The Latest from Iran (7 April): We Have Met the Enemy, and They are Facebook and Twitter

2015 GMT: Line of the Day. President Ahmadinejad gives short shrift to the New Year message from President Obama, "What do you know about Nowruz?"

2005 GMT: Currency Watch. Peymane claims that the Iranian toman has dropped to a rate of 1115 v. the US dollar.

The Iranian Government has been trying to keep the toman's value around 1050 to the dollar. Last autumn, after the announcement of subsidy cuts and amidst sanctions, it intervened with influxes of foreign reserves when the toman fell, on the "free market", to 1200 to the dollar.

Peymane also reports that gold prices are rising amidst economic uncertainty.

1945 GMT: The Battle Within. Interesting move by Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, who has said Parliament is ready to cooperate with "houzeh elmiyeh" (religious seminaries).

Larijani continued that the Supreme Leader had called for helping the seminaries, but with no intervention in their affairs. Co-operation, according to Larijani, is a long-term investment.

Significance? Critics of the Ahmadineajad Government --- in particular, senior critics --- have accused it of trying to take away the independence of the seminaries. The issue was at the top of the agenda when the Supreme Leader visited Qom last October and has continued to resonate.

2040 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Azeri poet and teacher Bahman Nasirzadeh has been summoned to serve a prison sentence.

1810 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front is calling on Iranians to join in a political fast this Sunday to show support for political prisoners.

The IIFP said in a statement, “Members of the Islamic Iran Participation Front will go on a political fast in solidarity with [activist Fakhrosaadat] Mohtashamipour on Sunday and urge all supporters of the Green Movement and the country’s freedom-seekers to join this effort and echo the suppressed voice of the green captives, especially the proud enchained women and Ms. Mohatashamipour in particular."

1645 GMT: Press Watch. Has pressure from opponents, including supporters of President Ahmadinejad, brought the suspension of the conservative Ayande News? There appears to have been no update on the website since 18 Esfand (9 March).

1615 GMT: Economy Watch. Khabar Online is not too impressed with the Government's recent declaration that it is removing "three zeroes" from the rial, which currently traded at 10,500 to 11,000 to the dollar. The website is more concerned with questions such as, "Who will suffer from the rial's devaluation?", suggesting that prices for essential goods will rise.

The website also notes that the number of bad cheques rose in Bahman (January/February), with $25 billion written in the last 11 months.

1300 GMT: Get-Tough Posture of the Day. Minister of Defense Ahmad Vahidi, accompanying President Ahmadinejad on his trip to Kermanshah today, said Tehran will start production of domestically-manufactured cruise missiles in the near future.

1130 GMT: Where's Mahmoud? Today's speech by President Ahmadinejad was in the western Iran city of Kermanshah. Pretty standard rhetoric, with the emphasis of looking outside the country, as Ahmadinejad warned against efforts by the US and Western allies to create an Iranian-Arabian conflict and to wage Shia-Sunni war so Washington could save a collapsing Israel.

0800 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Rah-e-Sabz claims that a quota of three minutes per year for phone calls has been introduced for political prisoners.

0755 GMT: In the Classroom. Minister of Higher Education and Science Kamran Daneshjoo has promised Parliament's Education Commission: "Iran's universities will be Islamised this year". 

0750 GMT: Economy Watch. A protester,  amidst workers of the Abadan refinery complaining about no pay for 6 months,  holds up a sign about monthly levels, "Poverty line: 300K Toman ($300). Minimum for Existence: 100K Toman ($100). Worker's wages: 70K Toman ($70)."

0745 GMT: Campus Watch. RAHANA reports that the office of the Islamic Students Union of Karaj Free University was destroyed during the New Year holidays. 

0610 GMT: Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam, the head of Iran's police, gets us started this morning by identifying Tehran's enemy --- it is the "virtual communication threat" that collects and organises "scattered dissidents, criminals" and foreign services".

Ahmadi Moghaddam continued that all "should be aware" of this: "Otherwise, you walk behind the story, as in Libya, Egypt, and elsewhere".