Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 21 – The Kurdish city of Mahabad, north-west Iran, was brought under de facto martial law as the paramilitary police, the Revolutionary Guards, and plainclothes agents of the secret police, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, moved in to take control of the city after a week of unrest and deadly clashes between residents and local security forces.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 21 – The Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) has suffered another plunge this week, as political uncertainty over the future of nuclear talks with Europe and growing indications of ultra-conservative figures sweeping all the key positions in the new cabinet of President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continue to frighten investors.

Iran Focus: Berlin, Jul. 20 – A diplomatic spat between Tehran and Berlin over the new ultra-conservative President-elect’s alleged involvement in terrorism became more acrimonious
on Wednesday, as Berlin responded to the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s charges that it was playing a role “in a Zionist conspiracy against the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran – Jul. 20 – The appointment of Ali Larijani as the new secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, the country’s top decision-making body on security-related issues, has been confirmed by the cabinet selection committee, an influential daily reported on Wednesday.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 20 – Members of Iran’s parliament from the north-eastern city of Mashad, where a minor and an 18-year-old man were publicly hanged yesterday, vented their anger on Wednesday on foreign and domestic news outlets for reporting the ages of hanged prisoners. Ultra-conservative deputy Ali Asgari said that the two deserved to be hanged in public, adding, “Whatever sentence is decreed by an Islamic penal system must be approved, unless proven otherwise”.