Iran's highest body, the Guardian Council, has announced it is prepared to partially recount last week's electoral votes in a bid to prevent further unrest. The runner up and figure head of the opposition Mir-Hossein Moussavi, who led calls for a full re-run, asked supporters to stay at home after planned rallies today promised further violence. Meanwhile, foreign journalists have been confined to their offices in Tehran to prevent reporting of continued violent confrontations in the capital which claimed the lives of at least seven people on Monday
The toD verdict: The Iranian government admitted its first major concession today in the face of protests with its offer of a recount, but the move may only aim at breaking the momentum of the opposition movement as protests become increasingly confrontational. Combined with the Culture Ministry's restrictions on press freedom in the capital, the measures indicate a desire on the part of the regime to stave off international criticism which was in part prompted by the shocking images of state violence that emerged in recent days.
Australia, Japan and the European Union all voiced criticism of Iran's handling of the protests while Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attempted to sure up support during a state visit to one of Iran's key supporters, Russia, in a growing competition between the state and opposition for international support. Hinting at possible international sanctions, British prime minister Gordon Brown warned of "implications for Iran's relationships with the rest of the world".
After these limited concessions, Iran's fate rests with the tactics and reaction of the opposition movement. The BBC's Jon Leyne suggested Moussavi would reject the Guardian Council's offer, a move that may reinvigorate opposition protests he had called off today. So far Mousavi, a former Prime Minister, has attempted to maintain a face of loyal opposition to the incumbent president, but the state's arrest of close aides and supporters raises the possibility that he will refashion himself as a more radical opponent of the regime. Evidence of a rising opposition movement emerged at Tehran University, a predicted site of protest quickly cordoned off by police following the election results, where 120 academics have resigned.
Britain to hold Iraq war inquiry
Gordon Brown announced yesterday that Britain's participation in the Iraq war will be subject to an official inquiry. The government's critics, including both the Liberal and Conservative opposition parties, have continued to call for greater openness, however, doubting whether the government's appointees, operating without public scrutiny, will be fully independent. John Chilcott, a member of the Butler inquiry into the intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, will lead the inquiry which also notably includes Lawrence Freedman, a major intellectual voice behind military intervention to promote democracy but a critic of the Bush administration's handling of the war. The government has ruled out any prosecutions based on evidence provided to the inquiry and participation will be purely voluntary.
Three hostages killed in Yemeni kidnapping
Three of the nine European hostages captured in Yemen were found dead yesterday. The German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced the departure of a German forensics team to help identify the mutilated bodies, among whom Steinmeier feared were almost certainly two missing German nurses, as well as a South Korean aid worker. The Yemeni authorities have offered a £15,000 reward for any information leading to the release of a British engineer, and a German doctor and his wife and three children who are still missing. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnappings in a country plagued by several violent anti-government groups. The unprecedented murder and mutilation of women, distinguishing this case from the two-hundred kidnappings which have occurred in the country in the past fifteen years, has led western security experts to suspect al-Qaeda but the Yemeni government blame the Shiite Houthi tribe.
US sets out North Korean nuclear cordon
The US navy will hail and request permission to inspect North Korean merchant marine in international waters, track ships to international destinations and pressure port authorities to investigate any exported cargo under plans to enforce reinvigorated sanctions agreed at the UN Security Council meeting on Friday. The US will not, however, forcefully board North Korean ships, after North Korea warned that such measures would constitute an act of war, but maintained its right to seize war materials if discovered. The success of such a confrontational policy rests on international unity outweighing the commercial advantages of liberalised maritime trade with the North Korean fleet. Promisingly, China, a potential weak link in the partial embargo, has reaffirmed its commitment to uphold the UN measures.
In a further show of solidarity today, US president Barack Obama will meet South Korean president Lee Myung-bak. Although both statesmen are likely to present a united front with regard to the security situation on the Korean peninsula, the troubled free trade arrangement signed by both nations' previous administrations may present a stumbling block in otherwise amicable negotiations.
Russia vetoes extension of UN mission in Georgia
Proposals before the Security Council to extend the UN monitoring mission to the breakaway republic to Abkhazia were vetoed by Russia last night whose UN envoy denounced the "old realities" on which the mission was premised. Georgia and its western allies reacted hostilely to Russia's use of its veto on the contentious issue, accusing Russia of attempting to cover up its expanding military presence in the region. Only Nicaragua has joined Russia in recognising both breakaway provinces as independent republics, confounding a Russian campaign to consolidate the regions' diplomatic independence.
