2145 GMT: The Karroubi Story. We’ve worked tonight through the stories, the rumours, and possibilities to post an interim analysis of Mehdi Karroubi’s statement today on “Mr Khamenei” and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, “the head of the government of the regime”.
2140 GMT: In Case You Missed It. Persian2English reports: “Abolfazl Eslami, former Counselor of the Iranian Embassy in Tokyo, writes that he has decided to join people’s movement in light of the Islamic Republics’ violence and oppression.”
1955 GMT: And on the Clerical Front. Ayatollah Bayat-Zanjani has renewed his criticism of the regime, asking Iran’s leaders to do “nahy az monker” (repent from the bad way).
1945 GMT: Remember the Economic Front? Most of the management of Bank Melli have been replaced.
1935 GMT: We are hoping to have a thorough, on-the-mark analysis, from an EA correspondent with excellent sources, of the Karroubi statement about 2130 GMT. (To be blunt, I got it wrong earlier today, but I think, thanks to a lot of help, we’ll have the best possible reading by the end of tonight.)
Meanwhile, another piece of evidence to put into the mix, indicating that Karroubi is not recognising Ahmadinejad as President but merely as a “selected leader”. He told Rah-e-Sabz that he stood by his comments, but the people have problems which must be solved by the government, which is responsible for the situation. He repeated a statement he had made to an English newspaper: “I am convinced that Ahmadinejad will not stay for four years.” Read the rest of this entry »
2110 GMT: Peyke Iran has published the news we heard earlier (see 1810 GMT) that all the detained Mothers of Mourning have been released.
1855 GMT: HomyLafayette has an excellent summary of information around the Mohammadi case.
1845 GMT: More on the Trial of the Baha’i (see 0725 GMT). An EA reader notes confusion over the court hearing for seven Baha’i members arrested in 2008 for “organizing riots”. Many accounts say the trial was today but one Iranian source reports that testimony began yesterday, a day early.
1815 GMT: Not A Nuclear Scientist. A highly reliable EA source checks in on the Professor’s case: “I hand checked all three UN black lists [of Iranian nuclear scientists]. Ali Mohammadi isn’t there.”
1800 GMT: Oh. My. Goodness. The Supreme Leader’s representative to the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, Ali Saeedi, has reportedly declared that the the deaths of 75,000 people will be worthwhile if the Islamic Republic is preserved. 1745 GMT: The Presidential website has made a contribution to the Mohammadi story, declaring that the Iranian nation will have its “revenge” on the “enemies” who killed the professor. More info, however, on Mohammadi as a particle physicist: his faculty profile and a list of publications which complements those we noted earlier (1445 GMT).
2245 GMT: It’s Going On Outside Tehran. Norooz reports that 20 people were arrested in demonstrations in Isfahan. Video is also out of tonight’s protests in that city.
2220 GMT: Night Update. Not much new to report in last few hours. After the crowd for the Jamaran ceremony was prevented from attending the memorial and/or forcibly dispersed, there were further clashes with reported arrests and injuries in Niavaran.
Reports also came through of Ayatollah Dastgheib’s speech in the Qoba Mosque in Shiraz, scheduled for 11 a.m. local time tomorrow.
1825 GMT: Tonight’s Memorial. BBC Persian reports that the Jamaran ceremony and former President Khatami’s speech was indeed interrupted by “government supporters” and turned violent before it was abandoned.
2035 GMT: We’ve posted the video and full transcript of President Ahmadinejad’s interview with Britain’s Channel 4 (see 1925 GMT).
1925 GMT: Mahmoud Says All is Well. President Ahmadinejad has given another “exclusive” interview to a Western broadcaster, this time Britain’s Channel 4. Once again, the discussion started with nukes, nukes, nukes, allowing Ahmadinejad (who I suspect is pretty used to this line of questioning) to stake out his defence of the Iranian nation against Washington — “We are against the expansionist policies of the United States” — and ending in the cul-de-sac of the question, “Is the matter of extended hands finished?”
It’s the second half of the interview that is surreal, however, with Ahmadinejad’s defiance — in the face of all evidence to the contrary — “We have freedom in Iran – people are free to express their views”: Read the rest of this entry »
2310 GMT: Moving Towards Qom. More chatter on the post-funeral tension in Qom — Norooz claims people are moving from Isfahan and Najafabad to “defend” the house of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri.
2300 GMT: Mahmoud Fights Back? On a day which began with our analysis that the President is scrambling to maintain any legitimacy, it appears he tried to send out a signal tonight with the dismissal of Mir Hossein Mousavi as head of the Arts Institute. Salaam News reports that Ahmadinejad flew back from Shiraz just for the meeting deciding on the sacking of Mousavi and will now return to Shiraz.
Then again, one wonders if that will be enough to show Mahmoud’s muscle. According to Peyke Iran, only 40 people were on hand to greet Ahmadinejad at Shiraz’s airport this morning.
2230 GMT: Back from break to find discussion still going on about possible paramilitary/security forces threat to Ayatollah Sane’i, with Rouydad saying that followers have declared their readiness to defend the cleric. Read the rest of this entry »
2250 GMT: Apologies. Earlier, we erroneously posted a Reuters report that Mir Hossein Mousavi had called for a national strike if he is arrested. A case of moving too quickly on a tense night: the report is from 20 June.
2220 GMT: Bubbling Over? Back after an evening’s break to find a swirl of rumours — if this morning started with tensions bubbling under, the evening has brought the prospect of them bubbling over.
The furour over the alleged burning of Imam Khomeini’s picture, stirred by pro-Government media, is now being read as a pretext for possible aggressive action against opposition leadership. Kalemeh, the website associated with Mir Hossein website, has posted this note:
WARNING: Beware that an event is unfolding!
Kaleme: Following the planned scenario for disgracing Imam Khomeini and accusing the Green movement and the students of this act, since yesterday official pro-Ahmadinejad media have started a heavy propaganda with a hidden agenda and based on the information available it seems that they are preparing for some harsher crack downs.
All supporters of the Green movement are strongly advised to be extremely vigilant and make sure to stay on top of the latest news.
Because of the extreme restrictions on informing people, Kaleme (Mousavi’s official website) is advising other news media to warn their users about the necessity of being watchful!
You Are The Media !
The Kalemeh post has in turn prompted other sites such as Norooz to speculate that Mousavi’s arrest may be imminent. We are monitoring the situation but must emphasize that, at this point, these reports are just rumours.
1650 GMT: The Back-and-Forth on the “Burning” of Khomeini. EA’s Mr Smith, after consulting sources, checks in to work through the possibilities of the story:
Many remain convinced that the act was indeed really anti-regime. However, whether or not the burning of the photograph was genuine, the follow-up was predictable: Iranian TV trumpeted the footage as proof of the Green Wave’s anti-revolutionary stance.
A veteran Iranian journalist has written, “It is not suspicious. It is opposition to the Islamic Republic. The people are clearly stating that they don’t want to go back in time to the period when [Mousavi was] Prime Minister [in the 1980s]. Rather, they want to move forward, past the Islamic Republic. Mr. Mousavi, you should publicly state where you are positioned in all this.”
This was a reply to to Mousavi’s own reply to Jomhouri Eslami newspaper, in which he deftly distanced the Green movement from the burning and rather flimsily labelled the burning of Khomeini’s poster as the work of agent provocateurs. Very interestingly, though, he omitted any reference to Khamenei’s image, which you will recall was torn and burnt alongside Khomeini’s in the YouTube footage. Mousavi’s respect is only centred on the figure of the “Holy Imam”, no mention of his successor whatsoever.
1940 GMT: Karroubi’s Latest Letter. Mehdi Karroubi has written to Iran Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejeie and Habib-allah Askaroladi, the secretary general of the conservative Mo’talefe party, posting the letter on his Tagheer website.
The letter is a renewal of Karroubi’s campaign for the truth on reports of abuse of detainees, responding to the attempts of Mohseni-Ejeie and Askaroladi to cast doubt on his claims and motives. He repeats his earlier account of meetings with the three-member judiciary panel that was appointed to consider the charges. In particular, he states that, while he raised the case of Saeedeh Pouraghai but warned that it might be false. (The claims that Pouraghai had been raped and killed by security forces are now discounted. Some believe the case was “manufactured” by the regime so it would discredit the opposition when the falsehood emerged.)
Karroubi also challenges Askaroladi’s claims that the Green movement is financed by millions of dollars from the US Government and demands that Mousavi and Karroubi “must be dealt with”.
1625 GMT: Rumour of Day “Mortazavi in Evin Prison”. Norooz claims that Saeed Mortazavi, who was Tehran’s Prosecutor General in the early part of the post-election crisis, has been spotted in prison garb at Evin Prison. The website claims that Mortazavi has not been seen in public in two months and raises the possibility that he will disappear via “suicide”, just like Kahrizak prison doctor Ramin Pourandarjan. (Norooz also sees parallels with the case of Said Emami, the intelligence operative and deputy minister found dead in his cell a decade ago. He was blamed for a series of murders after his death.)
1610 GMT: Abtahi Freed. The picture of former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi provides happy confirmation of his release on bail after 160 days in detention (see 0735 and1405 GMT). Read the rest of this entry »
0825 GMT: Norooz has published the names of 19 reformist activists and family members, out of 71 arrested on Thursday night at the home of detainee Shahabeddin Tabatabei, transferred to Evin Prison.
0753 GMT: Nuclear Deal Still On? Your latest clue, courtesy of Press TV, that the Iranians want an agreement on enrichment: a high-profile splash on the US and Russian positions, “Medvedev, Obama find talks with Iran ‘positive’”.
Your latest clue, courtesy of Press TV and Iran’s Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, that Tehran will spin out the process a bit longer, manoeuvring for best possible terms on “third-party enrichment” and assuring the Iranian people that it is negotiating from strength: “Iran asserts that its offer to buy nuclear fuel from the West is purely a confidence-building measure, as it has the technology to enrich uranium up to 20 percent.”
0750 GMT: We’ve updated the story of Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh, now sentenced to 15 years in prison, with an article by Karim Sadjadpour.
0615 GMT: A morning where the significant movement is on the Iranian nuclear question. The inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency should begin their work at Iran’s second uranium enrichment facility, at Fardoo near Qom, today — Al Jazeera has video. That story will dominate “Western” coverage of Iran, possibly matched by speculation and worry over Tehran’s deliberations on the Vienna agreement on enrichment. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani stirred up confusion yesterday, as we noted, with his criticism of the proposal — still no clue, in the dramatic US-UK coverage, whether Larijani speaks for anyone (say the Supreme Leader) other than himself.
Inside Iran, however, the hot-button question yesterday was whether Mir Hossein Mousavi and/or Mohammad Khatami had showed up at the Tehran Media Fair, a day after Mehdi Karroubi appeared.
2145 GMT: The Karroubi Story. We’ve worked tonight through the stories, the rumours, and possibilities to post an interim analysis of Mehdi Karroubi’s statement today on “Mr Khamenei” and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, “the head of the government of the regime”.
2245 GMT: It’s Going On Outside Tehran. Norooz reports that 
2035 GMT: We’ve posted 
2310 GMT: Moving Towards Qom. More chatter on the post-funeral tension in Qom — Norooz claims 
2125 GMT: Activists on Twitter are reporting 
0825 GMT: Norooz has published the names of 19 reformist activists and family members, out of 71 arrested on Thursday night at the home of detainee Shahabeddin Tabatabei, 
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