'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
A key House panel pushed through legislation Wednesday calling on the Obama administration to significantly broaden U.S. sanctions on Iran, just as the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency released a report saying the Islamic republic's nuclear program had made measurable advances.
As Washington surveys the landscape of the Middle East in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, it becomes clear that the ensuing chaos resembles something closer to a long, harsh winter than a hopeful beginning.
Intelligent and confident, Parisa, 23, is from what could be loosely termed a middle-class family and has a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from Islamic Azad University. On weekends, she sells her body for profit on the streets of North Tehran.
Shortly after Israeli warplanes struck inside Syria to take out Iranian missiles intended for Hezbollah, Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi said, "The attack carried out by the Zionist regime will shorten this fake regime's life."
Iran is teetering on the brink of political chaos in the wake of last week's news that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was arrested, questioned and warned to shut up by the heads of the Islamic regime's security forces before being released seven hours later.
Iran has kicked off a campaign to recruit volunteer fighters to join the Syrian regime and help President Bashar Assad battle rebel uprisings.
On the second day of President Obama's historic trip to Israel, the tension that had marked his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to thaw, even as Mr. Obama called on Israel's people and leaders to compromise in order to attain peace and security.
Iran's leading cleric vowed to take out Tel Aviv and Haifa if Israel ever dared launch at attack on the Islamic republic.
As the world focuses on the passing of Hugo Chavez and the impact of his socialist policies on oil-rich Venezuela, halfway around the globe a different kind of leader has been quietly transforming his country into a prosperous and reliable partner of the West.
This year has been widely hailed as a "year of decision" on Iran -- a moment when Western powers will need to make some hard choices about how far they are actually prepared to go to stop Iran's march toward developing a nuclear weapon.
Now that negotiations over Iran's illicit nuclear program have concluded, the Islamic regime is positive the West will start easing sanctions, not because Iran will halt its nuclear activity, but rather owing to a belief that the West has reached the end of its ability to pressure the regime.
An Iranian dissident group says Iraq's government had a hand in a rocket and mortar attack on its refugee camp north of Baghdad where seven people were killed and dozens injured earlier this month.
Iran's supreme leader is supposed to be many things in the eyes of his followers: spiritual mentor, protector of the Islamic revolution, a moral compass above the regular fray. Political referee is not among them. Yet that is the unfamiliar role Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has adopted as the political mudslinging gets heavier ahead of elections in June to pick a successor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced in early February at the Munich Security Conference that the United States would engage in bilateral talks with Iran over its illicit nuclear program. For four years, President Obama tried that.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced in early February at the Munich Security Conference that the United States would engage in bilateral talks with Iran over its illicit nuclear program. For four years, President Obama tried that. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now, to the peril of the world.
The resolution noted that "in August 2012, Supreme Leader Khamenei said of Israel, 'This bogus and fake Zionist outgrowth will disappear off the landscape of geography.'"
"Nobody cares about such things anymore, not in Tehran anyway," she says, laughing. "The police don't care. The mullahs don't care. And definitely these bache [kids] who pay me for my time don't care about their religion."
