The Latest from Iran (11 May): Assessing the Revolutionary Guards

Jafari and Ahmadinejad2045 GMT: So You Thought the Battle Was Over (one to end the evening)? President Ahmadinejad hits back at Ali Larijani in the Government v. Parliament battle over the merger of ministries (see 0800 GMT): "The respected speaker of the Majlis believes that he is the law, which is not true."

2005 GMT: So You Thought the Battle Was Over (continued even more)? And now the conflict expands to take in supporters of Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf....

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (4 March): 19 Days and Counting

2230 GMT: Three more claimed videos of last Tuesday's protests:

"Mousavi, Karroubi Must Be Freed!"

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (26 February): Uncertainties

2000 GMT: Closing Thoughts. A quiet evening, so we will end by noting a couple of thoughtful pieces....

Dave Siavashi of Iran News Now looks at the regime's efforts to crush opposition with house arrests to bring out a phrase that we like to use, "A Marathon, Not a Sprint":

The people of Iran have suffered under a tyrannical and cunning regime for 32 years. The regime is extremely entrenched, with a power-base that is diffuse, distributed and ideological. It is a monster, but one that has begun to lose its grip.

The marathon to be rid of it is well under way.

And "A Contributor" at Tehran Bureau writes:

This has been a period of self-reflection, developing consciousness of and responsibility for the current situation. The people have understood who and what they are dealing with and this is extremely important....While the traditional joys of Tehrani life were nowhere to be seen, while all its lightness was burdened down, if you looked very closely, you could detect in the depths the churning of a long-awaited tide of transition.

We will be back early Sunday morning.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (10 February): One Day Closer

1900 GMT: Another Khamenei Journey to Qom. The Supreme Leader has made another trip --- his fifth since October --- to Qom, visiting several Ayatollahs. He prayed for Ayatolalh Ansari Shirazi, who is ill, and spent an hour with Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi.

Most important seems to be Khamenei's discussion with Ayatollah Ostadi about the religious seminaries (Howzeh). Senior clerics have expressed concern that the regime might move against the "independence" of the seminaries.

1845 GMT: Iranian authorities have arrested Fariba Ebtehaj, the office manager of Masoumeh Ebtekar, Vice President in the Khatami Administration.

1700 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Saleh Noghrekar, the head of Mir Hossein Mousavi's Justice Committee, has been arrested in a raid on his home. Journalists Maysam Mohamadi and Omid Mohades were also arrested last night.

Click to read more ...

Wikileaks and Iran: Did Mojtaba Khamenei Rig the 2009 Election? (And Where Did the Cable Go?)

A curious story unfolding today: did the son of the Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, worked with the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Abbas Ali Jafari, to manipulate the ballot?

That appears to be the claim, in at least one document released by WikiLeaks and obtained by the Daily Telegraph of London, by at least one Iranian source to US diplomats within days of the vote. But then another mystery starts....

Click to read more ...

Iran Mystery: Is the "Un-Defecting" Scientist Shahram Amiri in Solitary Confinement?

Shahram Amiri and Family, Tehran, July 2009What then is the situation with Shahram Amiri? The murky truth is that we do not know. The best we can do is stay observant and return back to the prediction --- not the confirmation, but the prediction --- made by a well-placed EA correspondent when Amiri returned to Iran.

The scientist, our correspondent judged, would initially be greeted as a hero. Then he would be "disappeared" in Iran's system, like others who have revealed unpleasant episodes such as the Chain Murders of the late 1990s.

That, for the moment, sits along a single interesting but far-from-established source.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (2 January): Sedition, Politics, and Propaganda

2000 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kurdish poet Rahim Loughmani, his wife Kolsoum Naghshbandi, and her brother Naseh Naghshbandi have been released from detention.

1820 GMT: Parliament v. President. After a protracted dispute with the Majlis, President Ahmadinejad's supervision of the Central Bank has been re-affirmed.

The Majlis has passed a measure on the Board of the Bank, taking oversight away from Ahmadinejad, but this was rejected by the Guardian Council.

1755 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Labour activist Behnam Ebrahimzadeh has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Afhin Keshtkari, the secretary of Shiraz Sanati University's Islamic Association, has been released on bail.

Student activist Mohammad Hossein Mozafari has been arrested.

Student activist Faoud Khanjani, a Baha'i member, has been sentenced to four years in prison.

1645 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kurdish political activist Ghadrieh Ghaderi has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Click to read more ...

WikiLeaks and Iran 2007: Brother of Revolutionary Guards Commander Safavi Offers Co-operation to US

In August 2007, a well-placed Iranian approaches the US Embassy in London with an offer. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), with its "central and preeminent role in the Iranian government", will co-operate with the US in Iraq, but "a U.S. terrorist designation of the IRGC would prevent any such cooperation".

This source, in making the offer, provides confirmation of the Revolutionary Guards' support for attacks against US forces in Iraq during the height of post-2003 violence.

And who is this Iranian who spoke with such knowledge and, apparently, the authority to make the offer to the Americans?

The brother of the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Yahya Rahim Safavi.

Click to read more ...

Iran Special Report: The State of Civil Society...and What to Do About It (Razzaghi)

A democratic government necessitates a strong democratic society without which it cannot sustain itself.

- Expansion of the discourses of democracy, human rights, and peace for the creation of a healthy, vital and democratic society.

- Development of knowledge and skills on networking, advocacy, leadership, peace-building, and civil society building.

- Empowerment of the political, social, cultural, and digital environments as key strategies in the transition to democracy and strengthening of civil society. Empowerment of citizens through increasing awareness, education on rights and responsibilities, expansion of knowledge and skills to work within associations, and practice with democracy at the micro-level.

- Development and expansion of communications and relations with international civil society.

- Reconstruction of social networks both in physical and cyber space and expansion of cooperation and solidarity among civil activists; coalition among civil society organizations; and coalition-building with international civil society.

- Development of a strategy to combat the imposing culture of silence, stagnation, and limitations on the circulation of information;media-pluralism and free access to information among activists and organizations.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (21 December): Tremors

2030 GMT: Diplomatic Protest. Twenty leading MPs, including Ahmad Tavakoli, Ali Motahari, and Elyas Naderan, have written to Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani to protest last week's dismissal of Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. The MPs have demanded that Parliament's National Security Commission "address the issue as soon as possible".

1850 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. Thomas Erdbrink (see 1840 GMT) also reports that business in department stores had fallen off even though Iranians are celebrating Shab-e Yalda, their festival for the winter solstice.

1840 GMT: The Truckers' Strike. Interesting news from Thomas Erdbrink of The Washington Post in Tehran....

Click to read more ...