The Latest from Iran (7 June): Ahmadinejad's Men = "Gravest Danger in the History of Shiite Islam"

1740 GMT: Parliament v. President. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has sent his 4th letter in two days to President Ahmadinejad, claiming 14 additional infringements of the law by the Government.

1710 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. So Mr. President, what about the staff from your office arrested as sorcerers and exorcists?

Ahmadinejad replied to the question at his press conference today, "Let's just think about Government service."

He continued, again without reference to any sorcerers, "The Government is on track under the guidance of the Supreme Leader."

However, Ahmadinejad acknowledged, with reference to advisors like Abbas Amirafar, the head of Friday Prayers in his office, and Abbas Ghaffari, the alleged sorcerer, "They arrested those people. Good for them."

Now it was time to move on: "They should let us continue our job. The Government is seeking for nothing rather than serving the people and fulfilling the revolutionary aims." He refused to answer further questions, "Our position at the moment is to stay silent. An inspiring unity silence."

1700 GMT: All-is-Well Alert. Iran's Deputy Police Commissioner Ahmad Reza Radan has said that there are only 400 to 500 prostitutes in Tehran, and the regime will find a job for them.

EA sources in Tehran have claimed that prostitution is increasing sharply in the capital, with some women adopting "Western" techniques such as booking through the Internet.

1655 GMT: Claim of the Day. Gholam-Hossein Elham, former spokesman for the Government and now member of the Guardian Council, asserts, "If the Supreme Leader hadn't issued 'hokm-e hokumati' (a highest order, to be followed strictly)", President Ahmadinejad would not have backed away in his attempt to replace Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi.

1445 GMT: We're Watching You. Iran's Deputy Police Commissioner, Ahmad Reza Radan, has declared, "Women with bad hijab are being noted."

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1430 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. OK, now to the serious stuff (as opposed to 1420 GMT)....

In a wide-ranging press conference --- State agency IRNA has 18 extracts from it --- the President held the line by declaring that relations with Ayatollah Khamenei are "much stronger than what certain individuals may think". He answered an Associated Press reporter who asked about the damage to his popularity in the current political conflict: "Iran is a free country and all have an opinion. I honour that the government welcomes criticism and comment and that all have the right to this."

1420 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. I guess this is one way to divert attention from internal matters --- Press TV's headline of today's press conference by President Ahmadinejad, "US Aims to Sabotage Pak N-facilities". The President claimed:

We have accurate information that, in order to gain dominance over Pakistan and weaken the country's government and nation, the Americans want to sabotage Pakistan's nuclear facilities and pave the way for the US's extended presence and the weakening of the national governing of the people through the lever of the [United Nations] Security Council and some international organizations.

Ahmadinejad also restated his claim that the US used the 9/11 attacks as a pretext for largest military invasion of the Middle East region in order to "save from destruction the ailing economy of themselves and the Zionist regime as the main base of ultra-modern colonialism".

And the President asserted that the US was trying to gain popularity "by pretending to support the people of Bahrain", when in fact the core problem is the US military base in the country.

1330 GMT: Oil and Politics. Saudi Arabia, in a move both to bring in revenue and to strike a blow against Iran, has agreed to double its crude oil exports to India.

The step comes as India's imports from Tehran are under pressure because of the suspension of the credit facility to pay for them. Last week Iran agreed to deferred payment by one Indian company of more than $1 billion owed for shipments since January.

The timing of the initiative also has wider significance, as Saudi Arabia and Iran are likely to clash at the next OPEC meeting over outputs --- Riyadh is proposing an increase, while Tehran, needed to keep prices high to service its Government budget, has publically questioned any increase in production.

An Indian official said the country's crude imports from Saudi Arabia could rise to more than 800,000 barrels per day. The deal has been developed for at least 18 months.

1325 GMT: CyberWatch. Google Cached has been filtered in Iran.

1320 GMT: Proper Women in Proper Places. The Iranian regime is launching an "International Muslim Women’s Parliament", with the aim "to fight feminism and Talibanism".

The General Secretary of the National Centre for Women and the Family said contacts would be developed with Muslim women’s associations in Western countries and the Parliament would be "wage a media war against western-oriented feminist organisations".

1300 GMT: No More Mousavi. The Supreme Leader has dismissed Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has been under strict house arrest for almost four months, from the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution.

1045 GMT: Remembering. Rah-e Sabz posts a previously-unpublished interview with Ezzatollah Sahabi, the oppostion figure who died last week, in which he speaks about democracy and freedom, including the freedom of choice for women over the hijab.

1040 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. Yasaman Baji profiles the effect of President Ahmadinejad's subsidy cuts plan on producers:

Owners of industrial and agricultural enterprises who initially welcomed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's plan to reduce subsidies by lifting the price-support system for basic goods have now become its chief critics.

0955 GMT: Currency Watch. Tehran Emrooz reports that US dollars have  been rationed in markets by order of the Central Bank.

The Iranian toman has been losing value against the dollar, reaching its lowest point since last autumn. That slide has reinforced the demand for the US currency.

0740 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Arshama3's Blog has updated its list of 120 women in detention, many on political charges and some facing execution.

0735 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch.  Blogger and Mousavi campaigner Sakhi Rigi has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

0730 GMT: Reassurance of the Day. Minister of the Interior Mostafa Mohammad Najjar says, "The Government is bound to protect people's votes in elections."

The vote for Parliament is next March while the next Presidential ballot is in 2013. Critics have recently accused President Ahmadinejad's advisors of seeking to manipulate the Parliamentary elections.

0720 GMT: Oil and Politics. Leading MP Ahmad Tavakoli offers the latest in the battle with President Ahmadinejad over control of the Ministry of Oil, declaring that Ahmadinejad's nominee for Minister, Mohammad Aliabadi, does not have the expertise to go to the meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

And what of the claim of Aliabadi, currently head of Iran's Sports Organization, that he has been in oil affairs since 1975? Tavakoli said, "Experience of 36 years ago is worth nothing."

0712 GMT: Cartoon of the Day. Nikahang Kowsar offers a far-from-flattering portrait of Ali Masroui, a senior member of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front. Masroui's call for "reconciliation" is translated by Kowsar: "Compromise, make peace, make a deal."

0710 GMT: Protest Watch. Five days before the second anniversary of the 2009 Presidential election, Khodnevis features the question occupying many activists, "Silent and ambiguous reformist protests or clear & revolutionary protests?"

0700 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Blogger and women’s rights activist Rahil Ashnagar was arrested on 31 May in Gilan Province in northern Iran.

0635 GMT: A Death at the Funeral. An English translation has been posted of the statement of 750 women's and human rights advocates on last Wednesday's death of fellow activist Haleh Sahabi:

Whether the rulers of Iran like it or not, the life and death of the Sahabi family, has been eternally linked to the struggle for freedom in this land. We, the friends, sisters, brothers and colleagues of Haleh Sahabi will honor her memory and in remembrance of her we promise to keep alive the names of all those who have lost their lives in the struggle for freedom. We will bellow their names and recount their dreams and wishes from the mountains top and the valleys of this land, all across this nation.

Photographs have been published a private memorial by more than 200 people for Haleh Sahabi and her father Ezzatollah, a long-time opposition figure who died on 30 May. Haleh died after security forces tried to disrupt her Ezzatollah Sahabi's funeral, taking away the body.

0625 GMT: Oops, My Bad. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a Friday Prayer leader in Tehran, has withdrawn his withdrawn his criticism of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, less than 24 hours after he said Rafsanjani had told the "lie" that the Iranian people had lost confidence in the Islamic republic.

0620 GMT: Campus Protest. Video has been posted claiming to be a demonstration of more than 1000 students at Mashhad University, protesting the rape of one of their classmates: "My innocent sister, we support you/Security in Univ is our right."

0600 GMT: "The current of deviation...is the gravest danger in the history of Shiite Islam".

Not my description of President Ahmadinejad's advisors but that of Mojtaba Zolnour, the Supreme Leader's representative to the Revolutionary Guards.

Zolnour came very close to personally identifying Ahmadinejad's right-hand man and Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai: "The head of this new sedition should be removed if the government wants to be clean." At the same time, Zolnour --- either giving Rahim-Mashai and his allies time to mend their ways or acknowledging resistance to dealing with them --- pointed away from immediate action: "We hope this problem will be resolved, but it seems very unlikely such a thing will happen in the near future."

Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, the Friday Prayer leader in Mashhad, picked up on the Supreme Leader's Saturday statement --- "One has committed an immoral act if he insults his brothers... who disagree with his political view but we know are loyal to the Islamic system and Islam" --- to portray an attempt to manage the crisis around the President. While the "deviant current has latched onto the executive branch like a virus...the price of [the Government's] fall would be heavier".

Ali Akbar Javanfekr, Ahmadinejad's media advisor and the head of the State news agency IRNA, called for calm: "For more than a month, a special political group... has used all political tools and propaganda to launch baseless accusations against officials and figures....Their intention has been to weaken the government and president in the eyes of the people."