The Latest from Iran (4 August): The Regime Admits Its "Economic War"

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati1635 GMT: Fraud Watch. Khorasan News reports that an embezzlement of 15 billion Toman (about $12.5 million at official rate) has been discovered in a Bonyad Shahid (foundation).

1335 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Student activist Bahareh Hedayat, serving a 9 1/2-year sentence, has returned to prison after a short furlough.

Hedayat was arrested in December 2009, just after demonstrations on National Student Day.

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The Latest from Iran (2 August): Worrying About Syria

January 2012: From left to right --- Iran's Supreme Leader, Syria's Assad, Yemen's Saleh, Libya's Qaddafi, Egypt's Mubarak, and Tunisia's Ben Ali

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2048 GMT: Nuclear Watch. Laura Ashton reports that the lead nuclear negotiators for the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, Germany, China, and Russia) and Russia spoke by phone today.

The European Union's Catherine Ashton, speaking to Saeed Jalili, "impressed the need for Iran now to address issues". The two, speaking for the first time since high-level talks in Moscow in mid-June, agreed to reflect and speak again at the end of month.

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The Latest from Iran (15 July): Worries Over the Economy

Iranians line up to buy cheaper chicken as the price of meat rises sharply

See also The Latest from Iran (14 July): Sanctions Watch

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2135 GMT: All-Is-Well Alert. Minister of Economy Mehdi Ghazanfari, speaking in the religious city of Qom today, said, “The Iranian economy is dynamic, which will not be influenced by sanctions."

More interesting than Ghazanfari's rhetoric was the effective admission that he had come to Qom after senior clerics had protested over inflation. The minister insisted that difficult days have passed, that the situation in the market is good, and that “we have a sufficient stock (of goods)".

2129 GMT: Morality Watch. ISNA reports that security forces and members of the "morality police" raided 87 cafes and restaurants in a district of Tehran on Saturday, shutting them "for not following Islamic values, providing hookah to women, and lacking proper licenses".

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The Latest from Iran (13 July): Revolutionary Enemy-Breaking Queues for Chicken

See also Iran Snapshot: A Clumsy Intervention by Britain's Intelligence Chief
The Latest from Iran (12 July): Keeping the Oil Flowing....Maybe

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1549 GMT: Immigration Watch. Kalemeh claims that Afghan immigrants, the subject of increasing restrictions by the regime in recent weeks, are no longer allowed to drive.

1545 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Saham News says that opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi, held under strict house arrests for 17 months, has not been allowed to attend the funeral of his sister.

1541 GMT: Economy Watch. ISNA reports that the price of domestically-produced cigarettes has doubled in recent weeks.

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The Latest from Iran (7 July): Warning the Green Movement

See also Iran Audio Feature: Nuclear Talks, Domestic Politics, & a Worried Regime --- Scott Lucas with Monocle 24
The Latest from Iran (6 July): Tehran Puts Out Positive Nuclear Messages

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1730 GMT: Oil Watch. The National Iranian Oil Company has suspended a contract worth $107 million for the development of the Dayyer oilfield by the Italian company Edison.

NIOC said Edison, which signed the deal in 2006, had failed to meet its contractual commitments, with slow progress of the project to study two-dimensional seismographic information on 7500 square kilometers of the oilfield and to drill an exploration well.

A number of major contracts with foreign companies have been suspended in the last two years amid technical issues and sanctions.

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The Latest from Iran (25 June): Doing the Currency Slide

See also Iran Letter: Activist Narges Mohammadi "Prison is Causing My Slow Death"
Iran Caption Competition: Mr and Mrs Ahmadinejad...and a Ballot Box
The Latest from Iran (24 June): "We Can Destroy Anyone"

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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.

The Persian-language site of Fars also has several articles, as well as a claimed audio and video of Egyptian media noting the supposed interview.

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The Latest from Iran (31 May): Towards a Diplomatic Crash in Moscow?

See also Iran Special: Tehran's View of Nuclear Talks --- Insight, Propaganda, or Self-Deception?
The Latest from Iran (30 May): Profiting from the Sanctions

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2049 GMT: Justice Watch. In an interview with Fars, Abdolhossein Ruholamini --- conservative political activist and father of one of the men killed in the Kahrizak detention centre in summer 2009 --- has said that Presidential advisor Saeed Mortazavi will be charged in the case, probably as an accessory to murder.

Mortazavi was Tehran Prosecutor General at the time of the abuse and deaths.

Ruholamini said no date for trial had been set but Mortazavi's file had been sent to the court.

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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 (8 April): We Love Nuclear Talks, We Love Them Not

See also Iran Propaganda Special: US Intelligence "Trust Us --- We Know Everything"
The Latest from Iran (7 April): Nuclear Confusion

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2113 GMT: Picture of the Day. The Supreme Leader with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hashemi Rafsanjani after Ayatollah Khamenei and the President joined today's meeting of the Expediency Council:

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The Latest from Iran (3 January): Desperately Seeking Reformists

See also Iran Snap Analysis: Finding a Scapegoat in the Currency Crisis
Iran Audio Feature: Scott Lucas with the BBC "The Economy is More Important than the Missile Tests"
The Latest from Iran (2 January): The Currency is Falling

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2040 GMT: No Comment. Those conservatives and principlists who have warned of the "deviant current" around President Ahmadinejad may be interested in this from the Tehran Times:

Presidential aide Mojtaba Hashemi-Samareh ruled out the possibility of the manipulation of the March parliamentary elections by administration officials, emphasizing that there is no cause for concern in this regard.

He told the Mehr News Agency that the administration is tasked with holding the elections, but candidates’ representatives and the Guardian Council will oversee the running of the elections, so there is no cause for concern.

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