2030 GMT: Sanctions. Canada's TD Bank Group has begun closing the accounts of some of its customers, saying it is complying with new federal regulations for economic sanctions against Iran.
The bank has sent letters to clients telling them that, under recent changes to the Special Economic Measures (Iran) Regulation, Canadian financial institutions are forbidden from providing financial services to anyone in Iran or for the benefit of Iran. That includes any use of an account to send or receive money via wire transfer to or from friends and family in Iran.
So far, no other Canadian bank has taken similar action.
Tough talk from Tehran University's Seyed Mohammad Marandi on Press TV: "The United States knows that its ships in the Persian Gulf are sitting ducks when it comes to Iranian missiles"
Ahmadinejad started the fight by removing Mohammad-Hossein Mousavipour, the Governor of the religious centre of Qom, with Karam-Reza Piryiyaei.
Mousavipour was appointed in October 2009 as Qom's first-ever cleric Governor, in an attempt by the Government to repair relations after the disputed Presidential election of June. He is close to Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani and his deputy Mohammad Reza Bahonar.
Piryiyaei has been Governor of Hamedan Province, but his notable qualification in this case is that he supported Ahmadinejad during the President's controversial 11-day boycott of his duties in spring 2011, prompted by a dispute with the Supreme Leader over control of the Ministry of Intelligece.
Protests against the change of governor have come from the Qom Friday Prayer leader, other senior clerics, Qom MP Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani, and students affiliated to the Basij.
"No to Poverty, No to Unemployment, No to Torture"In 18 months of upheaval, all Egypt's economic indicators have headed south.
Growth is a projected 1.5% this fiscal year, far too feeble to provide a young and rapidly growing population with jobs (80% of Egypt's population is under age 30). Unemployment, one of the engines of the revolution, is estimated to be as high as 25% among the young. Tourism revenues have fallen sharply, and foreign reserves have dwindled to $15 billion. According to the United Nations, some 40% of Egyptians live below the poverty line; 14 million people subsist on less than $1 a day. Institutions are chronically weak and corruption is endemic.
Background on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
Even as they promised to hand authority to elected leaders, Egypt’s ruling generals were planning with one of the nation’s top judges to preserve their political power and block the rise of the Islamists, the judge said.
Tahani el-Gebali, deputy president of the Supreme Constitutional Court, said she advised the generals not to cede authority to civilians until a Constitution was written. The Supreme Court then issued a decision that allowed the military to dissolve the first fairly elected Parliament in Egypt’s history and assure that the generals could oversee drafting of a Constitution.
The moment a mortar or shell hit a funeral procession in the Damascus suburb of Zamalka today --- at least 20 people were reportedly killed (see 1800 GMT)
2104 GMT:Syria Observers on the Internet appear to be racing ahead of the situation to proclaim US support of military intervention.
The catalyst is a statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the US would "accelerate" its work at the United Nation Security Council on a resolution that would "impose real and immediate consequences for non-compliance" with today's resolution of an international conference for a transitional national unity government, "including sanctions". She continued,
"We should endorse this plan in the Security Council, we should endorse it with real
consequences, including Chapter 7 sanctions if it is not implemented."
A Chapter 7 action provides for non-military sanctions and/or military action, but chatter is jumping to the presumption that Clinton is indicating the latter.
13 martyrs were reported in Homs; 11 in Deir Ezzor; 10 in Hama, most of whom were martyred in the Souran massacre; 6 in Aleppo; 5 in Daraa; 4 in Idlib; 3 in Damascus Suburbs,1 in Damascus and 1 in Jableh.
1828 GMT:Syria. These fighters in the Free Syrian Army claim to have destroyed 12 armored vehicles in Khan as Subil, Idlib (map).
They also claim to have captured the BMP armored vehicle, visible in the bottom of the frame:
On the surface, the public-relations campaign was straightforward. Ever since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, regime figures have trumpeted that the Egyptian uprising was following the model of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. So when the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi was finally confirmed as Egyptian President on Sunday, it was natural that he and the Brotherhood should be welcomed as Tehran's partner..
On Monday morning, the Iranian military took the lead on the effort. Commanders proclaimed that Iranian strength would support the emerging Egypt, an example of how US and Israeli efforts to control the region had failed. Fars, linked to the Revolutionary Guards, headlined that it had an interview with Morsi, in which the President-elect had called for better relations with the Islamic Republic as part of a new "strategic balance".
2055 GMT: Foreign Affairs (Egyptian Front). Back to today's running story of the Revolutionary Guards' PR offensive to prove Iran's alliance with Egyptian President-elect Mohamed Morsi (see 1025 GMT).
Rivals within the establishment, namely State news agency IRNA, may have denounced the interview of Morsi by Fars, linked to the Guards, as a fake; however, that has not stopped the website. Tonight, its English-language edition features no less than five stories based on the alleged discussion with Morsi.
To throw the election to [Ahmad] Shafiq, who clearly lost by almost a million votes, would have produced an outpouring of anger and possible violence that the military must have concluded it could not control. It did not matter, though. Declaring Shafiq the winner despite the results was wholly unnecessary due to what the military clearly believes is its ace: the June 17 constitutional declaration.
The timing of the decree, just as polls closed on the second day of the second round of elections, suggests that the military’s action was improvised. As if sometime on Sunday afternoon, one of the officers turned to another and asked with alarm, “What if Morsi wins?” It was anything but ad hoc, however.
Shortly after the fall of Mubarak, Field Marshal Tantawi asked for a translation of Turkey’s 1982 constitution, which both endows Turkish officers with wide-ranging powers to police the political arena and curtails the power of civilian leaders. In the June 17 decree, the military hedged against a Morsi victory by approximating the tutelary role the Turkish military enjoyed until recently. As a result, President Morsi does not control the budget; has no foreign policy, defense, or national security function; and has been stripped of the president’s duty as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, meaning he has no control over military personnel. In addition, having dissolved parliament in a move that has no legal basis, the SCAF now also functions as Egypt’s legislature. Finally, the military will be able to veto articles of a new constitution.
2015 GMT:Egypt. President-elect Mohamed Morsi has given a televised speech in which he has thanked the "martyrs" of the uprising against the Mubarak regime, saluted the people, and thanked the army, police, and judiciary for their service to Egypt.
Meanwhile, an officer "close to the ruling military council" has put out a message to Morsi, "The onus now is on the new President to unite the nation and create a true coalition of political and revolutionary forces to rebuild the country economically and politically...."The challenge for Egypt now is rebuilding its institutions and ensuring that these institutions are independent and work for the people, not a single party or movement."
The officer also upheld the legitimacy of the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces, "The military council has done its duty in keeping the election process free and fair, a true example of democracy, to the world."
Friday, July 6, 2012 at 8:48
2030 GMT: Sanctions. Canada's TD Bank Group has begun closing the accounts of some of its customers, saying it is complying with new federal regulations for economic sanctions against Iran.
