The Latest from Iran (3 July): A Fight Amongst the Opposition

1955 GMT: Corruption Watch. And the battle within escalates....

As President Ahmadinejad alleges that the Revolutionary Guards have been avoiding customs duty as they bring commericial goods into Iran (see 1145 and 1505 GMT), Jahan News claims the Ahmadinejad camp is trying to buy four Russian helicopters for their 2012 Parliamentary election campaign.

Video of Ahmadinejad making his allegations of illegal imports by different Iranian groups:

1945 GMT: Economy Watch. Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi has said that the import of alcohol and satellite dishes is equal to "sedition".

Far more interesting, given Iran's tenuous economic circumstances, is Moslehi's remark that Iranian imports quadrules in 2010 from $16 billion to $65 billion.

1935 GMT: Religion Watch. Iran's Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence of Yusef Nadarkhani, a Christian pastor accused of apostasy for converting from Islam. It sent the case back to a court in the city of Rasht, asking Nadarkhani to repent.

Nadarkhaniconverted from Islam to Christianity in 1998 at the age of 19 and became a pastor of a small evangelical community called the Church of Iran. He was arrested in October 2009 and condemned to death. His wife, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, has been released on appeal.

1925 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Back from a break to find that prominent defence attorney Mohammad Ali Dadkhah has been sentenced to 9 years in prison, a 10-year ban on the practice of law and university teaching, and flogging.

Dadkhah is one of the founders, with Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, of the Center of Defenders of Human Rights. He was arrested less than a month after the 2009 Presidential election.

1505 GMT: President v. Revolutionary Guards? More on the curious story of the President, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, and Iran's ports (see 1145 GMT)....

The IRGC has responded to the President's insistence that all imports, include military imports by the Revolutionary Guards, must go through customs --- the Guards denied that any commercial trade is taking place on docks that they control.

1500 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Conservative MP Ali Motahari, leading the push against President Ahmadinejad, has criticised the Board of Parliament for blocking the immediate questioning of the President.

More than 100 of the 290 MPs in the Majlis had signed a petition for the interrogation, but the Board said any questioning should take place after the forthcoming summer recess.

1145 GMT: A Presidential Message to the Revolutionary Guards? President Ahmadinejad has insisted that all imports, including military imports by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, should be through customs.

1140 GMT: Oil and Politics. The National Iranian Oil Company has said it will continue with oil supplies to India despite sending a warning last week over non-payment for shipments since early this year.

The Indian Central Bank suspended payments from an Asian currency basket amidst US-led international sanctions, and an alternative currency has not yet been found. Iranian officials say the total owed is now $9 billion.

1133 GMT: Labour Front. About 120 employees of the Khorramshahr municipality in southwestern Iran have gone on strike over unpaid wages.

1130 GMT: And Good News of Day. Minister of Energy says there are no planned blackouts this summer --- any blackouts will be "random".

1120 GMT: Offer of Day. Mehr reports that President Ahmadinejad has promised to give every Iranian family a 1000 square-metre plot of land to build a villa.

1100 GMT: Today's Lesson. Cleric and scholar Mohsen Kadivar offers an introduction to the theory and history of religious rule in Iran.

0950 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Mohammad Zarei, a student activist of Semnan University, has been arrested.

0900 GMT: Social Media Watch. Peyke Iran claims that Facebook has been made chaste in Iran, with separate entry points for "Sisters" and "Brothers".

0855 GMT: (Potential) Political Prisoner Watch. Fereshteh Ghazi interviews Dr. Sadigeh Vasmeghi, whose office was raided this week by security forces.

Vasmeghi, a poet and noted scholar in theology, is currently a visiting professor at a university in Germany.

0615 GMT: A slightly different start this morning --- rather than begin with the long-running conflict within the Iranian establishment, we note the public emergence of a dispute within the opposition.

The tension has simmered amongst reformists and activists since former President Mohammad Khatami called for "reconciliation" between people and the regime this spring. Indeed, before that, there was dissatisfaction with those reformists, especially in Parliament, whom others in the opposition felt had been too accommodating towards the Government. The tension has been elevated over the question of the 2012 Parliamentary elections --- to run or not to run, to vote or not to vote?

Yesterday, in a video statement, Mojtaba Vahedi --- an advisor to Mehdi Karroubi, now based in the US, and an increasingly prominent spokesman with the imprisonment and house arrest of Karroubi and others --- brought this into the open. 

Vahedi dismissed Khatami's "reconciliation" and said there is nothing is left of Parliament to contest in 2012 elections, as decisions --- and the electoral process, including the approval of candidates --- are  controlled by the Supreme Leader and Guardian Council. He specifically denounced leading MP Mostafa Kavakebian, who has indicated he will participate in the elections, as "no reformist" --- "All real reformists are in prison".