The Latest from Iran (3 June): The Regime Marks Khomeini's Death

See also Iran Feature: Who are the Mujahedin-e Khalq "Terrorists"/"Freedom Fighters"?
The Latest from Iran (2 June): Holding the Currency Line

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1631 GMT: No Afghans, Please. The National Organization for Educational Testing has issued a list of university courses banned for Afghans living in Iran, including atomic physics, nuclear engineering, aerospace engineering, chemical engineering, and military sciences.

Mehr explains that allowing Afghans to gain qualifications in these areas would create the obligation to employ them.

The news agency also writes that Afghans can apply only at universities that are not located in areas where they have been banned from living, including a dozen provinces and a number of cities throughout Iran.

1611 GMT: Oil Squeeze. An article in The New York Times, "Oil Output Soars as Iraq Retools", notes the significance for sanctions and Iran:

Increased flow and vital port improvements have produced a 20 percent jump in exports this year to nearly 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, making Iraq one of the premier producers in OPEC for the first time in decades.

Energy analysts say that the Iraqi boom --- coupled with increased production in Saudi Arabia and the near total recovery of Libya’s oil industry --- should cushion oil markets from price spikes and give the international community additional leverage over Iran when new sanctions take effect in July.

“Iraq helps enormously,” said David L. Goldwyn, the former State Department coordinator for international energy affairs in the Obama administration. Even if Iraq increased its oil exports by only half of what it is projecting by next year, he said, “You would be replacing nearly half of the future Iranian supply potentially displaced by tighter sanctions.”

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The Latest from Iran (1 February): Is the Supreme Leader Fretting About Syria?

A poster encouraging Iranians to demonstrate publicly on 25 Bahman (14 February)

See also The Latest from Iran (31 January): "Democracy and Freedom Are A Big Lie"

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2019 GMT: Food Watch. Continuing problems with grain shipments to Iran....

The news that 400,000 tonnes of grain has been held up on 10 ships outside Iranian ports has been followed by confirmation that traders are no longer booking cargoes on Iranian ships to transport grain exports from Ukraine because of difficulties with payments following European Union sanctions.

"The indication is that Iranian flag ships would not be welcomed (at Ukrainian ports) that is the guidance that is being given." one trade source said.

Another source said, "They will not load vessels bound for Iranian destinations or Iranian ships. It is not entirely clear if this has come from the government and it looks like companies have to make their own decisions on what to do. EU sanctions are very much part of the considerations."

Ukraine's Transport Ministry said there were no restrictions on Iranian ships. "Nobody knows anything about this," a ministry spokesman said. "All our ports are open to foreign ships. There are no restrictions, nor can there be any."

However, a grain trader said, "The trade in Iranian food is getting extremely difficult as the impact of the sanctions is still developing each day. Ukraine has been a leading supplier of grain to Iran. Now it appears Iranian buyers will only be able to buy with delivery to Ukrainian ports and will face further difficulties in arranging shipments."

Ukraine exported about 445,000 tonnes of grain to Iran in the first half of the 2011/12 season. This included 92,000 tonnes of feed barley and 357,600 tonnes of feed maize.

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The Latest from Iran (25 September): Khomeini's Grandson "This is Not Islam"

2120 GMT: Claim of the Day. We close Sunday --- and foreshadow Monday's LiveBlog on the resumption of political conflict in Iran --- with this prize assertion from the hard-line publication Fararu: President Ahmadinejad's controversial Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai will not return to Iran with Ahmadinejad from New York because he has applied for a six-month visa to remain in the US.

2040 GMT: Shutting Down the Reformists. Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of the human rights section of Iran's judiciary, has put pressure on reformists, criticising them for claiming to be adherents to the principles of the Islamic Republic but in practice supporting a secular system.

Larijani said reformists were opportunist “sworn enemies of democracy” and were not qualified to run in Parliamentary elections next March.

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The Latest from Iran (8 August): Reformists Step Back from Elections

1950 GMT: Economy Watch. In his speech in front of senior officials yesterday (see 1420 GMT), the Supreme Leader said problems such as employment, inflation, and "labour culture" have not been solved yet.

1835 GMT: (Potential) Political Prisoner Watch. Yesterday we summarised the significant remarks of Mohsen Armin, former Deputy Speaker of Parliament and a reformist senior member of the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution, that "all essential prerogatives" for involvement in the 2012 Parlimentary elections "are missing" --- "Coalition with hardliners never; debate yes."

Today, Armin was summoned to appear in court on Wednesday.

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The Latest from Iran (5 August): Please Shut Up....

1520 GMT: Labour Front. An article by the Iranian Labor News Agency warns that "reform" of labour laws, reducing workers' rights, will not solve the problem of unemployment and that workers will not forgive MPs who sign the legislation.

1515 GMT: More Battle Within. Mohammad Karamirad says he and two other MP have filed a complaint against the President's right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, and Vice President Hamid Baghei and that Parliament is checking it.

Karamirad restated the demand made by other politicians and clerics, including hardline MP Mohammad Ali Bozorgvari: President Ahmadinejad must distance himself from the two men.

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The Latest from Iran (26 May): Paving the Way for Dictatorship?

Footage of the blaze at the Abadan oil refinery on Tuesday

2015 GMT: A Fire at the Refinery. Siemens AG, Germany’s largest engineering company, has denied that it supplied compressors for Iran’s Abadan oil refinery, where a blast on Tuesday killed at least four people and wounded at least 25.

An Iranian newspaper had claimed that Siemens supplied the compressor that exploded, causing the blaze.

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The Latest from Iran (23 May): The Net Closes on Ahmadinejad's Inner Circle

1530 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Mousavi campaign activist Reza Safavi has been arrested in a raid of his home by six agents, with his computer and other items confiscated.

1515 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch (cont.). More on the unusual interview in which the President's son-in-law tears apart the President's advisors....

Mehdi Khorshidi says that the leader of "deviant group" --- presumably Presidential Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai --- never studied theology but dares to comment on religious matters. Indeed, Rahim-Mashai is so arrogant that he challenges Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, who is esteemed by the Supreme Leader and has 30 years of experience.

Khorshidi continues that Rahim-Mashai has endeavoured to sabotage and eliminate useful people around Ahmadinejad, replacing them with his cronies.

And Khorshidi's reference to the "deviant group" splashing out money on "problematic" people such as actors? Well, in January, Hojatoleslam Mohammad-Taqi Rahbar, the head of the clerical faction in Parliament, noted Rahim-Mashai’s meeting with an Iranian actress, Hedyeh Tehrani, at the Presidential office:

Anyone with a bit of Principlist zeal will not approve of the lowly acts of the Head of the Presidential office. All Principlists especially the President’s true supporters are ashamed that such a character is running the office of the president.....I don’t know what an actress’s [photograph] exhibition has to do with the head of the presidential office that he has to fund it with $80,000 from the Treasury. These loans are handed out by him [Mashai] at a time when many farmers are struggling with repeated droughts and are starving. Yet the government refuses to give them a $1,000 loan.

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The Latest from Iran (6 May): "The Government Has Lifted Up Its Hands to Pray"

1955 GMT: Media Watch. The Guardian of London has picked up on the story with which we began today (see 0445 GMT), "Iran's Supreme Leader tells Ahmadinejad: Accept Minister [of Intelligence] or Quit", quoting the President's ally, Morteza Agha-Tehrani.

And Robert Tait of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has a thorough overview of the crisis --- with an appearance by EA --- "Ahmadinejad Floored By Bugs, Spirits, And Djinns":

Whenever cornered, Mahmud Ahmadinejad always seems to come out swinging. But Iran's notoriously abrasive president appears in danger of suffering a knockout blow over his political attachment to Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, a man widely seen as a threat to the country's clerical-based political system.

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The Latest from Iran (17 February): Cutting Off the Opposition

2145 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Abolfazl Tabarzadi, a close relative of the Iran Democratic Front leader Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, has been freed on bail.

Tabarzadi was detained last December.

2135 GMT: 1 Esfand. Already the posters for Sunday's opposition march, agreed between a coalition of groups this afternoon, are appearing. This one links the rally to Mohammad Mokhtari and Sanee Zhaleh, the two men who died in the 25 Bahman marches on Monday:

2120 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Yesterday I noted the statement of the Assembly of Experts, chaired by former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, denouncing the US/Israel-backed "counter-revolution" of Monday's opposition marches.

This morning (0730 GMT) I wrote that regime supporters in Qom had chanted for the death of Rafsanjani.

So how could those two events fit together?

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The Latest from Iran (10 February): One Day Closer

1900 GMT: Another Khamenei Journey to Qom. The Supreme Leader has made another trip --- his fifth since October --- to Qom, visiting several Ayatollahs. He prayed for Ayatolalh Ansari Shirazi, who is ill, and spent an hour with Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi.

Most important seems to be Khamenei's discussion with Ayatollah Ostadi about the religious seminaries (Howzeh). Senior clerics have expressed concern that the regime might move against the "independence" of the seminaries.

1845 GMT: Iranian authorities have arrested Fariba Ebtehaj, the office manager of Masoumeh Ebtekar, Vice President in the Khatami Administration.

1700 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Saleh Noghrekar, the head of Mir Hossein Mousavi's Justice Committee, has been arrested in a raid on his home. Journalists Maysam Mohamadi and Omid Mohades were also arrested last night.

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