Iran

A House committee, seeking to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, approved a bill Wednesday aimed at punishing Tehran by cutting off its access to gasoline and other refined petroleum products. The measure, which would give the president powers to take action against foreign companies that sell refined petroleum to Iran, is popular on Capitol Hill, and three-quarters of House members have cosponsored the legislation. But the measure could undermine Obama administration efforts to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear development program.

Recently, I attended a seminar on Cuba today. Reading Shireen Hunter's analysis of contemporary Iran ("Don't Expect Things to Change Overnight," Commentary, Feb. 14) gave me a shock of recognition. Both Cuba and Iran have population majorities born since their respective revolutions. Those young people are largely uninterested in the ideals that drove the revolutions; they have been attracted to a transnational material culture inescapable in a media-saturated world. Old revolutionaries, of all people, should know that you can't freeze time or stop history by fiat--but somehow, they never seem to learn.

Your Dec. 17 editorial on Iran suggests cautious dialogue with the Islamic republic. The truth of the matter is that we have short memories. Not long ago, the former president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, was hailed as the voice of moderation and harbinger of illusory change; he managed to rekindle hope in the hearts of many Iranians. However, when he was at the helm, very little changed with respect to human rights within the country and terrorism without. Your proposal to approach Iran sounds too optimistic and premature.

Re "Fear of Enemies Isn't Paranoia; U.S. Policy Invites Disaster," Commentary, June 7: The ability to maintain objectivity in the presence of intimacy is the essential difference between professionalism and mere expertise. The latter category is well illustrated by Sandra Mackey, an expert on Iran clearly seduced by familiarity with her subject. How else can we explain this apologist's failure to address Iran's record of support for international terrorism? This is a nation that put out a contract on Salman Rushdie, the citizen of another country, probably was instrumental in the downing of Pan Am Flight 103, and is well known to finance notorious organized terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton charged Friday that China and Iran have made "quite disturbing" gains in Latin America, the result of Bush administration efforts to isolate its adversaries in the hemisphere. In a blunt assessment and warning, Clinton said that while the Bush administration was working to make countries such as Venezuela and Cuba "international pariahs," China and Iran were building "very strong economic and political connections" across the region.

I was delighted to see Pahlavi's column. In a free and democratic society, there has to be a separation of church and state. Indeed, the current rulers of Iran promised just that before they took over. The whole concept of an "Islamic republic" is contrary to this ideal. As long as the mullahs run the country, they cannot afford to let any other faction oppose them as their existence depends on the rule of the mosque. They deal with demonstrations in a swift and brutal fashion. The Iranian propaganda machine has been successful in portraying the current rulers as moderates.

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when evaluating the deal negotiated by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for Iran to ship much of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey. On the one hand, the Obama administration is committed to multilateral diplomacy, and Brazil and Turkey are partners on the U.N. Security Council with, presumably, no more interest in a nuclear-armed Iran than the U.S. and Western Europe; they should be regarded as honest brokers.

Here's a prediction I don't think I'll have to apologize for at the end of the year: Some time in the coming months, probably this spring, there will be another crisis over Iran's nuclear program. It's become an annual event on the diplomatic calendar: The United States and its allies press Iran to stop enriching uranium, Iran says no, Israel warns that its patience is running out, and the United States persuades Israel to stay its hand. That's how the crisis has unfolded over the last two years.

Maybe it was someone's idea of a prank. Or maybe it was something much more serious. Either way, midfielder Adel Kolahkaj and everybody else involved in Sepahan's AFC Champions League match against Saudi Arabia's Al-Ahlion on Wednesday night were lucky to emerge unscathed after an explosive went off just outside of the playing area at Shahr Stadium in Iran. Play was stopped after debris apparently was thrown onto the field. Kolahkaj casually picked up a small, black object and tossed it out of the way. Just seconds after it left the player's hand, the object exploded.

Mitt Romney swatted at Ron Paul on Wednesday, a shift for the candidate who has largely ignored the Texas congressman and a possible sign at the shifting nature of the race in the state that in less than a week holds the first presidential voting contest in the nation. During a stop at a coffee shop here on the banks of the Mississippi River, a voter asked him about America's relationship with Israel. After arguing that President Obama has deeply damaged relations with a nation that is a vital United States ally, Romney turned to Iran and criticized Paul's isolationist foreign policy, though not by name.