0728 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. An endorsement of social media --- and a slap at the regime for trying to control it --- from former President Hashemi Rafsanjani:
Today, a page on Facebook, has the same effect of numerous television and radio channels and, without any costs, can influence millions of people. Or videos taken by mobile phones are immediately reflected across the world, and this is all a blessing for the world.Although some people do not appreciate it, if we consider the prosperity of humanity and the movement against oppression, injustice and cruelty, we will realize that without this form of news outlets, it would become very dangerous. If we stop one thing, 10 others grow in its place, and when people find the way to get information, it is impossible to stop them.
0722 GMT: Loyalty Watch. In a top-secret letter circulated last August, the commander of Iran's armed forces, General Hassan Firouzabadi, ordered military and security personnel to call the Supreme Leader "Imam Khamenei".
0715 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Zahra Khodabakhsh, the daughter of the leading investor in the reformist newspaper Shargh, has been arrested.
Security forces raided Khodabakhsh's home and detained her without any explanation. She was reportedly taken to Evin Prison.
Khodabakhsh is an architect with no history of political activism. However, her father, Ali Khodabakhsh, is a long-time investor in reformist publications. He was arrested on 7 December 2010 and later sentenced to a year in prison.
0710 GMT: A later start for us this morning, as we put out a special analysis, "Tehran's View of Nuclear Talks --- Insight, Propaganda, or Self-Deception?".
Last week, we wrote after the Baghdad nuclear talks:
We are in the political and diplomatic equivalent of the game of "chicken", in which "two drivers drive towards each other on a collision course: one must swerve, or both may die in the crash".
Do the US and Europe let up on the accelerator on pressure? Does the Islamic Republic turn away? Or are both sides willing to risk the crash, because "if one driver swerves and the other does not, the one who swerved will be called a chicken"?
This morning, with the benefits of the views and propaganda of Iranian diplomats, we offer an answer to one of those questions:
The Islamic Republic believes that it can win the game of diplomatic "chicken". The Moscow talks will break up with no advance.
Posted via email from lissping
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