The Latest from Iran (4 January): Calling a Regime Bluff?

Cartoon: Nikahang Kowsar2035 GMT: He's Coming Alert. Amidst his denunciation of the West in his speech in northern Iran today, President Ahmadinejad also brought this news: the Epiphany of the "Hidden Imam" is very near.

The Hidden Imam is the mystical 12th Imam of Shi'a Islam.

2025 GMT: Parliament v. President (Bank Edition). Iranian Labor News Agency reports that the Parliament is making another attempt to take control of the Central Bank from President Ahmadinejad.

The Majlis is proposing that the head of the Bank, currently named by the President and approved by the Bank's General Assembly, will now have to be approved by Parliament. The Majlis is also altering the membership of the Assembly, although the President will remain the head.

An earlier version of the bill was rejected by the Guardian Council after the Government refused to implement it.

2020 GMT: A Nuclear Espionage Teaser for Tomorrow. Yes, we have been following the sensational story of Shahram Amiri, the scientist who defected to/was abducted by the "West" but then returned to Iran this summer.

The revelation which has the media buzzing is that Amiri, after being given a warm welcome by the Iranian authorities, is now being kept in solitary confinement under interrogation.

We've unpicked the story and will have a feature for you tomorrow.

1645 GMT: Press Watch. The ban on Chelcheragh weekly, imposed by Iranian authorities six weeks ago, has been lifted.

Chelcheragh, popular for articles on culture and art and for its satire and cartoons, was suspended in late November for "publishing articles contradictory to public morals".

MP Ali Motahari and media figure Hossein Entezami reportedly intervened on behalf of the weekly.

1640 GMT: On the Border. Iran's blockade of up to 2500 fuel tankers going to Afghanistan, which was supposed to have been resolved last week, is still causing tensions.

Farid Sharzai of Afghanistan's Commerce Ministry said, "[Iran] wants to impose a kind of sanction or embargo on us. This is un-Islamic and against international transit law. They have no right to stop (the tankers) because they are merely passing through Iranian territory."

The unofficial blockade has pushed up wholesale domestic fuel prices in Afghanistan as much as 70%. Iran supplies about 30 percent of the country's refined fuel.

Iran has said that the fuel is not going to houses, businesses, and civilian aircraft but to US-led military forces. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday, "After changes that cut subsidies [in Iran in mid-December], it is natural that some technical problems occur when sending fuel to neighboring countries....The problem is being resolved."

1630 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. The political, propaganda, and legal battle surrounding former President Hashemi Rafsanjani continues.

Rafsanjani has filed a lawsuit against the editors of Vatan Emrooz and Iran newspapers over their articles.

Figures within the Iranian establishment have put pressure on Rafsanjani by threatening the prosecution and trial of his son, Mehdi Hashemi, who has effectively been in exile in London since summer 2009, for fraud and electoral manipulation. Rafsanjani has struck back, however, through the courts. Last week, the editor of Iran, Kaveh Eshtehardi, was sentenced to six months in prison and 10 lashes for his presentation of a court case involving Mehdi Hashemi.

Vatan Emrooz is headed by Mehrdad Bazrpash, who was replaced last month as head of the National Youth Organization.

1329 GMT: Execution Watch. The family of Kurdish detainee Habibollah Latifi, who is sentenced to death, may all now be free but they are barred from talking to the media.

Latifi's hanging was postponed nine days ago. In the days before he was supposed to die, his sister Elahe gave numerous interviews to publicise his case.

1325 GMT: Sanctions Watch. India will temporarily pay for Iranian crude oil in euros through a German bank, Europisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG, as it discusses a permanent solution with Iran.

The payment issue arose when India's Central Bank, in the context of sanctions against Tehran, said that funds could no longer to Iran through a system run by the central bank of countries in South Asia.

1323 GMT: Labour Front. HRANA reports that 1200 workers at the Alborz Industrial Complex are on strike over unpaid wages.

1319 GMT: Sedition Watch. While others play politics, Ayatollah Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, is keeping his eye on the main game of suppressing the opposition. Challenging the more cautious line of the Iranian judiciary, Jannati insisted that a "final decision" on Mehdi Karroubi and former President Mohammad Khatami was needed and reformists were unnecessary in the Iranian system and thus in the next elections.

Jannati's declaration was a sharp response to former President Mohammad Khatami, who last week set three conditions before reformists would re-join the electoral process.

1315 GMT: Political Manoeuvres (cont.). And the head of the judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, is also defending his position today: he claims that the increased power of the Minister of Justice is against the Constitution and says that lawyers must remain in the judiciary to ensure effective interpretation and enforcement of the law.

1300 GMT: Political Manoeuvres. The Ahmadinejad speech is only one of a number of setpieces to note today. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has made a wide-ranging statement which appears to negotiate his position with everyone in the Iranian establishment....

Larijani said that velayat-e-faqih (clerical supremacy) and the Supreme Leader was not an executive function but the key to protecting the rights of Iranians. While denouncing familiar enemies, such as the US and forces of "sedition", and upholding familiar friends such as Hezbollah, Larijani appeared to take aim at a Presidency which went too far, saying that the example of Mohammad Mossadegh --- removed in a US- and UK-backed coup in 1953 --- had brought dictatorship.

That apparent allegory for today's Ahmadinejad situation was reinforced by Larijani's praise for officials such as Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council. Far from coincidentally, Jannati and the Council have played a key role recently on issues such as control of the Central Bank and on the budget dispute between President and Parliament.

And Larijani also had an economic message for the President, saying that the problem of unemployment could not be solved with "patches".

1210 GMT: The Mahmoud Show. Today's showpiece by President Ahmadinejad is in Semnan Province in northern Iran. Ahmadinejad told his audience that 32 years of experience had shown that countries opposing Tehran stood with "monafeghin" (terrorists).

The President declared, "The Iranian nation will not allow any of its enemies to achieve their wishes and dreams." He continued:

You should know that the continuation of your past trend will yield no result for you but further defeat and humiliation....But there is a second option. You must accept that you have...committed mistakes, that you have taken a deviant path. You need to return from that path and scrap your dominance over some parts of the world....

Put an end to occupations and bullying. Respect other nations and their rights. Stop aggression and invasion....In doing so, nations will forgive you and give you an opportunity to make up for your past errors and heinous crimes.

Ahmadinejad's speech sits alongside Tehran's latest move in advance of resumed talks on uranium enrichment later this month: Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi sent invitations to the International Atomic Energy Agency and representatives of China, Russia, and some European Union countries --- but not the US --- to visit Iran's nuclear facilities.

1200 GMT: Brit-Bashing. Kazem Jalali, the spokesman of Parliament's National Security Commission, has condemned the British government for granting knighthood to the UK Ambassador to Iran, Simon Gass.

“The British ambassador did nothing to improve relations [with Iran],” said Jalali. “The media network of the British Embassy in Iran has become an arm of the BBC.”

Queen Elizabeth II awarded Gass the Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the New Year's Honours.

Gass provoked the ire of the Iranian Government last month when he raised the issue of human rights, including the case of detained attorney Nasrine Sotoudeh, on the website of the Foreign Office.

0725 GMT: Pity the Attackers. Speaking at a public ceremony, The head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Ezzatullah Zarghami, has defended the Basij militia, saying they were forced to use clubs against protestors.

0720 GMT: Energy Warning. Iran's Electricity Industry Union has warned Minister of Energy Majid Namjoo that, if the government does not pay debts of $6 billion, the private sector faces bankruptcy.

0710 GMT: A flutter yesterday as news of Mehdi Karroubi's challenge to the Government --- put him on trial, so he can reveal what he knows about the real post-election crimes --- spread. By yesterday afternoon, international media were picking up on the story.

Yet it is unlikely that the episode will make more than passing headlines. The regime's strategy is not to bring Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi to court but to keep them contained through the repetition of the threat. Iran Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei admitted as much in a press conference on Monday, as he said there were no plans for a trial.

And, without that trial, Karroubi is left searching for other ways to press his challenge, as the regime's other weapons --- detentions of lesser-known activists, journalists, and politicians, disruptions of communications, and restrictions of movement --- continue to limit public action.

So on to today....