NewsTrust - Iran - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Russia says action on Syria, Iran may go nuclear

Thu, 17 May 2012 19:57:20 -0700

Reuters - May. 17 - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned on Thursday that military action against sovereign states could lead to a regional nuclear war, starkly voicing Moscow's opposition to Western

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The False Debate About Attacking Iran

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Nicholas D. Kristof - Mar. 24 (Opinion) - There really isn't such a debate .. credible experts are overwhelmingly on one side.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Exclusive: Of diapers and drugs, Iran's trouble paying bills

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - Mar. 21 - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Like everyone, Iranians need diapers. Fred Harrington has built a business by selling Iran the raw materials to make them.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Only Option on Iran

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Carl Bildt, Erkki Tuomioja - Mar. 20 (Opinion) - We are deeply concerned about all the loose talk regarding a possible military attack on Iran because of the growing uncertainty over parts of its nuclear program. Not only would such an attack be a clear violation of the charter of the United Nations. It could have severely negative repercussions across the region..

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Deterring Iran is the best option

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Fareed Zakaria - Mar. 15 (Opinion) - On Iran, there is no other good option.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

A better understanding of Iran might save us from catastrophe

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Peter Beaumont - Mar. 11 (Opinion) - As Israel plays up the country's nuclear threat, the west should be seeking active dialogue with Tehran "Actions," said Samuel Johnson in his life of the English poet Abraham Cowley, "are visible." What are secret, Johnson added pointedly, are "motives". In the case of Iran's nuclear programme what we know of Tehran's actions and motives are the following. With some degree of "overall credibility" – according to the 2011 board of governors' report from the International Atomic Energy Agency – we know that Tehran, in all likelihood, made active studies of technologies associated with nuclear weapon design and payload design. By and large, the report believes, that activity ceased in 2003, coincident with the US-led invasion of Iraq. We know, too, because it has been even more visible, that Iran has come close to mastering the nuclear fuel cycle as well, including enrichment of uranium up to 20%. The problem with the present dangerous debate, as it has been framed ever-more closely ...

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

How Iran might respond to Israeli attack - BBC News

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

BBC News - Mar. 07 (Opinion) - How Iran might respond to Israeli attack BBC News By Jonathan Marcus BBC Diplomatic Correspondent Iran has made it clear that if it is attacked either by Israel or the United States it will respond in kind. But just what could Iran do to strike back? What would be the consequences, both in the region ... Obama: no need to choose now on Iran strike AFP Obama says new Iran talks should calm "drums of war" Reuters Obama: Iran Policy Critics Talking With 'Bluster' BusinessWeek CNN Washington Post Haaretz all 9,534 news ...

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Iran chokes Internet at politically sensitive time

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:05:00 -0800

Dawn - By Afp - Feb. 13 - The strangulation of the Internet is making life very difficult for many Iranian businesses.—File photo Access to the Internet’s most-used sites and tools is being choked in Iran at a politically charged period, blocking communication channels for local

NewsTrust Rating: 2.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

At War Blog: What Iraqis Think of the American Withdrawal: Mosul and Basra

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Stephen Farrell, Baghdad Bureau - Dec. 15 (Opinion) - At opposite ends of the country, Basra and Mosul are Iraq's second- and third-largest cities, but with two very distinct populations.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

U.S. Senate Passes Iran Oil Sanctions as EU Blacklist Grows

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:51:00 -0800

Business Week - Dec. 02 - (Updates with oil settlement prices in 11th paragraph.) Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate took aim at the Iranian central bank in an effort to choke off oil exports, while the European Union stopped short of targeting crude as it tightened sanctions

NewsTrust Rating: 1.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

EU adds more sanctions against Iran

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:54:00 -0800

The Independent - Dec. 01 - Europe stepped up economic and diplomatic sanctions against Iran today, in a move Foreign Secretary William Hague said was not prompted by the attack on the UK embassy in Tehran. At talks with fellow EU foreign ministers Mr Hague welcomed what he describ

NewsTrust Rating: 1.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Obama rebukes 2012 rivals (Politico)

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Politico - By Carrie Budoff Brown,Jennifer Epstein - Nov. 14 - Politico - Obama dipped briefly into the Republican presidential nominating contest Sunday.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Iran nuclear report: IAEA claims Tehran working on advanced warhead - The Guardian

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - Nov. 08 - Iran nuclear report: IAEA claims Tehran working on advanced warhead The Guardian The UN's nuclear watchdog will publish new details on Wednesday on alleged Iranian work on an advanced design for a nuclear warhead developed with the help of a former Soviet scientist, according to nuclear experts. The report by the International ... Iran ready and able to build a nuclear bomb, UN watchdog warns the world Telegraph.co.uk Iran is on the threshold of gaining nuclear capability Economic Times Ahmadinejad warns against attack on Iran in lead up to nuclear report National Post eTaiwan News ABC News all 2,533 news ...

NewsTrust Rating: 4.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

US Is Planning Buildup in Gulf After Iraq Exit - New York Times

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:54:19 -0700

New York Times - Oct. 29 - New York TimesUS Is Planning Buildup in Gulf After Iraq ExitNew York TimesThe Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait ...and more »

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

OPINION: An Interview With Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:29:19 -0700

New York Times - Sep. 21 (Opinion) - While speaking with the Op-Ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, the Iranian president discusses Syria, the 2009 uprising in his own country and whether Iran is a better democracy than the United States.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Iran should pay damages, 9/11 family members say - Boston Globe

Sat, 21 May 2011 01:21:48 -0700

Associated Press - May. 21 - Sydney Morning HeraldIran should pay damages, 9/11 family members sayBoston GlobeAP / May 21, 2011 NEW YORK — Lawyers representing 9/11 families are asking a federal judge to find Iran culpable in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, saying new evidence shows Iranian officials had advanced word of the attacks and helped train the ...Lawyers ask judge to link Iran, 9/11NewsOK.comIran had prior info about 9/11 strikes, defectors tell courtTimes of IndiaUS lawsuit alleges Iran helped plan September 11 attacksFOX43.comDaily Mail -Sydney Morning Herald -Fox Newsall 261 news articles »

NewsTrust Rating: 2.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Arab Spring's Impact on U.S.-Iran Rivalry

Thu, 19 May 2011 09:08:27 -0700

Frontline - May. 19 - [ Q&A ] w/ Ellen Laipson, president and CEO of the Stimson Center. How has the Arab spring changed the strategic environment for U.S.-Iran relations? Turbulence in Arab politics will have both direct and indirect effects on U.S.-Iran relations. The uncertain outcomes -- specifically which countries other than Tunisia, Egypt and possibly Yemen undergo leadership or systemic changes -- will mean that neither Tehran nor Washington can be sure who their friends and partners will be. Several Arab states may redefine their foreign policies. In Egypt, policies may be less closely coordinated with Washington, less premised on the 1979 peace treaty with Israel as an anchor of its regional relationships, and more focused on reasserting Egypt's historic role as a leader and driver of Arab politics. [Persian] Gulf countries, while still willing to partner with the United States on the threat from Iran and radical extremism, are moving to a more assertive posture. Their strong defense of Bahrain's monarchy suggests that the Sunni-Shiite tensions aroused over the past decade or more in Lebanon and then Iraq could well reemerge as a defining issue for the [Persian] Gulf states. All this suggests that the regional relations among Arab states, between the Arabs and Iran, and between the region and the United States, are in flux. In the best case, a more confident and at least partly democratic Arab world would find its own ways of managing the challenge of Iran's role in the region. A region with several power centers -- including Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia -- would be better able to coordinate on regional security, and to provide a counter-balance to Iran's ambitions and influence in the region. Such a development would indirectly converge with U.S. interests and strategies. But tensions are emerging between Arab republics, which are mired in messy transitions, and the monarchies of the [Persian] Gulf, Morocco and Jordan, which are defending the status quo or incremental reform. The shifting regional dynamics suggest that the United States and Iran will continue to compete over which country best embodies the values and aspirations of the peoples of the Middle East. This may not be central to the prospects for a positive change in U.S.-Iran relations, but it will be part of the strategic context in which the long saga of U.S.-Iran relations takes place. So far, how has the Arab spring altered U.S. or Iranian influence in the region? In the short run, both Iran and the United States have diminished influence. Events since January have been largely domestic. Each society is focused on its own history, its capacity to change, and an effort to find a new political equilibrium that better reflects the people's will. The activists who made the Arab spring are proud of the fact that they worked without outside help or interference. So all outside parties have been observers more than participants, and all are scrambling to learn more about the new and potential leaders of Arab societies and states. How significant is the resumption of Egypt-Iran relations? Will Iran be able to make new alliances with changes in Arab leadership? Egypt and Iran have been in a cold war since Egypt's commitment to peace with Israel three decades ago. Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Araby, who was recently elected Arab League secretary-general, said that Egypt wanted good relations with all states, including Iran. But the requisite legal and diplomatic steps to resume relations have not yet been taken. Resuming ties between two pivotal states would obviously be seen as an achievement for Iran and a setback for the United States, which has urged all countries to isolate Iran through political and economic pressures until it changes policy on its controversial nuclear program. But even if diplomatic relations are restored, most Arab states are likely to remain concerned about Tehran's intentions and ability to destabilize individual countries or regional relations. Arab states may be less intensely focused on Iran's nuclear activities, and more on Iran's ability to foment sectarian tensions or to encourage Hezbollah and other allies to provoke conflict with Israel. So Iran may well make some advances in formal state-to-state relations, but true alliances with major Sunni Arab states are not likely. How will the Syrian uprising affect the rivalry between the United States and Iran for influence in the region? Syria's turmoil has posed a great challenge to Iran, as Syria is Iran's most important and close relationship in the Arab world. Reports suggest that Iran is providing direct assistance to the crackdown against protestors. Many observers see similarities between Iran's treatment of its opposition since the disputed 2009 presidential election and the Syrian government's crackdown. The U.S. position is slowly becoming more assertive against the regime of President Bashar Assad, as the brutality and the human cost of the crackdown increases. The fall of the Assad regime would be a grave setback for Iranian influence in the region. But external powers with deep interests in Syria as a regional actor, including the United States, France and other EU members, have not yet declared their support for systemic regime change, given the uncertainty about what would emerge after this long dictatorship. Change in Syria over time would be a gain for the West and a significant loss for Iran. Ellen Laipson, president and CEO of the Stimson Center, worked on Iran and other Middle East issues on the National Security Council, the National Intelligence Council and at the Congressional Research Service. This article is presented by Tehran Bureau, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars as part of the Iran project at iranprimer.usip.org.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Food, Politics, and the Iranian Way of Water

Tue, 10 May 2011 14:21:31 -0700

Frontline - May. 10 - The life and near death of the qanat system. [ personal history ] It is hard to imagine that many are aware of such a threshold. Certainly, birth and death and certain events sprinkled in between are well recognized. In Persian, the final event is "giving age" -- age being an ordinal, singular entity, at the end of which you give it back and are thus relieved of your obligations. The equivalent of to age is "doing age," and to have done your age means you are done with your life. A 20-billion-year-old mountain "has been there for a lifetime," and so has a cucumber patch. We understand life and lifetime by their context. A handful of decades for the patch; two pairs of handfuls of epochs for the other. Thus, my coming of age occurred with no awareness that such a "thing" actually existed. Like the generation gap, teenage angst, middle age, and many other facile concepts, the process of "coming of age" has little to do with its conventional representation. There seem to be no ill symptoms from the lack of awareness of such things. Anyhow, this essay is about a political coming of age, which unlike in movies and novels is not about personal, but social development. In fact, it is about "giving age," or actually, "taking age" -- that is, taking life and giving it up, both political acts. Date certain, my first memorable sense of life was at the sight of hitherto obvious forms, infants to grandmothers and then the more interesting types in between, which unlike on past occasions suddenly turned not so obvious one day in a bathhouse in the windy city of Damghan. A life jolt that started "age" ticking, soon after which I was weaned from female baths. Similarly, a few years later, another moment of recognition, when after a restful night's sleep after having destroyed a bird picking at figs on my favorite tree with a single shot, I suddenly concluded that I didn't like to kill any more and immediately let my gun fly out the window. The window was open because it was hot. It was in a compartment in a train speeding through the desert. Later, a parallel feeling bloomed when I realized that that which had allowed the fig tree, the bird, the bathhouse, those in it, and me to exist was being destroyed and dying. The bathhouse, its occupants, and all other types of life were supported by it, as were their ancestors. They existed in a place, arid and hot, not conducive to higher forms of life. In this case, there was no window through which I could jettison the cause of death. What allowed all this was the qanat system -- long subterranean tubes with holes drilled on one side at regular intervals, like buried flutes magically delivering sweet water to otherwise desolate places hostile to life. This essay is about politics, or life, food, sex, babies, smiles, laughter, music, and joy. It looks at these subjects from the perspective of the qanat, which allowed such things to flourish on the Iranian plateau, oh, from about four millennia ago. It is about abundant water and its sudden disappearance. My knowledge of this ancient system comes from my involvement in my father's agriculture business, and then his work as general director of the Ministry of Agriculture, which turned into the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reform, and soon after, the Ministry of Agricultural Corporations. My family's agricultural business started early last century, and per the ministry's 1989 classifications, the holdings had been medium-sized for much of the 1950s and '60s. They shrank to mere patches by the late '60s due to an imposed imperial "revolution." During this critical decade, I witnessed the death of two intertwined systems, agriculture and qanats. In just over a decade, Iran's agriculture petrified from an environmentally harmonious organism into a brutally mechanized "man knows better" system, dependent on technological and chemical life support. If something analogous is done to a person, the perpetrator is jailed. Done to a nation, the culprit is good business. Tragedy in the former case, statistics in the latter. Even if we adjust for population growth, Iran turned from a self-sufficient and net agricultural exporter to a net importer. Meanwhile, disenchanted young farmers left their land for shanties around Tehran in hope of industrial employment. Modernity had succeeded, nature was beaten, and for the unwitting victims the only savior seemed to be religion. Water and politics have been inseparable in Iran's history. It was not surprising that the death of qanats lead to the destabilization of Iran's society and politics, and finally derailed its economic independence and any hope for autonomy and freedom. This land, mother of civilizations, was not prepared for the iron-fisted assault from the West -- a neo-Alexandrian cultural attack. Iran succumbed to the allure of steel-cast promises that then proceeded to bleed its veins dry. When the qanats that had kept Iran alive for millennia were stopped, it was the end of a culture. Iran's ravaged body writhes, but it will die. The basis of its culture is nearly dead, its way of life nearly gone. An inevitable march of history? A sinister plot? Or mismanagement by imperial marionettes? I will not hold my breath awaiting historians' verdicts. I believe what transpired was premeditated and orchestrated. Although a dust cloud still shrouds this recent period, I will try to guide you through it and point out circumstantial evidence to support my claim. There is nothing sentimental about this presentation -- passages that ring so are provided to emphasize the effect of immersion in the ecosystem at a very young age. It is only later on that one realizes its value and uniqueness, which no formal education can afford. Descriptions from my youth are grounded in first-hand experiences and I have tried to stay as true to them as memory allows. Bread and tea -- vanishing icons Before coming to the United States to study, I traveled regularly from Tehran to Varamin, Semnan, Damghan, and Shahrood. We had family and farmland in these cities, spread between Tehran and Mashhad. Millennia before us, trade routes skirting the central desert had given birth to these cities. I also visited dozens of other cities, where family, friends, and colleagues lived. I thus experienced all manner of farming around Iran -- in plains and mountains, frigid, tropical, and sere. Mostly arid plains, mostly on the periphery of the central desert. A desert's memory is indelible. A vastness that once experienced, forever absorbs everything. Words, music, images, and other art are not immune to this draw. If they rate, they will enter the imagination and find a place within the infinite memory of the desert. The memory is boundless -- a dome where the universe, represented by its stars, extends from horizon to horizon and all around. Infinity gets etched in the mind. Thereafter, all things get evaluated against that scale, subconsciously. The two-lane semipaved road, flanked on the north by stoic mountains and by the vast, restless desert to the south, appears in that memory as a wavy gray ribbon. Under the mercurial force of winds of distant origin, the desert recasts itself. The mountains watch gracefully and tirelessly, even after the billionth variation. We can behold no more than a short episode of this ancient dance from that gray ribbon. Whenever we stopped, to stretch our legs or allow rest for whoever was negotiating the road, I would bound from our metal-and-canvas desert dinghy of a World War II Jeep to enjoy the two-palette stage that life has developed in that narrow stage between the nurturing mountains and the temperamental desert, the selfless, noble mother and its playful, thirsty child. Beautiful animals, insects and reptiles, fly, bound, and crawl, filling a beige-to-gray palette festooned with dashes of brilliant color on wing and limb and body, to be flashed at the sight of an appealing mate. The other palette, assembled by native plants, flows from gray to green, also with dabs of brilliant hue in floral cups and chalices that invite insects to nourishing nectars. The insects in turn help to expand the gracious plants' gene pool. My father, a highly experienced agronomist, was addicted to the "plains," as he called that region. He showed me that just feet below the desert's crisp surface is sufficient moisture for all this life. The plants suck it up and pass it to insects as nectar. The reptiles dig into the damp soil, which loosens it and allows plants to reach deep for moisture. The reptiles are rewarded by the succulent insects the plants then fatten for them. When noon strikes on a summer day, mirages shimmer over dry riverbeds. The undulating layer of heat above the searing stones is reminiscent of the hot air that hypnotizes the gaze into the oven of a baker of sangak -- that delicate, almost ephemeral flatbread baked in deep, gently sloping ovens lined with loose pebbles, heated as if to challenge the surface of the sun. The baker pulls off and puts down a fistful of whole wheat dough that has risen overnight onto a long-handled wooden paddle, spreads it with his palms and fingers, then glides the paddle, hovering just above the scalding pebbles, deep into the oven, flips it over, catches the far tip of the dough on the pebbles, and then with a steady motion pulls the paddle back, stretching the dough out like a thin, yard-long robe onto the hot pebbled bed. The dough transforms into bread in minutes. His apprentice at the ready stabs the now tanned robe with a long metal hook and pulls it out, in a rush of synchrony with the baker who is ready in turn to repeat the procedure for the next fistful of dough spread on his paddle. People seldom argued that Tehran's sangak was the best. I understood that it was due to the combination of the city's wonderful water and the special wheat used for the dough. This was in the late 1950s to the mid-1960s. During each subsequent visit home, it seemed there was an accelerating qualitative and quantitative deterioration of sangak. The delicacy was diminishing as the bakeries vanished. Essays and entire books have been written about this bread. It has inspired works of art both classical and modern. It is a symbol of a culture that threads through layers of society. It is more ubiquitous in Iranian cinema than the baguette is in the French counterpart. Except that you can keep a baguette for a few hours. Sangak is like a kiss. It has to be tasted with its inherent warmth. You can't revive it by toasting it, like you can with a baguette. Sangak is ephemeral. A short delay and a kiss turns premeditated, without spontaneity. The sight of a child running in an alley to deliver a hot sangak to his family's table is a primordial expression of small fundamental pleasures. The shimmers above hot riverbeds connect with the nation's favorite bread beyond imagery. They raise the inevitable questions: How have people survived in this ovenlike climate? And how did they manage to plant wheat in this parched land to make such amazing bread? Agriculture in climates typical of most of Iran is not short of miracles. The prerequisite is a vast supply of water, equal to several times that of the Colorado River. Yes, the one that is diverted through hundreds of miles of manmade canals and pump stations into southern California to help feed millions. Yet the 300-mile-long route we traversed each way, on the edge of the desert, was spotted with vibrant towns about 30 miles apart, with their attendant villages, cradled by substantial farmland. By late spring, rivers resembling sangak ovens suggest: pray for an early fall. Thick dust on dark tree leaves suggest no heavenly gifts either. Yet a bite into a peach there suggests an invisible abundance. These oases are lush. One couldn't squeeze as much water from a yard of local soil as there is in a single peach. Miracle indeed. On these frequent journeys, we would stop at certain roadside venues. Teahouses mostly. The most popular one, about an hour east of Tehran, was at Sharifabad. It seemed that anything on that shimmering ribbon stopped at Sharifabad -- to fill apparently unlimited jugs and pots and containers of every imaginable shape, and of course, to drink tea made from the water streaming through the pair of oval mouths that one could barely make out on the sides of the nearby hills. The teahouse was on a small island between two streams of crystalline water. Even sheep flocked to drink and wade in the streams. A few local kids constantly shooed the animals from the streams' upper banks to keep the water potable, or at least give that assurance to their clientele. They were tipped almost religiously, as if they were mortal offspring of Anahita, the god of water. Given that most become immunized by age two against whatever water natively bears, and which is in fact happy to coexist with us, the only reason to keep the sheep downstream is not to ruin the water's acidity and mineral content for good tea. Which is highly anti-bacterial and encourages the phobia instilled by modern medicine -- which by tackling harmless germs makes of them scourges -- to disappear. Equally good water streamed into Tehran through a stone-framed rectangular mouth, seven feet by four with a constant roar. That was Qanat-e Shah. In fact, to ascertain that a person of my vintage is from Tehran, either Sharifabad or Qanat-e Shah must be in their recollections about water, tea, and the long crisp melons known as kharbozeh. Otherwise, they could not have lived in Tehran "back then." Shared pleasures of a place and its moments build communal memories. If you don't know of Sharifabad kharbozeh, you are not from Tehran of the 1950s and '60s. I left for the United States in 1968. Afterward and until the change of regime in 1979, subsidized student flights allowed us to visit home each summer. On later trips, I would accompany my father not to the minuscule remnants of our "reformed" lands, but to agricultural corporations that he had help set up to heal the wounds of the reforms. He was in charge of them around Iran. Nature is amazing, industry merely amusing. These trips could have been to Iowa, South Dakota, or Kansas, not that there is anything wrong with these places, only that there is nothing stirring about them. They produce. Huge amounts. Although I do recall a couple of remarkable things. These fields in Iran had few insects, just like in Kansas. Monsanto had taught the farmers not to waste time on old-fashioned organic pest control, but to adopt a scorched-earth policy. So, the earth had developed a chemical dependency there too -- just as in the midwestern United States. They were also fed mechanically to cajole uniform products. In two decades, much of Iran had become Kansas. We didn't have Dorothy, but we did have Evin, our own Leavenworth. Presumably it entertained bodies whose souls didn't agree with the wholesale damage to agriculture and nature. The vast green fields belied accelerating problems: damaged irrigation systems and degradation of land quality. Clearly the rapid drop in the quality and quantity of sangak was connected. So how did we end up talking about Kansas in Iran? Why is it important if there is more yield? Let me step back and explain. End of Part 1 by the same author | The Perfect Water for Tea. Photos: Sirvan River, from War Tourism blog; Mahmoud Pakzad, Bakery, Sangak bread, Tehran, Iran, 1958 Copyright © 2011 Tehran Bureau

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

A league of despots

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Post - By Amir Taheri - Apr. 20 (Opinion) - Believe it or not, by the start of 2011, the only Arab country that appeared safe and stable enough to host the summit was Iraq. Yes, the same Iraq of "quagmire" and "new Vietnam" repute. But Iraqis weren't keen on hosting the summit, either. Iraq's post-Saddam politicians prefer to emphasize "Iraqiness" (Uruqa) as opposed to "Arabness" (Uruba) -- not surprising in a country where non-Arabs are 30 percent of the population. Nevertheless, the Iraqis, tickled by being acknowledged as the only stable place in the "Arab World," agreed to host the summit. The man put in charge was Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari -- an ethnic Kurd who speaks literary Arabic with a Kurdish accent.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Bahrain crisis and its regional dangers - Foreign Policy

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 01:29:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - Mar. 23 - USA TodayThe Bahrain crisis and its regional dangersForeign PolicyThe Bahrain situation is exposing long simmering tensions and rivalries between Saudi Arabia and Iran and carries the danger that it will trigger the next regional war. Such a scenario would likely draw in the United States at a time when its ...Analysis: Oil interests muted Bahrain criticismVancouver SunBahrain Relies on Old Playbook in Its CrackdownWall Street JournalIran 'can do little' after GCC sends troops to Bahrain say analystsThe NationalCNN (blog) -UPI.com -GulfNewsall 1,459 news articles »

NewsTrust Rating: 3.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Iran's response to Middle East protests is muted

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 12:12:12 -0800

Washington Post - Mar. 09 - Washington PostIran's response to Middle East protests is mutedWashington PostWhen Shiite protesters took to the streets of Bahrain three weeks ago, US and Middle Eastern officials watched anxiously to see how Iran, the kingdom's notoriously meddlesome neighbor, would intervene. What happened - or didn't happen ...and more »

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Cairo's Protests Reverberate in Tehran

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Atlantic Monthly - By Reza Aslan - Feb. 09 (Opinion) - What Iran-watchers have been eagerly waiting to see is whether the dramatic success of the ongoing Arab push for democracy will reenergize the dormant Green Movement in Iran and get Iran's youth back onto the streets.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Clinton Seeks Arab Support For Iran Sanctions

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:27:07 -0800

NPR - Jan. 10 - CTV.caClinton Seeks Arab Support For Iran SanctionsNPRUS Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on a tour of Persian Gulf states, urged continued support for sanctions against Iran. ...U.S. urges continued pressure on IranLos Angeles TimesClinton in Persian Gulf for talks on Iran, Mideast peaceHa'aretzClinton: Sanctions Slowing Iran's Nuclear EffortsVoice of AmericaNew York Times -Wall Street Journal -BusinessWeekall 1,510 news articles »

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Thank God It's Over: The Top 25 Moments of 2010

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Foreign Policy - Dec. 28 (Editorial) - With earthquakes in Haiti and western China, floods in Pakistan, a volcanic eruption in Iceland, and wildfires in Russia, the Earth was intent on releasing a lot of pent-up anger in 2010. Tremors and eruptions -- along with the more basic elements of fire and water -- seemed to shape the past year's events even more than traditional foreign policy actors. Meanwhile, Europe struggled to regain its economic footing, China continued to rapidly grow its GDP, Middle East peace talks crumbled, and world leaders misbehaved (we're looking at you, Vladmir Putin and Silvio Berlusconi). But there were bright spots, too: A group of Chilean miners escaped after enduring two months trapped underground and long-suffering Burmese democratic activist Aung San Suu Kyi was released after spending nearly two decades in detention and under house arrest. Here are a few glimpses of 2010's international high- and lowlights.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average - 10 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Fixes: How Iran Derailed a Health Crisis

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By By TINA ROSENBERG - Dec. 04 (Opinion) - How health officials established needle sharing programs in a repressive political atmosphere.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer