The Latest from Iran (16 June): Halting the Slide

2010 GMT: Public Service Announcement. I will be on the BBC's The World Tonight just after 2130 GMT, discussing the current political battle within Iran.

2005 GMT: Parliament v. President. MP Mohammad Dehghan has confirmed that Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani will lead a Parliamentary committee meeting with President Ahmadinejad next week over the merger of ministries.

1955 GMT: Two Years Later. More on the open letter from Tehran University's Islamic Association to the head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, demanding punishment for those who attacked university dormitories two nights after the 2009 Presidential election (see 1110 GMT)....

The Association notes that students who were detained in the raid are serving prison sentences while those who "ordered and carried out the attack" have not been brought to justice.

Plainclothes agents, riot police, and special units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps raided the dormitories. Iran's largest reformist student group claims five students were killed, but Iranian authorities have only said that "100 to 120 students were injured".

The exact number of students arrested and of casualties has never been officially released.

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The Latest from Iran (21 May): Two Presidents in Trouble

2030 GMT: At the Movies. Director Mohammad Rasoulof, facing a six-year prison sentence, has won the Cannes Film Festival prize for Best Director in the Un Certain Regard section Saturday for "Be Omid e Didar" (Goodbye).

Rasoulof, who is appealing his sentence, cannot travel abroad so his wife accepted the prize on his behalf.

The film tells the story of a young Tehran lawyer trying to get a visa to leave Iran.

Rasoulof was sentenced with fellow director Jafar Panahi in December and barred from making films for 20 years. Panahi's latest film, smuggled out of Iran, is also being shown at Cannes (see separate video).

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The Latest from Iran (22 April): More Questions About Intelligence

1805 GMT: our Tehran Friday Prayer Update --- Part 2. Ayatollah Emami Kashani, unlike other Iranian figures like the President, dared to mention this week's dispute over the "resignation" of the Minister of Intelligence.

The Ayatollah said the uproar was all due to "Western media": “Through such acts they intend to suggest there is division and conflict in the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

1800 GMT: Your Tehran Friday Prayer Update. Ayatollah Emami Kashani steps up to the podium today to pronounce on the Islamic and popular nature of the recent revolutions in the Middle East, explaining saying that violence will not stop the uprisings.

The cleric condemned the silence of Arab leaders over "massacres", “Those who are among the Muslim nations, instead of preventing the killing of the Muslim people of Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and other countries and supporting the people, talk nonsense."

There is no report that Emami Kashani said the word "Syria" in his address.

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The Latest from Iran (7 April): We Have Met the Enemy, and They are Facebook and Twitter

2015 GMT: Line of the Day. President Ahmadinejad gives short shrift to the New Year message from President Obama, "What do you know about Nowruz?"

2005 GMT: Currency Watch. Peymane claims that the Iranian toman has dropped to a rate of 1115 v. the US dollar.

The Iranian Government has been trying to keep the toman's value around 1050 to the dollar. Last autumn, after the announcement of subsidy cuts and amidst sanctions, it intervened with influxes of foreign reserves when the toman fell, on the "free market", to 1200 to the dollar.

Peymane also reports that gold prices are rising amidst economic uncertainty.

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Iran Feature: The President's Best Man and His Fake University Degree

For many weeks, we have been following the battle within the Iranian establishment. One of the key fronts in that conflict, which may or may not be to the political death, is over Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, President Ahmadinejad's good friend, close advisor, and Chief of Staff.

In this week's updates alone, we have noted criticism of Rahim-Mashai by clerics, politicians, and newspapers, the announcement by a Parliamentary commission of a "special case" investigation into his activities, and even the claim that he gave away $150 vouchers to local VIPs so they would attend his speech. This, however, may be the most intriguing manoeuvre....

The "hard-line" Mashregh News alleged that Rahim-Mashai is lying when he claims to hold a degree from Chabahar University. It said he paid no fees and asked how he could have completed the studies when he holds 20 official jobs.

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The Latest from Iran (23 December): All is Well. Really.

2150 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Doctoral student Ali Arshadi, arrested last December during the Ashura demonstrations, has been freed from Evin Prison.

1440 GMT: An All-is-Well Break. EA staff will be at a party with friends and family today, so updates will be limited. As always, we invite readers to keep us on top of the situation with latest news and analysis.

1335 GMT: All-is-Well Alert (Scientific Edition). The Chancellor of Tehran University, Farhad Rahbar, says that "the growth rate in Iran's scientific research has been 11 times more than the world's average growth rate".

1330 GMT: It's All About Us. Press TV has a distinctive take on the US Congress' passage of the New START treaty with Russia. Ostensibly, the agreement is to reduce stockpiles of nuclear weapons, but the Iranian state outlet sees a different objective: "to put pressure on Iran over Tehran's nuclear program".

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The Latest from Iran (20 October): Meanwhile, The Economy....

2010 GMT: The Khamenei Road Trip. The Supreme Leader's office has now released photographs of Ayatollah Khamenei's meeting today with several clerics, including Grand Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi (left in the photo below):

1735 GMT: The Supreme Leader and the Clerics (Round 2). A bit more of a substantial success for Ayatollah Khamenei this afternoon, at least according to Fars. He met more clerics, notably Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi. Other Ayatollahs who were present included Sobhani, Sadegh Larijani, Ahmad Khatami, Ebrahim Amini, and Ka'bi.

A bit of confusion, however, as Fars illustrates the encounter with a photograph from Tuesday's reception for the Supreme Leader. Neither IRNA nor Press TV carries a report on today's meeting. Nor, as far as I can tell, does Khamenei's official website.

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The Latest from Iran (13 September): The Revolving Door of Freedom?

2020 GMT: Latest on US Detainee Sarah Shourd. Masoud Shafiee, the lawyer for detained US citizen Sarah Shourd, says that her family is appealing to Iran's authorities to drop or reduce. the $500,000 bail demanded for her release because of difficulties raising the money.

Shafiee said authorities had given no response to the bail request.

Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley said, "The United States government does not fund prisoner bail."

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said the Obama Administration is in close contact with the families of the three detained US hikers --- Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Josh Fattal --- and the Swiss Embassy, which represents American interests in Iran.

"The situation is continuing to develop," Vietor said. "We remain hopeful for a positive outcome."

Shafiee said authorities had given no response to the bail request.

2000 GMT: Diplomat Number Four. The Norwegian paper Dagblodet reports that Farzad Farhangian, the Iranian Press Attache in Belgium, has resigned his post and is now in Oslo seeking asylum.

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