- Iranians across the globe celebrated Norooz 1394. Here is President Obama’s message to the Iranian people.
- As the March 30 deadline for an agreement creeps closer, negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 continued. During the past week, President Rouhani’s mother, as well as Khamenei’s sister, passed away. Perhaps as a sign of improving relations, John Kerry issued a press statement on the passing of Mr. Rouhani’s mother. In the realm of nuclear negotiations, all involved parties state that they are optimistic and that an agreement is within reach, however, tough decisions remain to be made. Interestingly, it seems that it is the French who are holding out on finalizing an agreement. According to French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, “France wants an agreement, but a robust one that really guarantees that Iran can have access to civilian nuclear power, but not the atomic bomb.” It remains unclear what the French really want out of this deal.
- James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, presented an unclassified report, Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Communities, in which Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah were excluded from a list of terror threats to U.S. interests.
- General Petraeus, who commanded the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, identified Iran and Iranian-backed Shiite militias, and not the self-declared Islamic State, as the foremost threat to Iraq’s long-term stability and the region’s equilibrium.
- The proxy war between the Islamic Republic and Saudi Arabia continued in Yemen. A series of suicide bombs on Friday claimed nearly 150 lives and injured 351 people. As the violence escalated, the United States withdrew its remaining troops from Yemen.
- A young street vendor in Khorramshahr, who last week committed self-immolation to protest the government’s seizure of his kiosk, died on Sunday.
- Another youth in the custody of the police has passed away. Mohsen Maleki, a 26-year-old man from Isfahan, was arrested on Wednesday during the Chaharshanbe Suri (Festival of Fire) celebrations, and was in the custody of the Isfahan police when he died. His family has stated that they found bruises on his body.
- A young Afghan woman, who apparently suffered from mental illness, was accused of burning the Koran. A vicious mob reacted by beating her with bricks and sticks, stamping on her, and setting her body on fire in the heart of the Afghan capital. I usually refrain from branding this type of misconduct as an “Islamic” problem, but both the people involved, and the bystanders, were Muslims, and the incident was a reaction to accusations of Koran burning.
- On a lighter and more civilized note, here is an interesting piece by the Guardian exploring pre-revolutionary Iran’s art and culture.
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