The much awaited report on Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency has come out and it says Iran has shown new openness about its nuclear advances, but not enough to prove that it was not pursuing a weapons program.  The IAEA chief, Mohammad ElBaradei, presented the report to the 35 member board in Vienna, and said that his agency has made "quite good progress" in clarifying outstanding issues but that this progress was still not enough to clear all the outstanding questions regarding its nuclear past.  The reactions to the report were typical: positive by Iranian officials and President Ahmadinejad who described it as a "victory over the West", and negative by Western powers who will now be pushing for a third round of sanctions at the UN Security Council very soon.  Until Tehran meets its obligations and suspends its enrichment activities and makes a full disclosure to the IAEA, the international community will not have confidence that Iran's nuclear program is purely peaceful.  Therefore, as we have said many times before, it is time for Iran to suspend its enrichment program and return to the negotiating table to resolve this ongoing crisis. 

The other main issue facing the Iranian nation is the upcoming parliamentary elections set for March 14th.  Around 2000 candidates, nearly one-third of those who had put themselves forward, have been disqualified, and these include most of the reformists.  They have appealed against their disqualification to the Guardian Council, and although about eight hundred have been reinstated, only two of these candidates are really of any big stature that could see them win seats.  With little hope of an electoral comeback by the reformists it is not surprising that they are disillusioned and weary, especially after the failures of the Khatami era.  The point here is that the people of Iran should be given a free choice in choosing their candidates and electing them to the parliament, or majlis.