The Latest from Iran (10 March): President Rahim-Mashai?

1650 GMT: "Proper" Studies. Iran's Ministry of Sciences and Higher Education has banned Iranian graduate students from pursuing a dissertation on any subject related to Iran while studying abroad.

The ban covers all Iranian students, whether they are financially supported by the Government or paying for their education. Students who violate the directive will face problems with confirmation of their degrees by the Iranian authorities and with applications for jobs.

1615 GMT: Labour Front. Workers at Tabriz Petrochemical Plant have ended an 11-day strike after their demands were met.

1610 GMT: Smoothing the Waters. More on the Supreme Leader's appearance at the Assembly of Experts....

In an attempt to ease political tensions, now that Hashemi Rafsanjani has been removed as Assembly chairman, Ayatollah Khamenei denounced "any desecration and immoral, degrading, and unlawful treatment". There should be "frank and courageous expression of opinions" but this should avoid "desecration and insult and vilification". Khamenei specifically addressed journalists and bloggers in condeming "unethical" behaviour.

Two weeks ago, in an incident caught on video, Rafsanjani's daughter Faezeh Hashemi was accosted and insulted by a group of men. The leader was allegedly a hard-line blogger.

1515 GMT: Picture of Day. The Supreme Leader --- after declaring, "The United States and other world powers with an aggressive nature will finally suffer a defeat by nations and God's promises will come true" --- sits between the outgoing head of the Assembly of Experts, Hashemi Rafsanjani, and the new head, Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani:

1445 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Human rights activist Hakimeh Shokri has been released on bail.

Shokri was one of those arrested in early December during a mourning ceremony for those killed in the post-election conflict.

1440 GMT: A Modest Claim. Speaking in Qom, President Ahmadinejad said the religious city was the the base for ruling the world and developing the perfect man: "God created Iran for this mission."

1425 GMT: The Arrests. With no news for weeks about his parents, who could be under house arrest or could be in detention, Mehdi Karroubi's oldest son Hossein has charged the head of the Basij militia with "corruption on earth" for torture, rape, murder, and bloodshed.

Turning allegations against Karroubi back against the regime, Hossein Karroubi said Mohammad Reza Naqdi must be punsihed for spilling the blood of innocent people.

Hossein Karroubi has been in hiding since the regime attempted to arrest him, just before contact was cut with his parents.

1315 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. More contemplation of the position of Hashemi Rafsanjani after he was replaced as head of the Assembly of Experts on Tuesday....

Arash Aramesh says that with "a systematic effort by hardliners to totally eliminate him. Rafsanjani is slowly becoming isolated". However, Aramesh follows with assessment that the former President is far from finished: "Even at a time when his influence might have been reduced, he is surrounded by a network of powerful political and financial heavyweights." He even asserts that Rafsanjani set up his defeat in the Assembly, by Ayatollah Mahdavi-Kani, to limit the poltical damage:

What Rafsanjani did was that he convinced Mahdavi-Kani to run. ...Rafsanjani and Mahdavi-Kani have been political allies for many years....Mahdavi-Kani has always been viewed as someone who could mediate between different factions in the Islamic Republic. Rafsanjani’s political astuteness led him to convince Mahdavi-Kani to run and deny a hardliner such as Jannati, Yazdi, or Mesbah-Yazdi the highest position in the Assembly. He maneuvered in a way so that the hardliners in the Assembly will be left without a clear victory.

An EA correspondent is not so sure:

Mahdavi-Kani and Rafsanjani were the worst of enemies when the latter was president and the former undermined, in every way possible, Rafsanjani IMF- ordained economic reforms. Mahdavi Kani lent no support either in 2005 when Rafsanjani ran in that ill-fated campaign against Ahmadinejad. This theory of a combination between Rafsanjani and Mahdavi-Kani just doesn't stand up.

1045 GMT: Cartoon of the Day. The current President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and his possible successor, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai. The "Mr Obama" letter in Rahim-Mashai's beak represents his important --- if completely unofficial and criticised --- position as Ahmadinejad's envoy for foreign affairs.

0750 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Reza Khandan, the husband of detained attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh, has spoken about the continued pressure on her, with no possibility of bail or furlough, denial of family visits, and deprivation of basic facilities, even pen and paper to write her defence.

Sotoudeh, a prominent human rights lawyer, was sentenced in December to 11 years in prison for actions against national security and failure to wear a hejab in an interview with foreign media.

Seyed Morteza Akbari, a graduate student at Mofid University in Qom, has been arrested after he commemorated the funeral of Sanee Zhaleh, a protester killed in the 14 February demonstrations.

0735 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. And yet one more balancing act to report from the former President, even as he was being replaced as head of the Assembly of Experts....

On Tuesday night, meeting about 60 of the 86 members of the Assembly after the vote, Rafsanjani made clear his backing for the Supreme Leader while giving an implicit call for a challenge not only to the opposition outside the system but also to foes within the establishment, including pro-Ahmadinejad groups who have been harassing his family:

Fortunately the great leader of the Revolution has issued an order calling for the confrontation of extremists who engage in insults and slander outside of the legal framework, and we hope this unseemly and destructive phenomenon will come to a stop in this country. Criticism is a very appropriate activity, but slander and demagoguery and defamation, especially in the name defending Islam and morality, is scandalous.

The statement was nuanced enough that it could be featured by Fars without any apparent thought that it was yet another call by Rafsanjani for the Supreme Leader to take a firmer line with the President's camp.

0720 GMT: The Protests. Fereshteh Ghazi offers a vivid description of the security blanket in Tehran --- for mass demonstrations which never emerged, if it was ever planned --- on International Women's Day on Tuesday:

A witness [said] that there were so many security and military personnel on the streets that it appeared as if a whole army were deployed in Laleh Park with enough personnel to wage a war. Those who came to demonstrate did not get a chance to even stop for a moment. Anyone who stopped walking was detained immediately.  So people had to keep walking without chanting any slogans.

A young woman with a green scarf who was trying to enter Kargar Avenue from Fatemi Avenue got arrested short of Tehran’s Museum for Contemporary Art. They took her away in a van. Anyone could be a suspect and would thus be arrested. The situation in Amirabad was similar. A witness [said] that people kept walking and were not allowed to stop even to catch a ride. The site of Neda's slaying was completely cordoned off and no one could walk in that direction. The Grieving Mothers had announced their intent to hold a gathering there but the police did not let them, and treated anyone heading in that direction with violent force. Nevertheless, the mothers were able to walk in small groups and showed their presence with silence.

Another reporter...at Mohseni Square reported that a strange atmosphere hovered in the area and huge number of armed forces had shut down all the shops and shopping plazas since several hours earlier so that no one would come to the streets. They had the square totally under their control. They were in such large numbers that it was even impossible to walk through them. They had blocked the entrance of the square to traffic and very few vehicles could pass through. But by doing this in fact they managed to create a traffic jam down to Mirdamad and Vali Asr Avenues while keeping the square under their control and [shut] off to the public.

0610 GMT: As the dust settles over Hashemi Rafsanjani's possible demise --- political not physical, as it was computer hackers responsible for the false report that the former President had died after he lost the leadership of the Assembly of Experts --- we have been catching up with other news....

We are now into the 4th week of uncertainty over the fate of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi and Fatemeh Karroubi, with no contact with the four opposition figures. There have been no developments over the Karroubis since the reports last week that they were moved to detention in an operation supervised by a senior advisor to the Supreme Leader.

Last night, Al Arabiya added a claim to the muddled tale of the fate of Mousavi and Rahnavard. The Persian-language site of the channel asserted that they were removed from their residence, where they were under house arrest, for one day --- 24 February --- as regime leaders debated their fate. The site stated that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the Supreme Leader, wanted their arrest but his father vetoed the suggestion.

Amidst the continued blackout, political news had to come from disputes within the establishment. Leading MP Ali Motahari issued a warning to President Ahmadinejad that he would be subjected to interrogation by the Parliament, if the promotion of an "Iran School" --- as opposed to an "Islamic School" of politics and religion --- to other countries was not halted.

This, however, was overtaken by a development which points to even bigger battles ahead. An EA correspondent passes on an item from Siyasat-e-Rooz that the camp of President Ahmadinejad's right-hand man and Chief of Staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, is launching a newspaper Haft-e Sobh (7 a.m) in early 2012 "to have a considerable presence in the press arena of the country".

The development points to a Presidential campaign by the controversial Rahim-Mashai --- who, far from coincidentally, is seen as the leading proponent of the "Iran School" denounced by Motahari. So does the information that the newspaper is being established by former media advisors of Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, Rahim-Mashai's rival, including  the former editor-in-chief of Qalibaf's Tehran Emrooz.