The Latest from Iran (27 March): A Regime Party

1525 GMT: Back to the Regime Party. Iranian media have released pictures of regional Presidents being treated by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Nowruz festivities. Not sure it's a 100% success, however --- Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai appears to be sleeping through the entertainment.

Better news for Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammadov --- Ahmadinejad gave him a two-seater LSA airplane worth $130,000.

Last week, Berdimuhammadov sent a thousand tons of flour to Iran for Nowruz.

1520 GMT: (Emergency) Budget Watch. With no progress on Parliamentary approval for his 2011 budget, President Ahmadinejad has reportedly allocated emergency funding for April and May for executive agencies.

1510 GMT: The Battle Within. More from prominent MP Ahmad Tavakoli as he takes his criticism of the Government into the New Year --- the fight between the Government and Parliament is likely to get more intense, as President Ahmadinejad has a dictatorial manner.

1355 GMT: Because One is Not Enough. Aftab News claims that President Ahmadinejad's controversial right-hand man Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, widely expected to run for the Presidency in 2013, is working on plans for not one but seven political parties.

Meanwhile, Hamidreza Fouladgar of the Article 10 Commission, which licences political parties, says reformist organisations have been banned because of their activities for "sedition". He also said that permits for 7 new parties had been sought by Rahim-Mashai, but only one had been granted.

1350 GMT: Rumour of the Day. Peyke Iran claims that posters proclaiming the Supreme Leader's Nowruz message of "economic jihad" are being removed from Tehran streets, replaced with pictures of flowers and greenery, because of "negative feedback from the public".

1340 GMT: Politics Is Back --- With a Warning. The spokesman of the Guardian Council, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, has used an interview with Khabar Online to warn MPs about inappropriate statements over New Year.

Kadhkodaei warned that the Council would not allow those who met "counter-revolutionary" figures to run for Parliament, but his remarks --- given that it is principlist critics, rather than reformists, who have been prominent in their challenges (see 0705 GMT) --- seems to be directed at the battle within the establishment rather than the "seditious" opposition.

1110 GMT: Bang That Drum. Not even the regime's Nowruz ceremonies are going to distract from the main media line of rebutting the claims of the "West" about human rights in Iran. IRNA and Press TV are both featuring the comments of Fatemeh Alia, a member of Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, “In the 21st century, the modern barbarism has made a gesture of defending human rights, but is committing the most heinous acts of human rights violation.”

1005 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The city of Florence, Italy has awarded its 2010 Human Rights Prize to detained lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.

Sotoudeh, a prominent attorney in human rights cases, was arrested last September and sentenced to 11 years in prison in December.

0705 GMT: Another Party Pooper? Leading principlist MP Ahmad Tavakoli is also a bit down about the New Year celebration of Government power. He talks about the "flow of totalitarianism" in the Ahmadinejad Presidency and encourages "the healthy minority of reformists loyal to the system".

0645 GMT: The regime takes centre stage today, using Nowruz (New Year) ceremonies to demonstrate its regional status and influence. President Ahmadinejad welcomed the Presidents of Afghanistan (Hamid Karzai), Iraq (Jalal Talabani),  and Tajikistan (Emomalii Rahmon) on Saturday, and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammadov joins the party today.

The plans have not always gone smoothly. Ahmadinejad and his inner circle, especially Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, provoked criticism when they designed an elaborate ceremony at Persepolis, the seat of ancient Persia. Senior clerics and political opponents said that the President was bringing back memories of the Shah of Iran's 1971 elaborate demonstration of power at the old city, and the incident has also regenerated the challenge that Rahim-Mashai --- possibly viewing a 2013 Presidential run --- was promoting an "Iranian" rather than an "Islamic" model.

Possibly for that reason, the gathering is still understated in some of the Iranian media today. While IRNA has a feature story and many photographs, Fars has no mention. Instead, its lead story is about another event far way --- Saturday's protest in Britain over Government cuts with, in the words of the newspaper, "hundreds of arrests" and "violence".