0625 GMT: We catch up this morning with Saturday's set-piece celebration of the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.
President Ahmadinejad used the occasion to boost his domestic position, three weeks before Parliamentary elections, first with a "surprise" appearance among the crowd, then with a speech to the audience at Azadi Square.
Two years ago, Ahmadinejad may well have saved his position with a rallying call, set in front of a large model rocket. This time, the stakes versus the Green Movement were not nearly as high, but the President was still working with the nuclear issue.
Reuters featured the President's opening to the "West" for renewed nuclear talks. That in itself is controversial inside Iran, given opposition from prominent politicians --- and possibly the Supreme Leader --- to any sit-down with the US.
So Iranian State media took the safe option of headlining the President's promise that Iran would soon unveil "major nuclear achievements", which is pretty much the same promise that he offered in last year's speech and in the 2010 version as well as a regular feature in declarations by members of his Government and the Revolutionary Guards.
Unsurprisingly, the same propaganda game was played over the numbers at the rally. Fars even brought this into the open, denouncing the Associated Press and other international outlets for claiming only "tens of thousands" in attendance when the true number was in the "millions".
While the "real" figure is up for grabs, the most striking move in the game came from Peyke Iran, which used the photographs of Mehr to make a point: however many were in Azadi Square yesterday, it was nowhere near the size of the rally on 15 June 2009, when those attending were not concerned about nuclear issues and were not there for President Ahmadinejad.
Posted via email from lissping
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