Iran Today: Still No Unity Candidate

Presidential Candidate Saeed Jalili

With less than three days to go before the Guardian Council declares its final list of candidates, the principlist 2+1 coalition --- established in December with the aim of finding a single candidate behind whom conservatives could rally --- has yet to announce that candidate.

Instead, each member of the 2+1 Coalition continues pre-campaigning with no sign that any of the three will step down in favor of another. Top Khamenei advisor Ali Akbar Velayati urged Iranians to avoid a Western lifestyle and praised the Resistance Economy.

Meanwhile, the hardline Perseverance Front also faces a decision about which candidate it will back after the Guardian Council returns the final list of candidates on Tuesday.

On Saturday, the Perseverance Front's initial choice, former Minister of Health Kamran Baqeri Lankarani denied he would step down in favor of Supreme National Security Council secretary Saeed Jalili.

Amid the uncertainty, Jalili continues to present himself as a front-runner, extending his social media campaign by opening an Instagram account, disseminating campaign ideas via podcast and downloadable leaflets, and continuing to use Twitter.

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Presidential Election Watch --- Jalili Edition

Jalili Extends Social Media Presence

Supreme National Security Council secretary, Perseverance Front member and Presidential candidate Saeed Jalili, who has shown savvy use of social media in the opening stages of his pre-campaign efforts, has extended his social media presence by joining photo-sharing and micro-blogging network Instagram.

The Official @instagram instagram.com/saeedjalili/ #Jalili #Iran #Iran92 #Iran2013 #انتخابات #جلیلی

— Dr Saeed Jalili (@DrSaeedJalili) May 18, 2013

The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also uses Instagram --- which is not blocked in Iran --- to disseminate publicity photographs.

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Iran Today: Age, "Sedition", & the Presidential Election

Nikahang Kowsar's vision of Hashemi Rafsanjani and the Supreme Leader in the Presidential election

See also Iran Special: EA's Guide to the Presidential Election
Iran Analysis: Presidential Election --- Good-bye Parties; Hello, Personalities and "Atomised Politics"
Monday's Iran Today: Rafsanjani & Jalili Put Out Campaign Slogans

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Presidential Election Watch: Supreme Leader's Man Renews "Sedition" Attack on Rafsanjani

MP Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, a member of the Supreme Leader's "2+1 Committee" has renewed the "sedition" attack on former President Hashemi Rafsanjani by linked him to the detained opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi: “Everyone who supported Mousavi in [the disputed 2009 Presidential election] is today supporting Hashemi Rafsanjani.”

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Iran Analysis: Correcting the Goldfish's View of a "Surprise" Presidential Election

If you started watching the Presidential contest on Friday, then this weekend's developments might have been surprising. However, if you started watching months ago --- and kept watching day-by-day --- the bigger picture would have prepared you for the so-called "surprise".

As we put the question last Wednesday, "Supreme Leader Losing Control of the Election?"

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Iran Today: The Real Debate in the Presidential Election --- Who is the Supreme Leader's Candidate?

Press TV portrays "Presidential hopefuls" and the economy

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1135 GMT:Your Friday Prayers Update. Taking to the podium today, Hojjat al-Islam Kazem Sadiqi declared that there are three red lines for the upcoming presidential elections.

The first red line is that everybody - including candidates, as well as their supporters and election slogans - must be within the law; in Sadiqi’s own words: “Nobody is above the law.”

The second is the need for harmony and unity during the election.

Sadiqi stated that "over the past 34 years most of the elections in our country have been harmonious" and that the “sedition” following the 2009 election was a new development.

Furthermore, candidates need to express unity because otherwise they are acting as traitors to the Iranian nation and the "blood of the martyrs.”

Sadiqi’s final red line is the imperative of ensuring morality and velayat – that is to say, the rule of the Supreme Leader.

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Iran Live: Senior Clerics Endorse Tehran Mayor Qalibaf for Presidency

See also EA Video Analysis: Introducing "The Love Triangle of Profileration" --- Iran, Syria, North Korea
Friday's Iran Live: An Ahmadinejad Election Comeback?

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Tehran Mayor Qalibaf1647 GMT: Economy Watch

The opposition site Kalemeh claims that the price of meat has risen up to 60% since Iranian New Year in mid-March.

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The Latest from Iran (6 March): Is Ahmadinejad in Trouble?

See also Iran Opinion: The Hunger Strike of Mehdi Khazali
Israel Video, Transcript, & Snap Analysis: Netanyahu's Speech to AIPAC
Iran-Israel-US Video Special: "It's War!"
The Latest from Iran (5 March): The Election? So Far, It's a Muddle

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1805 GMT: Drumbeats of War Watch. Dave Siavashi of Iran News Now picks up a crucial alteration in a report by CNN's Jessica Yellin about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit on Monday to the White House. First, Yellin's report:

"Three Republican presidential candidates will be addressing the AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] conference on Tuesday. All three have accused President Obama of appeasing Iran. The president has said that that kind of language and other quote 'loose talk of war' only helps Iran by driving up oil prices which Iran relies on to fund its nuclear weapons program".

Now, Obama's actual quote:

Already there is too much loose talk of war. For the last few weeks such talk has only benefited the Iranian government by driving up the price of oil, which they depend on to fund their nuclear program.

Siavashi comments:

The President said nuclear program.

Not nuclear weapons program.

Now, some people may be inclined to ask, "what's the big deal?"

It's a big deal.

It has not been proven that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. But it is virtually being touted as absolute fact by these mainstream outlets that Iran's nuclear program --- one that the Iranian government claims is for civilian purposes only, and that has been under the protocols and monitoring of the International Atomic Energy Agency for years --- is a nuclear weapons program.

Whether one believes what the Iranian government says is not the issue at hand though. It is irrelevant to the point I'm making. It is also irrelevant whether Jessica Yellin was even aware of the fact that she so badly misquoted President Obama.

What's relevant is that she said it without the slightest hesitation, as if intrinsically, she.just knows that it is a nuclear weapons program. It was as if she felt she needed to fill in an assumed blank between the words "nuclear" and "program" when the President uttered them. Like she was doing him a favor.

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