Iran Live: Nuclear Talks Resume in Kazakhstan

Iran Analysis: 5-Point Beginner's Guide to Today's Nuclear Talks
Iran Feature: Talking Tough --- How the US and Tehran Mirror Each Other's Rhetoric
Thursday's Iran Live: Tehran's Positive Signals for Nuclear Talks

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1430 GMT:Nuclear Watch. Joanna Paraszczuk surveys reaction in the Iranian press to today's talks in Kazakhstan....

ISNA gave a neutral report on Friday afternoon, noting that Iran's nuclear negotiating team had a new member, Mehdi Safari, the former ambassador to China.

ISNA also reported that the spokesman for the lead negotiator of the 5+1 Powers, Catherine Ashton, said they were not going to put any new offers on the table in this round of talks, and that Tehran needed to prove its nuclear programne had no military dimension.

Fars News, close to the Revolutionary Guards, focused on Iran's position. It repeated comments by Ali Bagheri, Iran's deputy negotiators, that Tehran had come up with specific recommendations for cooperation with the 5+1, and that those proposals had been presented in Moscow last June.

Iran believed the proposals were a "confidence building step, i.e. actions that both sides have to agree to do as part of a comprehensive solution", Bagheri said.

Hardline Mashregh News, meanwhile, criticised comments by Ashton's spokesman Michael Mann as "strange".

Mashregh noted that Mann had tried to respond to an Iranian journalist's question about why Europe had not made "the slightest effort to stop Israel's nuclear activities", and why the 5+1 were talking about Iran's nuclear program and not West Jerusalem's.

The journalist added that world powers ignored the fact that two-thirds of non-aligned nations supported Iran's nuclear programme.

Mann responded that the "discussions about resolving Iran's nuclear programme must be completed and it is not possible to set a deadline for that", according to Mashregh.

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Iran Live Coverage: The Clerics Vs. Ahmadinejad

See also Wednesday's Iran Live Coverage: Tehran Continues to Push "Positive" Nuclear Talks

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2032 GMT: Drone Watch. Pentagon officials have altered their story about the encounter between a Predator drone and an Iranian fighter jet (see 1848 GMT), over or near the Islamic Republic's airspace over the Persian Gulf.

"One of the US aircraft discharged a flare as a warning to the Iranian plane, which then broke off pursuit," spokesman George Little said.

Officials earlier suggested that two Iranian jets had "targeted" the Predator.

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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 (29 March): Erdogan's Meeting with Ahmadinejad is Postponed

Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan belatedly meets President Ahmadinejad in Tehran today

See also Iran Breaking: Female Ninjas to Sue Reuters for Defamation
The Latest from Iran (28 March): A Visit from Turkey's Erdoğan

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2105 GMT: Economy Watch. Khabar Online posts an analysis focusing on the increasing, negative gap between income and expenses for the average Iranian household.

2055 GMT: Politics Watch. While the focus today has been on the Erdoğan visit to Tehran, domestic political manoeuvring has continued. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, on a visit to Mazanderan Province in northern Iran, has spoken about the economy, "I am concerned about closings --- banks should support production units."

Even more interesting is the intervention of key MP Ahmad Tavakoli, a cousin of Larijani's. Saying "politicians must beware not to be separated from people", Tavakoli continued, "I am optimistic about progress in nuclear talks in 1391 (March 2012-March 2013)."

That could be significant because, in October 2009, the emergence of public opposition from Ali Larijani was a major reason why the Geneva nuclear talks between Iran and the 5+1 Powers were sidelined. Could Tavakoli be indicating that, 29 months later, the Larijani camp will be happy to accept a deal provided President Ahmadinejad does not get the credit?

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Iran Special: The Battle Within --- Ahmadinejad v. Rafsanjani in 5 Scenes

A trusted EA source gives us the latest from Tehran, through a series of events this past week:

SCENE 1: Hassan Rohani, an ally of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, hosts a meeting of the Strategic Research Center of the Expediency Council. The topic is the Arab Spring, specifically the role of the Iran-led Islamic Awakening in the movements across North Africa and the Middle East.

All proceeds accordingly to plan until question-and-answer when Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of Rafsanjani, makes a statement. Hashemi, a women's right activist who has been detained on at least two occasions and still faces charges, declares --- to audible gasps from the audience --- that the Arab Spring has not been influenced by the Iranian regime but by the Green Movement. She continues with a challenge to the Republic's officials, to the Government, and even to the Supreme Leader.

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The Latest from Iran (23 January): Back to the Domestic

1745 GMT: Where's Ali? Today the Supreme Leader paid surprise visits to the families of two assassinated Iranian scientists, Masoud Alimohammadi and Majid Shahriari.

1735 GMT: The Nuke Talks. Teymoor Nabili at Al Jazeera English picks up on our analysis, posted in a separate entry, of the key reason for failure at the Istanbul discussions on uranium enrichment and how it was missed by the US media.

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The Latest from Iran (9 January): The Enemy are Facebook and Twitter

2200 GMT: Plane Crash. Fars is now reporting that 72 of the 105 passengers died when Iran Air's flight from Tehran to Oroumiyeh in the northwest of the country crashed near its final destination.

2010 GMT: Plane Crash. The Red Crescent Society says that "scores have been killed". There are at least 35 survivors, but many of these are in critical condition.

1855 GMT: The Assassinated Scientist. Fars News claims, from an "informed source", that those responsible for the killing of physicist and professor Masoud Alimohammadi in January 2010 have been arrested.

Alimohammadi was killed by an explosive as he left for work. Iranian officials have accused foreign elements of being behind the crime.

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