The Latest from Iran (8 May): Watching the Cabinet

1920 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. So, after a week of high political crisis, how does a President end his speech at a critical Cabinet meeting?

He congratulates the National Tae Kwon Do Team on its victory in the world championships.

1915 GMT: Cabinet Watch (Bin Laden Conspiracy Edition). So now that Ministre of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi has been allowed back into Cabinet meetings by the President, what does he have to say?

Iran’s Minister of Intelligence has accused the U.S. of fabricating its account of Osama Bin Laden’s death, alleging that Bin Laden had died much earlier from health complications....

[Moslehi said] Iran is in possession of “accurate information and reliable and significant documents” regarding Bin Laden’s death. He did not expand on the contents of thesaid documents....

“If the U.S. military and intelligence have truly arrested or killed Bin Laden,” Moslehi said, “why do they not show him to the world? Why do they dispose of his remains at sea?”

“We are of the opinion that the U.S. and its media dictatorship are trying to overshadow the regional uprisings with such news,” Moslehi said. “Furthermore, they are also trying to resolve internal problems such as their economical woes.”

1910 GMT: Economy Watch. Khabar Online, the site linked to Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, posts a lengthy overview of the Iranian economy and says "Alarm bells are ringing" about liquidity and inflation.

1850 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Finally, a summary of the comments in the Cabinet meeting, provided by Aftab:

According to the site --- which has been critical of the President during the current crisis --- Ahmadinejad said that all members of the Government wisely and accurately are in line with the Supreme Leader and that velayat-e faqih (clerical supremacy) is the great, valuable legacy of hundreds of years served and promoted by Islamic Iran."

All well and good. As he did at last week's Cabinet, the President paid lip service to the authority of Ayatollah Khamenei. But then the comments get a bit mysterious. Ahmadinejad said, without idenitifying the culprits, "Some have distorted velayat-e faqih away from its original philosophy."

And as for the stories this week about connections between the Government and exorcists, linked to the arrest of people within Ahmadinejad's office? "They amused us," said the President. (Fars adds Ahmadinejad's explanation that those putting out the claims were "joking".)

1355 GMT: Execution Watch (Anniversary Edition). Tomorrow will be the first anniversary of the hanging of five detainees, four of them Kurdish --- Farzad Kamangar, Mehdi Eslamian, Ali Heydarian, Shirin Alamhouli, and Farhad Vakili. Political prisoners in Oroumiyeh in northwest Iran are planning a one-day hunger strike to mark the occasion.

1345 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Fars has posted the brief report that both the President and Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi were at today's Cabinet meeting. No other details are given.

1320 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. And, in case you're wondering, the latest statement of the President's office on the stories of crisis: “This news is wrong and it’s hereby rejected. We request all media to avoid publishing unofficial news about the president.”

1305 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. MP Ali Motahari, a long-time Government critic, presses the case for questioning of the President, which could lead to impeachment. He says that a delay to consider each item individually would compromise the "independence and dignity" of Parliament.

Last week, 90 of Parliament's 290 MPs reportedly signed a petition for the interrogation of Ahmadinejad.

1300 GMT: Budget Watch. Remembering that, before the latest dispute between the President and the Supreme Leader, there was a months-long battle over the budget....

The spokesman of the Guardian Council has reportedly warned Parliament that provisions of the 2011/12 Budget, finally adopted by the Majlis late last month, may be inconsistent with Sharia law and the Constitution.

1250 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch (Saturday Night's All Right for Fighting Edition). Most provocative story of the day so far?

Iranian media report a clash between supporters of Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Leader near the exhibition hall of the Tehran Book Fair. The two sides attacked each other with belts and other items, causing many injuries, and cursed at each other with "extremely profane language". Police reportedly stood aside and watched.

A reporter said to the police, "You have made a great effort [to separate the two sides]." A policeman responded, "What are we supposed to do?"

1245 GMT: Waiting for Today, Looking Back a Week. We're still waiting for news of today's Cabinet meeting, so we have posted an "Iran Flashback" in which President Ahmadinejad, chairing last Sunday's Cabinet discussion, bowed down to the authority of the Supreme Leader.

Well, that certainly resolved the political crisis, didn't it?

1215 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Muhammad Sahimi posts a comprehensive round-up, going back to last Wednesday, of the signals in the political crisis. Among the latest "highlights":

MP and conservative reactionary cleric Mohammad Taghi Rahbar has warned, "Accepting Velaayat-e Faghih has a special place in our Islamic system, and is in fact the key to the legitimacy of the political system and its organs....If someone does not obey the Supreme Leader, people will take back their vote for him."

Ayatollah Abolghasem Kazali, a member of the Assembly of Experts, is also pressing the theme that the President's legitimacy --- especially in the context of the 2009 election --- rests on Ayatollah Khamenei: "If someone receives not just 20 million votes , but 40 million, and the Supreme Leader does not certify it, the votes do not endow any credibility to that person.

The conservative website Asr-e Iran, warned in an editorial:

Politicians with illusions beware: Officials more important than you were eliminated. Some people have the illusion that they can change the game to benefit their group and themselves. This [spectrum thinks that it is in a position to take control of everything. The political system will see the deviations but will not protest due to its high cost. But, the fact that there has not been the "final confrontation" is due to the ability of the system to tolerate [the deviants] and the decency of the Supreme Leader.

Mizan Khabar, a website close to the conservative Nationalist-Religious Coalition, piles on with the (unconfirmed) "news" that 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, has been sentenced to five years in prison and a permanent ban on government employment.

Rahimi has faced allegations that he is connected with an insurance fraud of tens of millions of dollars, and his file has been handed to the Iranian court system for consideration.

1005 GMT: Claim of the Day. The Iranian Students News Agency reports that, concerned about possible manipulation of the 2012 Parliamentary vote by the President's supporters, backers of the Supreme Leader have formed election oversight committees.

1000 GMT: Is it too early for another EA Caption Competition?

0845 GMT: Press Watch (English Edition). Looks like everyone is piling in now on the "Ahmadinejad in Trouble" story --- Michael Theodoulou and Maryam Sinaiee have an article in The National, Farhang Jahanpour writes a guest column for Juan Cole's Informed Comment, and Abbas Milani asks, "Is Ahmadinejad Islamic Enough for Iran?", in Foreign Policy.

0650 GMT: Press Watch. BBC Persian rounds up this morning's newspapers in Tehran. They follow the lines of our updates --- Ahmadinejad critics are continuing to play up the Tehran Friday Prayer that called on the President to acknowledge the authority of the Supreme Leader, while pro-Ahmadinejad outlets are circulating the photo of the President and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (see 0545 GMT) to claim there is no rift.

0640 GMT: A Blogger Re-Appears. Hossein “Hoder” Derakhshan, Iran's "Blogfather", has re-emerged, eight months after his 19 1/2-year prison sentence for "collaborating with enemy states".

Derakhshan, on a short leave from jail, has posted an album of images on his Facebook profile, including “Gradually getting ready for a new life”.

0545 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. A picture to dispel at least one rumour....

The story has been circulating that the President was snubbed when he was not invited by the Supreme Leader's office to mourning ceremonies for the Prophet Mohammad's daughter Fatimeh. This photograph has been posted by the State news agency IRNA, however, of Ayatollah Khamenei and the President on the third day of the ceremonies. The other participant is Ayatollah Shahroudi:

0540 GMT: We begin today with more stories and rumours about the depth of the political crisis in Iran. 

Radio France International gets so excited that it makes the story even bigger. It claims the arrest of the cleric who leads prayers at the Presidential mosque, Abbas Amirifar (correct) Ahmadinejad's personal exorcist, Abbas Ghaffari ("exorcist" is a bit of an exaggeration), and the accusation of Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, the President's right-hand man, of "sorcery" (wrong). Indeed, RFI says that Rahim-Mashai is now in jail (even more wrong). 

A good starting point to sift rumour from reality may be today's Cabinet meeting, the fifth since Ahmadinejad launched an 11-day boycott of politics after the Supreme Leader refused to let him fire the Minister of Intelligence, Heydar Moslehi. The President skipped two sessions before returning to chair the discussions. However, last Wednesday the show of normality fell apart: the official story --- that Ahmadinejad and Moslehi were now working together --- unravelled when the President's office released an official photograph in which Moslehi was apart.

Since then, the pressure on Ahmadinejad has only grown, with private criticism becoming public challenges to the President to accept the authority of the Supreme Leader and stop his attempt to take control of the Ministry of Intelligence.