The Latest from Iran (7 July): A Model for Others?

2010 GMT: Religion and Vote-Buying. Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi clarifies, "Buying votes is not allowed."

Makarem-Shirazi continues with the allegation that some MPs have bought voters w mobile phones, cash, food, and government allowances.

1955 GMT: CyberWatch (Battle Within Edition). For months, we have heard about the Iranian regime training cyber-warriors to wreak havoc on Tehran's enemies. However, it looks like the havoc-wreaking is happening within the establishment....

Three websites close to President Ahmadinejad and Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai have been knocked off-line today. Hafte Sobh --- set up in part to promote Rahim-Mashai as a Presidential candidate in 2013 --- Tamasha News, and 1Shanbeh are each left tonight with nothing but two words in English.

"bye bye".

1610 GMT: Campus Watch. Minister of Science and Higher Education Kamran Daneshjoo has said plans to separate male and female university students have been halted in accordance with President Ahmadinejad’s orders, and no more professors will be retired until new ministry guidelines have been approved.

On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad wrote the Ministers of Science and Health, urging them to halt the segregation of classes based on gender and the “inappropriate retiring” of professors.

Daneshjoo pointed to the conflict within the regime, saying university administrators have been trying to implement directives from the Supreme Council on Cultural Revolutionto “protect Islamic dignity and morals” in the universities.

Several universities, including Sharif University in Tehran, have announced that first-year classes in September would be offered separately for men and women. In addition, hundreds of university professors have been dismissed or forced into early retirement over the past two years for an alleged lack of commitment to Islamic values.

Daneshjoo said the ministry is working on a more comprehensive approach to the issue, such as the establishment of single sex universities.

1440 GMT: Revolutionary Guards Do Politics. Looks like the head of the Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, has an ally as he makes statements about Iranian politics and who is and is not "acceptable" (see 0615 GMT). The head of the judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, has said that the Guards are not only a military power but have to defend Islam and the "Islamic School".

That phrase is a bit of a shot at the Ahmadinejad camp, as the President's advisors have been accused of promoting an "Iran school" in preference to the Islam-first model.

1430 GMT: Reformist Watch. It looks the regime campaign to define "acceptable" and "unacceptable" reformists is picking up speed. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami has joined the head of the Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, in the attack on former President Mohammad Khatami.

Ahmad Khatami said today that those who "are thirsty to serve not thirsty for power" can run for Parliament. However, Mohammad Khatami had made false promises in the "revolutionary fervour" during and after the 2009 elections, promising a "green garden" until he found out the realities of political and economic power.

1425 GMT: Elections Watch. Prominent conservatives/principlists, including Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, might reportedly be keen to link up with "moderate reformists" in the run-up to the 2012 Parliamentary elections, but others aren't so convinced.

In a poll for Larijani's Khabar Online, only 35% supported the inclusion of reformists in the elections.

1250 GMT: Revolutionary Guards Do Politics. The Ministry of Interior has announced that, among dozens of Iranian officials who have resigned to run for Parliament in next March's elections, there are nine officers of the Revolutionary Guards.

1240 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. MP Ali Motahari, a leading critic of the Government, has quickly countered President Ahmadinejad's statement that men and women should not be separated at university. Motahari said in a letter that Ahmadinejad's opinion was based on "superficial and non-scholarly" knowledge.

1120 GMT: Khomeini Intervenes. Seyed Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the late Ayatollah, has reportedly used his Facebook page to fire back at the declaration by the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps about "acceptable" reformists who could participate in the 2012 Parliamentary elections.

Parallelling a letter to IRGC head General Mohammad Ali Jafari by the brother of former President Khatami (see 0630 GMT), Khomeini said it is "better for the Revolutionary Guards to do Imam Khomeini's will. This field [of politics] is not suitable for the military and particularly the Revolutionary Guards."

1105 GMT: The Battle Within. In an interview with Aftab about the current political conflict, a senior member of the conservative Motalefeh Party, Hamidreza Taraghi, has said "the Supreme Leader "will not let this situation continue" and will appoint a committee to look into the charges against the Ahmadinejad Government.

Last week, Ahmadinejad turned down a request for a meeting by Motalefeh, which has been holding discussions with figures like Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani and former President Hashemi Rafsanjani.

0640 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch (Postal Edition). A series of special postage stamps, portraying activists and political prisoners in Iran, has been launched in the Netherlands.

Current and forthcoming stamps, officially accepted by the Dutch postal service, depict the acclaimed poet Simin Behbahani, trade unionist Mansour Osanloo, Baha'i leader Mahvash Sabet, and human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.

The initiative was launched by Mina Saadadi, managing editor of Shahrzad News, which produces radio programs and online content in Persian and English.

0630 GMT: The Revolutionary Guards Do Politics. Back to the theme of yesterday's LiveBlog, as Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammad Ali Jafari tried to define the "acceptable" reformists who can participate in 2012 Parliamentary elections.

Mohammad Reza Khatami, a prominent reformist and the brother of the former President, has hit back in a letter to Jafari: "You are in no position to decide for politicians." He declares, "Power does not depend on money, weapons, and the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps]."

Jafari, in his interview, had portrayed former President Khatami as "unacceptable", given his backing of the "sedition" of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

0615 GMT: An EA correspondent gets us started this morning by noticing the Supreme Leader's speech this week to officers and commanders of the Revolutionary Guards. Our initial coverage was about Ayatollah Khamenei's command, in the context of the political conflict between the President and the Guards, to back away from public dispute. Our correspondent, however, picks up on the foreign dimension of Khamenei's message, as he refers to uprising in North Africa and the Middle East

This is something new. There is a new chapter in the region's and the world's history.

What is our role here? I don't want to claim that the Islamic Revolution was the main source. Certain individuals are sensitive to hear that these revolutions source from the Islamic Revolution. No, I do not have such a claim and there is no need for such a claim. But the point is that the same movement that we, the Iranian nation, started 30 to 32 years ago, is happening now with some regional, domestic, geographical and historical differences in a number of countries in the Islamic world. And I have said, this movement's next wave will continue in further regions. And this will happen.

The nuance here is that the Supreme Leader is not suggesting that Iran is exporting its 1979 Revolution to others or even that countries such as Egypt will adopt an Islamic system similar to that in Tehran. Instead, the speech points to new alliances --- beyond the "Islamic" label --- based on common interests and a response against the position of the US and Israel in the Middle East and beyond.

That's a handy distinction, given that a lot of initial comment, from both supporters and critics of the Islamic Republic, was all about "Will Country X follow the same path taken by Iran in 1979?". Our correspondent explains further:

This whole "exporting the revolution" thing is not really in [Tehran's] repertoire anymore.  [Now] it is like "Stalinism in one country" [of the 1930s Soviet Union] --- Pan-Islamism in one country. That is very much the mantra over the past 25 years once the other Islamic Revolutions didn't really happen in the 1980s.