The Latest from Iran (1 October): Can the "Resistance Economy" Continue to Resist?

See also Iran Snap Analysis: Watching The Currency Crisis
The Latest from Iran (30 September): "The West Is In Economic Crisis"

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2045 GMT: Currency Watch. ILNA reports that students have protested in front of Parliament because the banks are not giving them subsidised currency for study abroad.

2035 GMT: Press Watch. The daily newspaper Maghreb has been raided and its managing editor Mehdi Emami Naseri summoned by the judiciary.

Some reports say the editor was arrested. There is confusion over the cause. Some reports say it was the publication of a photo of former President Mohammad Khatami; others say it was a picture of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani.

2032 GMT: Currency All-is-Well Alert. Mahmoud Bahmani, the head of the Central Bank, has declared that with increased trade, the Iranian Rial will gradually strengthen.

2029 GMT: Economy Watch. ISNA claims that 90% of automobile manufacturers in Isfahan Province are working half-time, with a 30% reduction in the workforce of 25,000.

2020 GMT: Currency Watch. Mehr indicates that today's shock for the Iranian Rial was even greater than the 16% fall on currency websites. It claims the rate vs. the US dollar reached 35000:1 in the afternoon before major exchange offices at Tehran's Ferdowsi Square were closed.

Mohammad Keshti-Aray, the head of the Jewellers Union, confirmed the early closures.

In his press conference today, Iran Prosecutor General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei admitted that the "buying power of people is down", as he said "currency defrauders will be identified and dealt with".

2010 GMT: Foreign Affairs Watch (Syrian Front). Aftab breaks ranks with much of the Iranian press and quotes Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi without censorship as he said, "Egypt will not become calm before violence in Syria is stopped and President Assad falls from power."

2001 GMT: Transport Watch. Mohammad Ali Gholiha, the manager of the Tehran Metro, has said that half of the capital's metro trains may stop running, as prices of spare parts have risen 300% and the Government is not providing money.

1954 GMT: Press Watch. A graph illustrating the open-market plunge of the Iranian Rial, compared to its official rate, since July 2010 to 9 September 2012. Note, however, that the Rial was 25000:1 vs. the US dollar on that day --- it is now almost 35000:1.

1948 GMT: Press Watch. Asr-e Iran has asked President Ahmadinejad, after his announcement that he will meet the Supreme Leader about his detained senior aide Ali Akbar Javanfekr, to pursue the files of all imprisoned journalists.

Javanfekr was summoned to prison last week to serve a six-month sentence over a special issue of Iran newspaper, which he edits.

http://t.co/qc5L49h after announcement that he will meet Kham re Javanfekr

1912 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Former prison mates honour the 26th birthday of student activist Arash Sadeghi, who was arrested shortly after the 2009 Presidential election, released in February 2011, and re-arrested a month later:

1903 GMT: Tough Talk Alert. A little currency crisis is not going to stop the military chest-thumping --- Air Force commander Farzad Esmaeili, who is connected to the Khatam al Anbia engineering arms of the Revolutionary Guards, more than 3000 defence bases have been installed at strategic points in the Islamic Republic.

1858 GMT: Currency Watch. Back from an extended academic break to find that the Iranian Rial ended the day on the open market at 34700:1 vs. the US dollar.

1301 GMT: Election Watch. Mindful of the fallout from the 2009 presidential election, the Interior Ministry has made an early warning against “enemies' activities” regarding next year’s June elections.

According to Fars English, “Deputy Interior Minister for Security and Law Enforcement Affairs Ali Abdollahi said the department is fully prepared to protect the country's security during the upcoming presidential election.”

1233 GMT: Currency Watch. As the currency crisis deepens, the Iranian Rial has dropped to 34500:1 vs the US dollar.

1138 GMT: Currency Watch. The Iranian Rial is now at 34000:1 vs. the US dollar, a drop of almost 15% today.

1113 GMT: Everything’s Fine Here, Look Over There. As Iran’s currency crisis worsens, State outlet Press TV engages in some sleight-of-hand misdirection to reassure everyone that things are OK.

Countering widespread news of Iran’s falling production, including in the automobile sector, Press TV reports, “Iran's auto manufacturer, Iran Khodro Co., has announced plans to boost its production to 1.2 million cars by 2016 with half of the output destined for international markets.”

And the website sees crisis elsewhere, leading with a Breaking News that “the unemployment rate in the Eurozone hit a record high in August, with 18.2 million people out of work".

The all-time low of the Iranian Rial vs. the US dollar apparently is nothing to worry about, as it is not mentioned anywhere on the site.

1106 GMT: Currency Watch. The fall in the Iranian Rial is now an hour-by-hour story. Mesghal puts it at 33500:1, a drop of more than 12% today.

1009 GMT: Currency Watch. The currency website Mesghal now confirms that the Iranian Rial has fallen almost 10% this morning on the open market and is an all-time low of 32600:1 vs. the US dollar.

The site also posts the surge in gold prices, with a 25% increase in a week for old gold coin to 12.55 million Rials (about $1025 at official rate).

Commenting on the developments, Hossein-Ali Haji, a member of Parliament Budget Committee, has stated that "a mafia is responsible" for the rapid rise in the cost of US dollars. Haji also announced that the Majlis is prepared to pass a bill within the next 24 hours to control the crisis.

1004 GMT: Clerical Intervention. Ayatollah Amini in Qom has said that people are "fed up with inflation and high prices", saying these are only partly because of sanctions and mostly because of mismanagement".

0927 GMT: CyberWatch. Following this morning’s news that the filter on Google Gmail has been lifted, Mohammad Reza Miri, a member of the Ministry of Telecommunications, has stated the block was an "involuntary" consequence of trying to reinforce censorship of Google's YouTube video-sharing site.

Miri said, "Unfortunately, we do not yet have enough technical know-how to differentiate between these two services. We wanted to block YouTube and Gmail was also blocked, which was involuntary.”

AP reports that the blocking of Gmail reportedly led to widespread complaints, not just by ordinary Iranians, but also by “email-starved parliament members --- and forced authorities Sunday to double down on their promises to create a parallel Web universe with Tehran as its center".

AP assesses that the problems of containing access to the internet, which has been of major concern for regime authorities since the post-election protests in 2009, are compounded by the fact that “Iran's highly educated and widely tech-savvy population is unlikely to warm quickly to potential clunky homegrown browsers or email services. And then there's the potential political and economic fallout of trying to close the tap on familiar sites such as Gmail.”

0916 GMT: Protest Watch. Peyke Iran claims that about 1000 people, representing different house-building cooperatives, have gathered in front of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to protest against claimed seizures of land by high-ranking officials.

0912 GMT: Economy Watch. Khabar Online, with charts, writes that per capita income has fallen by $1000 between March and September.

0843 GMT: Mortazavi Fights Back. Presidential aide Saeed Mortazavi has filed a complaint against several MPs and media figures who recently demanded his dismissal.

Mortazavi has been accused of complicity in the abuses and killings in the Kahrizak detention centre after the disputed 2009 Presidential election. He has avoided a trial, but his appointment as head of the Social Security Fund early this year has been challenged by MPs and clerics.

0833 GMT: Currency Watch. Marc Burleigh of AFP reports that the Iranian Rial has dramatically fallen this morning on the open-market. It has fallen 9%, shattering the 30000:1 mark vs. the US dollar to rest --- for the moment --- at 32500:1.

And the "ripple effect", even before this morning''s latest development --- the Rial is also falling quickly in the subsidised "trade room" set up by the Central Bank for importers and other selected customers. The Iranian currency on Sunday was down to 26720:1 in the Bank's sale of foreign exchange, a drop of 9%.

0743 GMT: Larijani Watch. Speaker of Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani headlines on State and semi-official media this morning with his declaration, “The US violated international norms and human principles by removing the MKO [Mujahedin-e Khalq] from [its list of] terrorist groups.”

Fars English also leads with the story, noting that Larijani called the “measure...'blatant animosity towards the Iranian nation’, but [in the] meantime described the MKO members as ‘politically dead’ and ‘worthless’.”

The criticfsm of the US measure is expected, of course, given that the MKO has sought the overthrow --- often with violent measures --- of the Islamic Republic since 1979. What is notable is Larijani's politics, supported by Iranian media, in putting himself at the head of anti-American denunciations, not only of this step but also of the film "The Innocence of Muslims" and of the policies of the Obama Administration.

0710 GMT: All-is-Well Alert. An official of the Iranian Steel Producers Association has told a press conference that exports of steel products have risen 176% between March and July, compared to the same period in 2011.

The official also claimed a 25% reduction in the import of crude steel and other steel products.

0650 GMT: CyberWatch. Mehr reports a reversal by authorities --- a week after blocking Google and Gmail, they have removed the filter.

0610 GMT: We open this morning with an analysis, "Watching the Currency Crisis", and ask, "Can the 'resistance economy', declared by the Supreme Leader in March, continue to resist?"