The Latest from Iran (13 May): Friday the 13th

1935 GMT: Karroubi Watch. An interesting intervention by Mehdi Karroubi's advisor Ahmad Vahidi in an interview with Khodnevis....

Vahidi, who is based in the US, made a distinction between Karroubi and the Green Path Coordinating Council of the opposition. He said that neither he nor any of Karroubi's associates held memberships in the Council, although they had been consulted by them.

Vahidi continued that those on the Council had views similar to Karroubi's in regards to free and fair election and people's rights. However, he indicated that "the goal of the movement should not be restricted to the application of the Consitution", adding that people's demands are beyond what the Council offers.

1910 GMT: Pretend Greens Can Be Very Dangerous Alert. Ayande News reports that several Basij militia were injured in an exercise in which they faced simulated protesters.

1905 GMT: Juxtaposition of the Day. Someone at Press TV is being very mischievous.

The site's headline for the Tehran Friday Prayer by Ayatollah Jannati (see 1240 and 1430 GMT) is Nothing to See Here: "Cleric: No Rift Among Iranian Officials".

The article then proceeds to offer Jannati's sound-bites of...rifts among Iranian officials: "The distribution and receiving of certain sums by this group [of deviators] has not gone unnoticed by the people and the people will deal with them if necessary....Whomever treads this path (following the Supreme Leader), the people will give their lives for him and if they deviate the people will withdraw their support."

1430 GMT: Friday Prayer Follow-Up. Aftab adds more detail on Ayatollah Jannati's sermon in Tehran today --- "The wings of the deviant current (a reference to the group around President Ahmadinejad seen as the source of political conflict) will soon be clipped."

And Fars notes this passage, which gets uncomfortably close to President Ahmadinejad's aide Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai: "Some people have been distributing money to influence next year's elections."

1320 GMT: Parliament v. President. Leading MP Ahmad Tavakoli, following up on reports of a meeting between Speaker of Parliament Larijani and President Ahmadinejad to resolve the dispute over merged meetings, says that Ahmadinejad has backed down.

Tavakoli says that the President has accepted he should not have acted without consulting Parliament and will submit his comments to the Guardian Council.

Earlier this week, the Council backed Parliament's complaint that it had not been consulted over the Government's initiative.

1310 GMT: Economy Watch. A member of Parliament's Economic Commission has warned that inflation will reach 40% by the first anniversary this December of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's targeted subsidy plan.

1240 GMT: Your Tehran Friday Prayer Update. We opened the morning (see 0600 GMT), "Look for a re-statement today that all must acknowledge the authority of Ayatollah Khamenei, but also see if the language today is as heated as last week."

Well, Ayatollah Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, did not disappoint. "Pointing to recent problems in the country", he said the Supreme Leader heals almost everything."

Jannati did not name President Ahmadinejad and his right-hand man Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai --- at least in the account of pro-Ahmadinejad IRNA --- but he spoke about "the number of enemies inside and outside [Iran] who were happy and pleased about these incidents and thought that separation and division is emerging in the country".

1235 GMT: Parliament v. President. Ali Motahari, a leading thorn in the Government's side, has spoken out about the current dispute over the merger of ministries.

While welcoming a meeting between the President and Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani to resolve the issue (see 0800 GMT), Motahari says, "Ahmadinejad's remarks about the rule of law are a joke."

1225 GMT: President's Right-Hand Man Plays Nice. State news agency IRNA gives Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, the President's controversial confidante, a platform to repair damage from the political conflict.

In an interview, Rahim-Mashai pays homage to the authority of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: "Justice comes through the guidance of the Supreme Leader."

He assures his interviewer that the "recent propaganda and political pressure" has not affected "the motivation and morale of the President and his colleagues".

0835 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Iranian authorities have reportedly sent detained journalist Mehdi Mahmoudian to solitary confinement after he wrote the Supreme Leader about the prevalence of sexual abuse in Rajai Shahr Prison.

Fatemeh Alvandi, Mahmoudian’s mother, told BBC Persian that her husband could not visit Mahmoudian today. He was informed that their son was not allowed any visits because he was in solitary confinement.

On Monday, the opposition site Rah-e Sabz published Mahmoudian’s letter, sent to Ayatollah Khamenei last August.

Mahmoudian’s journalism helped reveal the post-election abuses in Kahrizak Detention Centre, in which at least three detainees died in summer 2009. He also reported on the alleged mass burial of protesters killed by security forces.

Mahmoudian was then arrested in September 2009.

0800 GMT: A Resolution? Khabar Online reports that Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani and President Ahmadinejad will meet to resolve the conflict over the merger of ministries (see 0600 GMT).

The website reports that the attempt at resolution follows discussions between MP Ahmad Tavakoli, a Larijani ally and prominent critic of the Government, and Vice President Fatima Bodaghi.

0600 GMT: Today's title is a tribute to the tales of sorcery, exorcism, and ghosts that have accompanied political developments in Iran all week. 

It is not clear yet what the spirits --- and the politicians --- have for us today. The more dramatic allegations and counter-allegations between the President's camp and its critics receded on Thursday, but tension remained, especially between Parliament and the Government over Ahmadinejad's merger of ministries without consulting the Majlis.

We'll be keeping an eye on the Tehran Friday Prayer. Last week, it marked the crescendo of the call for the President to back down, with Hojatoleslam Seddiqi declaring that the Supreme Leader could even order a divorce between Ahmadinejad and Mrs. Ahmadinejad. Look for a re-statement today that all must acknowledge the authority of Ayatollah Khamenei, but also see if the language today is as heated as last week.