2030 GMT: US Walks Tightrope on Green Movement. Earlier today we posted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s declaration about the “ruthless repression” of the Iran Government. Now State Department official John Limbert, who has direct responsibility for Iran, has put out a longer, more balanced statement.
On the one hand, Limbert continues the rhetoric criticising and cautioning the regime, “I think it’s very hard for the government to decide how to react to the legitimate demands of the people. The more violence it uses, the more it will hurt itself in the end….We will never remain silent in the face of state violence and the mistreatment of people.”
On the other, Limbert is also assuring that the Obama Administration will not break off discussions with the Ahmadinejad Government: “As you know, the U.S. president is determined to renew ties with Iran despite all the problems — which we don’t underestimate — based on a new beginning.”
2205 GMT: The Iranian regime, as it blames foreign media for fomenting unrest, continues the attempt to block the services. Voice of America and BBC Persian report sustained jamming efforts.
2055 GMT: The Hidden Story? An Iranian activist makes the interesting and important claim that the rumours around Mousavi and Karroubi have obscured a major story tonight — “500 thugs attacked students with knives and machetes” at Mashhad University. We’ve got footage of the clash in our video section.
2050 GMT: Nothing has happened to change our opinion of 1915 GMT. We are treating Iranian state media’s story of “two opposition figures” fleeing to northern Iran as rumour or disinformation.
Hossein Karoubi, the son of moderate defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karoubi, said his father and opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi were still in Tehran.
“My father and Mr. Mousavi are in Tehran and IRNA’s report is baseless. They are still pursuing the people’s demands,” Hossein Karoubi told moderate Parlemannews.
2005 GMT: Andrew Sullivan has gotten wind of what appears to be a five minute video of a group of security forces disarming after being surrounded by a crowd of demonstrators. We’ve added it to today’s video page.
1915 GMT: Rumours. We’re off on a 90-minute break. At this point, we consider the Islamic Republic News Agency story of the Karroubi/Mousavi flight to northern Iran “unconfirmed”, with the possibility that it is either a rumour being elevated to “news” or a regime disinformation campaign.
Both the Karroubi and Mousavi camps have denied the story. It should also be noted that the rumour was being spread earlier today that Mousavi’s wife Zahra Rahnavard had been detained, and no confirmation has followed.
BBC Persian is interviewing one of Karroubi’s sons about 1930 GMT.
1905 GMT: The Regime Rally (cont.). Peyke Iran, which has published photos indicating a smaller rally than the “hundreds of thousands” cited by other outlets (see 1853 GMT), is now off-line. (1926 GMT: Website is back up.)
1853 GMT: The Regime Rally. CNN’s Shirzad Bozorgmehr claims “hundreds of thousands” at today’s gathering. He said that at Vali-e Asr Square, he could not get further because of the dense crowd. From a bridge, he watched an area from Imam Hossein Square to Enghelab Square, a distance of about 18 kilometres (11 miles).
1900 GMT: An EA source tips us off to an on-line presentation from last month, “Debating Engagement: A Critical Dialogue on Iran and the Peace Movement”.
1820 GMT: Iran’s state Arabic-language satellite service Al-Alam is on air again after the French company Eutelsat agreed to carry its programmes. Al-Alam’s former providers, the Saudi- and Egypt-based Arabsat and Nilesat, withdrew on 3 November.
1620 GMT: Families of political prisoners have gathered for the third time in front of offices of Iran’s judiciary, calling for the release of all political prisoners and demanding the administration of law and justice for all. The families met representatives of the judiciary but failed to get an audience with the head of the judiciary, Sadegh Larijani.
At the end of this gathering, the families asked for the immediate release of those arrested during prayer and of innocent women. They called for “conducting public fair trials”, “allowing the prisoners to have the right of choosing their lawyers and naming those who are obstructing this right”, “identifying those who are putting pressure on some of the post-election prisoners’ families”, and “expediting court hearings and immediate release of those imprisoned with reduced bail”.
1535 GMT: For My Next Trick, I Will Solve Traffic Jams. This is either political genius or massive overconfidence: in the midst of conflicts over the economy, the nuclear issues, and his own legitimacy, President Ahmadinejad has declared his urgent priority to clear Tehran’s roads: “We have solutions for Tehran and I believe I will soon have to personally intervene in Tehran’s issues because I see that the traffic situation is making our citizens suffer.”
Go a bit deeper, and you’ll find a political battle which is far more than Mahmoud jumping into the middle of the Modarres Expressway to direct traffic. This is another play for power against an opponent within the establishment, in this case, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer-Qalibaf:
Ahmadinejad went on to say that his administration plans to take over the control of the Tehran Metro Company from the municipality. The remarks came as the Tehran Municipality and government are in disagreement about providing the capital’s subway system with state subsidies. The president also called on…Qalibaf and the Tehran City Council to agree with shifting the management of the metro to the government.
2015 GMT: 13 Aban Does Not Exist. Homy Lafayette offers more detail on the Government’s order to state media to “refrain from disseminating any news, photo, or topic which can lead to tension in the society or breach public order” during the demonstrations on 13 Aban (4 November).
The article includes an English translation of the document, issued by Deputy Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Alireza Malekian.
1810 GMT: Iran’s Nuclear Manoeuvre. If this story from Press TV is accurate, then Tehran is haggling over the details of third-party enrichment, rather than walking away from the deal.
The article re-quotes the source who spoke to Al Alam TV (see 1015 GMT), “Iran will announce its response to the proposal put forward by [International Atomic Energy Agency] Director-General [Mohamed] ElBaradei on Friday, October 30.” The official added that Iran did not want to send 80 percent of its uranium stock in a single shipment to Russia, as set out in the deal from the Vienna talks: “Iran as a uranium buyer knows best how much uranium, enriched to a level of 19.75 percent, it needs [for its medical research reactor]; based on this argument, it will raise certain issues with this proposal.”
In other words, Tehran will insist on a lower amount of uranium — currently, the deal is for 1.2 million out of 1.5 million tonnes — being sent to Russia in the first shipment. More would be delivered for enrichment as the medical reactor required new supplies.
The report is seconded by the head of Parliament’s Foreign Policy and National Security Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, “Iran can send the scheduled amount in separate shipments so that its fuel supply [provided by foreigners] is guaranteed….Iran can send only a part of its stockpile … and then as it receives its 20 percent enriched fuel it will send the next portion.”
A word of caution on this interpretation: Boroujerdi is close to President Ahmadinejad and is putting the pro-deal view. It is unclear whether the dissenting voices such as Ali Larijani (and possibly, behind Larijani, the Supreme Leader) have come around to this position.
1750 GMT: Back from a teaching break to find that Rooz Online, following up a story prominent on the Internet this morning, has published details of an alleged Government order to censor and possibly shut out any news of mass demonstrations on 13 Aban (4 November). Read the rest of this entry »
5 p.m. We’re off for some downtime. Back in the morning with overnight updates, including the latest of Obama envoy George Mitchell’s first trip to the Middle East.
3:30 p.m. Barack, We Have a Problem. Our news this morning (2:45 a.m. and 6 a.m.) was on the emerging “third country” solution for Guantanamo ex-detainees. The meeting of the 27 European Union foreign ministers, however, has failed to agree a unified approach. The French-led proposal to take up to 60 detainees has been blocked or undermined by Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands.
The cheekiest excuse of all came from British Foreign Minister David Miliban who said that, as Britain had taken back nine of its citizens and three of its permanent residents, it had already made its “significant contribution”.
2030 GMT: US Walks Tightrope on Green Movement. Earlier today we posted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s declaration about the “ruthless repression” of the Iran Government. Now State Department official John Limbert, who has direct responsibility for Iran, has put out a longer, more balanced statement.
2015 GMT: 13 Aban Does Not Exist. Homy Lafayette 
Entries (RSS)