Top Stories
Reuters: "Iran has intensified its crackdown on opponents as well as executions of drug traffickers, political prisoners and juvenile criminals, the United Nations said on Monday. In a report, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also voiced concern at floggings, amputations and the continued sentencing of men and women to death by stoning for alleged adultery. Journalists, bloggers and lawyers have been arrested or had their work impeded, and allegations of torture and unfair trials are rife, he said in a report to the Human Rights Council. 'The secretary-general has been deeply troubled by reports of increased executions, amputations, arbitrary arrest and detention, unfair trials and possible torture and ill-treatment of human rights activists, lawyers, journalists and opposition activists,' the U.N. report said. Ban called on Tehran to allow U.N. human rights investigators to go to Iran to assess the situation. No visit had taken place since 2005 despite repeated requests, he said." http://t.uani.com/dYOrG1
NYT: "A day after Saudi Arabia's military rolled into Bahrain, the Iranian government branded the move 'unacceptable' on Tuesday, threatening to escalate a local political conflict into a regional showdown with Iran. 'The presence of foreign forces and interference in Bahrain's internal affairs is unacceptable and will further complicate the issue,' Ramin Mehmanparast, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman told a news conference in Tehran, according to state-run media. Even as predominantly Shiite Muslim Iran pursues a determined crackdown against dissent at home, Tehran has supported the protests led by the Shiite majority in Bahrain." http://t.uani.com/hsBnoz
AP: "The Israeli navy intercepted an Egyptian-bound ship carrying a large delivery of weapons off the country's Mediterranean coast on Tuesday, saying the arms had been sent by Syria to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip... Israel's military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu, said at least three crates of weapons were uncovered on board. Hundreds of others will be inspected once the ship arrives in Israel. Benayahu said Syria's fingerprints were all over the shipment. 'Apparently we'll find more evidence of the Iran, Syria, Hezbollah axis,' he told Israel's Army Radio. Israel has long blamed Iran and Syria for smuggling weapons to militants in Gaza and Lebanon, a claim both nations have denied. Iran and Syria are the main backers for two of Israel's main foes - Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and Hamas militants in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he approved the naval takeover after receiving assessments that there were arms on board meant to harm Israel. He said the source of the weaponry was Iran." http://t.uani.com/hK8Kmu
Domestic Politics
AFP: "Iranian authorities warned young people against using Tuesday's traditional fire festival as a springboard for counter-revolutionary activities, local media reported Monday. 'The counter-revolution seeks to infect youths who have no counter-revolutionary motives but simply want to perform sensational acts,' Tehran province judiciary chief Ali-Reza Avaie was quoted Monday as saying on the website of the daily Hamshahri. Charshanbe Soori, an ancient pre-Islamic festival, is held on the eve of the last Wednesday of the Iranian calendar year and is often seized as an opportunity to protest -- implicitly or explicitly -- against the government. This year, the ritual falls on the night of March 15. Avaie asked 'young people and their families to act wisely and logically to avoid being trapped by the counter-revolution', warning that the judiciary will take action against all those who 'disturb the peace.'" http://t.uani.com/goCLKn
Foreign Affairs
AFP: "Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Western powers Tuesday against imposing a no-fly zone or taking other military action in Libya. Ahmadinejad renewed his condemnation of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's bombardment of opponents in his own country, in an interview with Spanish television in Tehran. But he also told Europe and the United States to learn the lessons of the Iraq and Afghan wars, saying any armed intervention in Libya would make things worse. 'I think that military intervention would make things even worse. We have the experience of Iraq and Afghanistan. It made things worse, not better,' Ahmadinejad told the public television station TVE. Asked whether Tehran would support a no-fly zone, he said: 'Any Western military intervention is going to make the situation more complicated. The Westerners have to cast aside their colonialist ambitions.'" http://t.uani.com/hLC4q2
Reuters: "A Syrian military court has jailed a prominent political prisoner to 18 months in jail for criticising Syrian ties with Iran, a human rights group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 60-year-old writer Ali Abdallah was sentenced on Sunday for harming relations with another country. The group said the court issued a three-year sentence, the minimum jail term for the charge Abdallah faced, but then reduced it to 18 months." http://t.uani.com/gCmCKp
Opinion & Analysis
Gerald Seib in WSJ: "As debate escalates over whether to intervene militarily to help Libyan rebels oust Muammar Ghadafi, the specter lurking in the background-both for those who want to intervene and those wary of doing so-is Iran. The Iranian factor is little discussed but omnipresent. Understanding how it forms the backdrop is crucial to understanding the argument unfolding this week, in Washington, in Europe and at the United Nations, about whether to impose a no-fly zone over Libya. Those pushing for intervention worry that the lesson Iran will take away if Mr. Gadhafi survives is that leaders who give ground to democracy protesters (see Hosni Mubarak) are swept away. Meanwhile, those who brutally crush protesters (Libya's strongman) are the ones who hang on. For Iranian leaders already disposed to crushing their own pro-democracy dissidents, the message will be clear. Those wary of intervening, including many in the Obama administration, worry that Western intervention will play directly into the narrative Tehran's leaders have been spinning to justify cracking down on their own dissidents: that the U.S. and its Zionist allies are waiting to take advantage of any Mideast unrest to seize control of the region and its oil assets. This Iranian narrative holds that the protesters in Tehran's streets are either active or unwitting agents of this insidious American conspiracy. Because any military intervention in Libya inevitably would be led by American forces, it would be used to further the argument. Indeed, an examination of statements by Iranian leaders in recent days shows this is precisely how they are framing the Libya question. With Iran in position to make trouble by fomenting unrest among its Shiite brethren in nearby Bahrain, the question of how Mideast turmoil might advance Tehran's interests already loomed large. Now it figures to play more directly into the Libya debate, for Tehran is trying to play both sides of the argument, rhetorically supporting the Libyan rebels while opposing Western help for them." http://t.uani.com/gQcSIC
Roxana Saberi in WSJ: "March 5 marked the third anniversary of the arrest of Mahvash Sabet, one of my former cellmates in Iran's Evin Prison. In 2008, Iranian authorities detained Mahvash and six fellow Iranian leaders of the Bahai faith, the country's largest non-Muslim religious minority. The seven men and women were accused of crimes such as insulting religious sanctities and spying for Israel-charges they denied and that have never been proven. I was released 100 days after being arrested while writing a book and working as a journalist in Iran, but the Bahai leaders remain behind bars. After a trial riddled with irregularities, they were told they received 20-year sentences, reduced to 10 years, although they have not been notified of these rulings in writing. The Bahais are now held in Rajai Shahr Prison outside Tehran, a complex notorious for overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and violence among prisoners who include drug addicts, thieves and murderers. Iran's regime denies that it discriminates against citizens based upon their religious beliefs, but the United Nations and human rights groups have often criticized Tehran's mistreatment of minorities, including members of minority faiths. The persecution of Bahais has been particularly pronounced. After Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, many Bahais were executed and several disappeared. Some have seen their cemeteries desecrated or had their homes burned to the ground. It is not only Bahais who experience repression in Iran. So have members of other religious minority groups as well as Muslims who express views that Iran's regime considers threatening. According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, more than a dozen Iranians have been sentenced to death for 'waging war against God.' Muslims who convert to another religion, such as Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who is now in prison, can also face the death penalty. Iran's constitution officially recognizes three minority religions: Christianity, Judaism and the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, whose adherents are allotted seats in parliament and enjoy certain freedoms. But even some of them have complained of increasing discrimination and repression. The treatment of Iran's Bahais has worsened since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president in 2005. At least under the previous, reformist administration, Iran's Bahais were able to set up ad hoc councils to tend to the needs of their community at the local and national levels. But under Ahmadinejad, these councils have been dissolved." http://t.uani.com/gfjqf5
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