The Latest from Iran (13 January): President's Right-Hand Man in Trouble?

2145 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The US Treasury added 26 firms to its sanctions list, claiming that 24 have ties with state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines --- linked to the Revolutionary Guards --- and two were affiliated with Aerospace Industries Organization, a subsidiary of Iran's Ministry of Defense.

Still, such news is a trifle for Press TV: it gleefully reports that Italy's oil imports from Iran are up 92%.

1730 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. More than 170 activists have signed a letter calling for the release of female detainees Reyhaneh Tabatabai, Nazanin Khosravani, Sajadeh Kianoush-Rad and Farzaneh Roustaei.

1720 GMT: Missing in Action. Peyke Iran claims that the President has not been to meetings of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, over which he formally presides, since the fight for control of Islamic Azad University more than two months ago.

The Supreme Council backed Ahmadinejad in his effort to take oversight of Islamic Azad, Iran's largest private chain of universities, from the domain of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was supported by Parliament. The Supreme Leader eventually ruled in favour of Ahmadinejad.

1525 GMT: That Settles That. The Supreme Leader's office, in an apparent attempt to shut down the furour sparked by the recent "conditions" of former President Mohammad Khatami on participation in elections, has said that there are two forms of opposition to velayat-e-faqih (clerical supremacy).

The "illegal" form, criticising "Islamic principles or being detrimental to the system of public law and Islamic society, is tantamount to sedition and will be punished by jail. The "legal" form merely results in being barred from elections.

1520 GMT: An Interesting Dismissal. Abdolhamid Samareh Hashemi, the brother of senior Ahmadinejad advisor Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, has been fired as deputy for research and human resources in the Ministry of Energy.

1515 GMT: Squeezing the Farmers. Aftab reports on pressures on farmers: subsidy cuts drive up prices, including fodder, but their income does not. For example, the Government buys barley at 210 tomans but sells it at 320 tomans.

1500 GMT: Claim of Day. Jomhoori Eslami asserts that President Ahmadinejad honoured distinguished scientists with fake gold medals and coins.

1455 GMT: Clerical Intervention. Ayatollah Mazaheri in Qom has declared that political slander has become normal in Iran and "is a great sin".

1430 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. OK, the easy reading of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani's latest statement (see 1045 GMT) is that he is 100% with the Supreme Leader. But how do you interpret this sentence, "Someone who speaks of the Hidden (12th) Imam and praises Cyrus (the famous ruler of ancient Persia), lies in both cases"?

Anyone want to venture at whom that sentence is aimed?

1325 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Families of detainees have written again to Iran's Grand Ayatollahs, as well as Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Iraq, to ask for their intervention.

1320 GMT: The US Hikers. Mohammad Javad Larijani of Iran's judiciary has told Swiss diplomats, who represent American interests, that the trials of two detained US hikers --- Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer --- will be "held soon".

Iranian officials have said for several months that the trials were imminent, but court appearances have been delayed, at present until early February. Fattal and Bauer were detained with Sarah Shourd, who was released last autumn, in July 2009 along the Iran-Iraq border.

1045 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Amidst the choppy political waters, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani is ensuring he sets down an anchor by supporting velayat-e-faqih (clerical supremacy) and the Supreme Leader.

In a meeting with clergy and academics, Rafsanjani declared that his opinion does not differ from that of Ayatollah Khamenei.

1030 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Farzad Eslami, law student and former secretary of the Islamic Students Association of Tehran University, has been released on bail.

0915 GMT: Book Corner. The international press has picked up the story that Nobel Prize winner Paolo Coelho, responding to the ban on his books in Iran, has responded by putting free Persian-language editions on his website (see yesterday's updates).

Coelho's editor, translator, and friend Arash Hejazi offers a vital reminder,however: in the current drive against "subversive" authors and publishers, Coelho's books are not the only ones to be blacklisted.

0910 GMT; Subsidy Watch. Aftab reports the price for fuel oil has risen up to 2500%. The effect is that the price of bricks is up 30% and that of cement up 20%.

0815 GMT: Perhaps the most intriguing story out of Iran on Wednesday was the claim that President Ahmadinejad's Chief of Staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, had given $150 vouchers to clerics to show up at one of his speeches.

Even our most dedicated EA investigators cannot establish the truth of the allegation. That, however, does not diminish its significance. For the insulting tale --- the President's close advisor can not get a religious audience without paying for it --- came not from the Green Movement or the reformists but from the "hard-line" Mashregh News. 

The substance beyond the sensational is that Parliament's Article 90 Commission, which formally handles complaints from the public about Government officials, has now announced that it is investigating Rahim-Mashai as a "special case". That could lead to formal recommendations for his dismissal, ratcheting up the conflict with Ahmadinejad.

For Rahim-Mashai watchers, we will have a most exclusive story on Friday morning.

Beyond the President's right-hand man, other skirmishes are continuing. Ayatollah Mousavi Tabrizi has weighed in on the side of former President Mohammad Khatami in the argument over past and future elections. The Ayatollah said that opposition to Khatami's conditions for participation in elections --- freedom for political prisoners, adherence to the Constitution, and a fair campaign and ballot --- is opposition to the Islamic Republic and Islam.

The Ayatollah then joined the fray over the Guardian Council and its head Ayatollah Jannati, who has been leading the denunciations of Khatami. Mousavi Tabrizi said election supervision (nezarat-e estesvabi) --- one of the claimed roles of the Guardian Council --- is against the Constitution.