The Latest from Iran (11 June): The Eve of the Anniversary

2120 GMT: This video, claiming to be footage of rooftop "Allahu Akbar (God is Great)" chants in Tehran tonight, is actually from two years ago (hat tip to reader Bozorg, who noted this in our Comments section):

2005 GMT: Opposition Watch. Mousavi advisor Ardeshir Amir Arjomand has hit back with a challenge to the regime, "You are saying that protests are the right of free peoples, except you don't think the same for Syria and Iran? Well we want and deserve the same thing! If you're telling the truth, don't crackdown today and let people peacefully express themselves, which is their right."

1955 GMT: Opposition Watch. Opposition advisor Ardeshir Amir Arjomand, in Washington this weekend for discussions, is being interviewed via BBC Persian. The takeaway line was not in any statement by Arjomand, but in criticism over the "weak line" taken recently by the opposition in challenging the regime.

1945 GMT: The President's Right-Hand Man. Speculation is growing in Iran on the whereabouts of embattled Presidential advisor Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, with some outlets saying he has missed 14 Government meetings in a row.

1920 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Economist Fariborz Reisdana has been sentenced to one year in prison.

Reisdana was arrested last December, just after he publicly criticised the implementation of President Ahmadinejad's subsidy cuts plan.

1855 GMT: The Eve of the Anniversary. Dissident clerics behind the Motghan website have called for open protest tomorrow against the Supreme Leader and the system of velayat-e-faqih, which "has lost all legitimacy".

1840 GMT: Reformist Watch. Former President Mohammad Khatami, declaring that lovers of the Islamic Revolution and Iran want peace, has called again for the release of political prisoners and an end to house arrests, creating political space for resolution.

1740 GMT: The Battle Within. Leading MP Ahmad Tavakoli, a critic of the Government, has challenged President Ahmadinejad to "break his silence" about the "deviant current" of advisors around him. Claiming that the situation harms national interests, Tavakoli also asked Ahmadinejad to dismiss 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, who has been beset by corruption allegations, immediately.

1545 GMT: Economy Watch. Khabar Online notes that inflation --- now officially 17% --- has eroded the support payments to cover higher prices from subsidy cuts. More than 6000 tomans (about $6) of the monthly $45 payment has been "lost".

In a related story, the website notes rents in Tehran have increased 34.4% in the last year.

1530 GMT: Getting the Line Right. Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi puts the correct spin on this week's propaganda special (see 1110 GMT) --- the regime has crushed a spy ring that, using Facebook, wanted to disturb Parliamentary elections.

1440 GMT: The Battle Within. Leading principlist MP Mohammad Reza Bahonar has declared that the "deviant current" --- the coded phrase for the advisors around President Ahmadinejad --- will not be on the principlist Parliamentary lists for the 2012 elections.

Another MP, Hojatoleslam Hossein Ebrahimi, has claimed that the deviant current hopes to use provincial and district governors as Parliamentary candidates.

1140 GMT: Currency Watch. The Iranian toman has reportedly slipped against the Euro and reached a low of 1210 tomans to the dollar.

The Central Bank intervened last week to try and hat the slide of the currency, moving the formal rate from 1065 tomans to the dollar to 1175:1.

1120 GMT: Election Watch. Ayatollah Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, has been appointed to lead a supervisory body for the 2012 Parliamentary elections. His deputy will be Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi.

There has been tension between the camp of President Ahmadinejad and its opponents over the forthcoming elections, with Ahmadinejad's critics claiming that his advisors will be manipulating the vote and thus preventing effective oversight.

1115 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The US Public Broadcasting Service features a report on the post-election abuse and rape of female detainees:

1110 GMT: Espionage Watch. The Iranian regime's confusion over this week's propaganda special --- the supposed break-up of a US plot for an Iranian Government in exile --- continues. Media linked to the Ministry of Intelligence persist with the story that Mohammad Reza Mahdi, the Revolutonary Guard officer who defected and lived in Thailand, was an Iranian double agent who exposed the manoeuvres of the CIA and the Obama White House. The line of pro-Ahmadinejad media is that Mahdi was a "deceived agent of CIA".

A US State Department spokesman has denied that any American official has met with Mahdi. A documentary on Iranian State TV maintained that Mahdi had been received by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Saudi Arabia and had seen Vice President Joe Biden in Washington.

0640 GMT: The 22 Khordad Protests. A notable shift from opposition advisor Mojtaba Vahedi, who says that demonstrations tomorrow should not be silent. In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Vahedi defied yesterday's warning by Ayatollah Jannati, the leader of Tehran Friday Prayers, that Iranians should not put forth the claims of a rigged 2009 Presidential election.

0550 GMT: Tomorrow, 22 Khordad, will mark the second anniversary of the disputed 2009 Presidential election. Whether it will be commemorated publicly is an open question.

Activists have put our posters for the occasion but the opposition inside and outside Iran has limited itself to a call for silent protest. Yesterday, the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front, noting not only the Presidential vote of 12 June but also the march of millions that followed three days later, put out a general call for "peace, justice, and freedom" and a specific demand for free elections.

In Kurdistan, the Green Movement has gone farther, asking shops and markets to remain closed on Sunday.