The Latest from Iran (4 March): 19 Days and Counting

2230 GMT: Three more claimed videos of last Tuesday's protests:

"Mousavi, Karroubi Must Be Freed!"

"Khamenei is a murderer, his reign is null and void"

"Death to Dictator" and "Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein", with drivers honking car horns:

1930 GMT: Your Tehran Friday Prayer Summary. Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami holding forth today, and it appears the key message is all about him and his defiance of sanctions: "“I am proud of myself to be hated and resented by the arrogant [powers]....“I am honored to be hated by the arrogant [powers] and this is how the other individuals [targeted by these] sanctions feel as well.”

Khatami has been specifically named by the US Government, on human rights grounds, as one of the individuals to have their accounts frozen.

Khatami's pride did not allow him to note Tuesday's protests or the move of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi and Fatemeh Karroubi to detention.

1910 GMT: The Arrests. The Karroubi family is now close to an all-out verbal war with the regime....

Following the Saham News article claiming that a senior advisor of the Supreme Leader oversaw the operation moving Mehdi and Fatemeh Karroubi from house arrest to detention (see 1815 GMT), their son Mohammad Taghi has launched a stinging attack on Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.

In an interview with Euronews in Geneva on Thursday, Salehi claimed that Karroubi and Mousabi are “in their homes, they are living their ordinary lives".

Mohammad Taghi Karroubi responded in a published letter:

“Yesterday, you were cited as claiming that the Mr Mousavi and Karroubi are free and their families [can] meet with them. The propagation of this false report was both surprising and unfortunate. Hearing this news from a figure such as yourself under the watchful eyes of the international press and the wise people of Iran, amazed everyone....I doubt whether there is a single Iranian who is unaware of the disappearance of these great people. Have you not read the aching letter of Mousavi’s children? Have you not heard the protests of the people these days? Have you not followed the news about the condemnation of these acts by a number of clergymen and well-known figures in the country?

Can anyone believe that the country’s foreign policy chief is unaware of the most important event in his country which has become one of the most controversial topic in the international media? If we accept this assumption, we must ask if a person unfamiliar with the most self-evident facts about his own society can protect the national interests of a country with honour, goodwill, and wisdom in today’s complex world. Are such a person and his team of associates really able to gain the trust of the international community when it comes to the peacefulness of the country’s nuclear programme?”

1855 GMT: CyberWatch. The human rights activist site RAHANA is back up. It was knocked off-line on Thursday morning.

1815 GMT: The Arrests. Saham News makes the provocative claim that "Vahid Haghanian", the mysterious advisor in the Supreme Leader's office, oversaw the operation moving Mehdi and Fatemeh Karroubi from their residence to detention on 21 February.

1805 GMT: A New March. The opposition's Coordination Council has announced a demonstration on Tuesday marking International Women's Day and honouring the participation of women in the Green Movement.

1750 GMT: Harassing Rafsanjani's Daughter. A reader has requested an English translation of the video showing a group of men insulting Hashemi Rafsanjani's daughter Faezeh Hashemi. We are working on this; meanwhile, a summary from Tehran Bureau:

She is repeatedly addressed as "garbage" and several times as "whore." The agents tell her, "We will get rid of you and your father," and shout "Death to the hypocrite" and "Death to Hashemi."

1730 GMT: The Revolutionary Guards Grumble. Back from a break to find the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is unhappy about the funds allocated to it in the 2011/12 budget,.

1305 GMT: Economy Watch. HRANA claims two million carpet weavers are on the verge of unemployment.

1255 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Rah-e-Sabz claims tThe verbal assailant of Hashemi Rafsanjani's daughter Faezeh Hashemi, a women's rights activist, has been identified as author and blogger Said Tajik (wearing the light brown jacket in the video). A fellow blogger said that anyone who attacked Tajik was attacking the Supreme Leader.

1235 GMT: Erasure. Mir Hossein Mousavi's name has been deleted from Iran's Art Academy, even though he was the planner and architect of the building.

1225 GMT: A Warning. Revolutionary Guards Command Salar Abnoush has reportedly said that Greens are like "cattle", worshipping Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, and that the Persian Year 1391 (2012-2013) will be a "bloody" one.

1210 GMT: Metro Service Halted. Mohsen Hashemi, the head of the Tehran Metro, has quit. In a letter to Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, Hashemi regretted the restrictions on his ability to deliver a quality service.

The Metro has been beset by a political battle in which the Ahmadinejad Government has held up a $2 billion expansion for allocation. Last month, Tehran was awarded 3rd Place amongst global cities by a Washington-based non-governmental organisation for its transport policy, although Iranian authorities prevented Qalibaf from attending the ceremony.

0805 GMT: Don't Worry, It's For Your Protection. Closed-circuit television cameras and security posts have been installed by authorities in front of the homes of Grand Ayatollahs Vahid Khorasani and Shobeiri Zanjani "for their safety".

Meanwhile, Saham News reports that residents of the holy city of Qom have defended Ayatollah Khomeini's grandson Hassan against the "insults and attacks of organised thugs".

0735 GMT: CyberWatch. Human rights activist site RAHANA, knocked off-line yesterday, is still down

0725 GMT: Economy Watch. HomyLafayette looks at a new report from Iran concluding that between 44.5% and 55% of the country's urban population live under the poverty line.

0640 GMT: Making Claims. Opposition advisor Ardeshir Amir Arjomand, in a press conference in Paris, has said the regime "fears" to admit the arrests of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi and declared that troops in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps are ready to join the people.

Arjomand, in signs of the opposition's evolving strategy of reaching out to other groups in Iran, said that street protests are not the only way to show resistance, as strikes and sit-ins of workers can also be effective. And ahead of International Women's Day next Tuesday, a day on which activists like Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi have urged public protests, Arjomand declared the importance of women in the movement.

0620 GMT: So now it is established. Sometime around 13 February, security forces moved Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard to an unknown location of detention. Just over a week later, those forces raided the home of Mehdi Karroubi, seizing him, his wife Fatemeh, and his son Ali. They are still searching for Karroubi's son Hossein.

Last night, the daughters of Mousavi and Rahnavard posted another open letter. They had gone again to the family home:

Peering through the iron gates behind which our parents' residence is now located, we inquired whether our parents were still there and if so, requested to meet with them. The security agents asked, "Who has given you permission?" to which we responded, "Kayhan newspaper, Tehran's Prosecutor, and the Exterior [Foreign] Minister. We were under the false impression that some of these state owned media outlets were reliable. We believed them and are here to see our parents in order to alleviate our concerns." 

The response to our question was once again negative. We were told: "No you may not visit with them. The news is false. Those who published the news have erred. Go to the Revolutionary Court! Go see the judge!"

The daughters write:

It is clear to all that our loved ones are held hostage by individuals who feel hatred and vengeance towards them, purely because of their ideals. We are concerned when newspapers insist that our parents are not in prison, nor are they under house arrest. We have even read in the news that they are being escorted and that we, their children are free to visit with them. Unfortunately, however, this has as not this been the case. 

With the regime escalating its campaign to decapitate the opposition, but caught up in the curious contradiction of both warning of sedition's threats and denying that any protests are taking place, these 19 days do not make a ripple in state media. Press TV gives priority to Iran's Nowruz exhibition in Tajikistan. IRNA leads with the assurance that, despite subsidy cuts and price rises, travel on the Tehran Metro will still be affordable. Fars puts the appropriate gloss on the Supreme Leader's six-hour visit to the Ministry of Intelligence: "The Islamic Revolution is the Model for the Awakening in the Region". 

So does Raja News, but the hard-line, pro-Ahmadinejad site offers the distinction of another campaign. It pronounces that Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani --- who is standing for re-election as head of the Assembly of Experts next Monday-Tuesday --- is a full member of the Green "sedition" and urges that she be prosecuted.