2120 GMT: Author, translator and journalist Omid Mehregan has been released from detention.
2100 GMT: So all our watching on many fronts is overtaken by the “Iran Might Be Getting A Bomb” story. Little coming out of Iran tonight; in contrast, every “Western” news outlet is screaming about the draft International Atomic Energy report on Iran’s nuclear programme. (Funny how each, like CNN, is implying that it “obtained” an exclusive copy.)
1830 GMT: Political Prisoner News. “Green media” pull together reports that we carried last night: 50 detainees were released, including Shahabeddin Tabatabei, member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front and head of youth in support of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mohammad Khatami, Parisa Kakaei of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, student activist Maziar Samiee, and Khosrow Ghashghai of the Freedom Movement of Iran.
2250 GMT: Cyber-Warfare. Looks like someone wants to stop the latest Karroubi surge. The “Sun Army” took down Karroubi’s website Saham News. The Saham staff have control of the site again but a message indicates that it is “under construction”.
2230 GMT:It is reported that Parisa Kakaee of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters Maziar Samei of the One Million Signatures Campaign, Bahar Tarakameh, and Nazanin Hassania have been released from prison. 26 other political prisoners are also reported to have been freed.
1830 GMT: I’m on an evening break which happily involves dinner at Birmingham’s best Iranian restaurant.
Certain people inside Iran are fanning divisions that never existed and do not exist, and foreigners looking for propaganda feed themselves some tasty morsels….Why should we have differences? Even now we sit together every two weeks and discuss every issue in the country. These are meetings where we speak without restrictions because they are not recorded.
1815 GMT: For What It’s Worth. Some outlets are giving lots of play to the Supreme Leader’s use of Hillary Clinton’s “dictatorship” statement to issue his own challenges to the “West”.
You can get notable extracts in that coverage — frankly, I know this script and I can’t be bothered to post any more of it.
2255 GMT: Steady as she goes with the Western media mulling over the significance of Iran’s delay on acceptance of the uranium enrichment deal. The truth is that, given the intracacies (and perhaps disorders) of Tehran’s decision-making system, we won’t know for a while. For now, it’s a matter of reading clues, and the strongest — with Iranian state TV putting out the line of a “positive response” — is that the Iranian Government is gradually putting the proposal through the system.
But we’ll stand by our initial projection this morning (0630 GMT): the bigger story is inside Iran. Mehdi Karroubi’s appearance at the Media Fair, with the loud and fervant chants of his supporters and the scuffles with bystanders and security forces, will ripple throughout Tehran’s political circles. Once again, Karroubi has not backed down (altogether now — Bring. It. On.), so once again the opposition movement has a boost amidst the Government’s ad hoc but still notable shows of force. Indeed, the reformists now get the convergence of the negative, with the arrest of the 60 party members and relatives on Thursday, and the positive with Karroubi’s mobilising of public sentiment.
1915 GMT: Tonight’s Arrests. A group had gathered at the house of Shahabbedin Tabatabei, a detained member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front to pray for his release. Security forces entered the home. They asked 4 everyone’s cell phone and filmed them, handcuffed the men, and took away several people.
Among those detained were Tabatabei’s wife, Mohammad-Reza Jalaiepour, who was detained earlier in the post-election crisis, Mehrak Mirabzadeh, Faezeh Abtahi, and Saeed Nourmohammadi. Mirabzadeh and Abtahi were later released.
1800 GMT: Iranian activists on Twitter are reporting that a number of high-ranking Islamic Iran Participant Front members have been arrested, and in some cases re-arrested after previous post-election detentions, this evening.
1655 GMT: The reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front of the Islamic Revolution has condemned the sentences against political activists. It has God’s promise that no Government or country can survive with such acts; as Prophet Mohammad said, “A state can survive with infidelity but not with tyranny and oppression.”
The IIPF added that the coup forces have shown that their only use of religion is to justify despotic and authoritarian actions, issuing unjust sentences against some of the most loyal children of the revolution and the country. (English summary via Mousavi Facebook page)