Iran Live Coverage: Ahmadinejad Tries to Take Control on the Economy

President Ahmadinejad, Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, and head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani meet on Saturday

See also Iran Feature: Newsflash --- Tehran Does (Not) Shoot Down An Enemy Drone
Saturday's Iran Live Coverage: Revolutionary Guards Challenge "Narcissist" Ahmadinejad

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1834 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Radio Zamaneh posts more on State broadcaster IRIB's sudden cut-away from coverage of President Ahmadinejad's interview last night, interrupting the question-and-answer session for a TV drama....

The President’s office issued a statement expressing surprise, but IRIB's Public Relations Department said the interruption was done in coordination with Ahmaadinejad's office.

Mehr said the cut-away occurred as its reporter began asking touch questions about the Government's economic policies, including the query as to how its fight with corruption could co-exist with the $2.6 billion bank fraud that emerged in September 2011. The reporter also accused the administration of yo-yoing between the position that sanctions are having no effect on the economy and blaming the sanctions for all of Iran's problems.

Ahmadinejad reportedly answered: “I still insist that we have run the cleanest administration.” He added that he feels Iran’s economic situation is “very good” and that “inflation is not considered a loss for everybody and only those with set salaries lose while others benefit from inflation".

President Ahmadinejad, Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, and head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani meet on Saturday

See also Iran Feature: Newsflash --- Tehran Does (Not) Shoot Down An Enemy Drone
Saturday's Iran Live Coverage: Revolutionary Guards Challenge "Narcissist" Ahmadinejad

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1834 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Radio Zamaneh posts more on State broadcaster IRIB's sudden cut-away from coverage of President Ahmadinejad's interview last night, interrupting the question-and-answer session for a TV drama....

The President’s office issued a statement expressing surprise, but IRIB's Public Relations Department said the interruption was done in coordination with Ahmaadinejad's office.

Mehr said the cut-away occurred as its reporter began asking touch questions about the Government's economic policies, including the query as to how its fight with corruption could co-exist with the $2.6 billion bank fraud that emerged in September 2011. The reporter also accused the administration of yo-yoing between the position that sanctions are having no effect on the economy and blaming the sanctions for all of Iran's problems.

Ahmadinejad reportedly answered: “I still insist that we have run the cleanest administration.” He added that he feels Iran’s economic situation is “very good” and that “inflation is not considered a loss for everybody and only those with set salaries lose while others benefit from inflation".

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Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- Threatened Journalists, Tehran Claims the South Pole, and the End of Olympic Wrestling (Arseh Sevom)

An embrace between US and Iranian wrestlers in the 2012 Olympics --- but it may not happen again

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The Ministry of Intelligence, not letting up on the "enemy" BBC Persian, continues to arrest, hold, and harass journalists and filmmakers.

Meanwhile, Jafar Panahi receives international acclaim despite being under house arrest and banned from filmmaking.

The South Pole could become a vacation spot for New Year revelers if Iran’s claim to some of its vast territory holds up.

The Supreme Leader chastises President Ahmadinejad and the Larijani brothers for their very public dispute.

And Iran and the US finally agree on one thing: removing wrestling from the Olympic games is just tragic.

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Iran Live Coverage: Ahmadinejad Refuses to Back Down

See also Iran Analysis: 4 Reasons Why Supreme Leader is Still Open to Direct Talks with the US
Iran Document: Supreme Leader's Speech on "The Battle Within" & Talks With US
Sunday's Iran Live Coverage: Admitting the Battle Within

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1855 GMT: Economy Watch. Radio Zamaneh summarises the reports from Iranian State agencies and the Central Bank that put Iran's inflation rate at the sixth-worst in the world.

The stated rate varies from agency to agency, but most estimates put the current annual rise in prices at 32 to 37%, the greatest increase since 1996. Unofficial estimates put forth an even higher figure.

1755 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch (Press Edition). Twelve local journalists have reportedly been arrested in Ilam in Iranian Kurdistan.

1748 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. VOA Persian reports on Kurdish detainee Semko Khelghati, presented by Press TV as a spy in the programme "A Time to Betray" --- Semko's mother reports that her son, an "excellent" university student in metallurgy, was tortured to confess before he received a 15-year sentence.

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Iran Document: Supreme Leader's Speech on "The Battle Within" & Talks With US

Over the last 48 hours, we have paid close attention to the Supreme Leader's speech to an audience from Tabriz, noting 1) its place in the "battle within"; especially the fight between President Ahmadinejad, Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, and head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani; and 2) its intervention on the nuclear issues and the question of direct talks with the US.

The text of the speech, translated by the US Government's Open Source Center, and posted by Juan Cole on his website:

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Let me say this to you, the American Government officials are unreasonable people. Their words are unreasonable; their actions are unreasonable, and repressive. They expect others to surrender to their unreasonable actions. Well, some do surrender. Some governments, some political elite in some countries, surrender to their audacity and bullying behaviour.

But the Iranian nation, the Islamic Republic is not going to surrender.

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Iran Analysis: 4 Reasons Why Supreme Leader is Still Open to Direct Talks with the US

The Supreme Leader addresses Air Force officers, 7 February 2013

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So why is the Supreme Leader maintaining the opening for direct talks?

1. Khamenei may see the recent, serious political crisis as a distraction which allows him to slip in the possibility of negotiations with the US>
2. The international sanctions are starting to hurt.
3. The Syrian regime will not be able to survive the current crisis, and its fall will be a huge strategic blow to the Islamic Republic --- last week, the head of the Basij militia said Syria is more important to the regime than the province of Khuzestan, in defence of which many thousands of Iranians died during the war with Iraq in the 1980s.
4. The Islamic Republic had hoped that the Arab Spring would bring it new allies in the region. Indeed, the movements have isolated the regime even more.

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Iran Live Coverage: Admitting the Battle Within

Press TV's coverage of the Supreme Leader's speech criticising President Ahmadinejad, Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, and head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani

See also Saturday's Iran Live Coverage: Tehran's Support for Syria Will Cause "War Between Shia and Sunni"

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2030 GMT: The Battle Within. Forget the non-apology letter to the Supreme Leader, this is President Ahmadinejad's big statement today....

Ahmaadinejad used a speech to repeat his warning against the "engineering" of elections --- a swipe at last month's statement by the Supreme Leader's representative to the Revolutionary Guards, Ali Saeedi --- and swept aside any notion that he will back down: "I will work until last minute of my term."

The President continued, "I am ready to sacrifice myself for Islam and Qur'an. My only wish is that the flag of monotheism and justice flies and that mankind is set free."

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Iran Live Coverage: Tehran's Support for Syria Will Cause "War Between Shia and Sunni"

See also Iran Analysis: The US Makes a Non-Offer on the Nuclear Talks</ br>
Friday's Iran Live Coverage: Syria --- The Islamic Republic's "35th Province"

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Supreme Leader & President Assad

2110 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch (Journalist Edition). One of the 16 journalists seized three weeks ago, Fatemeh Sagharchi of Jamaran and former head of the Strategic Research Library, has been released on bail of 120 million Toman (about $30,000 at unofficial.rate).

Fourteen journalists, most of them from reformists publications, remain behind bars. No formal charges have been announced, although authorities and politicians have put out the message that they collaborated with foreign media.

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Iran Live Coverage: Revolutionary Guards Issue A Warning to The Leaders

Qassem Sulemani, the head of the Quds Forces of the Revolutionary Guards, cries at a memorial for Guards commander Hassan Shateri, killed on Tuesday in Syria

Wednesday's Iran Live Coverage: Nuclear Talks with the IAEA

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2015 GMT:Foreign Affairs Watch (Syrian Front). Senior cleric Mehdi Taeb, head of the Ammar Base think tank, has offered more explanation of Iran's military role in Syria, encouraging the formation of militias:,/p>

Syria had an army, but this army was incapable of managing war inside cities. Therefore, Iran suggested [to Syria] that they form a Basij in order to manage urban warfare.... The Syrian Basij was formed with 60,000 Hezbollahi and [this] caused the urban warfare to be transferred from the Syrian army [to the Syrian Basij]....

Of course, this adventure caused the Syrian Army to also become involved in some of these matters [urban warfare], and to become familiarized with all [aspects of the conflict].

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Iran Live Coverage: "Viva Spring" --- Ahmadinejad Launches An Election Campaign

See also Iran Special: Ahmadinejad Declares Political War --- "My Rivals Will Rig the Presidential Election"
Sunday's Iran Live Coverage: 34th Anniversary of Islamic Revolution --- But How Many Are Celebrating?

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1525 GMT: Karroubi's Son Arrested. The website linked to detained opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi says his son Mohammad Hossein was arrested today by security forces.

Karroubi, like fellow opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard, has been kept under strict house arrest for 23 months. Earlier today, Mousavi and Rahnavard's daughters were detained and interrogated for hours before being released.

1505 GMT: Mousavi's Daughters Released. Zahra and Narges Mousavi, daughters of the detained opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard, have been released after hours of interrogation in Evin Prison.

The Mousavi daughters were detained this morning in raids on their homes (see 0950 GMT). No reason has been given by authorities.

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Iran Special: Ahmadinejad Declares Political War --- "My Rivals Will Rig the Presidential Election"

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For at least one day --- the day of the 34th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution --- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had seized the initiative. He had declared that he would not give way to all his "enemies", even if they led Parliament and the judiciary, even if they might include members of the Supreme Leader's camp. He had said that it was he --- not they --- who represented Iranians.

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