The Latest from Iran (15 April): A Setback for the President

Nikahang Kowsar on the dance at the nuclear talks --- European Union's Catherine Ashton to Iran's Saeed Jalili, "This time you have to dance to our bidding"

See also Iran Analysis: The Nuclear Talks --- The Effectiveness of Sanctions, The Effectiveness of Iran's Uranium Enrichment
The Latest from Iran (14 April): The Nuclear "Talks About More Talks" Open in Istanbul

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1922 GMT: Supreme Leader Watch. Ayatollah Khamenei has laid down the law for his officials --- "Giving preference to society's advantages instead of personal benefits helps the progress of the country."

1915 GMT: CyberWatch. Mohammand Hassan Hosseinpour, an Internet specialist in the Revolutionary Guards, has assured people who might be worried about diminished Web provision under Iran's plans: a "Basij network" will be launched for easy access in the "national intranet".

1600 GMT: All the President's Men. PM Parviz Sorouri has warned that, if President Ahmadinejad does not accept the resignation of his advisor Saeed Mortazavi as head of the Social Security Fund, then the interrogation and possible impeachment of Minister of Labor Abdolreza Sheikholeslami "will be activated again".

1320 GMT: Nuclear Watch. A day after the first-round Istanbul meetings and more than five weeks before the next talks in Baghdad, what is the Iranian strategy? First, note the passage from Julian Borger's snapshot of Istanbul, that we cited earlier (see 1100 GMT) about Saeed Jalili's bilateral encounter with the European Union's Catherine Ashton: "The Iranian negotiator made a last-minute bid to secure an agreement to put off the EU oil embargo due to take effect on July 1."

Now note this article from Iranian State outlet Press TV:

Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili has cautioned against persisting US-led sanctions on Tehran, stressing that sanctions will have a “negative impact” on Europe as well as Iran.

“Today Europeans are paying a cost which they do not deserve to pay. They are missing out on opportunities and possibilities and that will have a negative effect on their economic situation,” Jalili said in an interview with Euronews following the latest round of multifaceted talks between Iran and the world’s six major powers in Istanbul.

“Today the Islamic Republic of Iran has a good export capacity for European Union member states, mostly in energy and oil sectors, and Europe is missing out as well on the Iranian market, which serves 70 million people,” he added.

If those 70 million were able to purchase European goods, Europe’s economy would certainly benefit from it, the SNSC secretary pointed out.

He said that sanctions, especially those imposed on Iran’s banking sector, were blocking great potentials for the Islamic Republic to import from European countries.

Jalili emphasized that Europeans are paying the price through thousands of lost job opportunities.

Interpretation? 1) The initial emphasis of the Iranians will not be on any concrete proposal for their handling of uranium but on the scaling-back of sanctions, possibly before agreeing to any discussion of the details of enrichment; 2) To achieve this, Tehran will seek to split the Europeans from the US.

Thus the significance of the signal being put out in Iranian media is not just that the Islamic Republic supposedly rejected US entreaties for a bilateral discussion but that it eagerly embraced, and has promoted today, the head-to-head with Ashton.

1140 GMT: All the President's Men. Back to our opening story (see 0535 GMT), with the claim that Presidential aide Saeed Mortazavi is resigning as head of the Social Security Fund....

Digaraban summarises that the threat to impeach the Minister of Labor, a defender of Mortazavi, has been withdrawn. However, MPs have said that President Ahmadinejad and the Minister have not accepted Mortazavi's resignation.

ILNA reports that Ahmadinejad told Parliament that he was under no obligation to agree to Mortazavi's letter and left Majlis after the istizah (interrogation) of the Ministry of Labor was cancelled.

1100 GMT: Nuclear Watch. Julian Borger of The Guardian, using "Western" diplomatic sources, adds valuable information about the course of Saturday's talks in Istanbul:

In the afternoon there were three bilateral meetings: Iran and Russia, Iran and China and Iran with Cathy Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief.

There was a flurry of excitement in the course of the afternoon when when the Iranian Student News Agency wrongly reported that Jalili had agreed to meet his American counterpart, Wendy Sherman. That was quickly denied....

The Jalili-Ashton meeting lasted much longer than expected, nearly 90 minutes, because the Iranian negotiator made a last-minute bid to secure an agreement to put off the EU oil embargo due to take effect on July 1. Ashton replied that she was not in a position to make any such deals without the full participation of the six nations, and that the time for such concrete bargaining would come in Baghdad.

Borger also illuminates how much this session was "talks about talks", leaving the detailed work --- if there is to be any detail --- before the next meeting in Baghdad on 23 May:

The parties managed to reach agreement about setting up a permanent negotiating process principally by studiously avoiding discussion of any concrete issues. The only time the vexed issue of Iran's manufacture of 20%-enriched uranium came up was when Ashton briskly mentioned the aspects of the Iranian programme that cause most western concern. None of the national delegations took up the theme. No one wanted to risk disagreement over specifics that would spoil the feel-good atmosphere and jeopardise the next meeting, the shared short-term objective.

1048 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Detained student activist Zia Nabavi has written to the head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, “I was under physical and psychological pressure during all of my interrogation sessions."

Zia Nabavi, exiled to Karun Prison in Ahwaz in southwest Iran, continues:

In two successive sessions of interrogation, I was forced to repeatedly squat to the point that I was unable to walk for three days, and I sweated for a week due to the continual pain in my legs. If I disobeyed the interrogator’s orders, he would kick me on my calves. When the interrogation session was over, I was threatened with execution because my interrogator was not satisfied with my written confessions.

0956 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. The opposition site Kalemeh claims that another major fraud has been covered up at a Government bank, with 1 billion Toman (about $810,000 at official rate) stolen with false documents.

0938 GMT: CyberWatch. Mohammad Saleh Meftah, the managing director of "Teribon Mostazafin (Tribune of the Disenfranchised)", has complained about the filtering of the site --- which is strongly supportive of the Supreme Leader --- and his summons by the judiciary .

0930 GMT: At the Movies. A different type of criticism from Parliament of the Government, claiming it is too "liberal" on the cultural front --- the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance has been summoned to the Majlis today to comment on the continuous screening of "Gasht-e Ershad", a comedy about Iran's "moral police".

"Gahst-e Ershad" has been banned by Tehran's municipal authority, and there is pressure for it to be withdrawn elsewhere.

0924 GMT: Elections Watch. Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani, the head of the Assembly of Experts, and Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi have issued a joint statement calling on people to support the Unity Front in the second round of the Parliamentary elections, scheduled for 4 May.

The Unity Front, established last year to bring together all conservatives and principlists, was not able to unify the factions before the first round of elections on 2 March and it has failed --- so far --- to secure a majority in the Majlis.

0920 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Labour activist Reza Shahabi has been sentenced to six years in prison and a five-year occupational ban.

Shahabi, a board member of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, was arrested in June 2010.

0905 GMT: Education Watch. Iranian media report that the latest examination of the International English Language Testing System, a leading test for qualification for study abroad, has been cancelled because organisers in Iran are unable to pay their British partner due to banking sanctions.

Websites say Iranian applicants were expected to take the exam on 12 and 14 April.

0605 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. The sixth hearing in the $2.6 billion bank fraud case, with 32 defendants, has opened in Tehran. Today's proceeedings will focus on two of the bank officials charged over the embezzlement.

0535 GMT: Both Iranian and international headlines this morning will be about the nuclear talks in Istanbul between Iran and the 5+1 Powers, but we will begin with a significant story in the continuing effort to curb President Ahmadinejad and his inner circle.

On Saturday, Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi said that President advisor Saeed Mortazavi would be tried for his alleged role, as Doulatabadi's predecessor, in the abuses and killings of protesters at Kahrizak detention centre after the 2009 Presidential election.

Mortazavi would be the highest-ranking official to face conviction in the Kahrizak scandal, and the prosecution would be a notable setback for Ahmadinejad's camp, who have held out for months against court proceedings.

And there was more bad news. In the afternoon, prominent MP Gholam Ali Haddad Adel said Mortazavi resigned as head of the Social Security, a position to which he had been controversially appointed last month. Legislators had denounced Mortazavi's selection, given the allegations over Kahrizak, and had threatened to impeach Minister of Labour Abdolreza Sheikholeslami for his defence of the former Prosecutor General. Haddad Adel said that, with Mortazavi's resignation, the Minister's job was safe.

Meanwhile, on the nuclear front....

Iranian State media are celebrating yesterday's "talks about talks" in Istanbul, with the agreement between Tehran and the 5+1 (US, UK, Germany, France, Russia, and China) to meet in a second round --- possibly with an agenda of issues --- in Baghdad on  23 May, as a victory for the Islamic Republic's determination.

Press TV focuses on the European declaration of a "positive atmosphere", "totally different" from the "last time" the two sides met, to portray the Europeans moving towards Iran's enlightened position.

The site does not mention, for example, that "last time" refers to January 2011 talks between the European Union and Iran, when the Europeans blamed Tehran's representative Saeed Jalili for stubbornly resisting engagement on the nuclear issue and talking about diversionary points. Instead, Press TV holds up Saturday's declaration of Jalili's deputy, Ali Baqeri,  "The capacities of the Islamic Republic of Iran in various areas have created conditions directing the other party towards respecting the role of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

And then there is the slap-down of the US as weak and pleading: "Sources close to the Iranian delegation said Iran's negotiators rejected multiple requests by the US for bilateral talks following the first round of talks and again before the beginning of the second round."

Our EA correspondent covering the talks has a different view, which will be posted later this morning.