The Latest from Iran (29 May): Putting Parliament in Place

Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani tells his defeated challenger, Gholam Ali Haddad Adel: "Even if Mojtaba [Khamenei, son of the Supreme Leader] cherishes you, this will be your fate for some time!" (Cartoon: Nikahang Kowsar)

See also Iran Letter: An Imprisoned Blogger Writes the Supreme Leader
The Latest from Iran (28 May): No More Nice Guy --- Tehran Shifts Line on Nuke Talks

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2024 GMT: CyberWatch. Iran’s Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre has issued a warning about the data-mining virus Flame, saying it is potentially more harmful than the 2010 Stuxnet virus, which affected the infrastructure for the Islamic Republic’s nuclear enrichment programme.

In contrast to Stuxnet, Flame is designed not to do damage but to collect information.

An Iranian cyber defense official, Kamran Napelian, claimed, "[Flame's] encryption has a special pattern which you only see coming from Israel. Unfortunately, they are very powerful in the field of I.T.”

Napelian said he was not authorised to disclose how much damage Flame had caused, but he guessed the virus had been active for the past six months and was responsible for a “massive” data loss.

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The Latest from Iran (10 May): Supreme Leader Comments on Detained Mousavi and Karroubi

2020 GMT: Sanctions Watch. For weeks, we have questioned public proclamation of India defying sanctions and increasing oil shipments from Iran, arguing that private discussions were weaning Delhi off Tehran's crude with assurances of alternative supplies.

Confirmation comes today in the report that India's oil imports from Tehran fell about 34% in April compared with March.

Reflecting the Government-to-Government talks between Washington and Delhi, including a visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week, State-run buyers are at the forefront of reductions, leaving privately-owned Essar the biggest Indian client of Iran.

India's total oil imports from Iran in April fell to about 269,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 409,000 bpd in March and from about 449,000 bpd in April 2011.

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The Latest from Iran (5 February): The Coup Within --- The Sequel

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The Latest from Iran (4 February): Missing the Story on the Supreme Leader

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Rezaei, Qalibaf, Larijani2225 GMT: Security Watch. Writer and human rights activist Yousef Azizi Banitaraf has said Iranian security forces have arrested 50 people over the past two weeks in Arab neighbourhoods in the southwestern province of Khuseztan.

Banitaraf claimed two of the detainees, Nasser Alboshokeh Derafshan and Mohammad Kaabi, were killed while in custody. The arrests, which have taken place in Shoosh, Ahwaz, and Hamidieh, were apparently prompted by youth writing slogans on public walls, calling for a boycott of March's Parliamentary elections.

"The security forces are telling elders of the tribes in the region to bring people to the voting booths, and the young people are opposed to this," Banitaraf said.

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The Latest from Iran (28 January): Back to the Battle Within

See also Syria Video Special: Free Syrian Army Captures "Iranian Soldiers"
The Latest from Iran (27 January): Pilgrims and Soldiers

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Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi2235 GMT: Currency Watch. The Government may have taken measures to halt the slide of the Iranian currency, including the raising of interest rates and a single exchange rate, but key MP Ahmad Tavakoli is not satisfied.

Tavakoli, a cousin and ally of Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, has posted a detailed criticism on his website Alef, outlining Government mismanagement and claiming "incompetent officials, a lack of trust, and corruption". In addition to demanding trustworthy, effective personnel, he called for control of liquidity in the economy, a halt to the Government's subsidy cuts programme in the energy sector, and avoiding of measures contributing to inflation.

MP Mohammad Baqer Noubakht has echoed Tavakoli's complaints: "Straying cash is the economy's Achilles heel," as liquidity has increased five-fold in the last six years. He called for a halt to the second phase of the Ahmadinejad subsidy cuts.

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The Latest from Iran (5 December): A Regime in Deadlock Drones On

Mana Neyestani comments on the international situation

See also Iran Analysis: Re-Assessing the Explosion at the Revolutionary Guards Base
The Latest from Iran (4 December): When Your Dad is a Political Prisoner

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1930 GMT: The Embassy Attacks. In the aftermath of the storming of the British Embassy, international schools in Tehran have closed.

The French school is located on grounds of the British Embassy and children were in class when protesters moved through the compound gates. Windows at the German school nearby were shattered. Teachers at the British school had sent students home early.

Parents have been told that foreign teachers and their families have left Iran. The French school hopes to resume lessons on Sunday, and the British school in the New Year.

1900 GMT: Arresting the President's Men. The President's media advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr, already sentenced to a year in prison for an issue of his Iran newspaper, has claimed that he was forced to give a controversial interview to the daily newspaper Etemaad.

In the interview, Javanfekr sharply criticised senior clerics and conservatives/principlists who challenged Ahmadinejad. The article led to the banning of Etemaad; the next day, Javanfekr was given his one-year sentence, and the day after that, security forces ransacked the Iran building as they tried to detain the advisor.

Javanfekr did not say who forced him to give the interview.

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