The Latest from Iran: Tehran Embraces Occupy Wall Street

Iran Feature: "Persistent Punishment" --- Assessing the UN Report on Human Rights
Iran for Beginners: So What is This $2.8 Billion Bank Fraud?
The Latest from Iran (18 October): The Same Old Mahmoud

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1620 GMT: Industry Watch. Najmeh Bozorgmehr of the Financial Times offers an incisive first-hand account from Mahshahr in southwestern Iran, "Strike Reports Add to Iran Petrochemical Woes":

Workers are thin on the ground at Iran’s biggest petrochemical production facility, set in a dedicated economic zone in the port city of Mahshahr in the north of the Gulf. Under a scorching sun, some labourers can be seen sporadically putting down paving in the Petrochemical Special Economic Zone or making asphalted roads. But they are few and far between.

Local authorities deny reports by reformist opposition websites that thousands of workers have been on strike for weeks in protest about contract terms, delays in wages and health insurance.

“There is no problem,” says Behzad Tavakkoli, the head of Maroun Petrochemical Company, which has one of the plants in the complex, when asked about the strike reports. During a recent tour, provincial authorities quickly intervened and pushed journalists into buses.

However, Khalil Hayat-Moqaddam, a parliamentarian from Mahshahr, told local reporters last week that the oil ministry had not only failed to pay workers on time but “is trying to disrupt the strike through [creating] a police atmosphere”.

Whether there is a strike or not, the nervousness of local officials and lack of activity in Mahshahr strengthen suspicions that Iran’s petrochemical sector is suffering from under-investment and shortage of feedstock that have led to financial problems.

Although the petrochemical industry works under international licences from companies such as Germany’s Linde, Switzerland’s Basel, Italy’s Maire Tecnimont and South Korea’s Daelim, the sector is a downstream element of the oil and gas industry that has been hit hard by international sanctions.

The authorities claim petrochemical production capacity is about 55m tons but in the first five months of this Iranian year (March 21-August 23), the sector produced only 17.6m tons, generating $8.8bn.

1432 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Deputy Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Reza Bahonar has said the motion to summon the President for questioning in Parliament will be examined next week.

1429 GMT: Economy Watch. Kalemeh reports on the continuing strike by cloth sellers in Tehran Bazaar, now in its third month.

1427 GMT: Supreme Leader Watch. Speaking in Kangavar in western Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei said the enemy wants to disturb Iran's progress by portraying catastrophe.

1422 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Catherine Ashton, European Union's representative for foreign policy, has expressed concern over prison sentences on director Jafar Panahi and actress Marzieh Vafamehr.

Panahi's sentence of six years in prison and a 20-year ban on filmmaking was confirmed last week by an appeal court. Vafamehr was sentenced this autumn to one year in prison and 40 lashes.

1420 GMT: Justice Watch. Head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani has said that he has instructed prosecutors to gather evidence proving US crimes in Iran and elsewhere. He said that Tehran will sue the US for those crimes and called the arrest of Occupy Wall Street protesters a "human rights violation".

1320 GMT: Redemption Watch. A Ministry of Interior official, Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini, has said the Etemade Melli (National Trust) Party can resume political activity if it abandons its founder, Mehdi Karroubi.

1200 GMT: Sedition Watch. Mohammad Javad Larijani, a high-ranking official in Iran's judiciary, has declared that "those who took up the banner of reform and the inflammatory activity" around the 2009 Presidential vote do not have "any merit to participate in democratic elections".

And Iran Police Chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam has said that police will confront electoral conflicts "harshly".

0730 GMT: Wall Street Shuffle. Etemaad reports that Basij in Iran's Medical Association have offered help to "casualties" of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

0640 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Seven Baha'i educators, arrested during the crackdown on the Baha'i Institute for Higher Education, have been sentenced to prison: Kamran Mortezahi and Vahid Mahmodi each were given five years while Riaz Sobhani, Mahmoud Badavam, Ramin Zibaie, Farhad Sedghi, and Noshin Khadam will serve four years.

Iranian security forces arrested six of the seven during May raids on the houses of more than 40 Baha'i professors, students, and university officials; Riaz Sobhani was seized in June.

0500 GMT: We begin this morning with the Iranian regime's tightening embrace of Occupy Wall Street. State media are trumpeting that MPs (initial sources said 220; Press TV drops a zero in saying 22) have issued a statement declaring the connection between the risings in North Africa and Middle Eas,t --- or "Islamic Awakening" in Iranian parlance,and the demonstrations in the US. This is the outrage of the global community at oppression and its demand for fundamental change in the oppressive capitalist system.

The statement said Occupy Wall Street “indicates the beginning of the decline of the power of Western capitalism and dissolution of the corrupt and plundering system in the world. Now the masses of workers, students, and retirees have stood up against the one percent of capitalists, who have monopolized power, money and wealth."

The statement in no way should be considered a deflection from the current furour over the alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi Ambassador to the US, the ongoing pressure over Iran's human rights record, or the economic situation inside the country.