Some stories pertaining to Iran from the past few days:

This story discusses the quite risky step taken by Iranian reformers in criticizing the Supreme Religious Guide, Ayatollah Khamenei:

In a daring move, more than 100 reformist MPs have accused Iran’s supreme leader of trampling on freedom and basic rights.

The MPs, who include deputy speaker Mohammad Reza Khatami, have sent a letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticising his support for the disqualification of about 2,400 candidates in the parliamentary elections due to be held on Friday.

It is extremely rare that people publicly criticise Khamenei, who is regarded by his supporters as being incapable of error.

“The popular (1979) revolution brought freedom and independence for the country in the name of Islam, but now you lead a system in which legitimate freedoms and the rights of the people are being trampled on in the name of Islam,” the MPs said in the letter.

“Institutions under your supervision, after four years of humiliating the elected parliament and thwarting (reform) bills, have now deprived the people of the most basic right – the right to choose and be chosen,” the letter said.

The letter was sent to Khamenei on Monday. It was not expected to be published in Iranian newspapers.

An MP who signed the letter, Reza Yousefian, said Khamenei has not reacted by this afternoon and he and his colleagues in the outgoing parliament did not expect him to react.

“The state-media have ignored, and will ignore, the letter because the rulers don’t want the nation even to hear criticism of Khamenei. But who doesn’t know in this country that freedom has been slaughtered in the name of Islam by few unelected clerics,” he said.

But President Khatami turns the other cheek:

Reformist President Mohammad Khatami on Monday urged Iranians to turn out and vote in parliamentary elections this week to prevent hard-liners from winning, even if the mass disqualification of pro-reform candidates meant the elections were not fair.

“What has happened has satisfied some and angered many others, but this anger should not push people not to take part in the elections,” the embattled president said in a statement carried by the official news agency IRNA.

“Many people have the feeling that in many constituencies, they cannot vote for their preferred candidate. But with a little tolerance, they can search to find those candidates who are closest to their views,” Khatami wrote, adding: “Even if they cannot send the person they want to the Majlis, they can prevent those they do not want from entering.”

In a clear reference to religious hard-liners, he said “nonparticipation in elections would allow a minority to take control of the destiny of the country.

“We must fight with all our strength to defend religious democracy,” said the president.

Other reformers are giving up on the system:

A leading Iranian dissident has launched a new attack on the country's clerical establishment. In an open letter, jailed academic Hashem Aghajari said efforts to reform the system of government had failed and he called for passive resistance.

Mr Aghajari made the comments just before the 20 February elections from which hardline clerics have excluded thousands of pro-reform candidates.

The reformist camp has conceded it is poised for defeat at the polls.

Mr Aghajari said that organising an "unfree election" marked an end for hope of reforms from within.

He blamed reformist President Mohammad Khatami for lacking the "will and courage" to bring about the change that he said most Iranians wanted.

He said the current generation should be given the right to choose its own structure of government and called for "passive resistance" to what he described as totalitarianism.

Mr Aghajari has long been a critic of the establishment. He was sentenced to death two years ago after he questioned the clergy's right to rule.

The verdict sparked weeks of student demonstrations in his support and the death sentence was later quashed by the supreme court.

Meanwhile, Iran has pledged to sell nuclear fuel to other members of the international community. But when it comes to the question of Iran's nuclear ambitions, the news is unsettling:

The Iranian government, confronted with new evidence obtained from the secret network of nuclear suppliers surrounding Abdul Qadeer Khan, has acknowledged that it possesses a design for a far more advanced high-speed centrifuge to enrich uranium than it previously revealed to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The centrifuge, called a "Pak-2" because it represents Pakistan's second-generation design, would allow Iran to produce nuclear fuel far more quickly than the equipment that it reluctantly revealed to the agency last year. But it is unclear that Iran succeeded in building the new equipment, which is the type that the Khan network sold to Libya in recent years.

Some details of Iran's shift were reported in The Financial Times on Thursday. Iran's new statements to the agency, which last year compelled the country to open to fuller inspections, are important for two reasons. They provide the first evidence that Iran did not tell the full truth when it turned over to the agency documents that it said described all the important elements of its program to enrich uranium. The enrichment program, Iran admitted at the time, had been conducted in secret and out of the view of international inspectors for 18 years.

The revelation has also touched off a debate within the American and European intelligence communities over whether the Khan network also sold a full weapon design to Iran, similar to the one found in Libya.

"It's natural to question whether the Iranians got everything the Libyans did," one senior administration official said. "Why wouldn't they?"

And consider this story:

Iran failed to declare sensitive designs for uranium enrichment centrifuges to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, calling into question the Islamic republic's cooperation with the agency, diplomats told Reuters Thursday.

Several Western diplomats told the news agency on condition of anonymity that information from Libya and other countries had led to the discovery of the designs, which could be used to develop machines to produce weapons-grade material.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials have expressed concerns about the existence of a global nuclear black market that has helped countries under embargo such as Iran, North Korea and Libya skirt international sanctions and obtain nuclear technology that could be used to make weapons.

Bear in mind, as always, that the actions of the Iranian regime, do not reflect the actions of the Iranian people. Via Porphyrogenitus we have this story which speaks to the disconnect between the regime and the populace:

On Revolution Day, the Iranian equivalent of the Fourth of July, Azadi Street was again transformed from east-west artery to carnival midway. Men lined up for free yogurt. Hawkers coaxed women to finger the material of baby clothes. Children clamored for a turn throwing darts at George W. Bush.

Hossein Asadi put three darts right between the eyes of the caricature, sketched on a pair of boards mounted in a sideshow tent. He walked away with a new yellow tennis ball but no change in his feelings, which were nothing if not admiring.

“They like me to hit George Bush, so I hit George Bush,” said Hossein, 15. “They say it’s the Great Satan, but I say it’s a great country.

“I’ve seen nothing bad from the Americans.”

Wednesday marked 25 years since an elderly Muslim cleric with eyes the color of coal declared Iran a theocracy. But while religious figures remain firmly in charge here, sweeping aside an entire reform movement last week with the stroke of a pen, another pillar of the revolution appears shakier.

Anti-Americanism is not what it used to be in Iran.

As the United States and Iran edge warily toward possible rapprochement, the Iranian public makes no secret of its appetite for restoring relations formally severed in 1980, after militant students took over the U.S. Embassy here. In recent months, Iranians say, the appetite has grown for an unexpected reason: Iranian pilgrims returning from Iraq are spreading admiring stories of their encounters with American troops.

Thousands of Iranians have visited the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala since the war ended. Many have expressed surprise at the respectful and helpful behavior of the U.S. soldiers they met along the way.

Leila Araki, waiting in the back of a Renault sedan as her husband peddled shoes, recalled that her mother-in-law somehow lost her money on the road to Karbala. She said a U.S. soldier reached into his pocket and handed her taxi fare back to Najaf.

“This is something quite contrary to what we have been told about Americans,” said Araki, 31, who was told of Americans flashing thumbs-up and saying, “Good, Iranians.”

“They were really surprised. I would never be this respected and well-treated even in my country, by my countrymen.”