The Latest from Iran (23 November): Noticing Human Rights

See also Iran Special Analysis: The Security Forces Cross Ahmadinejad's "Red Line"
The Latest from Iran (22 November): The Security Forces v. Ahmadinejad's Senior Advisor

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Political Prisoners in Iran2020 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Student activist Rojin Mohammadi, studying medicine at the University of Manila, has been arrested at the airport on her return to Iran.

1955 GMT: Tough Talk of the Day. The Supreme Leader's military advisor, General Yahya Rahim Safavi, assures, "The IRGC [Revolutionary Guards] control the identity and destination of every US warship which intends to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. "And Americans fully respond to the IRGC's telecommunications center with complete answers."

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An estimated 40% of the world's oil supply passes through the Straits of Hormuz, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf.

Rahim Safavi also said that air defences protecting Israel were "inefficient" against Iran's arsenal: "“These missile shields which they have deployed in Turkey, occupied Palestine, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cannot hit all our missiles. They may hit some of our missiles, but the number of our missiles is so large that they will not be able to target our missiles."

1705 GMT: The Battle Within. The head of the judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, has warned President Ahmadinejad's team "not to pollute the domestic atmosphere unnecessarily".

1655 GMT: Reformist Watch. Ayatollah Mousavi Khoeini, in a possible allusion to staying out of next March's Parliamentary elections, has declared that the regime "does not want or need the reformists any longer".

1635 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. The President has played the foreign card in a nationally-televised speech to an outdoor audience in Tehran, denouncing the latest sanctions against Iran: "We have had no relations with America for the past 32 years so we had no relationship with them yesterday and won't have tomorrow. But we are surprised by these European puppets, who immediately repeat whatever their master says like impotent servants."

The President, in a rather unusual interpretation of this week's announcement by Britain and Canada that they would cut all links with Iranian finanical institutions, declared, "Any expropriation of the Iranian people's foreign exchange reserves is considered major theft and the Iranian people will treat those who do this as thieves."

(An EA correspondent explains, "Ahmadinejad was using gutter language here, saying, "They think the world is 'shahr-e hert' (a vulgar term meaning 'city of outlaws') but people will treat anyone who takes our foreign exchange like a thief.")

Ahmadinejad also had this choice comment for Washington: "Iran people don't need the nuclear bomb to achieve their goals. The bomb is for cowboys who invaded America by killing people."

1435 GMT: Elections Watch. Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi has said that the Parliamentary election in March will differ from all of Iran's ballots in the last 32 years, as reformists, seditionists, and the deviant current will try to split the country.

1425 GMT: Arresting the President's Men. Although up to 40 staff of the Iran newspaper have been released from detention, the aftermath of Monday's raid to seize Ahmadinejad advisor Ali Abkar Javanfekr continues. Police confiscated laptops and mobile phones of the staff, and the newspaper has filed a suit against police because of the use of tear gas and electric batons.

1125 GMT: Arresting the President's Men. A bit of defiance from Abdol Reza Soltani, the deputy managing editor of Iran newspaper, who was arrested in a Monday raid by security forces trying to detain his boss and Presidential advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr: "The basic lesson that we have learned from Ahmadinejad is to defend the ideals of the Revolution with our lives."

1120 GMT: J'Accuse the Internet. Iran Police Chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam has blamed the Internet for the arrangements to assassinate targets such as Iranian scientists, as well as spreading the problems of terrorism and drugs.

1040 GMT: The House Arrests. Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard saw Mousavi's brothers and sisters earlier this month during the Muslim festival of Eid Ghadir, their first meeting in almost eight months.

Mousavi and Rahnavard were placed under strict house arrest in mid-February.

1010 GMT: Bank Watch. Musalreza Servati of Parliament's Budget Commission has complained that there has been no attempt to prosecute financial fraud in the past six years, with Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi's official failing in its efforts.

Servati added that banks have not recovered 10 trillion Toman (about $7.5 billion) from eight major debtors.

1004 GMT: Foreign Affairs (British Front). Parliament has voted by a large margin to downgrade relations with Britain.

The State news agency IRNA adds the embellishment that MPs cried "Death to Britain" as they passed the resolution.

The denunciation follows London's announcement on Monday that it was suspending all links with Iranian financial institutions as part of US-led sanctions.

1000 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The daily newspaper Jomhoori Eslami has called on the regime to "be honest with people" on the consequences of Western sanctions: "Don't say they have no effect."

Khabar Online has published a full list of sanctioned Iranian officials.

0950 GMT: OK, We'll Stick Around. Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh of Parliament's National Commission has said after a meeting that Iran will continue to observe the Non-Proliferation Treaty, despity recent threats to withdraw after the International Atomic Energy Agency report criticising Tehran's nuclear programme.

0940 GMT: Tough Talk of the Day. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the head of the Basij militia, declares, "The enemy fears our unity and solidarity."

0730 GMT: Earlier this month, to great fanfare after a week of pre-publicity spinning the findings, the International Atomic Energy Agency published its latest report on Iran's nuclear programme. On Monday, almost unnoticed, the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution criticising Iran's human rights violations.

The resolution was passed 86-32 with 59 abstentions. Mohammad Javad Larijani, head of the human rights section of Iran's judiciary, had spent all week in New York trying to build opposition to the declaration.

The resolution challenged the “continuing and sustained house arrest of leading opposition figures from the 2009 presidential elections", including candidates Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi,  and called for the release of all political prisoners. It pressed the regime over the treatment of religious and ethnic minorities, including "discrimination against, and exclusion of … members of the Baha’i faith, regarding access to higher education", the “violent suppression and detention of ethnic Arabs and … the violent repression of environmental protests in Azeri territory", and “the high rate of executions of persons belonging to minority groups".

The resolution insisted that Iran co-operate with Ahmad Shaheed, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, allowing him “unfettered access to the country to carry out his mandate". Iranian authorities have blocked Shaheed's entry, leading the Special Rapporteur to write his initial report from other documents and sources.

The vote on the resolution reflected the fragmentation of support for Iran in the Arab world, with Tunisia and Libya voting yes, and Egypt abstaining. Tukey declined to vote.