iranian activists are saying that the supposed “successor” Agah Tarin was actually a regime attempt at imitation.
2000 GMT: An Iranian activist reports that journalist Nasrin Vaziri has been released after 23 days in prison.
1950 GMT: Rah-e-Sabz reports that Ali Reza Beheshti, Mir Hossein Mousavi’s chief advisor, has suffered a heart attack in detention. It adds, however, that Beheshti has contacted his family and said that he is now better.
1914 GMT: Balatarin Lives. Balatarin, an Iranian website similar to the Digg or NewsVine portals, has been an important news source during the post-election crisis but was knocked off-line recently. Now a successor, Agah Tarin, has appeared.
1910 GMT: Mohsen Safai Farahani, recently sentenced to six years in prison, will be released today on bail of $700.000 $ for five days during the appeal against the verdict.
1900 GMT: The Battle Against Ahmadinejad. For all of our attention to the manoeuvres around the Supreme Leader’s speech, this may be the most important news on the in-fighting in the establishment. An unnamed influential member of the hardliners who supports the Government declares that Ahmadinejad Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai “is out”.
What we wrote at 0745 GMT: “Some media were looking forward to today’s “5+1″ (US, UK, Russia, China, France, Germany) meeting on Iran’s nuclear programme. Even if that gathering had significance for the internal situation in Iran, it is unlikely to produce any results: China has declined to send a high-level official, blocking any move towards further sanctions on Tehran.”
What Associated Press reported an hour ago: “Top diplomats from six key powers focused on possible new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program at a meeting Saturday, but reached no agreement, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said.”
2205 GMT: Writing in Exile. Nazila Fathi, The New York Times correspondent who fled her native country in June, has written an emotive account of post-election events and her departure. The article, however, also offers a powerful insight into how “new media” has re-shaped both opposition and coverage of it: Read the rest of this entry »
2125 GMT: More Fun with the MKO. I guess one “Dumbest Strategy of Day” Award isn’t enough. Following Euro MP Struan Stevenson’s cheerful advocacy of an alliance with the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran, the political wing of the Mujahedin-e-Khaq “terrorist” group (MKO), Allan Gerson, a lawyer who has worked for the State and Justice Departments, drops by The Huffington Post to assure:
As a practical matter de-designation of the [Mujahedin-e-Khalq] as a terrorist entity will only enhance Washington’s desired outcome of a peaceful resolution to the Iranian nuclear crisis. It would strengthen America’s hand in bringing a faltering regime to the negotiating table by letting Tehran know in no uncertain terms that we have taken off the kid-gloves.
Oh, yeah, I’m sure that the Tehran regime, which has been trying to rally opinion by claiming a US-MKO plot to overthrow the Government, will be absolutely traumatised and have no close what to do if Washington follows Gerson’s recommendation.
(Oh, so sorry, I took Gerson at face value as an objective if pretty dim commentator. He is in fact co-counsel representing the MKO in the case to take it off the US Government’s terrorist list.)
2055 GMT: Former Presidents Mohammad Khatami and Hashemi Rafsanjani have written messages of condolence to the family of President Professor Ali-Mohammadi.
2030 GMT: Battling with the Clerics. A series of skirmishes between Government and clerics today. Ayatollah Sadeghi Tehrani, taking offence at remarks by Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, has declared that the retention of the former First Vice-President and current Presidential Chief of Staff in any official position is “haram” (religiously forbidden).
And Ayatollah Bayat Zanjani, a persistent post-cleric of the Government but relatively quiet in recent weeks, has re-emerged to declare that the principle of velayat-e-faqih (ultimate clerical authority) is not a principle of Islam and denying it is not a sin.
Look also for some repercussions from the Government’s arrest of Mohammad Taghi Khalaji (see 1745 GMT). He is the father of prominent Mehdi Khalaji, who is based at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Expect WINEP and their allies in the Washington network of “think tanks” to get vocal — indeed, WINEP has put out a special alert and Danielle Pletka, a Bush-era proponent of US power now at the American Enterprise Institute, has already jumped in, “Iran’s Nazi-Fascism and How You Can Help Fight It”. (John Hannah, former advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, has now joined the chorus.) Read the rest of this entry »
I want to be careful here. I don’t want to be too emotive, and I don’t want to be seen as taking a cheap shot at a US journalist. However, I have just read an opinion piece which is one of the most unsettling I have encountered since 12 June.
In today’s Washington Post, Jackson Diehl frets about “Iran’s Unlovable Opposition”. This is his opening:
Iran has been controlled since June by a hard-line clique of extremist clerics and leaders of the Revolutionary Guard who believe they are destined to make their country a nuclear power that dominates the Middle East. It follows that their opposition — a mass movement that has been marching to slogans such as “death to the dictator” and “no to Lebanon, no to Gaza” — is bound to be a more plausible partner for the rapproachement that the Obama administration is seeking.
Or maybe not. The enduring nature of Iran is to frustrate outsiders who work by the usual rules of political logic or who seek unambiguous commitments.
In the midst of the ongoing uncertainty over the appointment of Mohammad Sadegh Larijani as head of Iran’s judiciary Enduring America correspondents have been paying close attention to this extended analysis by Mehdi Khalaji, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Khalaji offers both background and critique of Larijani within the context of what he calls the “militarization” of Iran’s legal and judicial bodies.
We have read this in the light both of WINEP’s political position of long-time hostility to the Iranian regime and of Khalaji’s own history as a former cleric. An EA correspondent writes, “Khalaji usually goes down very strong on his former Qom classmates usually. His analysis may turn out to be true, but Sadegh is actually more scholarly than what Khalaji makes him out to be. For example, I have a very erudite rebuttal of Mohammad Khatami’s civil society that was written by him 11 years ago in a right-wing weekly called Sobh. However, what Khalaji says about Khamenei’s progressive replacement of the elite with a younger generation of his own liking is very similar to other analyses, including those from “reformists”. Interesting to see how opinions are converging on this front.”
Militarization of the Iranian Judiciary
Widespread reports suggest that Sadeq Larijani, a young and inexperienced cleric with close ties to Iran’s military and intelligence agencies, will officially replace Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi as head of the Iranian
judiciary on August 16. [Editor's Note: The installation was originally scheduled for 15 August but has been delayed, reported to the 17th.] This appointment is particularly significant, since the judiciary in Iran wields considerable power — albeit through the approval of Iran’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — and has a great deal of latitude to make decisions without reference to law or Islamic concepts, especially when “safeguarding the interests of the regime” is deemed necessary. Read the rest of this entry »
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 »
Expressing support for all Iranian citizens who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties, and rule of law, and for other purposes.
Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
(1) expresses its support for all Iranian citizens who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties, and rule of law;
(2) condemns the ongoing violence against demonstrators by the Government of Iran and pro-government militias, as well as the ongoing government suppression of independent electronic communication through interference with the Internet and cellphones; and
(3) affirms the universality of individual rights and the importance of democratic and fair elections.
2130 GMT: For What It’s Worth. The Supreme Leader’s office has issued a statement saying that Ayatollah Khamenei is jolly happy that today’s gathering has shown the unity of Iran in the face of the “arrogance” of Western nations.
I want to be careful here. I don’t want to be too emotive, and I don’t want to be seen as taking a cheap shot at a US journalist. However, I have just read an opinion piece which is one of the most unsettling I have encountered since 12 June.
In the midst of the ongoing uncertainty over the appointment of Mohammad Sadegh Larijani as head of Iran’s judiciary Enduring America correspondents have been paying close attention to 
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 
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