The Latest from Iran (30 September): Where's the President's Right-Hand Man?

1955 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. MP Gholamreza Assadolahi has said the report on the $2.6 billion bank fraud will be sent next week to Parliament's Article 90 Commission, supervising Government activities. Assadolahi said only 1% of the money has been returned to Iran.

1950 GMT: Press Feud. The pro-Ahmadinejad website Doulate Ma throws a punch at the hard-line Kayhan, claiming it has not paid employee insurance for four years and owes 12 billion ($950 million) to social welfare funds.

1945 GMT: CyberWatch. Khodnevis reports that VPNs [virtual private networks], which allow remote access to central networks, are "slowly dying" in the country with most VPN accounts shut down.

An EA correspondent, with excellent sources in Iran, confirms the story.

1615 GMT: Friday Prayer Addition. For entertainment, however, the Tehran Friday Prayer (see 1545 GMT) was out-staged by this line from Hamedan prayer leader Qiasoddin Taha-Mohammadi: 50% of Italian women, 70% in France, and 45% in Germany "are not satisfied with the sexual conditions of the country".

1545 GMT: Your Tehran Friday Prayer Summary. For once, a Friday Prayer with some significance beyond the rhetoric....

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, took the podium today and dared to manoeuvre his way around the $2.6 billion bank fraud. According to State news outlet IRNA, he urged the judiciary "to deal decisively with corruption" but added "that everyone should be careful not to spill the blood of innocent reputations".

A couple of sidenotes --- we will be watching to see if Press TV summarises the speech or if it tries to keep Iran's dirty laundry out of international sight. Meanwhile, the presentation in the pro-Ahmadinejad IRNA may have significance: while declaring that serious action will be taken, the emphasis on "innocent reputations" may be an attempt to say, "Do not pin this on the President's administration".

1355 GMT: Justice and Religion Watch. Yesterday we summarised the case of Yousef Nadarkhani, the 32-year-old pastor who converted to Christianity when he was 19 and has been charged with apostasy. Nadarkhani was initially sentenced to death, but that has been suspended pending his repentance. In a court hearing this week, he failed to recant, but his lawyer still says it is "95%" likely he will not face the death penalty.

Fars, however, tries a new tack today --- it claims Nadarkhani's "crime" is not the religious issue of apostasy but the accusations of extortion and rape.

1255 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. MP Parviz Sorouri has claimed that the Ahmadinejad team has spent a large amount of money to gain 200 seats in the 290-seat Parliament in March's elections.

1245 GMT: Where's Esfandiar? And now the latest rumour over the whereabouts of the President's right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, who has not been seen since Ahmadinejad's return to Tehran on Sunday....

Iranian media claim, without evidence, that Rahim-Mashai has asked to become Iran's cultural envoy to the United Nations.

1225 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. The head of Bank Melli, Mahmoud Reza Khavari is not exactly hurrying back to Iran after his resignation over the $2.6 billion bank fraud.

Initially, Bank Melli said --- despite claims from another bank executive, Mohammad Jahromi, sacked in the affair that Khavari had fled to Canada --- that its managing director would return to Tehran on Thursday. Today the bank's official went to Imam Khomeini Airport at 2:40 p.m. local time to welcome Khavari, but he was not on the British Airways flight.

Twenty-two suspects, including an ally of President Ahmadinejad's Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, have been arrested in the case.

0925 GMT: Corruption Watch. The reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front has issued a statement expressing concern over the widespread corruption in the Iranian system but doubting that the authorities have the will to fight it.

0905 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. Iran Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei has called on Mahmoud Reza Khavari, the head of Bank Melli Bank who resigned this week, to return to Iran to defend himself against allegations that he was a major figure in the $2.6 billion bank fraud.

Ejei warned, “If Mahmoud Reza Khavari does not return to Iran for any given reason, the accusations circulating these days will point toward him, and the rumours we hear today will seem true.”

The former head of Bank Saderat, Mohammad Jahromi, who was dismissed by the Minister of Finance over the fraud allegations, said Khavari had fled to Canada with the assistance of Iranian officials.

Ejei said Khavari was due to return to Iran on Thursday, echoing a statement made by Bank Melli.

0725 GMT: On the Border. Brigadier General Abdullah Araqi, the deputy commander of the ground forces of the Revolutionary Guards, has claimed that Iran's military killed more than 180 Kurdish insurgents and wounded 300 more in a summer offensive along the northwestern border with Iraq.

Araqi said a number of Iranian troops had also been "martyred" during operations to reclaim the area, but did not give details.

The Iranian military launched operations against the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) in July and began shelling districts near the border and inside Iraq, killing dozens including PJAK's deputy commander.

On September 21, the Guards said they had forced the armed rebels out of northwestern Iran. Earlier this week, Iran and PJAK reportedly agreed to a cease-fire brokered by Iraqi Kurdish officials.

0720 GMT: The Great Iran-Al Qa'eda Battle. You really couldn't make this up --- the latest in the quarrel between Tehran and Al Qa'eda over who was responsible for the 9-11 attacks:

An Al Qa'eda author wrote in the latest issue of an Al Qa'eda English-language magazine called "Inspire" that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continued to spread the conspiracy theory that the U.S. government was behind the 9/11 attacks because Iran was jealous of Al Qa'eda.

"For them, al Qaeda was a competitor for the hearts and minds of the disenfranchised Muslims around the world," the article says. "Al Qaeda... succeeded in what Iran couldn't. Therefore it was necessary for the Iranians to discredit 9/11 and what better way to do so? Conspiracy theories."

Responding to the article's assertions today, Iranian state news repeated Ahmadinejad's arguments and said "reports released by al Qaeda are usually believed to be produced by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)."

0715 GMT: Picture of the Day. Handmade dolls from student activist Mahdieh Golroo, who is serving a 28-month sentence in Evin Prison --- the banner is "Azadi (Freedom"):

0705 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. In the scramble to avoid blame for the $2.6 billion bank fraud, this may be a case of closing the barn door after the horse has bolted....

Iran's Inspection Organization has announced that it has opened offices covering three areas: 1) banks and insurance; 2) energy and communications; 3) the economy.

On Thursday, Inspector General Mostafa Pourmohammadi claimed that he had uncovered the fraud and had notified the Central Bank, preventing further embezzlement.

Meanwhile, critics are trying to pin the latest scandal --- the disappearance of the head of Bank Saderat, Mahmoud Reza Khavari --- to the Government. A copy of the certificate of Khavari's appointment establishes he was named by 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, who himself is under investigation for a major insurance fraud.

The hard-line site Mashregh claims Khavari went to Frankfurt, Germany after a three-day stay in London and then flew on the German carrier Lufthansa, using a Canadian passport, to Toronto on Wednesday night.

0645 GMT: Sedition Claim of the Day. The Deputy Minister of Egypt, Ebrahim Rahemi, has explained that the protests after the disputed 2009 Presidential election were planned by former Iranian Government officials in Egypt.

0640 GMT: Economy Watch. Alef asks why this week's attempted privatisation of the national airline Iran Air did not go well, suggesting issues with the pricing, mismanagement, and the general economic situation in the country.

0635 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. French filmmakers of the Cinémathèque Francaise have protested this month's arrests of six Iranian colleagues, seized on the pretext that they work with BBC Persian.

0515 GMT: The $2.6 billion bank fraud may be raising tension throughout Iran's establishment, but another story --- perhaps of substance, perhaps just a sensational rumour --- is exciting Iranians this week.

Where is President Ahmadinejad's right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai?

For days before the President's trip to the United Nations, observers wondered if Ahmadinejad dared take his Chief of Staff, Rahim-Mashai --- accused by critics of everything from multi-million-dollar corruption to Jewish blood to spying for the Americans --- to the US. On the eve of the trip, courtesy of information from the President's office, it appeared he had.

But since Sunday, when Ahmadinejad returned from New York via Africa, there has been no sighting of Rahim-Mashai. And that has set tongues wagging and pens scribbling. Did Rahim-Mashai stay behind in the US, to talk to American officials or just to avoid arrest? Did he never go to America in the first place? 

Ayande News adds the latest tale, claiming that Rahim-Mashai did come back to Tehran but --- for unspecified reasons --- left the airport in secret.