The Latest from Iran (30 April): Hiding

2130 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch (Cyber Edition). Another pro-Ahmadinejad website, Aeen News, has been filtered inside Iran.

The blocking of the recently-established Aeen follows the filtering of several other sites supporting the President.

2110 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. Parliament has struck, during President Ahmadinejad's absence, by limiting the Government's subsidy cuts.

The Majlis cut the estimated savings from $59 billion to $28 billion. Legislators claimed the subsidy cuts would escalate inflation, especially through prices for food and energy.

There were no immediate comments from the office of the President.

2055 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch (The Battle Within Edition). In an interview with a monthly magazine, carried out in 2010 but only now published on his website, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani has accused Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of basing his 2009 election campaign on “lies" and said he had had expected the Supreme Leader to react to Ahmadinejad’s brazen allegations during the televised debates in the campaign.

In a debate with rival Mir Hossein Mousavi, Ahmadinejad accused the Rafsanjani family of corruption: “What are his sons doing in the country?...I have a list of lands confiscated [under other administrations] --- 40 hectares, 50, 400 hectares. Lawlessness exists among the sons of some of the gentlemen who now support you. How did the son of [former Majlis speaker] Nategh Nouri become a billionaire? How is Nategh himself living? These are your supporters.”

Rafsanjani responded with a letter to Ayatollah Khamenei, saying Ahmadinejad’s claims were “unfounded and irresponsible” and reminiscent of the actions of “anti-revolutionary groups” in the early years of the Islamic Revolution.

Rafsanjani said in the 2010 interview:

I saw that a very hideous act been carried out. Everyone knew that I was not backing any of the other candidates....Everybody was aware of the fact that my approach was not compatible with this [the government's] manner of managing society. Unfortunately, in the interview, Mr Ahmadinejad said things that were untrue. What was more regretful was that he had turned those lies into the base of his campaigning which he took advantage of during his [election] rallies.

Rafsanjani continued:

My expectation and the expectation of those who cared about the [political] system, was that the leader would react. Because it wasn’t just about me. In that interview, you saw a sort of enmity with the clergy that was putting the achievements of the revolution up for sale under the pretext of opposition to [a few] individuals while portraying the clergy as lacking the competence to manage society.

Explaining the time both of the letter and of his sending it to newspapers, Rafsanjani also made this pointed allusion, "I saw the people’s enthusiasm and fervour [in the days leading up to the election]. I was also aware of what those in charge of holding the election had planned.”

And the Supreme Leader's reaction? Rafsanjani recalled:

When I went [to his office], he said..., "I have no remark about the content, but I have one point. Mr Ahmadinejad did not accuse you of corruption, but he spoke about your children."

I replied, "The atmosphere was such that even though there was no mention of my name, everything was directed at me."

He [Khamenei] said, "I really have no remark about the letter. But if I were you, I’d publish it after the election."

2050 GMT: Economy Watch. The Tehran Stock Exchange lost 6.2% of its value this week, after recording the largest single-day decline in 2 1/2 years on Thursday.

The Exchange's value had been rising rapidly for more than a year. Analysts have split over the cause, some seeing as a reflection of real growth in Iranian production and GDP, others believing it was a speculative bubble.

2030 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. According to Peyke Iran, a pro-Ahmadinejad website has said the President will take some "decisive and enemy-defeating" measures in coming days.

1355 GMT: The Battle Within. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has offered his interpretation of the current political crisis: the country is very stable, the Supreme Leader is watching the situation, the Parliament will intervene if need be."

1315 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. The Supreme Leader’s representative to the Revolutionary Guards, Mojtaba Zolnour, has challenged the President’s relationship with his Chief of Staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, claiming that the appearance is that Rahim-Mashai “is the actual president of Iran".

Zolnour continued, “Mr. Ahmadinejad is holding on to the worn-out rope of Mr. Mashai." He said Rahim-Mashai and his followers "are propagating an Islam without the participation of the clergy".

Yet Zolnour, indirectly referring to the row over the forced resignation of the Minister of Intelligence, offered Ahmadinejad a way out --- sack Rahim-Mashai: "These issues are of minor consideration in view of [the President's] great service to the government, and the President is in line with the ideals of the regime. We hope that God rids Mr. President of this individual.

1240 GMT: Book Corner. Dr Arash Hejazi --- editor, journalist, novel writer, and translator of authors like Paolo Coelho --- speaks with Voice of America about copyright and censorship in Iran.

1210 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. More from Aftab's campaign over the Ahmadinejad-Khamenei political crisis....

The website claims this statement was made by the President: "The issue is not Moslehi", the Minister of Intelligence whom Ahmadinejad tried to remove. Instead, the President contended, "This is the work of yesterday's 'opposition' and today's supporters of Moslehi."

1110 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. The conservative website Aftab, which has been prominent in information/disinformation over the state of the President, fires another shot this morning. It claims, from a "blogger close to Ahmadinejad" that the President is at home and declaring that he will not compromise in the dispute over the Ministry of Intelligence.

1050 GMT: Nothing-At-All-To-Do-With-the-Political-Dispute Watch. In a meeting with mayors and members of provincial councils, the Supreme Leader called for unity and said, “Any measure that makes enemies happy, sparks controversy or saddens friends is reprehensible and should be avoided.”

Ayatollah Khamenei continued, “The Islamic Republic of Iran takes pride in the fact that the viewpoints, ideas and demands of the people have been seriously taken into consideration from the very beginning.”

0655 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. The "hard-line" Kayhan maintains the attack on the President's camp by denouncing Ali Akbar Javanfekr, former Ahmadinejad advisor and current head of State news agency IRNA: "His latest defence does not explain what has happened" in the affair of the resignation/non-resignation of Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi."

0555 GMT: With President Ahmadinejad apparently continuing his protest of hiding --- waged in response to the Supreme Leader's defense of the Ministry of Intelligence and blocking of the forced resignation of Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi (see separate analysis) --- Government is close to a standstill this morning.

State media is continuing to pretend that nothing is amiss by ignoring the story, but even this cannot block the signals of discord. Consider this coy description of the Tehran Friday Prayer by Press TV:

“The foreign-based and isolated enemies of the nation, in their interviews constantly seek to suggest there is a rift in the country,” Ayatollah [Ahmad] Khatami told crowds of worshipers in Tehran on Friday, [State news agency] IRNA reported. 

The cleric cautioned against an enemy plot to show the atmosphere in Iran as tensional, calling on Iranian officials “not to play in their court” and “not to fill their puzzle squares.” 

Ayatollah Khatami ruled out a “dual government” in Iran, and emphasized that the only rule in the country is that of the constitution which above all contains Islamic Jurisprudence. 

"The only rule" was a message not just for the enemies but for President Ahmadinejad, calling on him to recognise Ayatollah Khameini's supremacy.

Elsewhere, Press TV has a response --- although it does not present it as such --- to another attack on Ahmadinejad. The conservative website Aftab had asked the President, "Where has the $100 billion of foreign reserves gone?" This morning, Press TV assures, through an Iranian official, "'Iran Forex Reserve over $100bn".

Yet even the pro-Ahmadinejad IRNA cannot entirely hold the line. It features a statement, by an Iranian official in the department supervising employment and development, responding to the President's proclamation that millions of unemployed Iranians will find work: "A goal of creating 2.5 million jobs this year is great, but it is impossible."