Two Iranian diplomats stationed in Europe defected this past week – Farzad Farhangian in Brussels and Hossein Alizadeh in Finland – in protest to last year’s contested presidential election. Meanwhile, the US has imposed new sanctions on Iran, and Green Movement members have continued to demonstrate against the government. Learn more about these and other issues in this episode of The Week in Green, an ongoing series from Iran comprised largely of footage shot on cell phones and small cameras and smuggled out of the country.

After weeks of uncertainty in the middle of Nepal’s contention parliamentary elections, the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) is now set to last four more months. The country’s acting government and the opposition UCPN Maoists have reached an agreement to extend the UNMIN’s mandate, which was to end on September 15. (Watch a related story here.)

Nepal’s caretaker Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Maoist Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal reached the agreement late Monday at the prime minister’s residence. This was the first time Chairman Dahal was present in the prime minister’s residence since he resigned in May 2009.

Earlier, the government and Maoists had sent separate letters to the UN. The government had requested the UN to monitor Maoist’s militants only, whereas the Maoists had requested the UN to monitor both the armies.

According to the final agreement, the UNMIN will monitor both the Nepal army and Maoist militants. The government and Maoists have also agreed to integrate and rehabilitate the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) combatants within four months starting in mid-September. Integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist militants is one of the major tasks that the political parties have failed to do in the last two years. The interim constitution states that integration and rehabilitation should be completed within 6 months of the initiation of the constitution assembly, which has been around now for over two years.

-Rajneesh Bhandari

Nepal’s cabinet decided that the prime minister should have the final say on whether or not the UN mission can remain in Nepal – the problem is, the parliament failed once again to elect a prime minister.

On Tuesday Nepal staged its seventh attempt in more than two months to agree on a successor to Madhav Kumar Nepal, who is now a caretaker prime minister. It was Nepal’s cabinet that decided the fate of the UN mission rests with the prime minister, acting or not. However, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon wants the future of the mission to be decided after the formation of a new government. (Check out a related post here.)

In the seventh run-off election, neither of the leading candidates – Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda of Nepal’s largest party Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (UCPN-M) and Ramchandra Paudel, vice chairman of the second largest party Nepali Congress (NC) – received a needed majority vote. This didn’t come as a surprise, as UML and other madhes-based parties have remained neutral in the voting so far and show no signs of altering their stance.

So what will happen to the UN mission? It seems the caretaker prime minister will have no other option than to decide. The UN mission is currently scheduled to end on September 15, and the eighth round of elections will only happen on September 26. And as of now now there is no indication the eighth run-off election will have any different outcome than the seventh.

If you were in Iran this past week and wanted to use the internet, most likely you had some problems. In the run-up to al-Quds day, the Iranian government slowed internet speeds, making sights like Yahoo, Facebook and Goggle virtually inaccessible. Learn about this and other issues in the latest episode of The Week in Review, an ongoing series from Iran comprised largely of footage shot on cell phones and small cameras and smuggled out of the country.

From initiating the Bushehr nuclear power plant to unveiling a new surface-to-surface missile, Iran has been defiantly flexing its muscles in the face of international sanctions. Meanwhile, the government has continued cracking down on political dissidents and even introduced tougher laws on advertisements about house pets. Learn more about these and other issues in The Week in Review, an ongoing series about Iran’s Green Movement, comprised largely of footage shot on cell phones and small cameras and smuggled out of the country.

It has been more than seven weeks that Nepal is without a prime minister.

For the fifth consecutive time, none of the candidates received enough votes to claim the majority. Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal got only 246 votes in his. Nepali Congress’s Parliamentary Leader Ram Chandra Paudel garnered only 124 votes.

The inability to elect the New Prime Minister has affected the peace process and writing for new constitution. It has also affected the working atmosphere in government offices.

Critics claim that the Maoist Supremo Prachanda’s failure to win the election has affected his image in Public. The next election will be held on September 5, 2010. But it is still not clear whether Nepal will get a new prime minister on that date, with the growing indifference among political parties.

CPN UML and Madhes-based parties who have got winning votes have remained neutral in the voting that took place five times.

–Rajneesh Bhandari

In the past week, there have been signs of rifts among Iran’s ruling elite. In particular, Iran’s Supreme Ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Ayatollah Komeini said Iran will not sit down for talks with the US until sanctions are lifted, directly contradicting President Ahmadinejad. Learn more about this and other Green Movement issues in this episode of “The Week in Green.”

With international sanctions mounting and oil sales falling, Iran plans to switch its reserve currencies from dollars and Euros to the Iranian Rial. Iran’s first vice president said the country would no longer trade oil in these “filthy” currencies. Along with a hunger strike, religious persecution and more evidence about 2009′s rigs presidential election, this episode of “The Week in Green” charts Iran’s political unrest.

There was a hope today that Nepal will get a new prime minister. But Nepal has failed to elect a new one for the fourth time in a month after Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned from power. In the fourth round of election held on Friday, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal bagged 213 votes while his opponent Nepali Congress’s Ram Chandra Poudel garnered 122 votes.

The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML) and an alliance of four Madhes-based parties today decided to abstain from voting. While parliamentarians gathered on Friday in the House in New Baneshwore to vote for their candidate, a dozen lawmakers missed the opportunity as they arrived too late. Deputy Prime Minister Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar and a few others reached the House after the doors were already closed and voting started.
 
Just a few hours ahead of voting, the Communist Party of Nepal ML split up after serious disputes erupted over choosing a candidate. The Indian Government sent former ambassador to Nepal Shyam Sharan to help broker a deal between the three major political parties, but the attempt failed as none of the nominees got a majority.

It has been over a month since the prime minister resigned, and such a power vaccuum is uncommon even for Nepal. People are confused and hoping that the next election – some two weeks away – will bring needed certainty.

- Rajneesh Bhandari

Watch an interview with Rajneesh below:

Fasting political prisoners, street protests, a ban on music – these are just some of the stories happening in this week in Iran. This episode of “The Week in Green” examines Iran’s political tensions and the Green Movement’s continuing activities.