On Saturday, Maziar Bahari was released from prison in Iran on bail. On Tuesday, he was allowed to fly to London to join his partner, Paola, who is expecting their first child.

It’s hard to find the words to express the relief and joy felt in the Channel 4 newsroom. Maziar, who is also a correspondent for Newsweek, has made films for us in Iran, Iraq and beyond. Our team worked alongside him in Tehran during the June elections. read more

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The International Atomic Energy Agency does not want to be held responsible for starting a war.

The IAEA and its director, Mohamed El Baradei, jointly won the Nobel peace prize in 2005 for their “efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy, for peaceful purposes, is used in the safest possible way”.

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“Iran has begun negotiations with the six major world powers in Geneva on a wide realm of global issues…. The Geneva meeting is based on Iran’s package of proposals released earlier this month.” read more

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Dozens of journalists have descended on Geneva for what’s expected to be the most futile diplomatic encounter of the year.

The Iranian nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, is to meet what some call the P5+1 and others the E3+3. That means the permanent five of the UN Security Council plus Germany, or – if you’d rather – three European countries (France, UK, Germany) + China, Russia and the USA.

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On Thursday negotiators will gather in Geneva for the first direct talks that have included American and Iranian diplomats for 30 years. It’s an important moment at a dangerous time, and the White House will obviously be watching very carefully what happens.

But it won’t be the European meeting that really has them biting their fingernails in the West Wing. That one takes place in Copenhagen on Friday when the IOC announces which city will host the 2016 summer Olympics – the next ones after London.

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Big news at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. The economics are having to take back seat to the huge news that America, Britain and France have known for ages that Iran has a second secret nuclear facility.

It’s a very major announcement that has re-jigged the president’s schedule and completely altered the agenda – for the 20 world leaders in attendance that is. Not for the spouses. They are bravely and resolutely sticking to their planned schedule. read more

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The Iranian government would have us believe that the opposition is dying, suppressed out of all existence.

Since mid July it’s been pretty much impossible for large crowds to gather – every time they do, basiij militia come out to beat people up or arrest them. The opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi said he had evidence that rape had been widely used in prisons.

And yet yesterday, when the government called people onto the streets for the official anti-Israel demonstrations, tens of thousands got out their green wristbands, green banners and posters and started shouting “Not Gaza, Not Lebanon, We will die for Iran!” read more

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Over the summer, the fog of ‘conspiracy’, ‘commercial deals’ and more have clouded around the fundamentals of what we know about the ‘early release’ of the convicted Libyan ‘Lockerbie bomber’.

I’ll be surprised if today’s release by Edinburgh and London of the ‘Lockerbie papers’ dispels the clouds significantly. read more

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At some parties the buzz is all about who’s there. The big issue at President Ahmadinejad’s inauguration was who wasn’t there.

There was a distinct lack of former presidents – no Khatami, no Rafsanjani. He wasn’t doing well on former parliamentary speakers either. No member of the late Imam Khomeni’s family.

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