The Latest from Iran (13 April): Before the Nuclear Show

President Ahmadinejad greeting an unseen crowd in Hormozgan Province in southern Iran

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1644 GMT: Your Tehran Friday Prayer Update. Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani has the podium today, and he is in a nuclear mood: “As the [Leader of the Islamic Revolution] Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said and other Iranian officials have reiterated, the work done in the field of nuclear energy [in Iran] is not meant for making nuclear weapons."

Just to make sure the US, European powers, China, and Russia got the message before tomorrow's talks, Emami Kashani emphasised, “These activities are for scientific purposes; you must realize and believe this."

However, while the West ponders this reassurance, this passage from Emami Kashani is more interesting to me --- cheerleading for the Supreme Leader's "Year of National Production", worry about the economy, or both?:

Everyone must enjoy their lives. There should be jobs in society, [and] the youth should be able to marry and have good living and housing conditions; therefore, production is important....Honest investors must invest in order to serve the country and benefit from its profits. Jobs must be promoted qualitatively and quantitatively and everyone at any level should [be able to] lead a clean life.

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The Latest from Iran: Back to Political Sniping?

1448 GMT: James Miller is back, and he provides a Cross-post from the Syria liveblog:

Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Saleh warned the "outsiders" and called on Damascus to recognise the "legitimate demands" of its people. He said:

The government should answer to the demands of its people, be it Syria, Yemen or other countries.

The people of these nations have legitimate demands and the governments should reply to these demands as soon as possible.

Syria is an important link in the resistance chain [against Israel] and some want to cut off this link in the chain. A vacuum in the Syrian regime would have an unpredictable impact for the region and its neighbours.

1240 GMT: Limited Time Offer. Mansur Arzi, the regime "eulogist" who said last week that he would pay anyone who killed President Ahmadinejad's Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, has said the offer is only open until the end of Ramadan.

1125 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Perhaps the most significant show on Friday was the visit of the Cabinet to the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini --- President Ahmadinejad declared that his Government would withstand political pressures.

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