Iran Live Coverage: An Iranian New Year

1531 GMT: Supreme Leader Watch. The Supreme Leader delivered his annual Nowruz address today, but there are different versions depending on which outlet you read.

While Fars News -- close to the Revolutionary Guards -- focused on Ayatollah Khamenei's references to political and economic developments, English-language PressTV gave its Western readers a different message: "Iran's enemies" had failed to isolate it.

Fars described how Khamenei looked ahead to the events of the new Iranian year, including the election, and said he called on Iranians to create a "political and economic epic".

Press TV preferred the Supreme Leader's review of the events of the last year, with his declaration and how he said that Iran's enemies had been "defeated in their attempts to paralyze Iran by imposing economic sanctions". He added that Iran had been successful, for example, in its hosting of the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Both news outlets agreed on one point of presentation: the Supreme Leader's call on Iranians to turn out en masse for the June 2013 Presidential election.

1524 GMT: Election Watch. Reformist Mohammad Reza Aref has confirmed his candidacy for June's Presidential election.

Jafar Tofiqi, former Minister of Science and the head of the campaign, said Aref would step aside if former President Khatami announced he would stand.

1232 GMT: Nuclear Watch. Joanna Paraszczuk reports....

Tabnak, close to Presidential candidate and former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezaei, comments on Tuesday's Christian Science Monitor report on the Istanbul technical nuclear talks and concludes that the West has not really changed its approach towards Iran.

As we noted in a separate anlaysis, Iran has not made any official criticism of the West's proposals, so the Monitor report offers a glimpse into Tehran's views on the revised offer. Tabnak's response gives us another angle --- that of Rezaei's camp, who say the proposals of the 5+1 Powers are "unbalanced" because Iran is asked to give more than it would receive.

Tabnak notes in particular, quoting the Iranian source used by the Monitor, that the West had not offered any confidence-building measures and that it proposed limited sanctions relief but not lifting of significant sanctions.

"These are the questions that were not answered in Istanbul," Tabnak concludes. "This lack of accountability, whether from ignorance of the next steps or unwillingness to respond, suggests that the West has not yet changed its approach."

0741 GMT: Oil Watch. Minister of Economy Shamseddin Hosseini has tried once again to downplay the impact of falling income from oil sales: "Thanks to the sanctions by enemies, a historical dream of Iran is being realized as the oil revenues' share in the administration of the country's affairs has been reduced."

Tehran's exports have been halved since the start of 2012, with a possible further drop in March.

Hosseini said that his ministry managed to "counter and blunt the impact of economic sanctions".

President Ahmadinejad has declared that the proposed Government budget for 2013/14, with reduced expectation of oil revenues, will move away from dependence on the exports:

The Government has plans to diversify its revenue sources.

The execution of the second phase of targeted subsidies [cuts] plan as well as the raise of non-oil exports are some of the best ways for decreasing the oil revenues role in the country's economy.

0705 GMT: Education Watch. An EA reader offers clarification on Tuesday's report that President Ahmadinejad is seeking the dismissal of the Presidents of four prominent universities.

An EA correspondent speculated that Ahmadinejad had moved because of the Presidents' objections to the qualifications of Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, Ahmadinejad's right-hand man who will probably try to run for President in June.

Our reader explains one case: the head of the Teacher Training University, Bijan Ranjbar, had said that although Rahim-Mashai had passed some university examinations via distance learning, he had not gone through the proper registration process --- thus the passing of the exams and degree baased on them are nullified.

0625 GMT: Nuclear Watch. The official announcements on the Monday-Tuesday technical talks in Istanbul continue to be sparse, with both Iran and the 5+1 Powers (US, Britain, France, China, Russia, and Germany) limiting themselves to the statements that revised proposals were exchanged.

However, we have a big clue to developments, via an Iranian source for the Christian Science Monitor --- it will be featured in an analysis later this morning.

0615 GMT: Nowruz. Today is Nowruz, the first day of the Iranian Year 1392. Best wishes and hopes to all those who are celebrating.