The Latest from Iran (8 June): The Devil Made Them Do It

2035 GMT: Oil and Politics. Talks at the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries broke down over oil output, with Saudi Arabia failing to convince the cartel to raise prodcuation.

"We were unable to reach an agreement --- this is one of the worst meetings we have ever had," said Ali al-Naimi, Minister of Oil for Saudi Arabia.

Iran held out against an increase in output, fearing it might bring down oil prices.

The Iranian Government has based its 2011/12 budget on an oil price of $85 per barrel. The price for crude oil today is just over $101 per barrel; the price for Brent crude is just under $118 per barrel.

2010 GMT: Labour Front. Opposition media is reporting that 1600 workers of the South Pars energy complex, mainly in the electrical and mechanical sections, have been on strike since last Wednesday over unpaid wages.

1915 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. And on the political front, there's a tricky reception for the President all the way from perpetual critic Ali Motahari, who says once again he will organise a petition of 90 MPs to question Ahmadinejad, to Mahmoud Nabavian, in the camp of Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, who declares, "I'm ready for a public debate" with Ahmadinejad's right-hand man Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai.

1820 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. So how did President Ahmadinejad do with his attempt to end the political conflict, "Let's all move on", in his press conference yesterday?

A selection from the conservative press --- Ammariyon, "Continuation of deviances"; Raja News, "Answers repetitive"; Jahan News, "Silence not advantageous for country"; Bulletin News, "Ahmadinejad did not give clear answers".

1710 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. A headline in the newspaper Jahan-e San'at, "Ahmadinejad is only another yellow card away from istizah (questioning and possible impeachment by Parliament)".

1605 GMT: (Men's) Fashion Watch. Tehran Police Chief Hossein Sajedinia has explained that, with control of the fashion of "immoral elements" a high priority on the police agenda, men who wear "unfit" shirts and necklaces "will be arrested without any indulgence".

1600 GMT: Clerical Intervention. Ayatollah Dastgheib has challenged the authorities to release Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi from strict house arrests --- now approached their 5th month --- as "you are chasing away the people from religion".

1455 GMT: Reconciliation Watch. In a statement that could herald a major separation within the opposition, Ardeshir Amir Arjomand, a senior advisor to Mir Hossein Mousavi, has said that it is "meaningless" to talk about "reconciliation" between the people and regime when the opposition's leaders are in prison.

Arjomand's statement is a challenge not only to the regime but to former President Mohammad Khatami and other reformists who launched the talk of "reconciliation" last month.

1450 GMT: Currency Watch. Iran's Central Bank is trying to stabilise the value of the Iranian toman, fixing a rate at just over 1200 tomans to the US dollar.

The toman has been slipping in recent weeks to its lowest point since last autumn, when the Central Bank injected dollars to try and hold the rate at 1065 tomans to the US dollar.

1440 GMT: Economy Watch. Back from a long academic break to find Minister of Cooperatives Mohammad Abbasi warning that $20 billion is needed to create 1 million new jobs. Even then, he cautions, the government cannot guarantee the longevity of the positions.

President Ahmadinejad has declared that his government will create 2.5 million new jobs in 2011/12.

0700 GMT: When the Greens Say It, It's "Sedition", When Hardliners Say It....

In a lengthy article at Tehran Bureau, Muhammad Sahimi compares the criticisms made by the Green Movement in 2009 of Ahmadinejad, manipulation of the election, and corruption and the criticisms made by "hard-liners" in 2011.

It appears they are remarkably similar.

0645 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The temporary furlough for labour activist Mansur Osanloo, detained since 2007, has been extended to a month.

0640 GMT: The Battle Within. The State news agency IRNA has attacked the website of the Parliament: “A 72-hour monitoring of the official media of the legislative branch reveals that the operators of this official site have in effect decided to disregard the recommendations of the Supreme Leader.”

Ayatollah Khamenei may have told MPs recently “not to let differences [of opinion] translate into challenge and conflict", but IRNA alleges that Parliament's website has the tone and language of “foreign media directed at weakening the government of Iran’s Islamic Republic". In particular, it criticises headlines tying the Ahmadinejad Government to the “deviant current": “Over 50 percent of the material published on Parliament’s media source, which was reviewed over a specific time period, took a negative position against the government, the president and the ministers."

0555 GMT: Re-Assurance of the Day. In his press conference yesterday, President Ahmadinejad declared, "In an overall evaluation, (the subsidy cuts plan) has been implemented very well." 

And then he said, "It does not mean that there has been no problem."

We'll have a feature later this morning examining that notion of "very well".

0500 GMT: President Ahmadinejad may have declared in his Tuesday press conference that it was "time to move on" in Tehran, but the political pot continued simmer. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani sent his fourth letter to the President in two days, alleging more Government violations of the law. Gholam-Hossein Elham of the Guardian Council insisted that the Supreme Leader had forced Ahmadinejad to back down in the crisis over the Minister of Intelligence by issuing a "highest order".

But Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, former ally of Ahmadinejad, topped everyone with the revelation that Satan was now involved.

Beelzebub himself was masterminding the "deviant current", Mesbah Yazdi declared, teaching Ahmadinejad's advisors with his thousands of years of experience.