The Tehran Bazaar today, with most shops closed and shuttered
See also Iran Feature: A Beginner's Guide to the Currency Crisis
Iran Snap Analysis: Ahmadinejad and The Economy's "Worthless Pieces of Paper"
The Latest from Iran (2 October): A Currency in Free Fall?
1902 GMT: More photos show that some of the crowds clearly turned to riots:
See also EA Video Analysis: Iran --- Ahmadinejad in New York "He Came, He Spoke, He Slipped Away"
Iran Feature: Fars News and The Onion Agree --- "Rural American Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama"
The Latest from Iran (28 September): The Next Fall in the Currency
1544 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Prominent human rights lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah has been summoned to Evin Prison to begin his nine-year sentence.
Dadkhah, one of the founders of the Center for Defenders of Human Rights, was arrested less than a month after the disputed 2009 Presidential election. He was sentenced in July 2011 on charges including membership of the CDHR and "spreading propaganda against the system through interviews with foreign media".
1531 GMT: Press Watch. Families of 25 martyrs and veterans of the 1980s Iran-Iraq War have expressed support for Hadi Heydari, cartoonist for the reform newspaper Shargh, in an open letter.
Shargh was banned and its managing editor imprisoned this week over a Heydari cartoon which showed men blindfolding each other in bright light. Authorities argued that the image was an insult to veterans on the 32nd anniversary of the start of the war.
See also Our 1st EA Video Analysis: The Sound, Fury, and Insignificance of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Iran Opinion: Ahmadinejad 100, US Media 0
Iran Audio Feature: Predicting Ahmadinejad's Speech (and Does It Really Matter?) --- Scott Lucas with Monocle 24
The Latest from Iran (25 September): Which is More Important --- The Ahmadinejad Show or an Economy in Crisis?
1915 GMT: Press Watch. Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance has warned that he may ban the reformist newspaper Shargh because of an insulting cartoon during the "Week of Holy Defence", marking the 32nd anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq War.
The Minister said that Shargh, whose editor was summoned for an explanation, was propagating "Western culture".
Fars reported that 120 of Iran's 290 MPs have signed a letter condemning the cartoon.
1855 GMT: Tough Tslk Alert (Syria Edition). President Ahmadinejad might have taken a cautious line on Syria during his stay in New York this week, but others have not been so reticent. While 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi was declaring, "Syria Will Eventually Conquer Enemies", MP Hamid Rasaei asserted that the remarks of Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammad Reza Jafari --- confirming that members of the Quds Force were in Damascus advising the Assad regime --- were those of the Supreme Leader. Rasaei continued, "We intervened in the 33 Days War in Lebanon (with Israel in 2006)."
Rejecting rumours that Iran might press President Assad to step down, Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, “Today Syria’s presence in the [anti-Israeli] resistance front is stronger than ever."
All of this provides a counter-point to the line, put out by Press TV today, that "Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has called for a political solution to the Syrian crisis, saying Tehran supports dialogue between Damascus and the Syrian opposition.
An image from Friday's protest "Down with US, Down with Israel" in Tehran
See also Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- Collapsing Currency, Closed Embassy, No to Women Watching Volleyball
The Latest from Iran (14 September): The Regime Stages a Protest Over a Movie
2040 GMT: Sanctions Watch. More on the US waivers from economic restrictions for Japan and 10 European countries because they cut their purchases of Iranian oil, noted by the Islamic Republic's media this morning (see 0540 GMT)....
The 11 countries have been given a second 180-day waiver from the threat of being cut off from the US financial system. The European Union implemented a full embargo on Iranian crude and petroleum products on 1 July Japan has sharply reduced imports.
The 10 European countries are Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
The review of waivers for India and South Korea, who have cut off or sharply reduced oil purchases (see 0940 GMT), is due in December.
Thursday's protest in front of the Swiss Embassy, which represents US interests, in Tehran
See also Iran Propaganda Feature: Fars News Makes Up Interview with "Bahrain Opposition Leader"
The Latest from Iran (13 September): Diversions and Selective Condemnations
1615 GMT: Trade Watch. Mehr reports that Iran and Pakistan have struck a barter deal --- Iranian oil for Pakistani food.
The agreement was signed in Lahore between representatives of Iranian and Pakistani Chambers of Commerce.
http://www.mehrnews.com/fa/newsdetail.aspx?NewsID=16957451555 GMT: Currency Watch. The website Pana claims that foreign exchange traders are using wireless devices at Istanbul Square in Tehran to sell dollars and that, despite threats to shut down "illegal" vendors, the Central Bank is not intervening.
Pana says the traders are getting up to 28000 Rials per dollar, higher than the 23880:1 to 25000:1 posted by Iranian media on Thursday.
See also Iran Opinion: The "Left" and the Non-Aligned Movement --- A Guide for the Perplexed
The Latest from Iran (10 September): The Gathering Economic Storm
1645 GMT: Currency Watch. Yesterday President Ahmadinejad held a three-hour meeting with Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani and head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani, with the currency crisis at the top of the agenda. So what insight did Ahmadinejad offer when questioned afterwards by journalists?
He asked them what they had for lunch:
See also The Latest from Iran (13 August): The Political Aftershocks of the Earthquakes
1739 GMT: The Labour Front. Complaining about no wages for eight months, 600 steel workers protested today in front of the Ministry of Industry.
1722 GMT: The Battle Within. Yesterday we reported:
Iran News Network claims that two former Ministers have asked for a staff from the Executive, legislative, and judicial branches to be organised to manage the country, effectively taking power from the Government.
Radio Farda suggests the two ex-Ministers could be Iran Inspector General and former Minister of Interior Mostafa Pourmohammadi and former Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
Today Robert Tait of The Daily Telegraph of London adds a third name and the claim that the appeal was made to Ayatollah Khamenei:
Three of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's former ministers have called on Iran's supreme leader to form an emergency "government of all the talents" that will effectively curb the president's power.
Manouchehr Mottaki, the former foreign minister, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, who served as interior minister, and Davoud Danesh Jafari, the ex-finance minister, have urged the radical move in a letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, citing the country's "sensitive and critical situation".
It calls for the establishment of a special cabinet of "wise men" made up of the heads of the executive, legislative and judicial branches, which would then govern Iran for the next year until Mr Ahmadinejad's term ends.
Mr Ahmadinejad would be a member of such a body as head of the executive branch. But his powers would be diluted and prestige drastically reduced....
In an editorial, [pro-Ahmadinejad newspaper] Iran criticised the former ministers' note as an attempt "to portray the country's situation as critical and justify extraordinary approaches outside legal boundaries to resolve an artificial crisis".
Claimed footage of insurgents speaking in front of the 48 Iranians seized in Syria on Saturday --- Tehran says the men are pilgrims, but the Free Syrian Army claims they are members of the Iranian military assisting the Assad regime
See also Iran Feature: Can Tehran and the West Close the Nuclear "Trust Gap"?
The Latest from Iran (4 August): The Regime Admits Its "Economic War"
1735 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani has warned that growing public despair over economic conditions "would be a blow to the roots" of the Islamic Republic.
1355 GMT: Currency Watch. The Iranian Rial has slipped another 1% vs. the US dollar, sinking to 20420:1.
The Rial is now approaching its lowest point in a currency crisis that started last autumn.
See also Iran Feature: "We Have Restricted the Wishes and Ideals of the Nation To Worrying About Chicken"
The Latest from Iran (31 July): Politics and Fraud
1755 GMT: All the President's Men. The head of the Administrative Court has reacted to 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi's insistence that Presidential aide Saeed Mortazavi will remain as head of the Social Security Fund, despite the Court's order that he step down (see 1045 GMT).
The head of the Court said any official who refused to give up his post could be suspended.
1750 GMT: Energy Watch. Ahmad Malakouti, head of the Revolutionary Guards in Asalouyeh in southern Iran has dismissed any concerns about the withdrawal of foreign investement from the South Pars oil and gas field --- he said that 1200 Basij militia were active in the South Pars project, hence its amazing progress.
See also The Latest from Iran (25 July): Supreme Leader --- We are Strong, The West is Weak
2004 GMT: Currency Watch. Is Iran on the verge of another currency crisis?
This week's "adjustment" of exchange rates to deal with import problems --- the Government put out $30 billion to support "basic imports" at the official rate of 12260 Iranian Rials to the US dollar, while the Central Bank introduced a rate of 15000:1 for "capital and intermediate imports" --- has not settled the open-market rate. To the contrary, the Rial has lost almost 3% and now stands at 19530:1.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 12:49