.

National Post:  Former Iranian president and reformer barred from leaving Iran

Free Iran:  Whether true or not, it’s a sign of the times that this possibility is even being contemplated.

TEHRAN — Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, a leading reformer, has been barred from travelling abroad, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Mr. Khatami supported opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi in the Islamic Republic’s disputed presidential election last June, which plunged the major oil producer into deep turmoil.

Fars cited an unnamed intelligence official as saying Mr. Khatami, who was president in 1997-2005, had intended to leave Iran, without giving details.

“Mohammad Khatami was barred from leaving the country,” Fars said.

Reuters:  Ally denies Khatami barred from leaving Iran

A close ally of Mohammad Khatami denied a report by a semi-official news agency Tuesday that the reformist former president had been barred from leaving Iran.

“No, it is not correct. Mr Khatami has not been barred from leaving the country,” the ally told Reuters.

The Globe and Mail:  Shift focus to Iran’s rights abuses, Nobel laureate urges

Peace Prize winner contends world is distracted by Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and has forgotten about its people.

“If Iran becomes democratic, the nuclear problem will be solved on its own.” Ms. Ebadi said in an interview in Ottawa Monday.

“In the last two to three years, the world focused on nuclear issues and they forgot about human-rights issues. So they basically behaved as if they didn’t care about what was happening to the people of Iran.”

Canada is among those countries that have pressed for sanctions to curb Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

But Ms. Ebadi does not agree with economic penalties.

Nor does she agree with military invasions. Those actions only cause further harm to the Iranian people, she said.

Instead, the Canadian government should stop issuing visas to Iranian government officials, Ms. Ebadi said. “Don’t let Iranian politicians come to Canada.”

And the Canadian people must not sit silent in the face of Iranian abuses, she said.

“When you hear about the arrests of human-rights activists in Iran, write to the ambassador of Iran and voice your objections against such arrests. Or tell your government to take a stand against the Iranian government when such issues come up.”

A group that calls itself the Committee of Mourning Mothers gathers in a park in Tehran every Saturday afternoon. Dressed in black, they walk silently with pictures of their children who were killed or imprisoned as part of a round-up of dissidents after the election last year.

“Every time there is one of these gatherings in the park, the police attack the protesters, they beat them, they disperse them and they arrest some of them,” she said.

“I have invited all women in the world to form committees in support of these mothers.”

LA Times:  No need to ban the bomb

Francis J. Gavin writes: We often portray the post-9/11 world as far more volatile and unsafe than the supposedly stable decades of the Cold War. In fact, nuclear proliferation pressures were greater, our adversaries more ruthless and powerful, and the risks of a nuclear catastrophe higher 40 years ago. Yet despite some close calls, the United States and the world avoided a nuclear calamity during this far more dangerous period.

There are lessons to be learned from the past. First, successful U.S. policies then focused less on who had nuclear weapons than on constructing policies to make sure they were never used, a subtle but important difference. When the United States made potential proliferators and their neighbors feel more secure (or less threatened), they were more likely to stay nonnuclear and, if they went nuclear, to behave more responsibly. Instead of preemption and coercion, a range of options including alliances, security guarantees, reassurance and deterrence drove strategy.

A smarter mix of these policies — instead of alarmist rhetoric, military threats and isolating sanctions — could stabilize nuclear politics in places such as the Middle East and East Asia, and build on our 65-year nuclear history of avoiding catastrophe.

.

Sancations:

Rooz:  Gasoline Price to Increase 300 Percent

AP:  Iran urges China to resist sanctions pressure

WP:  No U.S. word on Reliance’s fuel sale to Iran: India minister

Reuters:  Iran says hopes China won’t bow to sanctions pressure

Guardian:  US lifts web sanctions on Cuba, Iran and Sudan

ChinaDaily:  Ongoing Iran diplomacy needed

Rooz: Sanctions Against Iran

AFP:  Israeli deputy PM urges crippling sanctions on Iran

IHT:  To Bash Them Is to Help Them

Domestic:

Rooz:  Habibollah Peyman in Exclusive Interview with Rooz:  Green Movement Leaders Must Stay With People, in Iran

United4Iran:  Maziar Bahari at University of Toronto: Insecurity of Journalists in Iran (Video)

ICHR Iran:  Interview: Details of Bahai Students’ Deprivation of Education and Imprisonment of Right to Education Committee Members

Iran’s ruling systems viewpoint on “Sufism and mysticism”

US Policy:

MSNBC:  Biden: Israel and U.S. stand together

Michael Ledeen:  Iranian Clocks, Tick Tock, Tick Tock

Women:

RFE:  Iran’s Supreme Leader Tweets About Women’s Rights

Afghanistan:

CNN:  Iran’s Ahmadinejad to visit Afghanistan Coverage of same by:  RFE

Other:

AFP:  Iran officials lash out at ‘thug’ Petraeus

Onorbit:  “My Dream of Stars”, by Anousheh Ansari

RFE:  Iran Sees Political Motive Behind German Asylum Move

RFE:  The Blooming Friendship Between Azerbaijan And Israel

Variety:  Haram Iran

Marching forward: CIA Director Leon Panetta talks about war on terror

Time: Robert Baer: Did the Dubai Assassination Really Help Israel?