The Latest from Iran (13 December): Nuclear Talks with the IAEA

The European Parliament awards the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in absentia to detained lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who is threatened with imprisonment

See also Iran Snap Analysis: Speculating about the Next President
The Latest from Iran (12 December): A 78-Year-Old Academic is Imprisoned for Writing the Supreme Leader

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1602 GMT: A Death in Detention. Human rights activists claim participants in the 40th day memorial for blogger Sattar Beheshti, who died on 3 November under interrogation in Evin Prison, have been beaten, with several arrested.

Security officers reportedly raided the services at the Imam Mohamad Taghi Shrine in Robat Karim,, near Tehran.

Beheshti's mother was said to have sustained leg and knee injuries. Beheshti’s brother was detained for two hours.

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The Latest from Iran (26 September): Let the Battles Resume....

US nationals Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, freed after 26 months in an Iranian prison, offer remarks in New York

See also Iran Video Special: Mothers of Victims Sohrab Arabi & Neda Agha Soltan Respond to Ahmadinejad's New York Statements

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1650 GMT: The US Hikers. Iran Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei has taken offence at the comments of US national Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, free on $500,000 bail each after 26 months in detention in Tehran, on their return to New York (see top of entry and 0445 GMT).

Fattal and Bauer said they had been held for no more than being Americans at a time of tension between the US and Iran and had described hearing the abuse of other detainees in Evin Prison. Mohseni-Ejei declared, "It's predictable, each time we release [people like] them, saying these words against Iran." He continued, "It is clear that these remarks are contrary to fact, and of course, we expected no more than this."

Mohseni-Ejei dismissed any political issue over the judiciary's delay in releasing Bauer and Fattal for more than a week after President Ahmadinejad told US media they would be freed: "Any individual may call for the arrest and freeing of a prisoner, but ultimately it is up to the judge who issued the warrant."

Fattal and Bauer's State-appointed lawyer Massoud Shafiee also was unhappy with the remarks of the two Americans --- it was "not true" that they had been mistreated in prison. He said, "If my clients contact me, as an Iranian national, I will definitely inform them of my protest at their baseless claims....Why have they made such allegations when their problem has been resolved and they have left the country?"

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The Latest from Iran (11 July): "Wasn't It You Who Raised Ahmadinejad to this Point?"

1150 GMT: Revolutionary Guards Do Politics. Ayatollah Alamolhoda, the Friday Prayer leader of Mashhad, tries to clarify the issue of whether the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps can intervene in political issues --- he explains that the late Ayatollah Khomeini never said the IRGC should not enter politics, only that they should not interfere in political parties and elections.

IRGC commander Hossein Hamedani offers another bit of logic to support the Revolutionary Guards' invovlement: all Iranian people are Basiji fighting for the country, the Revolutionary Guards are not separated from the Basij, thus the IRGC is a principlist movement beyond a narrow military role.

1040 GMT: Cartoon of the Day. Nikahang Kowsar depicts President Ahmadinejad's escape from interrogation by legislators, thanks to opposition from the Board of the Parliament and --- it is reported --- the Supreme Leader's office:

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The Latest from Iran (7 February): Anticipating 25 Bahman

1800 GMT: No Nerves Here. Both Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of the human rights section of Iran's judiciary, and Gholam-Hossein Elham of the Guardian Council have spoken loudly about the respect for authority in the country.

Javad Larijani said democracy lovers should kiss the Supreme Leader's hands for saving the country from a "putsch": Ayatollah Khamenei is the "anchor of democracy".

Elham asserted that whoever opposes the Supreme Leader "will be destroyed". Even if Ayatollah Khamenei got more power, this does not smell of dictatorship.

He added a warning for Parliament: if the Guardian Council says something is illegal, Majlis must obey and cannot change laws.

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The Latest from Iran (20 January): Running on Empty?

2135 GMT: Economy Watch. Ayande News, blaming subsidy cuts on fuel, says car sales have fallen by 50% with the market in imported cars almost dormant.

Khabar Online, linked to Ali Larijani, continues to push the Government on economic claims. The latest case is a challenge to the claim of 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi that 1.5 million new jobs have been created: Khabar says only 600,000 of these were new jobs and 900,000 replaced other positions.

2115 GMT: Running on Empty? Back to where we started this morning. MP Ali Motahari, pressing his argument that the Government is not only unwilling but unable to provide the funds for expansion of the Tehran Metro, claims that Minister of Economy Shamseddin Hosseini has said the Government does not want to implement laws mandating $2 billion in support of the expansion.

Motahari said the Government must at least allocate part of the $2 billion and asserted that he will President Ahmadinejad in the Majlis about the issue.

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The Latest from Iran (15 January): The Regime's Fizzling Displays

1715 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Mehdi Yarmohammadi, who worked for Mir Hossein Mousavi, has been sentenced to three years in prison.

1610 GMT: Energy Watch. Iranian officials said natural gas consumption had hit a record high due to cold weather, despite recent subsidy cuts.

Earlier this month, the officials had said consumption had dropped about 5% since the introduction of the cuts.

1545 GMT: Execution Watch. Kurdish detainee Hossein Khezri was executed in Oroumiyeh in northwestern Iran this morning.

Khezri was accused of being a member of the Kurdish insurgent group PJAK. He was arrested in July 2008 and sentenced to death in July 2009 for mohareb (”war against God”) and “endangering state security."

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Iran Snap Analysis: Non-Events, Non-Millions, and Non-Victory on Ashura

In more than 18 months of covering the post-election crisis in Iran, it may have been the strangest experience.

It was just after 9 a.m. in Iran when I set up the computer, turned on Iran's Press TV, opened up the websites of Iran's state media, and prepared to write about the "millions" who would turn out in mourning for Imam Hossein, the third Imam of Shi'a who had been killed in 680 AD by the evil Caliph Yazid. 

I knew there would be "millions" because ranian press and broadcasters had told me there would be millions.

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Iran Analysis: Khamenei v. Ahmadinejad? (Sahimi)

In a lengthy article in Tehran Bureau covering events from summer 2009 to the present, Muhammad Sahimi puts forward a picture of a developing contest between the Supreme Leader and President Ahmadinejad and concludes, The struggle and the gaping fissures that have emerged among the conservatives led by Khamenei, on the one hand, and Ahmadinejad and (presumably) the Guard hardliners, on the other, will bring their eventual downfall. This prospect is magnified by the administration's utter incompetence and corruption." I differ from the analysis on the key point of the Supreme Leader leading a conservative blog against the President and the Revolutionary Guard --- my assessment is more that Khamenei is manoeuvring between contending factions, trying to hold them together --- and I think the portrayal of the politics, especially the nuclear talks with the "West", is incomplete. However, this is a wide-ranging review of the tensions EA has been noting for more than a year....

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