Iran Live Coverage: Revolutionary Guards v. Ahmadinejad

See also Saturday's Iran Live Coverage: The Oil Squeeze Renewed

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2145 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Mohammad Javad-Rouh, the editor of Mehrnameh magazine, has been arrested after a raid on his home.

1501 GMT: Diplomacy Watch. Another dose of optimism from Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi after last week's nuclear talks in Kazakhstan, "From this day forward, sanctions will decrease."

1451 GMT: Non-Story of the Day. Reuters proclaims loudly, "Iran Building 3,000 Advanced Centrifuges".

Only one problem with the supposed drama in the story, drawn from Iranian media --- Tehran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it is installing the IR-2 centrifuges, for production of 5% uranium at the Natanz plant, in late January. The figure of 3000 soon followed.

Still, Reuters assures, "[This is] a development likely to add to Western concerns about the Islamic state's disputed nuclear program."

0937 GMT: Foreign Affairs Watch (US Front). A further sign of openness to agreement, after last week's nuclear takls in Kazakhstan? Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the chair of Parliament's National Security Commission, has said a settlement with Washington is not "unimaginable" if the US is honest.

Boroujerdi also declared that remarks denying the Holocaust are "not in line with the strategy" of the Iranian system.

0922 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Journalist Pejman Mousavi and Soleiman Mohammadi have been released from prison on bail.

Only 4 of the 18 journalists detained in a regime crackdown in late January remain behind bars.

The Maghreb daily, banned during the crackdown, is publishing again.

0649 GMT: Protest Watch (Water Edition). The story of weeks of protests by farmers over water shortages in Isfahan Province has now broken across the Iranian media, following last week's confrontation when security forces fired tear gas and pellets at the demonstrators and buses carrying the forces were set on fire.

Mehr has published a set of photographs around the episode.

The farmers are complaining that officials have diverted water from Isfahan to factories and other users in Yazd Province, hundreds of miles away.

Video of the clashes:

0642 GMT: The Battle Within. Avaz Heydarpour, a member of Parliament's National Security Commission, has warned of further attacks by President Ahmadinejad's supporters on Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani.

Heydarpour was speaking about an investigation of an incident on 10 February, the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, when Ahmadinejad's backers shouted down a speech by Larijani in a mosque in Qom, throwing prayer stones and shoes at the Speaker.

The clash came a week after the President had challenged Larijani on the floor of Parliament, accusing him and his family of corruption.

0630 GMT: The Battle Within. Mojtaba Zolnour, formerly the Supreme Leader's representative to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has launched a stinging attack on President Ahmadinejad,

Zolnour, still close to the IRGC, accused the President of trying to undermine the Iranian system and the armed forces.

The immediate cause of Zolnour's warning was last month's election of officers to the Medical Council. The contest has been seen as a test case for June's Presidential campaign, and competing sides have accused each other of trying to manipulate the contest.

Zolnour put forth the Guards as protectors of the process: "The Guards and the security forces are judicial officers and have done their duty." Without naming Ahmadinejad, he said the election had been safeguarded from the attempts of the "deviant current" --- a term applied by the President's critics to his inner circle --- to rig the ballot.

This is the third time in the past week that a Guards commander or someone close to the IRGC has challenged Ahmadinejad.

The dispute escalated in January when Ali Saeedi, the Supreme Leader's current representative to the IRGC, said the Guards had a "duty" to "engineer" the Presidential election. Ahmadinejad hit back in his address on the 10 February anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, declaring that anyone calling for an "engineered" ballot was trying to undermine the will of the Iranian people.