2130 GMT: Corruption Watch. According to Peyke Iran, former Minister of Interior Mostafa Pourmohammadi has said that, on behalf of the Supreme Leader, consideration of some files of economic fraud has been postponed.
2115 GMT: Rafsanjani vs. the Islamic Republic? Hossein Salami, the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guard, has declared that if Islamic values disintegrate, Iran will proceed to a collapse.
So who could pose such a threat to Islamic values? Khabar Online has an intriguing reference: the arrest of sedition leaders was discussed in the National Security Council, but President Ahmadinejad did not present documents for his allegations against former President Hashemi Rafsanjani.
2045 GMT: The Khamenei Roadshow. So what did the Supreme Leader do on the 9th day of his stay in Qom?
Well, he told Qom Province officials that the enemy had a special plan to establish an anti-revolutionary stronghold in Qom.
But the really big news is that the Supreme Leader is going to spend an unexpected 10th day in the city, with a second meeting with seminary scholars on Thursday.
2015 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Back from a conference break to find a potentially significant break in the sanctions regime against Tehran, reported by Thomas Erdbrink of The Washington Post:
In the first open split between Europe and the United States on Iran policy since President Obama took office, the European Union said its sanctions against the Islamic Republic permit the sale of refined petroleum that the United States has been trying to cut off.
In a document detailing actions taken by the European Union against Iran in July, the Council of the European Union stressed that it allows the import and export of oil and gas to Iran, including the financial transactions required to conduct such business.
E.U. officials said Wednesday that their measures allowed fuel sales to prevent sanctions from hurting average Iranians. Instead, new European measures are aimed at depriving Iranian leaders from oil revenue by banning investments in the development of the Iranian oil sector, as well as specialized equipment, said representatives.
In its new of regulations regarding Iran, published Wednesday, the European Union makes a clear exemption for fuel sales. "The restrictive measures should not affect the import or export of oil or gas to and from Iran, including the fulfillment of payment obligations in connection with such import or export," it said.
"If you want to send a tanker filled with refined petrol to Iran, and you have proved that you are not carrying any other goods that we deem illegal, Europe has no problem," said a high European official who specializes in sanction policies who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "We don't want any negative effect on the Iranian population, or to deprive them of energy, so we do not follow U.S. measures that go beyond United Nations sanctions," he said.
0510 GMT: Oil Squeeze. Tucked away in an overview of Iran's launch of the Bushehr nuclear plant is this interesting note:
(European Union foreign policy representative Catherine) Ashton welcomed the news that a British gas field jointly owned by Iran and energy giant BP Plc was set to close due to the sanctions. The Rhum gas field, 390 km (240 miles) off the northeast coast of Scotland had been under joint Anglo-Iranian control since 2003 and produced up to 6 million cubic meters of gas a day in the first six months of 2010, or about 1 percent of Britain's peak gas demand forecast for this winter."
I'm on an early-morning flight to Holland for a three-day conference at the Roosevelt Center. So my updates on the latest from Iran will likely be delayed until this afternoon. In the meantime, this is an open thread for readers to bring in news and analysis.