Iran Today: Age, "Sedition", & the Presidential Election

Nikahang Kowsar's vision of Hashemi Rafsanjani and the Supreme Leader in the Presidential election

See also Iran Special: EA's Guide to the Presidential Election
Iran Analysis: Presidential Election --- Good-bye Parties; Hello, Personalities and "Atomised Politics"
Monday's Iran Today: Rafsanjani & Jalili Put Out Campaign Slogans

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Presidential Election Watch: Supreme Leader's Man Renews "Sedition" Attack on Rafsanjani

MP Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, a member of the Supreme Leader's "2+1 Committee" has renewed the "sedition" attack on former President Hashemi Rafsanjani by linked him to the detained opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi: “Everyone who supported Mousavi in [the disputed 2009 Presidential election] is today supporting Hashemi Rafsanjani.”

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Iran Live Coverage: Tehran Continues to Push "Positive" Nuclear Talks

See also Tuesday's Iran Live Coverage: Ahmadinejad Anoints His Right-Hand Man for President

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2021 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani has strongly criticised those who have backed President Ahmadinejad and his Government.

Rafsanjani said the Government has destroyed three decades of achievements: "I am surprised that why some people, especially clerics, have supported them. Even more strange is they will not stop supporting this disaster now that they have realised the true identity of this current."

1945 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The US has renewed the waiver from financial penalties for Japan, "based on additional significant reductions in the volume of its crude oil purchases from Iran".

Waivers were also extended for 10 European Union countries. The EU implemented a ban on imports of Iranian oil from 1 July 2012.

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Iran Live Coverage: Tehran Picks A Fight Too Far with Turkey

See also Iran Analysis: Rafsanjani Strikes Back (and Why the Supreme Leader is Allowing It)
Wednesday's Iran Live Coverage: "Supreme Leader Ordered House Arrests of Mousavi and Karroubi"

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2255 GMT: Nuclear Watch --- Retraction Edition. Earlier today, Iranian media circulated this quote from Deputy Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi indicating a possible deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency, "If external threats were defused, then they --- the IAEA could be enabled to inspect [the military facility at Parchin" (see 0925 GMT).

Somebody in the regime was none too happy with this apparent shift in the Iranian position because Qashqavi has issued a convoluted "clarification" tonight:

In my speech which I delivered in Tehran University, there are two subjects in this speech. In one of them I delivered my speech regarding national security of Iran and the other was about the nuclear issue.

One of the correspondents who was in this speech mixed two subjects from two separate issues and in his personal perception of this speech, he delivered his perception regarding this matter but in the text of my speech there was not any kind of this sentence because [there were] two separate issues which were delivered by me and there is no connection between the two matters."

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The Latest from Iran (11 December): "We Have Confused the US"

Supreme Leader to international conference today: "Any notion that the global arrogance, led by the US, may come to terms with Islamic movements is wrong" (see 1445 GMT)

Iran Analysis: Why There is Much Posing --- But No Progress --- On Nuclear Talks
The Latest from Iran (10 December): Worries over Opposition Leaders Under House Arrest

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1525 GMT: Nuclear Watch. The Supreme Leader may have closed the door on direct talks with the US (see 1445 GMT), but Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has reiterated that Tehran is seeking a renewal of negotiations with the 5+1 Powers (US, Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia): “Our proposals to the P5+1 are clear and they should respond to us. If they show goodwill, the way is open to talks and to prove their goodwill they can start with the steps we have already said."

Araqchi also noted the scheduled talks on 13 January between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency to define a framework for inspection and supervision.

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The Latest from Iran (22 October): A Mysterious Currency Dealer, Real Executions

See also The Latest from Iran (21 October): How High Is the Rate of Inflation?

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2130 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. A far from ringing endorsement for the President from conservative politician Asadollah Badamchian: "The Motalefeh Party was against Ahmadinejad since 2005 but supported him because of religious duty. We voted for him in 2009 to prevent Mir Hossein Mousavi [taking office]."

2125 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Back from a break for a seminar in Manchester to find President Ahmadinejad pressing his request to visit Evin Prison in grand terms....

In a letter to head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani, who rejected his approach for the second time on Sunday, Ahmadinejad does not mention his detained senior aide Ali Akbar Javanfekr. Instead, he sets out the mission, "I am determined to implement the Constitution and radically reform the Islamic Republic's affairs, visiting prisons and courts."

Earlier, Iran Prosecutor General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei had dismissed Ahmadinejad’s request as a “secondary issue”. He said the government should focus instead on solving Iran’s economic problems.

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The Latest from Iran (25 December): A Compliment for the Supreme Leader?

0755 GMT: Elections Watch. Yesterday we highlighted a statement by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, a leader of the Islamic Constancy Front, positioning it before March's Parliamentary elections with declarations of loyalty to the Supreme Leader but support for the camp of President Ahmadinejad. An EA reader extends the analysis by noting Mesbah Yazdi's assault on the reformists, whom anti-Ahmadinejad conservatives are hoping to bring into the elections --- he summarises Yazdi's comments:

Reformists started the "deviations" right after [the Iran/Iraq] war, because they could not during the war. Reformists denounced velayat-e faqih [clerical supremacy] and started the separation of Islam from politics and democracy. We chose Ahmadinejad [in 2005] because he had the guts to run with Islamic slogans, unlike everyone else afraid of losing people's votes....The Constancy Front is worried, for the sake of "unity", that seditionists will be allowed to join as "principlists" and gain power again.

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