Latest from Iran (5 February): Speaking of Egypt....

1700 GMT: Just Asking. Why weren't former President Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ali Akbar Nategh-Nouri, Presidential candidate in 1997, at the Supreme Leader's Friday Prayers?

1655 GMT: Reply of the Day. The Expediency Council, which is formally mandated to resolve disputes between branches of the Iranian system, has recently been criticised by President Ahmadinejad for hindering his plans.

The response, according to Green Voice of Freedom: "Mr President, you don't like what we are doing? Change the Constitution".

1650 GMT: At the Movies. Shahryar Bahrani has become the fifth jury member to excuse himself from the Fajr Film Festival.

1645 GMT: Swimming in Gasoline. The Deputy Minister of Oil has declared that Iran will increase gasoline production by two million litres per day from Saturday.

1630 GMT: Excuse of the Day. Mashregh News comes up with a novel answer as to why the Government has not yet presented a proposed Budget for 2011 --- because the Parliament spent too much time with the 5th Budget Plan for 2010-2015.

1500 GMT: Video of this week's meeting between Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Grand Ayatollah Bayat Zanjani:

1150 GMT: The Supreme Leader's Big Day? Uskowi has published an English translation of Ayatollah Khamenei's Friday Prayer, focusing on the Egyptian uprising.

1110 GMT: Sticking Around (cont. --- see 0830 GMT). President Ahmadinejad has responded to Parliament's dismissal of Minister of Transport Hamid Behbahani with the claim that it is against the law.

Ahmadinejad signalled, however, that he is not going to wage a political battle over the issue: "I am dissatisfied with the Parliament's actions. However, I am not going to express my dissatisfaction with the Parliamentarians given that a decision was made to unite some ministries, including Ministry of Transport within the five-year development program."

1100 GMT: Too Busy for Duty Free. Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has a simple answer for his absence from the Munich Security Conference this weekend (see 0755 GMT), the leading gathering of diplomats and security specialists from countries around the world.

It's nothing to do with possible protests or complications in relations between Iran, Germany, and the European Union, says Salehi: it's just that he is "too busy".

0830 GMT: Sticking Around. Even though he has been dismissed by the Parliament, it appears that Minister of Transport Hamid Behbahani will stay in office for three months.

0824 GMT: Amsterdam Calling. Ayande News notes the announcement, which we featured yesterday, that Radio Netherlands Worldwide is starting a Persian-language service to Iran.

But the Iranian newspaper is not very welcoming. It claims that the Netherlands is trying to "create tensions" after Iran's execution of the Dutch-Iranian national Zahra Bahrami and is pursuing "soft war" against Tehran.

0820 GMT: Claim of the Day. Mohsen Rezaei, the Secretary of the Expediency Council, proclaims that the Supreme Leader's Friday Prayer is the "coup de grace" for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

0815 GMT: At the Movies. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Fajr Film Festival, prominent director Masoud Kimiaee has asked the Iranian judiciary to rethink the six-year sentence imposed on fellow filmmaker Jafar Panahi.

0755 GMT: Sorry, No Duty Free for You, Mr Salehi. After days of manoeuvring, organisers of the Munich Security Conference  have announced that Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi will not attend this weekend's gathering.

Formally, Salehi is banned under current European Union sanctions from visiting an EU country, but arrangements were made for an invitation had been extended. The organisers gave no further information as to why Salehi was no longer coming.

0740 GMT: So the Supreme Leader's Friday Prayer for the 10 Days of Fajr (Dawn) has come and gone. The aerial image of the gathering crowd, published in Khabar Online, is quite impressive.

As for the Prayer, there was not a single word about the situation inside the country for those Iranians, but thousands of them for Egyptians, Tunisians, and the US and Israeli enemies.

It's unclear how this declaration of a Tehran-led Islamic Revolution in 2011, more than 30 years after the Revolution inside Iran, is going down with Iranians. But the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was far from impressed, saying that this was an Egyptian Revolution not an Islamic Revolution (see yesterday's updates), and Maya Nayestani has a different comparison of Iran and Egypt for Ayatollah Khamenei: