Iran Today: A Week In The Presidential Election

Is Fars News Endorsing Saeed Jalili?

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Joanna Paraszczuk and Scott Lucas write:

In the week since registration for Presidential candidates closed and the Guardian Council began vetting the almost 700 Iranians who submitted their names, Iran's media has been dominated by two contenders: former President Hashemi Rafsanjani and chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.

However, with the Supreme Leader's 2+1 Coalition yet to declare any "unity" candidate, the question now is who will be able to mobilize significant support within the regime to counter Rafsanjani.

So far, only Jalili has emerged as a front runner.

Just as significant is the apparent confusion in the principlist and conservative camp. Although talk of a "unity" candidate is ongoing, no figure apart from Jalili has shown the organization and initiative to offer an alternative to Rafsanjani.

Presidential Election Watch: Rafsanjani, Motahari Respond to Jannati's Friday Prayer Comments

Both Conservative MP Ali Motahari and Presidential candidate and former President Hashemi Rafsanjani have responded to remarks by temporary Tehran Friday Prayer leader Ayatollah Jannati yesterday.

In yesterday's Friday prayers, Jannati dubbed "laughable jokes" pledges by presidential candidates to repair Iran's relationship with the US and resolve the economic hardship caused by Western sanctions.

Motahari said that in the 2009 election the people were "deceived" and that the Guardian Council must approve Rafsanjani as a Presidential candidate.

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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 Today: Rafsanjani & Jalili Put Out Campaign Slogans

A Former Soldier And A Diplomat: Presidential Candidate Saeed Jalili Tweets Photograph of Military Past

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Presidential Election Watch: Backing Rafsanjani (continued)

The Reformist Coordination Council has welcomed the candidacy of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani and called on all reformists to participate in a statement of support.

Presidential Election Watch: Hardline Kayhan Criticizes Rafsanjani

In a lengthy editorial on Monday, Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of hardline newspaper Kayhan, which is close to the Supreme Leader, criticized the decision of former president Hashemi Rafsanjani to register his candidacy, asking what the point of doing so had been, and suggesting that it could have been a cover for the reformists to return to the political scene.

Kayhan criticized the wide coverage the Iranian press has given to Rafsanjani's registration as a candidate.

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Iran Live Coverage: Syria --- The Islamic Republic's "35th Province"

Funeral service of Revolutionary Guard commander Hossein Shateri, killed in Syria, on Thursday (Photo: AP)

Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- Honouring Detained Student Activist Tavakoli
Thursday's Iran Live Coverage: Revolutionary Guards Issue A Warning to The Leaders

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2106 GMT: Nuclear Watch. So here, according to Reuters, is the big American gesture towards Iran to advance the talks over Tehran's nuclear programme.....

In exchange for Iranian steps to shut down its Fordow uranium enrichment plant, the US will lift sanctions --- which it imposed only nine days ago.

"Western officials" said the US and its allies will ease measures barring trade in gold and other precious metals with Iran. The restrictions, approved by President Obama in December and taking effect on 6 February, have reportedly cut off Turkey's transfer of gold to pay for Iranian natural gas (see 1716 GMT).

The officials said the offer will be presented to Iran at high-level discussions, the first in eight months, on 26 February Kazakhstan.

They acknowledged that the move is "a relatively modest update" to proposals from last year.

1732 GMT: Nut Watch. First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said the Government has ordered a six-month ban on pistachio exports to try to control the nut's price, which has doubled in the past month to about 250,000 Iranian Rials per kilogramme ($3.18 per pound).

Pistachios are among Iran's top non-oil exports, bringing in an average of $1.5 billion a year and providing work for hundreds of thousands of people.

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The Latest from Iran (15 July): Worries Over the Economy

Iranians line up to buy cheaper chicken as the price of meat rises sharply

See also The Latest from Iran (14 July): Sanctions Watch

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2135 GMT: All-Is-Well Alert. Minister of Economy Mehdi Ghazanfari, speaking in the religious city of Qom today, said, “The Iranian economy is dynamic, which will not be influenced by sanctions."

More interesting than Ghazanfari's rhetoric was the effective admission that he had come to Qom after senior clerics had protested over inflation. The minister insisted that difficult days have passed, that the situation in the market is good, and that “we have a sufficient stock (of goods)".

2129 GMT: Morality Watch. ISNA reports that security forces and members of the "morality police" raided 87 cafes and restaurants in a district of Tehran on Saturday, shutting them "for not following Islamic values, providing hookah to women, and lacking proper licenses".

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The Latest from Iran (6 December): The Drone Mystery

See also Iran Video: Free Nasrin Sotoudeh
Iran Analysis: Fact and Fiction on the Crash of an Advanced US Drone
The Latest from Iran (5 December): A Regime in Deadlock Drones On

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2045 GMT: The House Arrests. An EA correspondent reports that Mohammad Hossein Karroubi, the son of the detained opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi, has revealed that he met his father for 30 minutes on Saturday afternoon.

The younger Karroubi, writing on Facebook, said that he was joined by his mother Fatemeh, who has also been held under strict house arrest since mid-February. The meeting took place at the family's new home in Jamaran in north Tehran.

Mehdi Karroubi was reportedly in good spirits and improving health, having suffered from respiratory problems this autumn. He now has an entire floor of the house where he is held and is given two daily newspapers, Ettelaat and Jam-e Jam, to read.

1845 GMT: Virtual Diplomacy Watch. The US Government has launched its "Virtual Embassy" to "work as a bridge between the American and Iranian people", with "latest news", visa services, and information on "Study in the USA" and "Open Societies".

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The Latest from Iran (15 October): Cutting Through The Noise

Ali Motahari1810 GMT: Economy (Mismanagement) Watch. MP Musalreza Sarvati has claimed that Parliament is ignoring the Ahmadinejad Administration's $15 billion shortfall in the approvied budget. Sarvati also asserted that the administration has withdrawn $4.5 billion from the Central Ban, without depositing a compensating amount into the Treasury.

1805 GMT: The House Arrests. The three children of detained Mir Hossein Mousavi have met with Fatemeh Karroubi, who has also been under house arrest for eight months.

Mousavi's children said they have been denied phone contact with parents, whom they have not seen them in five weeks.

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The Latest from Iran (6 July): Revolutionary Guards Do Politics

1850 GMT: Reformist Watch. Ali Shakouri Rad, a senior member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, has told an audience of young supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mohammad Khatami, "We do not trust the government and the Guardian Council, and if they want to monitor elections --- given the context of past elections --- they are meaningless."

1705 GMT: Media Watch. Fars tries to take the high ground in the current political conflict, claims that the "disclosures" of the Supreme Leader's and Ahmadinejad's followers against each other are "media charlatanism".

1700 GMT: Parliament v. President. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, in the midst of his play for support from the Supreme Leader, has declared that Ayatollah Khamenei, in a meeting with MPs, said the Majlis has the right to interrogate and impeach the President.

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The Latest from Iran (6 May): "The Government Has Lifted Up Its Hands to Pray"

1955 GMT: Media Watch. The Guardian of London has picked up on the story with which we began today (see 0445 GMT), "Iran's Supreme Leader tells Ahmadinejad: Accept Minister [of Intelligence] or Quit", quoting the President's ally, Morteza Agha-Tehrani.

And Robert Tait of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has a thorough overview of the crisis --- with an appearance by EA --- "Ahmadinejad Floored By Bugs, Spirits, And Djinns":

Whenever cornered, Mahmud Ahmadinejad always seems to come out swinging. But Iran's notoriously abrasive president appears in danger of suffering a knockout blow over his political attachment to Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, a man widely seen as a threat to the country's clerical-based political system.

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