Uri Lubrani has worked on Iranian affairs for Israel for four decades

Israeli Faith in Iran's Opposition Gains Favor

Israel's oldest civil servant, 83-year-old Ministry of Defense adviser Uri Lubrani, has spent his career defying conventional wisdom on Iran. Today, Israel's political and military establishment appears to be tilting toward one of his long-ignored views: Israeli support for Iran's opposition movement and not a miltary strike is the best way to combat the regime in Tehran. Israeli officials have regularly suggested the country is ready to attack Iran to curb its nuclear program, which some Israelis view as a threat to the country's existence.

After the rise of the Iranian protest movement following disputed elections in June, Israeli leaders toned down the rhetoric. In February, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting Moscow, said Israel wasn't "planning any wars" against Tehran.

Instead, U.S. and Israeli officials are pushing for tough economic sanctions they hope will drive a bigger wedge between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the opposition."A military strike will at best delay Iran's nuclear program, but what's worse, it will rally the Iranian people to the defense of the regime," says Mr. Lubrani, who was ambassador to Iran from 1973 to 1978 and is now a special adviser to Israel's minister of defense. "We must do everything possible to help (the protest movement) do the job."

Rafi Eitan, an adviser to Mr. Netanyahu, says the protests "changed people's attitudes here. They started to understand that this should be done the way Lubrani has been saying it should be done."

The Israeli defense establishment includes those who favor a more aggressive posture toward Iran, including a military strike if necessary, and those who oppose the military option. But even hawkish officials interviewed in recent months stressed they were aware of the risks of military action. Officials expressed support for sanctions, and said they weren't eager to attack.

Mr. Lubrani has for four decades been on the front lines of Israel's evolving ... Read More

The U.S. action comes at a time when Iranian authorities have created cyber-intelligence units that are developing new methods to seek out and snare the opposition, including fake Facebook accounts

Regime blocking foreign, domestic Web sites to curb anti-government activists

The bearded blogger stood before an effigy of an Islamic warrior towering over the letters "WWW."
"You are the young officers in this war. The United States and their domestic allies have started this fight and you have countered them," he told the recent gathering of pro-government bloggers, part of the cyber-war being fought by Iranian authorities engaged in an unprecedented effort to block anti-government forces from using the World Wide Web and social networks to communicate and organize. Ever since the disputed victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June elections led to wide-scale protests, Iran's leaders have been cracking down on the tech-savvy opposition movement with the Revolutionary Guard and police blocking millions of foreign and domestic Web sites, including some Google services, CNN and the BBC.Iran's leaders say these measures are necessary to counter efforts by the United States and other Western countries. "They are trying to defeat the Islamic republic through the Internet," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, said in January. But until this week, government authorities had been aided by U.S. trade policy that prevented American companies from exporting social media technology to Iran as part of a broad effort to prevent the spread of technology to the Islamic republic. Now, the Treasury Department, at the request of the State Department, has decided to allow companies such as Google and Microsoft to export free mass-market software to Iran, as well as Sudan and Cuba. "Personal Internet-based communications like e-mail, instant messaging and social networking are powerful tools," said Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin. "This software will foster and support the free flow of information -- a basic human right -- for all Iranians." The U.S. action comes at a time when Iranian authorities have created cyber-intelligence units that are developing new methods to seek out and snare the opposition, including fake Facebook ... Read More

A Shell spokesman said: "Shell currently does not supply gasoline to Iran.

Royal Dutch Shell also stops gasoline sales to Iran-trade

By Luke Pachymuthu - DUBAI March 10 (Reuters) - Oil major Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) has stopped gasoline sales to Iran, oil traders said on Wednesday, the latest addition to a growing list of firms that have halted supplies under threat of future U.S. sanctions. The Anglo-Dutch oil firm will join the likes of BP (BP.L), Reliance Industries (RELI.BO), and independent Swiss trader Glencore, among suppliers that have either stopped fuel sales to Iran or have made a decision not to enter into new trading agreements with the world's fifth largest oil exporter. "Shell has stopped selling gasoline to Iran, we have not seen them there for a while now," a gasoline trader said.

A Shell spokesman said: "Shell currently does not supply gasoline to Iran."

Vitol, one of the world's largest independent oil traders, said earlier this week it had decided to stop participating in new tenders to supply Iran with gasoline at the start of the year. [ID:nLDE627129]

But the Swiss-based firm said it was completing existing spot supply deals that were made before the start of the year. The Financial Times reported on Monday that Trafigura had also stopped supplying gasoline to Iran.

U.S. politicians are working on legislation to penalise fuel suppliers to Iran in an effort to pressure Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.

The west says the Islamic Republic is using its atomic programme to develop nuclear weapons, while Iran insists that it is for nuclear electricity.

"It is getting more difficult for suppliers, who are only stopping this because it is politically sensitive," a trading source familiar with Iranian fuel imports said.

DELIVERIES

Shipping data obtained by Reuters showed that Shell moved a total of about 1.65 million barrels of gasoline into Iran from April through October 2009.

Despite the pull back by international oil companies and large independent trading firms, Iran has still managed to find supply sources for ... Read More

The government lacks legitimacy and is increasingly resorting to force to stay in power. Infighting at the Élite level is becoming more brutal, with wives and children of opposition leaders being beaten and tortured by government-sanctioned militias

Beyond Sanctions: How to Solve the Iranian Riddle

Iran is the 21st century equivalent of 1930s Russia - a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. The Iranians haven't stumbled upon this mystifying state coincidentally, and the enigma isn't the result of outsiders' failure to try to understand them. Rather, the Iranian government has a deliberate policy aimed at confusing the outside world about its goals and decision-making processes. "There is an intention out there to confuse," a noted Iranian professor told me in Tehran a few years ago. The rulers in Tehran think that opacity and the perception of unpredictability buy them security. Given that intent, it is hardly surprising that Washington has had such a difficult time formulating a successful Iran policy. Right now, the Obama Administration is embarking on the sanctions track, pursuing both a U.N. Security Council resolution, as well as measures by a coalition of the willing that would go beyond anything imposed by the U.N. The idea is that a tough sanction regime would hit the Iranian government - and especially the Islamic Revolutionary Guards - while sparing Iran's population. Yet despite what they say, few in Washington believe sanctions alone will alter Iran's behavior. They have never worked as well as they might in Iran; rhetoric has only served to raise tensions further. The experience of the Bush Administration shows that the combination of sanctions and rhetoric about regime change - remember the "Axis of Evil?" - helped strengthen the hands of Iran's hard-liners. It vindicated Tehran's paranoia and reduced options available to the U.S. If the Iranian regime thinks that the real aim of U.S. policy is to topple it, it is hardly likely to make the conciliatory policy changes - for example, on its nuclear program - that the U.S. seeks.


So what should Washington do? A starting point should be to recognize that the U.S. is no longer dealing with an Iran that merely simulates indecisiveness. On the contrary, Iran seems genuinely ... Read More

Mohammad Oliayifard was handed a sentence of one-year imprisonment for the charge of "propaganda against the regime.

Iranian authorities imprison human rights lawyer

Mohammad Oliayifard, Iranian human rights lawyer and top court attorney was arrested on the morning of March 8 after being summoned by the Revolutionary court. Oliayifard, former organizer of Human Rights Activists Collective, was arrested by security forces in Tehran. Jaras reports that the officers announced that he was arrested in order to serve out the one-year prison term which was previously handed to him. On February 7, 2009, Mohammad Oliayifard was handed a sentence of one-year imprisonment for the charge of "propaganda against the regime." He was put on trial for protesting the execution of his client, Behnoud Shojai, a juvenile offender in November of 2009. Having defended his actions, Oliyaifard was released at the time on a $50,000 bail.

Mohammad Oliyaifard maintains that since Iran has signed the Convention of the Rights of a Child, Iranians should not be sentenced to death for crimes committed under the age of 18 and therefore, his protests against the execution of Behnoud Shojaee were completely legal.

Scores of human rights activists have been arrested and imprisoned in recent days.

Just leave us alone, please," one activist in Tehran pleaded

US changing focus of Iran policy

Reporting from Washington - After keeping a careful distance for the last year, the Obama administration has concluded that the Iranian opposition movement has staying power and has embraced it as a central element in the U.S.-led campaign to pressure the country's clerical government. Administration officials and some allied governments believe that a combination of domestic unrest and international sanctions targeting Iran's Revolutionary Guard offers the best hope for forcing Tehran to yield on its nuclear program, and could even lead to a change in the government. The administration has made the shift at a time when it is facing sharp domestic criticism over President Obama's failed initiative to launch negotiations with Iran and its perceived unwillingness to strongly back the opposition movement. Meanwhile, the protests sparked by June's disputed presidential election in Iran grew despite a tough crackdown. This new approach is not a sure thing: It is far from clear that squeezing the Revolutionary Guard, a sprawling military organization that has vast business interests and is close to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would seriously damage it or strengthen the opposition, as the administration hopes. And despite high-profile encouragement by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other U.S. officials, many opposition activists fear that Washington's embrace will bring more harm than good.

"Just leave us alone, please," one activist in Tehran pleaded.

Still, U.S. officials and some European allies believe that there is less downside to openly supporting the opposition now because Iran has grown more politically polarized and the opposition is under direct assault.

Clinton, visiting the Persian Gulf region last month, warned repeatedly that Iran was becoming a "military dictatorship" and tried to draw a distinction between the power structure and the protest movement, which she said cared more about the lives of average ... Read More

A special terrorism court convicted Vakili Rad in 1994 in the strangling and stabbing death of Bakhtiar and his aide, Souroush Katibeh

French court delays ruling on ex-Iran PM's killer

A French court has postponed a decision on whether to free a man convicted of assassinating former Iranian Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar outside Paris in 1991. The decision on Ali Vakili Rad has been set for May 18. Tuesday's postponement came after judges indicated in February that they favored freeing him. A special terrorism court convicted Vakili Rad in 1994 in the strangling and stabbing death of Bakhtiar and his aide, Souroush Katibeh. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of seeking conditional freedom in June 2009. Prosecutors contended Iran's theocratic regime was behind the killing.

File photo shows a portrait of Iranian-Canadian freelance photographer Zahra Kazemi, 54, during a memorial after she died in Tehran in July 2003 following her arrest. Photograph by: Behrouz Mehri, Agence France-Presse via Getty Images

Iran's denial of justice is an offence to Canada, Kazemi family's lawyer says

A Quebec Superior Court should reject an Iranian request to quash a civil law suit against it for its role in the alleged torture and death of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi in Tehran, the family’s lawyer argued Thursday. “Their demand for justice and the denial of justice (by Iran) is an offence to Canada itself, and to international law,” Kurt Johnson told a court hearing yesterday. Though Iran is legally immune from civil action in Canada for her death, an exception should be made because of “Iran’s total incapacity to provide a fair hearing,” he said. Iranian officials displayed an “absence of comity” by ignoring Canada’s efforts to assist her and covering up Kazemi’s torture, rape and brutal beating that led to her death in 2003, Johnson said. He urged the court to consider Iran’s failure to cooperate with Canada and reject a motion from Iran’s lawyers to quash the law suit, since Iran is shielded under the Canada’s State Immunity Act.

Johnson agreed with Justice Robert Mongeon’s characterization of his approach as “no comity, no immunity.”

The hearing continues Friday.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Iran+denial+justice+offence+Canada+Kazemi+family+lawyer+says/2300217/story.html#ixzz0hhZi2JUG

A spokesman for Vitol told AFP: "I can confirm that our position is as covered in the Financial Times today."

World's biggest oil trader ends supplies to Iran: company

The largest oil trader in the world, Vitol, said Monday it had stopped dealing with Iran, following a report that traders were pulling out of the country as sanctions and US pressure took their toll. The Financial Times said Vitol and its fellow trading giants Glencore and Trafigura had stopped supplying petrol to Iran. A spokesman for Vitol told AFP: "I can confirm that our position is as covered in the Financial Times today." One unnamed executive familiar with Iran's trade told the newspaper that Vitol had "consciously decided not to participate in Iran's tenders".

Another industry executive told the paper Switzerland-based Trafigura stopped selling to Iran about three months ago because "they have concluded that there's too much political and financial risk".

Glencore distanced itself from Iran late last year.

Although Iran is one of the world's largest oil producers, it is forced to import petrol because its refineries are dilapidated and it suffers from intense demand because of generous subsidies.

Former president reportedly barred from leaving Iran

Former president reportedly barred from leaving Iran

Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami was barred from leaving the country, Fars news agency reported Tuesday. Fars quoted an unnamed intelligence official as saying in "a private gathering" that the reformist cleric had been barred from travelling outside Iran. The official was quoted as saying that Khatami had planned to leave, but gave no details on date and place of the visit. But Khatami's lawyer categorically denied the report, saying the former president had neither any plan to leave the country nor was he barred from doing so. Mahmoud Alizadeh-Tabatabei told the labour news agency ILNA that an order prohibiting someone from travelling outside the country requires a legal file against the person, which he said was not the case with Khatami.

Khatami is a fierce opponent of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and has not yet acknowledged his re-election due to alleged fraud in the June voting.

The government had earlier barred renowned poet Simin Behbahani and Mohammad-Taghi Karroubi, the son of leading opposition cleric Mehdi Karroubi, from leaving the country.

Both Behbahani and Karroubi are close to the opposition, which is also led by former prime minister Mir-Hossein Moussavi.

The widow of the Shah of Iran, Farah Pahlavi, denounced conditions for Iranians under the current Islamic regime during a booksigning in Cairo on Sunday. The former empress, whose memoir

Empress Farah Pahlavi, on book tour, criticises Iran rule

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Ahmadinejad of Iran, center, in Brazil last fall. The nations agreed to share technical expertise on energy projects.

U.S. Enriches Companies Defying Its Policy on Iran

By JO BECKER and RON NIXON -The federal government has awarded more than $107 billion in contract payments, grants and other benefits over the past decade to foreign and multinational American companies while they were doing business in Iran, despite Washington's efforts to discourage investment there, records show.
That includes nearly $15 billion paid to companies that defied American sanctions law by making large investments that helped Iran develop its vast oil and gas reserves. For years, the United States has been pressing other nations to join its efforts to squeeze the Iranian economy, in hopes of reining in Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Now, with the nuclear standoff hardening and Iran rebuffing American diplomatic outreach, the Obama administration is trying to win a tough new round of United Nations sanctions.
But a New York Times analysis of federal records, company reports and other documents shows that both the Obama and Bush administrations have sent mixed messages to the corporate world when it comes to doing business in Iran, rewarding companies whose commercial interests conflict with American security goals. Many of those companies are enmeshed in the most vital elements of Iran's economy. More than two-thirds of the government money went to companies doing business in Iran's energy industry a huge source of revenue for the Iranian government and a stronghold of the increasingly powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a primary focus of the Obama administration’s proposed sanctions because it oversees Iran’s nuclear and missile programs.
Other companies are involved in auto manufacturing and distribution, another important sector of the Iranian economy with links to the Revolutionary Guards. One supplied container ship motors to IRISL, a government-owned shipping line that was subsequently blacklisted by the United States for concealing military cargo.
Beyond $102 billion in United States government contract ... Read More

Lyrics by Ferdowsi

Lyrics by Ferdowsi

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The authorities asked me a series of questions and then seized my passport and finally gave me a letter referring me to the revolutionary court to get my passport back," said Behbahani.

Iran prevents renowned poet from attending Women's Day in France

Iran on Monday barred renowned poet Simin Behbahani from leaving the country to attend an event marking International Women's Day in Paris, an opposition website reported. The website Kalame, which belongs to Green Movement leader Mir- Hossein Moussavi, said she was held for several hours by two intelligence officers at IKA airport in Tehran after she had gone through passport control. "The authorities asked me a series of questions and then seized my passport and finally gave me a letter referring me to the revolutionary court to get my passport back," said Behbahani. "I had prepared a text on feminism and a poem as an homage to women for the event," added the 82-year-old Behbahani, who was invited by the Paris municipality to Monday's event. Behbahani is well known for her poems as well as her struggle for women's rights in Iran. Her signature can be found at the bottom of almost all open letters requesting freedom for those detained after the waves of protest which followed the June 2009 presidential election. The opposition claims the elections were rigged.

Barring activists from leaving the country has reportedly occurred more frequently in the past nine months.

A similar incident happened last week when police prevented the son of leading opposition cleric Mehdi Karroubi from leaving the country.

Mohammad-Taghi Karroubi, a university lecturer, was leaving Iran for London on Friday reportedly for academic purposes when the police at IKA airport in Tehran seized his passport without explanation.

2008 file photo of Iranian Revolutionary Guards members marching during a parade ceremony outside Tehran

Role Of Iran's Revolutionary Guards

For decades, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, has been extending its power and reach. Founded in 1979 to defend Iran's Islamic revolutionary principles at home and export them abroad, the IRGC now controls Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, its foreign terror operations, the repression of the Iranian populace, and broad swaths of the Iranian economy. U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesman Gordon Duguid commented on the IRGC's expanding role, including its current control of 9 out of 21 cabinet ministries: "This is an unprecedented level since the Islamic Republic was established. Also, you've had disputed elections that have taken place since last year, and the unprecedented repression of opposition to those election results. You have a regime in Tehran that is more and more resembling a police state in which force is used to suppress discussion, to suppress demonstrations, and to control the activities of its people."

On her recent trip to the Middle East, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the increasing role of the Revolutionary Guard is moving Iran "toward a military dictatorship."

Secretary of State Clinton says that as the IRGC expands its power, repression of the people of Iran increases and the regime's "belligerence and negativity [are] even more prevalent

The department has allowed the export of services to all three countries, while allowing the export of communications software only to Iran and Sudan

Treasury Adjusts Rules To Help People In Iran, Sudan, Cuba

The Treasury Department is allowing the export of Internet communications services such as instant messaging, e-mail and Web browsing to Iran, Sudan and Cuba to help people in those countries communicate.

Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin said Monday that the change to existing trade sanctions Monday is intended to help people, "exercise their most basic rights."

Protesters in Iran have used online tools, such as instant messaging and Twitter, to pass information about actions against the governing regime.

The department has allowed the export of services to all three countries, while allowing the export of communications software only to Iran and Sudan. The Treasury says the export of software to Cuba is governed by the Commerce Department.

General David Petraeus, pictured in 2009, the head of US Central Command, warned Sunday that Iran is …

Petraeus warns Iran becoming 'thugocracy'

General David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, warned Sunday that Iran is becoming a "thugocracy" in attempts to suppress popular anger over last year's contested presidential vote results. "I think you've heard it said by pundits that Iran has gone from being a theocracy to a thugocracy," Petraeus, whose command stretches from Egypt to Pakistan and includes Iran, said on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS." "And that is again because of the emergence of this reform movement of the citizens who are outraged at the hijacking of the election that took place back last summer." Iran has executed protesters who took to the streets to demonstrate against the presidential election in June 2009 that saw Mahmoud Ahmadinejad returned to power despite widespread allegations of fraud.

The use of force against activists as well as Tehran's continued enrichment of uranium in defiance of international entreaties have isolated a regime that has repeatedly spurned offers of engagement from President Barack Obama.

Petraeus said it was not clear whether Tehran had definitively decided to pursue nuclear weapons, as many Western nations fear.

But he said such a decision was "a little bit immaterial at this point in time, because all of the components of a program to produce nuclear weapons... have been proceeding."

The United States is working with its UN Security Council veto-wielding partners -- France, Britain, China and Russia -- as well as Germany, to come up with new sanctions against Iran. Tehran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

In the past, Washington has struggled to convince Russia and China to back sanctions, but Moscow switched course recently after a new Iranian nuclear site was revealed.

Petraeus said Iranian actions were making it easier for the United States to build a coalition and added: "President Ahmadinejad is often our best recruiting officer."

Reportedly plans for an "apology" ceremony involving the detained journalists and the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei are in the works by Islamic Republic authorities

Enmity with God, latest charge of former Tehran University president

Mohmmad Maleki, former president of Tehran University, has been accused of "enmity with God" (Moharebeh) according to his lawyer, Mohammad Sharif. Reportedly, he is accused of "insulting Imam Khomeini and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei as well as propaganda against the regime." Mohammad Maleki was released on bail Monday night after 191 days in prison. Prior to this, he was also arrested in1982 and imprisoned for over five years. He was also detained at a meeting of National Islamic forces along with several other leaders of this political movement in 2001. According to his lawyer, Mohammad Maleki's file will be processed within six weeks. Mohammad Sharif is also defense lawyer for three imprisoned journalists, Badrosadat Mofidi, Ahmad Zeidabadi and Masood Bastani.
Mr. Sharif reports that Badrosadat Mofidi has been transferred to the prisons general section and will possibly be released soon on bail. As far as Ahamd Zeidabadi and Masood Bastani is concerned, Mohammad Sharif claims that he has not been able to obtain any news concerning their condition. Reportedly plans for an "apology" ceremony involving the detained journalists and the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei are in the works by Islamic Republic authorities.

"September 11 was a big lie and a pretext for the war on terror and a prelude to invading Afghanistan," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by state TV. He called the attacks a "complicated intelligence scenario and act."

Iran's Ahmadinejad: Sept. 11 attacks a 'big lie'

Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday called the official version of the Sept. 11 attacks a "big lie" used by the U.S. as an excuse for the war on terror, state media reported. Ahmadinejad's comments, made during an address to Intelligence Ministry staff, come amid escalating tensions between the West and Tehran over its disputed nuclear program. They show that Iran has no intention of toning itself down even with tighter sanctions looming because of its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. "September 11 was a big lie and a pretext for the war on terror and a prelude to invading Afghanistan," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by state TV. He called the attacks a "complicated intelligence scenario and act." The Iranian president has questioned the official U.S. version of the Sept. 11 attacks before, but this is the first time he ventured to label it a "big lie." In 2007, New York officials rejected Ahmadinejad's request to visit the World Trade Center site while he was in the city for a U.N. meeting. The president also sparked an uproar when he said during a lecture in New York that the causes and conditions that led to the attacks, as well as who orchestrated them, still need to be examined.

At the time, he also told Iranian state TV the attacks were "a result of mismanaging and inhumane managing of the world by the U.S," and that Washington was using Sept. 11 as an excuse to attack others.

He has also questioned the Sept. 11 death toll of around 3,000, claiming the Americans never published the victims' names.

On the 2007 anniversary of the attacks, the names of 2,750 victims killed in New York were read aloud at a memorial ceremony.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

What is really needed is significant sanctions, effective ones with a time limit, together with the Russians and the Chinese

Differences Emerging Between Israel And US Over Iran

The intelligence communities of Israel and the United States differ over Iran’s progress toward nuclear weapons. "I think that beyond that there is, of course, a certain difference in perspective and difference in judgment, difference in the internal clocks and difference in capabilities,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said. In a Feb. 26 address to the Washington Institute, Mr. Barak acknowledged that Israel and the United States might not bridge their differences over Iran’s capabilities. He said the U.S. objections to Israel’s assessment should not block any campaign against Tehran’s nuclear program. “And I don’t think that there is a need to coordinate in this regard,” Mr. Barak said. “That should be understood. It should be an exchange of views. We do not need to coordinate every step. The statement marked a rare occasion that Mr. Barak, regarded as the most U.S.-oriented member of the Israeli Cabinet, played down the need to coordinate with the administration of President Barack Obama. Mr. Barak, however, stressed that Israel supported Mr. Obama’s policy to employ diplomacy rather than military means against Iran. "We clearly support the attempt to solve it through diplomacy," Mr. Barak said. The Israeli government has been pressing the U.S.administration for a timetable for harsh U.S. sanctions on Tehran, beginning with a gasoline embargo that would spark critical fuel shortages in Iran.

Instead, Washington has moved cautiously in efforts to draft sanctions against Iran. The State Department has ruled out significant measures against Iran’s energy sector.

For his part, Mr. Barak did not rule out the prospect that Iran could develop what he termed “second or second-and-a-half generation of nuclear warheads.” He said these warheads could be installed on ballistic missiles that could reach Moscow or Paris.

“If Iran will not be stopped from moving there, it will reach a certain point of nuclear military ... Read More