Iran Video Interview: Leading Official Larijani on the Nuclear "Grand Bargain"

Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of the human rights section of Iran's judiciary, is interviewed by Christiane Amanpour of CNN.

Don't expect anything on human rights, however. Amanpour's attention, reflecting a media emphasis on "war" v. the possible resumption of discussions with Tehran, is almost exclusively on Iran's nuclear programme.

And on that, Larijani's line --- which would not be put out without the backing of the Supreme Leader --- is that Iran is ready for a "grand bargain", provided its right to uranium enrichment is recognised.

US Politics Developing: "Desperate End"? Santorum Wins Two Southern Primaries (Hanna/Helton)

Rick Santorum's speech after Tuesday night victories in the Alabama and Mississippi primaries

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Rick Santorum marches forward to the next GOP primary battle with wins in Alabama and Mississippi, throwing cold water on rival Mitt Romney's prediction that his campaign was reaching a "desperate end."

Romney, rejected again by Southern conservatives in the Tuesday primaries, was battling for second place with Newt Gingrich.

The latter had staked his campaign on a Southern strategy after winning South Carolina and Georgia.

In Alabama, Santorum won 35% of the vote. Gingrich and Romney both had 29% --- although Gingrich was about 2,000 votes ahead with 99% of the vote counted -- and Ron Paul had 5%.

With 99% of the vote counted in Mississippi, Santorum had 33%. Gingrich was at 31%, Romney at 30% and Paul at 4%. Romney claimed victory in the caucuses of American Samoa, local officials said, while caucus results in Hawaii had yet to come in.

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US Super Tuesday Summary: Romney "Wins", But It's Not Decisive

Mitt Romney addresses supporters in Ohio on Super Tuesday

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I have just spoken with the BBC about last night's contests for the Republican nomination for President --- audio to be posted later this morning --- with the take-away points: 1) Romney may have narrowly won the biggest state, Ohio, but the race goes on; 2) Romney is especially vulnerable, if the supporters of Newt Gingrich move towards Rick Santorum; 3) it's "money" v. "motivation" --- Romney has the bankroll, but Santorum's voters are far more committed in their support.

And 4) The biggest winner on Super Tuesday? Barack Obama.

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Romney wins 5 states, including Ohio; Santorum takes 3; Gingrich nabs Georgia
Paul Steinhauser and Tim Cohen, CNN 

Mitt Romney won five Super Tuesday states including the big prize of Ohio, while Rick Santorum took three states and Newt Gingrich grabbed a vital triumph in Georgia, CNN projected.

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Iran Elections Snapshot: The #1 Subversive Moment "They're All the Same"

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It is precisely because of the authorities' control of the Iranian elections that this moment is special. In fact, it is doubly special because it occurs within an example of that control.

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Iran Special Analysis: The "Invented" Election

To modify Voltaire's famous statement about God, "if the 60% turnout did not exist, it would have to be invented".  Beyond the battles within the establishment that will soon re-emerge --- reduced to "Supreme Leader v. Ahmadinejad", but going far beyond this amongst the conservative and principlist factions and politicians --- the immediate demand on the regime was to establish its legitimacy.

The truth is that we will never know exactly how many Iranians --- amidst economic problems, worries over corruption and mismanagement, political in-fighting, restrictions on dissent and communications, imprisonments and harassments --- decided that voting might make a difference. 

What we do know is that Iranian authorities went to great lengths to set up and control the show.

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Syria Feature: Homs --- Dying Without Food, Medicine, or Supplies (Damon and Korouny and Lee)

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Last week "Sammy", an activist in Homs, concluded an interview with EA's James Miller, "I do not know what the world is waiting for. Is it a terrorist group, or a revolution?....At least they need to send relief, to help the humanitarian situation. We need humanitarian aid."

This morning we post two videos and an article about the situation inside Syria's besieged city. At the top of the entry, CNN's Arwa Damon reports from Baba Amr in Homs on the lack of food and other essentials and the efforts to get supplies to the population.

Below, Mariam Korouny writes for Reuters about the crisis, and Al Jazeera English posts a video report by Laurence Lee about the deaths and shortages.

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Iran Film Special: The Simpsons Are Gone, But You Can Still See Shrek in Tehran (Edwards)

On Tuesday we carried the news that authorities have banned the sale of dolls of The Simpsons. While Spiderman and Superman were appropriate figures, because they fight the oppression of the poor, Bart, Lisa, Homer, Marge, and Maggie are an irreligious family.

This reminded me, both from personal experience and from reading, of the enthusiam of Iranians for icons from "Western" television and film. And that in turn reminded me of this article, originally posted in March 2010, from our colleague Brian Edwards:

Downtown Tehran, winter: impossible traffic, the energy of 9 million Iranians making their way through congested streets, the white peaks of the Alborz Mountains disappearing shade by shade in the ever-increasing smog. The government’s declared another pollution emergency, and the center city is closed to license plates ending in odd numbers. The students at the university, where I am teaching a seminar on American Studies, are complaining openly about the failures of their elected officials.

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Syria 1st-Hand: The Cat-and-Mouse Game in Kafar Souseh (Damon)

CNN's Arwa Damon reports from Kafar Souseh, near Damascus, where activists try to evade capture by security forces as they carry out protests:

The Latest from Iran (25 October): No Gratitude for CNN

See also Iran Video Interview: Ahmadinejad Puts Out His Standard Lines to CNN's Zakaria
The Latest from Iran (24 October): How To Instantly Become an Iranian Citizen

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1845 GMT: All-Is-Well Alert. In an interview with the Swiss newspaper NZZ, Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has said that everyone in Iran has access to the Internet, and there are daily papers from all political camps.

1835 GMT: No Gratitude for CNN. Back to where we began this morning, with Iran State TV's attack on CNN and Fareed Zakaria....

It appears the cause for the assault was not Zakaria's interview of the President but an accompanying piece he did about life in Tehran. Zakaria was positive about many aspects of life in a Tehran of "order" and "cleanliness" (somehow missing Tehran's extraordinary levels of air pollution and minimising the significance of its crowded roads), but State TV claimed he had spoken of a "dark and gloomy" city. Specifically, he "tried to prove U.S. claims that Iran is under pressure because of the sanctions. In order to do so he resorted to lies".

Indeed, Zakaria, while ignoring issues such as unemployment and inflation, did hone in on sanctions. He said Iranians blamed the regime in part for the situation and indicated that the Western measures had strengthened the grip of the Revolutionary Guards on the economy:

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Iran Video Interview: Ahmadinejad Puts Out His Standard Lines to CNN's Zakaria

I found CNN's highly-promoted interview with President Ahmadinejad is of little consequence, apart from some ripples around the President's remarks on Syria calling for reform and condemning killings by all sides.

And there is the cringe-worthy moment when Zakaria reduces the human rights issues in Iran to a request to see opposition figure and 2009 Presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, held under strict house arrest since February. Ahmadinejad flatly repeats the line he has often used, "In Iran we do not have political prisoners. The Government has never arrested and imprisoned these people." Zakaria repeats his request, to be given the irrelevant response, "The judiciary is never under the influence of the Government", and regarding the house arrest, "These are your claims." Stymied, Zakaria drops the topic, (See Comments for further discussion of the possible significance of this exchange.)

Viewers are invited to put forth what they found of interest on the standard run of topics --- the nuclear programme, Iran's standing in the Middle East --- complemented by the hot issues of Libya and the alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi Ambassador to the US.