2030 GMT: Cartoon of the Day (Iran-Syria Special). Maya Nayestani depicts a special message from Tehran to Damascus, a woman explaining to her friend, "He is sending a smoke signal to Bashar al-Assad":
2015 GMT: The House Arrests. Kalemeh updates on the house arrest/detention of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard....
The daughters of Mousavi and Rahnavard are still being denied visits, with the exception of a meeting three weeks ago in a building near the family residence. On 21 March, the first day of the Iranian New Year, Mousavi and Rahnavard were allowed a very brief telephone call to the daughters but have been kept incommunicado since then.
2005 GMT: Protesting the German Intervention. On Monday, we posted a report that the German Central Bank --- despite sanctions --- was helping broker an arrangement so India could pay for Iranian oil.
Nics Bloghaus responds quickly, calling for a protest against the deal.
1510 GMT: An Admission. Kalemeh passes on this statement from Ayatollah Ali Eslami, the representative for Qazvin on the Assembly of Experts, "I still don't understand what civil society means."
1505 GMT: Good Enough for Tehran, Good Enough for Damascus. MP Mohammad Karami-Rad, a prominent Ahmadinejad supporter, has made clear that the current protests in Syria are a "foreign plot".
1050 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. HRANA reports that the fate of blogger Mina Shahrvand, almost two months after her detention, is unknown.
On 3 February, plainclothes officers raided and searched Shahrvand’s family home. After confiscating her personal property such as government subsidies, books, notes, and CDs, the officers arrested Sharvand and took her to an unknown location.
0705 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. IranianUK.com, citing establishment sources such as MP Ahmad Tavakoli and Khabar Online, claims that the Government is intimidating the Chamber of Commerce and other businessmen, including mentions of possible stays in prison, to hold down prices despite subsidy cuts.
0655 GMT: Banned Students Make Statement. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran interview Mostafa Khosravi and Nariman Mostafavi, two students who have been banned from continuing their education in Iran and are continuing their studies abroad. Both were among the student activists who challenged the narrative of Iran’s official and pro-government NGO delegations during the recent United Nations Human Rights Council Session in Geneva.
Khosravi and Mostafavi explain, “We decided to have a sit-in during this Session, to protest the arrests of Mousavi and Karroubi and the indiscriminate violence in Iran. This Session was a good opportunity for the young generation who were political activists in Iran but left Iran due to the harsh conditions, to get involved in human rights issues and speak directly with the NGOs, associations, and various groups and to express their own personal experiences."
0520 GMT: On the Opposition Front. Opposition media and analysts are highlighting the interevention of Grand Ayatollah Vahid Khorasani, who has responded to critics: "I will continue to speak out against imprisonments. Islam is important, not Khamenei or me."
Vahid Khorasani has been keeping his distance from the Supreme Leader. During Ayatollah Khamenei's ten-day visit to Qom last autumn, the Grand Ayatollah did not join in the show of support, taking himself out of the city because --- supposedly --- he had to visit ailing relatives.
This, however, appears to be an upping of the ante. Vahid Khorasani was replying to the conservative Society of Teachers of Qom, who had asked him to retract his remarks in February challenging the regime over political prisoners and calling security agencies “corrupt".
Vahid Khorasani not only refused to pull back, he took his defiance further: "Are individuals more important or Islam? Where is the founder of the Islamic Republic [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini]? How much longer are Mr. Khamenei and I are going to stay alive?”
Vahid Khorasani's reference to "Mr. Khamenei", rather than the Supreme Leader, is acceptable as --- given Vahid Khorsani's status as a Grand Ayatollah --- he is referring to a peer. (A similar use of words by opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi last year was considered an unprecedent slap at the Supreme Leader.)
However, Vahid Khorasani also set down this promise, “I have more fundamental things to say that I will mention them gradually even if that bothers certain people.”
0450 GMT: The regime's commemoration of Iranian New Year finally ended on Monday. Press TV marks the occasion with a lead story on "International Ensembles Mark Nowruz in Tehran": "Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan and India are among the countries whose groups participate[d] in the three-day cultural event....Top officials of Persian-speaking countries took part in the event which was held at Tehran's Vahdat Hall on March 27, 2011. "
However, those officials did not go to the ancient Persian seat of power, Persepolis. In the end, after weeks of often-charged discussion, President Ahmadinejad did not have his high-profile ceremony. Whether or not this was because of criticism that his celebration would resonate with that of the Shah in 1971, when he hosted more than 60 foreign leaders amidst the 2500 years of Iranian history, is known only to the President.
Iranian state media is offering no comment, of course. Instead, the news diet is back to a series of meetings between Ahmadinejad and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi . On Monday, the President had a series of photo opportunities, announcements of "bilateral co-operation", and declations of stands against "foreign plots" with visitors such as the Sudanese and Lebanese Foreign Ministers.
The Supreme Leader chipped in as well. His celebration was a tour of projects in the South Pars oil and gas field. The headline for state media went far beyond the pipelines of the plant, however: "[Iran's enemies] have been trying to show their anger for 30 years but they have failed because of the Iranian nation's resolve.”
And then, with Nowruz over, Ayatollah Khamenei was ready for the main event of the Iranian Year 1390: it will be, he said, about the nation's official fighting, with all their power, "economic jihad" against Iran's enemies.