The Latest from Iran (29 May): Statements for 22 Khordad/12 June

1655 GMT: Visiting Panahi. Mehdi Karroubi has met with Jafar Panahi, the prominent filmmaker who was detained for almost three months before being released this week.

1650 GMT: CyberPolice? Lots of chatter today that Google was filtered in Iran, at least for a short time.

1635 GMT: To Russia, With Criticism. All is still not well in Tehran over Moscow's position on the nuclear issue.

After President Ahmadinejad's public telling-off of Russia earlier in the week, senior Iranian lawmakers have taken up the criticism. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani went after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev by exalting his predecessor,

If the approach agreed on with the former Russian president (Vladimir Putin) had been pursued, it could have served the interests of both sides. Concerning nuclear issues, Russia has always sought to fit things within the frame of its own interests, and efforts must be made to return this approach to its precise path.

Kazem Jalali of Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said said Moscow was under the same "analytical misconception" as the US but offered a way back, "Russia can be effective in rejecting the [sanctions] resolution, and can save face internationally through a positive response to Iran's letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency."

NEW Iran Document: Mousavi “Greens Will Not be Stopped by Arrests, Prisons, or Killing”
NEW Iran: A Poem for Executed Teacher Farzad Kamangar
Friends or Obstacles?: Iran, Human Rights, & US “Concern”
Iran Analysis: When Allies Co-ordinate (Mousavi & Karroubi)
NEW Iran Analysis: When Allies Fight (Tehran and Moscow
The Latest from Iran (28 May): A Pause in Discussion?

1435 GMT: Political Prisoners Watch. Maziar Khosravi, editor of the Hammihan website, has been released from detention. Khosravi had been detained after his reports on last June's attacks on Tehran University's dormitories.


Activists are reporting that student activist Majid Tavakoli, who is on hunger strike, has been moved out of solitary confinement.

1410 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. As news emerges of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani reasserting his critical statements from last year (see 1350 GMT), we also get a report that assailants have raided the office of Rafsanjani's daughter, Faezeh Hashemi.

1405 GMT: The Students' Declaration. Student activists have released a statement calling for innovation in civil disobedience and asserting "perseverance on the way to democracy".

1350 GMT: And More Statements. I don't we think we quite expected, selecting the title for this morning's updates, how appropriate it would be.

We have posted in a separate entry the English translation of Mir Hossein Mousavi's latest lengthy critique of the Government and statement of the Green Movement's defiance.

And another prominent politician is making mischief: Agence France Presse reports that the website of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani has posted the 2009 letter he sent to the Supreme Leader, criticising the regime:

Even if I keep quiet, part of the people, groups and parties will undoubtedly not bear this situation any more and set off social upheavals, examples of which can be seen in street rallies and universities....

The website also posts extracts from Rafsanjani's Friday Prayer sermon of 17 July --- the last one he has given:

What should we do? Our key issue is to return the trust which the people had and now to some extent is broken....

It is not necessary that in this situation people be jailed. Let them join their families. We should not allow enemies to rebuke and ridicule us because of detentions. We should tolerate each other.

1245 GMT: Monitoring the Cleric. Back from a break to find the report that banners supporting Ayatollah Yusuf Sane'i for 4 June --- the anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's death --- have been removed from Khomeini's mausoleum because of "deceitful phrases".

Posters for Sane'i, a critic of the current Government, were also removed from the recent Tehran Book Fair.

0810 GMT: Corruption vs. Corruption at Highest Levels. The political battle within the establishment over corruption allegations continues.

More details on the Fatemi Street insurance fraud, with which 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi is allegedly involved, have emerged.Two companies were established in 2005/2006, and Rahimi reportedly used his influence to arrange large loans (eventually more than $1 billion) for them, receiving 10-15%.

Ahmadinejad supporters have countered that Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior official in Iran's judiciary, has seized 300,000 hectares of land. Emrooz claims that the President, in his speech this week in Kerman, implied that Larijani's brothers, Speaker of Parliament Ali and head of judiciary Sadegh, blocked the Government from taking back the property.

0805 GMT: Raising the Stakes (cont.). More on this week's Friday Prayer, on the anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's death, from the Supreme Leader (see 0650 GMT)....

The warm-up act for Ayatollah Khamenei will be President Ahmadinejad.

And Ayatollah Khamenei's title, at least according to his office? “The Leader of All Muslims in World Affairs”.

0800 GMT: Another Statement. Visiting the family of political prisoner Mohsen Armin, a senior member of the Mojahedin of Islamic Speaker and former Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mehdi Karroubi declared that the "imprisonment of the Revolution's children is a shame".

0755 GMT: Film Corner. Concern is growing over filmmaker Dariush Shokouf, an Iranian expatriate in Germany, who has disappeared. Shokouf, a vocal critic of Iran's regime, was last seen in Cologne, boarding a train for Paris.

0750 GMT: The Executions. We have posted a poem by Fatemeh Shams in memory of teacher Farzad Kamanager, executed on 9 May.

0650 GMT: Raising the Stakes. Golnaz Esfandiari of Radio Liberty reports that the Supreme Leader will lead Tehran Friday Prayers this week, presiding at the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini.

Friday will be the anniversary of Khomeini's death in 1989.

This will be the first time that Ayatollah Khamenei has led Friday Prayers since his appearance one week after last year's Presidential election.

0555 GMT: Two weeks before the anniversary of the 2009 election, and we awake to a flurry of opposition statements.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, in his latest meeting, asserts that Iran should be "run by freedom and justice not by imprisonment". He argues, "We do not want the Government to give up rule in the name of Islam, but the content [of its rule] is empty and it does not address our desires."

Mousavi adds that this Government "monologue", meeting the wishes of the people with repression rather than discussion, leads to "tyranny" and "dictatorship".

The Assembly of Combatant Clergymen, like Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi earlier this week, use the "historical importance" of the month of Khordad (May/June) to invoke the legacy of Ayatollah Khomeini, remember the Presidency of Mohammad Khatami, and cite "the great participation" of the Iranian people in last year’s election.


The clergymen say this participation could have led to a better future for Iran; instead, it ws met by the brutal confrontation of the Government, which continues today with "heavy and unfair" prison sentences. They call for the release of all political prisoners and free elections.

The banned Islamic Iran Participation Front declares that the reform movement is an attempt to fix errant behaviour arising from narcissism, despotism, and fundamentalism that had shaped. The continuation of that effort of that effort led to a bitter showdown, with Government attacks on people’s freedom, security, and dignity in the name of religion.

The party calls for adherence to the Constitution and recognition of people’s demands for their rights, free assembly, political parties, a free press, and free elections.

Iran Document: Mousavi "Greens Will Not be Stopped by Arrests, Prisons, or Killing"

Mir Hossein Mousavi's latest statement, made in a meeting political prisoners detained during the Shah’s regime. Translation from the Facebook page supporting Mousavi:

Mousavi, while noting the difficulties of the early days of the revolution, said, “No system is without problems...[however], if the general frameworks were preserved,  our Iran would have moved in a good direction.”

Mousavi, referring to the anniversary of the passing of Imam Khomeini [4 June] and recalling the unique and historic funeral of Imam Khomeini in which millions of people participated, called this great participation a sign of the support of the nation for the revolution and what have had happened in its first decade of the revolution: “Without trying to ignore some of the problems, this [great participation] was a sign that many of the principles were achieved [at that time]....

"Always different governments give a series of indices as the indicators of their success, such as GDP, wealth and productivity or non-material aspects such as education and human dignity....At the beginning of the [Iran-Iraq] war the massive number of pure and loyal individuals whom the revolution gave to us, was the index and sign of the rightfulness of our system. We have always known the front lines as the sign of our rightfulness and also as a sign that the system have had been successful in achieving its principles.


"But unfortunately there has been gradual deviation and in the recent years we have also found some main problems such that today we cannot answer to the younger generation. Even when we explain to them that what were the goals of the early days of the revolution and after the revolution what changes happened in the country, we cannot convince them. The only reason is because we were derailed from the path.”

Mousavi said: “Before revolution there was no freedom. The topics of printed and main books were very limited and [books] were circulated in an underground network. But after the revolution there were Book Fairs to show that this system does not believe in limiting thoughts, and indeed a cultural revolution was formed.

"But even in this one case compare what we wanted to the unprecedented events of this year’s Book Fair in which even the books and writing of some of the Marjas (senior religious figures) were banned. They eliminated the booth displaying the books of Martyr Ayatollah Beheshti, who was one of the founders of this revolution. As usual there have been restrictions on books on literature and social sciences. These are only small signs of the divergence from the principles of the revolution."

Mousavi, warning about the continuation of this trend, said: “The system is moving toward monologue so that it does not tolerate any other view. Monologue by itself leads to tyranny and dictatorship and...[is] the most important factor inhibiting development.

“What we are witnessing now is the policies that targeted the transparency and free flow of information. It is not surprising that in our country the issues of corruptions, lies and dictatorship are expanding, because if there are no free thoughts, then in a monologue environment these issues are natural.”

Mousavi discussed the relation between the Green Movement and the principles of the revolution and said: “Green is for freedom and justice. Justice for the people who participated in the revolution: this country with all its diversified ethnicities, cultures and languages belongs to them, and justice in social, political, and economic aspects is part of their rights, as well as freedom....If it does not exist, people’s rights will be violated. There was a time that we wished the prisons would be empty, and we celebrate the day Evin prison would be shut down, but now there are new constructions in Evin to make more cells to imprison more people. This is another sign of corruption and divergence [from our principles].”

Mousavi noted: “We did not want to form a government and define a framework in the name of Islam [which is] empty of content and has no sign of the principles and dreams that emerged from our religion and beliefs. If a system is to stay by filling the prisons or by beating and arresting students, Muslim workers and teachers, artists, filmmakers and journalists, can one defend such a system in the world?”

Mousavi stressed that seeking freedom and justice is a serious demand in this atmosphere: “The Green Movement is an ongoing process which will not stopped by arrests, threats and imprisonments or even by killings, because it contains the demands that have emerged from the true and human needs of our nation. This movement is a four-season movement. It revitalizes and appears in different forms....t has emerged from the human demands of our nation, and it is a continuation of the long-time struggles of our nation to achieve freedom and justice.”

Mousavi referred to the goals and mottos of the Green Movement: “When we say the Constitution, the issue is clear; when we say there must be no corruption and lies and there must be justice, the issue is clear. Promoting awareness is the greatest tool of the Green Movement.

"We don’t want to fight with anyone. We are defending our rights. Our tool is to spread awareness among the people and we are not blocking anyone’s path. They can propagate against us that we are not telling the truth. We don’t expect them to act fair, either in their state-run TV and radio or in their other media.”

“During the election campaign, one of the most important and most effective posters that was was “No Lies”. I saw it for the first time in Tehran, and within 24 hours I saw it in one of the most remote areas of the country because it was the tangible and serious demand of the people.

“The fact that they cannot tolerate even one free, normal weblog free and today that in cyberspace there is not even one medium in our hands that is safe from filtering: all are signs that their main source of fear is the issue of awareness. Therefore anyone in any place who feels responsible should make efforts based on his/her capability to spread political and social awareness, even if it would be by saying a minor point in a gathering.

“We should spread awareness from family environments to the gatherings of friends and relatives and among the different classes and provinces. The Green Movement does not have a complex goal. We don’t want corruption and lies; we want respect for the people; we want to have a proper judiciary system that would not be oppressive.

"They should not be able to force someone to confess, then based on that confession, execute him/her or beat the prisoners. [They should not] release the prisoners and, after a couple of weeks, contact him/her and ask them to give forced interviews or, if they do not agree, call them back to prison."

Mousavi added: "I always say that how unfamiliar with the truth are those who have created these extensive prisons. Many times during the month of Ramadan and our national and religious celebrations,  there was the opportunity to return freely to the principles despite the past. This would have automatically made people optimistic. Even now if they say that a free and competitive election will be held and there will not be cheating, you'll see that people will breathe a sigh of relief.

"A regime that cannot investigate the attack on university students' dormitory with bravery and explain to people what really happened and cannot deal with those who cheated....[that] is a weak regime. The strength of a regime is in its ability to explain problems.

"In the case of Kahrizak Prison, they claim to have sentenced three persons. Kahrizak is a national issue, and for this reason all discussions about Kahrizak must be in front of people's eyes so that it will not be repeated and people will be convinced that justice was served.

"Even this vague result that they (the authorities) announced with three people sentenced must be explained  so we know who these three people are and how they relate to those whose names were announced in the Parliament (a reference to to former Tehran Prosecutor General and current Presidential aide Saeed Mortazavi, who was declared by a parliamentary committee to be responsible for the death of political prisoners at Kahrizak prison)."

Mousavi said: "We all hope that this false path turn into the right path. (Should this happen) people will be satisfied, no matter who does it or in what circumstances. People have fought and have suffered to achieve freedom and justice and to not be under tyranny and dictatorship. (They have fought) to have posts and statures rotate so that everybody in any position remains responsible to the people. “

Mir Hossein Mousavi addressed the political prisoners from before the revolution and added: "These attacks and arrests don't solve the issue. Didn't Shah's regime fall despite putting you in jail? The regime fell....The question is whether those arrests saved Shah's regime?

"The status of media and the flow of free information and news around the globe is very different from the era when you were imprisoned. First thing in the morning by reviewing a few websites, one can get all the news, (when) before announcements were spread hand-to-hand with all kinds of difficulties and sometimes with danger and eventually would have reached only a few. Satellites and the international media and communications are all very important [today].”

Mousavi emphasized: "Some think that by creating an atmosphere of fear and terror, they can manage the affairs, but the country must be governed and should be governed with freedom and justice, not with Evin prison.”

Iran: A Poem for Executed Teacher Farzad Kamangar

On 9 May, teacher Farzad Kamangar was executed with four other Iranians: Farhad Vakili, Mehdi Eslamian, Shirin Alamhouli, and Ali Heydarian. Days after the event, we published a poem by Simin Behbahani.

An EA correspondent has sent us another poem, written in remembrance of Kamangar, by Fatemeh Shams:

Iran Document: Simin Behbahani’s Poem for the Executed

It was autumn… I have not seem Newton
Nor have I plucked the red apple of Gravity

It was autumn, the gallows rising, a chair
Go up, don’t fall, tell everyone you flew away


It was autumn, the chair shook a bit
The apple fell, I tasted God

It was autumn, gravity means you hanging at the gallows
After you I have banned gravity

It was autumn, gravity is an absolute lie
I have drawn your likeness suspended, lifeless

I am suspended between earth and your memories
I have breathed your memories into all the elegies

The execution of the order, your death without further ado
I have run, one with your naked feet

It was autumn, I’ve seen Newton, But especially you
Smiling, the way autumn does.

Gaza Latest: Israel Prepares Confrontation with "Freedom Flotilla"

On Saturday, seven ships from a "Freedom Flotilla", bringing aid, will try and reach Gaza. It will be met by at least 12 Israeli naval boats, helicopters, and a "counter-flotilla".

On Friday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman denounced the flotilla:

The aid convoy is violent propaganda against Israel, and Israel will not allow its sovereignty to be threatened in any way, in any place - land, air or sea.

There is no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Despite Hamas' war crimes against Israeli citizens and the thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns, Israel continues to respond in the most humane way possible.

Israel: “The Ideal State: A Dream-Country Without Criticism” (Levy)

Israeli gunships were ordered to take position to stop the convoy, and West Jerusalem made clear that it would overtake the ships as soon as they enter a 20-mile Israeli-controlled zone off Gaza. If the ships do not stop, Israel will attempt to connect the flotilla to naval boats and tow them to the Israeli port of Ashdod where the Israelis have prepared a detention centre. Those who do not want to take a flight back home will be taken to jail.


On Friday, Greta Berlin, one of the organizers of the effort, said a total of seven ships were headed to Gaza after an eighth vessel suffered a malfunction and had to turn back. Halting during darkness, they are expected to reach Israeli waters on Saturday.

The Israel Defense Forces responded that they will not hesitate to use limited force. The Turkish daily Hurriyet reports that the IDF will use a special technology to blackout media coverage in case of an operation.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Ministry Director General Yossi Gal held a round of explanatory calls with foreign ministers from countries whose citizens are participating in the flotilla. The Israeli message is that the activists are welcome to bring the humanitarian aid to the port of Ashdod, where it will be examined and, if found suitable, will be permitted to enter the Gaza Strip through land crossings. If the activists try to break the siege, they will be arrested.

The spokesman of the Humanitarian Relief Foundation, Umit Sonmez, said that the organisation does not trust Israeli officials who took the members of an earlier convoy into custody for 21 days for no reason. The HRF had written to Israeli officials regarding the planned journey to Gaza but had not received any reply.

Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, writing in Haaretz, assess:

The flotilla is not expected to alter in any substantial way the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. It is mostly a battle of public relations that is meant to strike a blow at Israel. Perhaps if Israel was less eager to confront the activists, some of the media attention would have dissipated. Had the flotilla been allowed in, Hamas would have its day, and the entire affair would evaporate quickly.

Haaretz's editors urged the Israeli Government to resume indirect talks with Hamas, to be more flexible about releasing prisoners and to lift the siege on Gaza. They argue  that blockade, siege, and military operations, with the hope that Gazans would topple Hamas, has failed: "The suffering that Israel is causing 1.5 million people for this purpose is not only inhuman, but extremely detrimental to Israel's status around the world".

The editors warn, "Even if Israel manages to prevent the flotilla from reaching Gaza, it will still have to contend with other demonstrations of support."

The Latest from Iran (28 May): A Pause in Discussion?

1410 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Omid Sharifi-Dana, arrested just after the Ashura protests of 27 December, has been sentenced to six years in prison.

1400 GMT: Your Tehran Friday Prayer Summary (Nukes! Nukes! Nukes!...and Some Poor People). Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani taking the podium today, and he has decided that the international dispute over Iran's uranium deserves religious priority. He wags a clerical finger at the "5+1" powers (US, UK, Germany, France, Russia, China): "The P5+1, instead of welcoming the [Iran-Brazil-Turkey] declaration [on a swap of uranium] goes to the [United Nations] Security Council and threatens sanctions against Iran."

And from there, Emami Kashani makes his big leap: "This is a world of barbarity and rapaciousness."

It wasn't all nuclear gloom, however. Emami Kashani expressed hope that the country under the guidance of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, would see greater success and progress.

That's when the Ayatollah looked beyond uranium and noticed Iran's poor people: "The well-to-do and all who have [financial] prowess should think of providing shelters for those who cannot afford one."

NEW Friends or Obstacles?: Iran, Human Rights, & US “Concern”
NEW Iran Analysis: When Allies Co-ordinate (Mousavi & Karroubi)
NEW Iran Analysis: When Allies Fight (Tehran and Moscow
The Latest from Iran (27 May): Cooperation and Feuds

1330 GMT: Today's Propaganda Highlight (with a Cameo Appearance by EA). We noticed this morning that hundreds of readers were linking from a Rah-e-Sabz story to an EA video of reformist activist Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, in debate with Government supporter Seyed Mohammad Marandi.


I ran this past an EA correspondent, who uncovered a tale of Iranian state propaganda:

The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting have produced a "report" on Haghighatjoo, which is a masterpiece of distortion (Fars News will go green with envy). Marandi is not mentioned at all, only Haghighatjoo, allegedly soon to receive a prize from an American institution soon (a lie). She is presented as a traitor to Iran, by editing her speto demonstrators in Boston where she allegedly said "Do not accept Iran!". Haghighatjoo's reference to "the government/ president of [Iran]" is cut out from her "(rayis jomhure) Iran ra be rasmiyat nashenasid".

IRIB proceeds to explain that all other reformists are traitors and human rights organisations are foreign operatives. Iranian commentator Alireza Nourizadeh is a British Intelligence officer, and Amnesty International is a Zionist organisation.

1325 GMT: Concern over Tavakoli. Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard have made phone calls to the mother of Majid Tavakoli, the imprisoned student activist, to express deep concerns about Tavakoli’s condition and to ask her and her son to end their hunger strike.

Reports claim Tavakoli has been transferred to hospital because of health issues during the hunger strike.

0855 GMT: Economy Watch. Deutsche Welle, via Peyke Iran, reports on Turkish companies who are leaving Iran and/or refusing to invest in the country.

0850 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Peyke Iran claims two more teachers have been arrested in Yazd Province, bringing the total detained to 10.

0845 GMT: Assessing the Movement. Taghi Rahmani --- writer, journalist, activist, and member of National Religious Front --- offers extensive thoughts about the state of the Green Movement. He says a powerful Iran is not possible without civil society and civil society is not possible without instruction and discussion.

0830 GMT: Fashion and Politics. Looks like "bad hijab" is going to persist as a front-line theme in Iran during current tensions. Ayatollah Javadi Amoli has declared the source of improper veiling by women is "ignorance".

0820 GMT: Finger-Pointing. Well, it might be quieter today but that hasn't put a stop to the fighting within the Iranian establishment.

President Ahmadinejad's attack on local and provincial officials, which we noted in Thursday's updates, still resonates. Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi has another target: he has asserted that the "anti-revolutionary current" started during the era of President Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989-1997).

0815 GMT: Rights-First? We have published an analysis, "Friends or Obstacles?: Iran, Human Rights, & US 'Concern'".

0810 GMT: A Political Fast. Khaje Nasir University students have asked all university candidates 2 join them in a day without food to protest the current political situation and detentions of students.

0530 GMT: A quiet start to the Iranian weekend. Not even the pretext of the uranium dispute offers headlines today, with President Ahmadinejad apparently maintaining silence after his clash with the West/US/Israel/Russia earlier this week. Press TV tried to stir the pot 12 hours ago with the "Breaking News" that "Iran Navy Detects US Nuke Sub in PG [Persian Gulf]", but nobody seemed to take much interest.

On the domestic front, there was also  a pause in opposition statements after the interview of Mehdi Karroubi in Rah-e-Sabz, now translated in full into English, and the reach-out of Mir Hossein Mousavi to political parties (including Karroubi's Etemade Melli).

We started yesterday, in the aftermath of those statements, looking for the ripples of organisation and challenge amongst groups and individuals. We'll maintain watch but, so far, it looks like today will be one to gather breath.