The Latest from Iran (18 December): A Big Event?

1945 GMT: Two Steps Ahead? Meanwhile, on the nuclear front, President Ahmadinejad is racing ahead with his "engagement" of the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, and China) in discussions on Iran's uranium enrichment.

Iran and the 5+1 agreed last week to further talks in Turkey in January but Ahmadinejad went further in his speech: "“I hope in talks in Istanbul, then in Brazil and then Tehran we could reach a framework of cooperation… this is to everyone's benefit. There were positive points in [Geneva] talks… I think it is time that their [the P5+1] confrontational policy turns into interactional policy."

1935 GMT: Sedition Watch (cont.). Rah-e-Sabz puts its gloss on the resistance of the head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, to the arrest of opposition figures (see 1650 GMT). According to the Green website, Larijani responded to those calling for the detention of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi: "You have blamed the Supreme Leader indirectly by taking the judiciary as a shield (for your demands)."

1920 GMT: Subsidy Cuts? Yes. Ahh, here we go. Just catching up with Mardomak's LiveBlog....

IRNA's headline covered only the first couple of minutes of the speech. Almost all the statement, with declarations of Iran's potential to become a world-leading economy, was a presentation of the subsidy cuts. Ahmadinejad confirmed the chatter that implementation will begin tomorrow. He gave assurances such as the deposit of 4000 tomans (about $4) in people's bank accounts to cover the reduction in subsidies for bread. Each individual would receive a total of 81,000 tomans ($81) over the next two months.

Fars beats other websites to the punch with an article on Ahmadinejad's presentation of the "largest project in the economic history of Iran". Indeed, Fars has no less than five items playing up the subsidy cuts, with assurances that support payments for the poorest Iranians are fully-funded.

1900 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch? Hmm...so far IRNA's take-away on President Ahmadinejad's speech tonight is his advice to the "West" to choose engagement rather than confrontation. Nothing on implementation of subsidy cuts.

So we wait amidst other signals: the head of the Basij, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, has said that the militia should help the Government implement subsidy cuts.

1718 GMT: Setting Down the Line. MP Asadollah Badamchian has said that "true principlists will be defined within the framework set up by the Supreme Leader".

Fine, but at whom is Badamchian's message directed?

1714 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. With President Ahmadinejad about to deliver his nationally-televised statement, the Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, Hossein Ghazavi, has said subsidy cuts may start Sunday. Ghazavi added that all officials have been asked to stay in banks until late this evening.

1710 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Pictures of student activist Esmail Salmanpour, released this weekend, before and after his two weeks in detention:

1705 GMT: Un-Free Press. Even by the high standards of Iran's clampdown on media, this is a strange story.

Earlier this week we noted that the "hard-line" site Mashregh News had been blocked inside Iran. Yesterday Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi said the site had been filtered for posting an illegal letter and a lawsuit had been filed against editor. The letter apparently was written by Hossein Ghadyani, the head of the student Basij militia.

Here's the twist: President Ahmadinejad had written to Ghadyani, praising him for the letter.

1655 GMT: Diplomatic Battle. Abdolnabi Nemazi, the leader of Kashan Friday Prayers and a member of the Assembly of Experts, has complained that Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki should have been dismissed at an official ceremony, and his firing was inconsistent with Islamic ethics. While the President had the authority to dismiss Mottaki, the manner of Monday's firing --- as Mottaki was on a state visit to Senegal --- was "humiliating".

1650 GMT: Sedition Watch. The head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, has responded to call from some political and media figures for the detention of opposition figures like Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi: "It's no problem to arrest leaders of fitna (sedition), but it is not beneficencial for the nezam (system)."

1635 GMT: Diplomatic Power Plays? President Ahmadinejad did not attend today's inauguration ceremony for new Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, letting 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi lead the ceremony.

Instead Ahmadinejad offered pointed greetings through his media advisor, Ali Akbar Javanfekr: "The ministry requires drastic changes in its mission."

Javanfekr continued:

The foreign ministry had failed to make a breakthrough in the country’s foreign policy and all its achievements were due to the initiative of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his active presence in global developments.

[Dismissed Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki was obliged to carry out his duties which had been defined by the President and the government but he failed to do so".

1455 GMT: More Diplomatic Service. Reuters' take on the Salehi inauguration is that the new Foreign Minister, "in a break with Tehran's usually hostile rhetoric towards the West", reached out to Europe: "Despite the EU [European Union]'s illogical, unprincipled and unjust behavior, EU members are still seeking agreeable relations with Iran for a number of reasons including the energy issue. If the EU speedily transforms its confrontational style into positive interaction it would be in the interests of both parties."

Reuters also notes Salehi's nod to Moscow and Beijing: "At an international level, for many reasons, China and Russia also enjoy a special place, and relations with those two countries require special political attention."

1400 GMT: Diplomatic Service. Ali Akbar Salehi, inaugurated as Foreign Minister today, said, "Iran's first priority in diplomacy should be neighbours and the Islamic world. In this regard, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have a special position. Saudi Arabia deserves to have special political ties with Iran. Iran and Saudi Arabia, as two effective countries in the Islamic world, can resolve many problems together."

Tehran's mission with Turkey, which has been a key broker in nuclear talks as well as making significant regional moves, is clear: the Supreme Leader's advisor Ali Akbar Velayat has paid a visit this week.

But Salehi may want to have a word with others about the line on Saudi Arabia: Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi has criticised Saudi religious schools for producing Sunni terrorists.

1350 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The family of imprisoned journalist/filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad, who were themselves detained for hours this week, have written to the Supreme Leader: "Plainclothes security agents took down our hijab and beat us to the hilt [of their weapons]."

1250 GMT: Gasoline Watch. Fars reports that the ration of subsidised gasoline for private vehicles will be reduced from 60 to 50 litres in January.

1210 GMT: Bashing Britain. Looks like the anti-British theme is going to dominate Iranian state media for the near-future. The lead story for the Islamic Republic News Agency is "Some London Hospitals Refused to Accept the Injured Student Protestors" during demonstrations 10 days ago.

IRNA's source is the Communist newspaper Morning Star. The story, however, first broke in British media --- including the BBC --- on Monday. One seriously-injured student, who later needed brain surgery, was turned away because Chelsea Hospital was treating police while civilians were being seen elsewhere. The hospital later relented and admitted injured students.

1200 GMT: A Big Event? Meanwhile, Press TV continues its rather unusual coverage of the religious holidays. Almost 40 hours after the end of Ashura, its website posts a short item, "Local Mourning Manifests Love and Grief".

There are no details of any events, however, merely a description: "In memory of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (Peace Be Upon Him), Muslims in Iran usually gather at mosques."

1155 GMT: A Big Event? Reader M. Ali writes:

I went out on Wednesday for Tasua. My friend picked me up and we went to Normak area in Tehran. You could hear the sound of drums and the speakers from all around you. You could sit in any spot for a few minutes, and you’d see a march passing you by, young men hitting their backs with chains (symbollically, not hard) to the beat of the drums while a pickup truck moved behind them with huge speakers blaring out the “song” of the a man with a microphone.

In the 42nd (I think, can’t remember the number) meydun of Normak, the spectators was fairly large. A strange mixture of crowd, from bearded men to young spiky-haired teenagers (mixture of both genders), almost all wearing black (or sombre) colors.

I did not spot ONE security force NOR even a police officer. The event was monitored by young men whom I was told where from the same area and every year they work together to arrange something for Tasua/Ashura. They collect money from the residents of that area for expenses of the event, including the food.

At 1:30 a.m., the event started to finish and they started giving out food. It was the best ghormeh sabzi I have ever had.

Commentators on Iran usually seem to forget how huge Iran is. Tehran is, I would like to remind people, a city that has more than 14 million people. Unfortunately, analysists know a few people in Tehran who gather in the same circle and bring back news that are related to a tiny segment of that place.

For example, I live in Vanak, an area where I could not even hear one drum beat all day. There were almost no posters. I heard Jordan (the area in Tehra, not the country) is the same. But in Tehran Pars and Normak, I could see such a change. Everywhere you had men offering hot tea (for free) to passers-by and drivers. Symbols everywhere. Small sections where you could light a candle. And so on.

0835 GMT: The Foreign Minister's Dismissal --- Really? This is an interesting claim from 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi: there were talks with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in the days before he was fired last Monday, and he agreed to his replacement by Ali Akbar Salehi.

Really? Mottaki agreed to his own dismissal, and yet he was still sent on a state visit to Senegal, during which the firing was announced? And nobody, in these days of talks, bothered to inform key members of the National Security Commission of Parliament?

0725 GMT: We are still trying to figure out why this week's religious ceremony of Ashura came and went with so little fanfare for any side in Iran's post-election conflict, but events have moved on. Tonight Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will appear on national television to try once more to sell his long-delayed subsidy cuts plan. Three EA correspondents discuss the prospects in a separate entry.

Meanwhile, the day-to-day business of detentions continues. Nobel Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has announced a sit-in, beginning on Monday, in front of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva to demand the release of imprisoned attorney Nasrine Sotoudeh.

Ebadi and five other women's rights activists have also written an open letter: "We are appealing to all the free-thinking people of the world, women-rights activists and all the members of world human rights family to join us in our demand for freeing Nasrin Sotoudeh as soon as possible."