It’s not surprising security is tight at the UN during the general assembly. We all expect to have to stand in long queues to pass through metal detectors at any gathering where Barack Obama is present, especially when he is joined by Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas, Muammar Gaddafi and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. No wonder there are snipers on top of the nearby hotels and sniffer dogs are roaming the streets.

But now it seems all the security is in the wrong place. The latest US terror alert issued yesterday is not warning of a possible attack against any of the world leaders visiting here or the United Nations itself. The most dangerous places in the city are apparently the sports stadiums. That’s where the police say they are now expecting the next Al Qaeda attack - a ball game is more likely to be hit than tomorrow’s meeting of the security council.

The Feds are warning that an Al-Qaeda training manual specifically lists “blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality, and sin … and attacking vital economic centres” as desired targets of the global terror network.

A joint statement from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI said while the agencies “have no information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack, we believe it is prudent to raise the security awareness of our local law enforcement partners regarding the targets and tactics of previous terrorist activity.”

They obviously don’t realise that all of their local law enforcement partners in New York (I assume they include the NYPD) are patrolling the weird array of protests outside the United Nations building.

Still, since it appears that the NYPD accidentally blew the surveilance of a terrorist suspect this month by questioning one of his friends about him, maybe the FBI will be happy if all the cops are kept out of the way.

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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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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.

read more

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Iran’s opposition supporters have a way of turning things upside-down and back-to-front in the Islamic Republic.

Many of them are secular, yet they go onto their balconies every night to shout “Allah Akbar,” putting the Basij militia, the vanguard of the Islamic Revolution, into the invidious position of telling people to stop praising God.

That’s why, after all these years of telling everyone it’s their duty to turn up for Friday prayers, it would have been hard for the authorities in Iran to tell people NOT to show up. read more

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I feel as if I went to bed in one country and woke up in another.

Yesterday, I saw thousands of Iranians laughing and happy as they queued in the sunshine to vote. Today, thuggish looking secret policemen with walkie-talkies stood on every street corner, while riot police with truncheons roared around the city on motorbikes beating up the same young people who had been dancing in the streets earlier in the week. The air was full of smoke and menace. read more

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An enormous thunderstorm has blown up over Tehran tonight. Maybe tomorrow’s election results will bring another kind of tempest.  

I’m cautious about opinion polling in Iran, but it’s clear that the opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi is at the very least a serious challenge to President Ahmadinejad, who seemed so secure just three weeks ago. read more

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ESFAHAN, IRAN – A video dispatch from this historic city, on one of the most passionately fought election campaigns I have ever seen anywhere:

(Read more from Esfahan here.)

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ESFAHAN, IRAN – I can bear witness to the fact that support for Ahmadinejad’s main rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi, is not confined to wealthy north Tehran.

We nearly got crushed in the crowd in Esfahan’s central square yesterday.

It wasn’t even the main man speaking but his prominent and much-loved supporter, former President Khatami. The crowd was mainly young, many with their faces painted green – Moussavi’s campaign colour. read more

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TEHRAN, IRAN – The biggest mosque in Tehran was full. It was, according to a true believer I met, the biggest rally ever, anywhere in the world. Their leader, president and presidential candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was to address them.

They screamed slogans, sang patriotic songs and waved national flags. Music blared from huge speakers. It was deafening. (One good thing about wearing a headscarf is that no-one can see you’ve put in earplugs.)

We were in a section around the stage. Two iron bars draped in white muslin kept back the crowd. Or rather, they didn’t. read more

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