Dariush Mirzai

These are the people who elect, advise and control the Supreme Guide, the man who has the last word about all political, religious and strategic decisions.

Iranian authorities warn that if the West continues to threaten Tehran's nuclear programme, Iran might stop fighting drug smuggling.

The closure of the reformist daily "Iran" on a pretext, confirms the regime's diffidence about information. Unclear rules leave ample room for abuse and prompt even foreign journalists to self-censorship.

The religious police are fighting resistance against the Islamization of society, a struggle that may find expression in a future law about clothing. Speculation about distinctive emblems according to religion is not credible.

One wonders if, alongside the predicted call to convert to Islam, the president will tell Benedict XVI about the painful legal and social situation discriminating against Iranian Christians.

Although it has signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which forbids the practice, Tehran continues to put minors to death. Last year, between six and eight were killed and in 2006, there may already have been two victims.

A graduate of the Sorbonne and Harvard, the secret services have accused him of "links with foreigners", but the true aim of the arrest is to scare critics of the regime.

Millions of Arabs, Kurds and Baluchi people do not enjoy cultural recognition, and they must put up with a strong presence of army, police and secret services. The authorities level accusations against the USA, Great Britain and Israel but ignore frustrations and human rights violations at home.

Mullahs and designers in parliament to design the Iranian outfit that will be compulsory wear for men, as it already is for women. The smoking ban will extend to cars too, and no women can go to stadiums, because the ayatollahs have blocked this concession by Ahmadinejad.

More than a truly political or religious message, the letter is a ritual appeal that gives a glimpse of a fanatical bent and confirms the messianic and apocalyptic way of thinking inspiring the Iranian president and which constitutes one of the main challenges to pragmatics and reformists in Iran and to the international community.

According to Shiite tradition, dissimulation is permissible if not compulsory to defend one's faith. Ahmadinejad sends letter to Bush proposing "new solutions" whilst Iran's parliament threatens to pull Iran out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

In the Islamic Republic, restrictions on freedom of expression have been commonplace, but now they are actually getting worse. Publishing houses that wanted to take part in this year's book fair had to publish at least 40 titles in the previous 12 months, but no 'progressive' publisher was ever granted 40 permits. A European exhibitor says fair organisers make foreigners feel unwelcome.