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Roghayeh Azizi Mirmahaleh, who was set tobe deported to Iran next week, has been granted a two-year temporary residency permit and can stay in Canada, her lawyer has confirmed.

The 60-year-old who lives in Montreal spent three years in an Iranian prison for political activism. Her husband was executed in Iran before she moved to Canada five years ago.

Federal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen granted the woman a special temporary residency permit Thursday morning, and she was released from custody hours later.

Azizi Mirmahaleh and her daughter, Sahar Bahrami, emerged from the downtown MontrealImmigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada office with their arms linked.

"She said she's so happy that she's with me [and]that she wishes every political prisoner in Iran would be free," Bahramisaid, translating from Farsifor her mother.

"We went through a really difficult time, but we're happy that finally, finally..." she said, her voice trailing off.

Bahrami said the plan for today is to celebrate, but that her mother will continue to advocate for a free Iran.

AziziMirmahaleh will also be able to attend Bahrami's wedding next month.

Bahramihad said she fearedher mother could face torture or evendeath if she was returned to Iran.

AziziMirmahaleh's application for refugee status was refused in 2013. Her lawyer StphanieValoissaid she believes the rejection was due to her affiliation with Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an exiled oppositiongroup that backs the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

AziziMirmahaleh and her husband had distributed pamphlets in Iran printed by the group.

Last month, aCanadian immigration officer decided it would besafe to send her back to Iran.Valois said that they will still be contesting that decision.

She hadbeen detained at the immigration detention centre in Laval sinceTuesday and was scheduled to return to Iran Feb. 28.

Roghayeh Azizi Mirmahaleh, 60, moved to Canada five years ago from Iran. Her refugee claim was denied. (CBC)

Quebec Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil was one of a number of politicians, including Montreal Mayor DenisCoderre and federal Transportation Minister MarcGarneau,who spoke in favour of allowing Azizi Mirmahalehto stay in Canada.

Quebec Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil had called on her federal counterpart to show compassion toward Roghayeh Azizi Mirmahaleh. (CBC)

She said while interventions at the provincial level carry a certain amount of weight, the decision was the result of group effort by politicians at all levels.

While she deferred specifics about what lies ahead for Azizi Mirmahaleh to her federal counterpart, Weil said she knows it will be a complex process.

"I think [Hussen has] found a good solution for now, for two years, and I think it's to better be able to find a solution that would be permanent," she said.

Opposition Qubec Solidaire MNA Amir Khadirsaid this is a good opportunity for the federal government to consider amoratoriumon deporting political dissenters to countries with harsh attitudes toward dissent, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.

"It'sevident [AziziMirmahaleh] needs to be given permanent protection, to be allowed to stay here as a permanent resident," he said.

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Iranian Montrealer facing deportation can stay in Canada - CBC.ca

Foreign Policy (blog)

Trump Can't Deal With Iran If He Doesn't Understand It Foreign Policy (blog) 1, then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn accused Iran of a provocative ballistic missile launch and an attack against a Saudi naval vessel conducted by Iran-supported Houthi militants. Two days later, Washington slapped sanctions on 25 ... Top general: No change in Iran's behavior since Trump put country 'on notice'The Hill Donald Trump intends to take on Iran. Right, but riskyThe Economist Iran Sends Military Students to Syrian FrontVoice of America wtkr.com -The Independent -Business Day (registration) -Reuters all 49 news articles »

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Trump Can't Deal With Iran If He Doesn't Understand It - Foreign Policy (blog)

WASHINGTON

Iran has held its first conference in six years supporting Palestinian uprisings, a forum that it says drew hundreds of delegates from 80 countries, reflecting the countrys resurgent clout on the world stage.

The two-day Sixth International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada ended Wednesday in the Iranian capital, Tehran, with Irans president pledging more aid for Palestinians fighting against Israel. Tehran has long provided monetary and military assistance to Palestinian militants.

Iranian state media quoted President Hassan Rouhani as saying his people have paid a high cost for supporting the Palestinians and opposing the Zionist regime of Israels actions, but they will continue their support with determination.

State media said Rouhani made the comments while meeting Palestinian National Council chairman Salim al-Zanoun on the forums sidelines. Speaking to conference delegates, Rouhani also called Israel a fake regime that should be replaced by a Palestinian state for Muslims, Christians and Jews.

A day earlier, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opened the conference by calling Israel a cancerous tumor and urging the Palestinians to wage a thunderous intifada until what he called the complete liberation of Palestine a reference to the historic British-controlled territory of Palestine that pre-dated Israels creation in 1948.

Palestinian intifadahs

Palestinians engaged in two violent revolts, or intifadas, against Israels occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, territories they claim for a state, from 1987 to 1993 and from 2000 to 2005. In recent years, Palestinian militants also have carried out waves of stabbing, vehicular and shooting attacks against Israelis, and have used Gaza as a base for 2014 war with Israel.

Iran honored those revolts by staging this weeks conference just more than one year after receiving relief from international sanctions as part of a nuclear deal with world powers, a deal that took effect in January 2016.

Tehran held its previous pro-Palestinian Intifada conferences in 2011, 2009, 2006, 2001 and 1991. There has been no official Israeli reaction to the latest forum.

Anti-Israel rhetoric

Emanuele Ottolenghi, an Iran analyst at the Washington-based research group Foundation for Defense of Democracies, sees the anti-Israel rhetoric of Khamenei and Rouhani as more of the same.

They were vitriolic in their rhetoric against Israel before and after the nuclear deal (was signed in 2015) under the Obama administration, and now that Donald Trump is U.S. president, Ottolenghi told the VOA Persian Service. This regime remains wedded to the idea that Israel must be destroyed.

But Ottolenghi said the ability of Iran to organize another conference in support of Palestinian militancy after a break of six years is noteworthy.

We know the regime is paying full expenses for people from all over the world to come, using Iranian taxpayer money, he said. Iran is using money it obtained from the economic windfall of the nuclear deal to advance its incendiary rhetoric.

The Central Bank of Iran has said the country posted economic growth of 7.4 percent in March to September 2016 compared with the same period in the previous year. Irans Financial Tribune newspaper said most of the growth came from increased oil exports allowed by the nuclear deal.

Iranian officials listen to speech of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a conference titled "international conference in support of Palestinian Intifada" in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 21, 2017.

Delegates from countries, militant factions

Delegates to this weeks Tehran conference included members of Palestinian militant factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah all designated by the United States as terrorist organizations.

The forum also drew parliamentary delegations from about 20 countries, with at least seven sending their heads of parliament: Algeria, Lebanon, Mali, North Korea, Syria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The Iranian government also hosted Islamic scholars from Afghanistan and Pakistan and a group of ultra-orthodox anti-Zionist Jews.

In a VOA Persian interview, terrorism researcher Lee Smith of Washingtons Hudson Institute said Iran feels empowered not just by the nuclear deal but also by the spread of its proxy forces in the region.

The Iranians boast about controlling four Arab governments, in Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Sanaa, Smith said. That is why they are testing the Trump administration (by holding the conference). President Trumps administration, which took office last month, has vowed to be more supportive of Israel than its predecessor.

Smith said Shiite-majority Iran also is using the Palestinian issue to try to gain a public relations advantage over its regional Sunni Arab rivals who traditionally have supported the predominantly Sunni Palestinians.

Sunni powers like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia recently have become closer to Israel, some of them more openly than others, because of Iran, Smith said. So the Iranians are holding onto the Palestinian file, saying (to the Arab public) we represent or support the real resistance (against Israel).

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit issued a statement last week re-iterating support for the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, after Trump said he was open to other ideas besides a two-state solution to the long-running Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Hooman Bakhtiar of VOAs Persian Service and Mehdi Jedinia of VOAs Extremist Watch Desk contributed to this report.

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Iran Uses Palestinian Conference to Spotlight Anti-Israel Rhetoric - Voice of America

National Post

Laura Secor: The fish, the stream and the rise of theocratic Iran National Post In the run-up to the awarding of the Lionel Gelber Prize, the National Post presents excerpts from all five nominated books. Today: Laura Secor on the the little-known literary origins of the Iranian Revolution. On a cold winter night, at the bottom of ...

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Laura Secor: The fish, the stream and the rise of theocratic Iran - National Post

Iran is hard at work gaining a foothold in the global energy market, and its not letting U.S. President Donald Trumps confrontational tone stop it from trying.

Political rhetoric is unlikely to turn into tangible impediments for Irans ambition to join Russia and Norway in the ranks of major gas exporters, according to Deputy Oil Minister Amir Hossein Zamaninia.

The nation has about $7 trillion worth of gas reserves sitting underground, based on European benchmark prices, and its doors are open to those who will help it cash in on the fortune. Zamaninia thinks those sorts of figures mean the business case for Iranian energy is too tempting for the world to pass up, even as its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Trump exchange barbs.

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There are concerns and the international capital is scarce, but our projects and our environment are so attractive that we dont think we will face a great deal of difficulty, Zamaniniasaid in an interview last week at the CWC Iran LNG & Gas Summit in Frankfurt. We dont think that the new administration in the U.S. will pose a big problem in this department, in the oil and gas business.

While Iran has the largest commercial volumes of natural gas in the world, the country is a smaller exporter than Bolivia.That may soon change.Last year, U.S. President Barack Obama lifted a decade of economic sanctions in exchange for Iran limiting its nuclear program. Growing populations and economies in nearby countries, including Turkey and India, mean gas demand is also set to rise.

But theres also reason for doubt. Competition from other suppliers is intensifying, European prices have dropped 25 percent in the past five years and Iran consumes almost as much as it pumps. Theres an election around the corner and political challenges have forced the country to delay some gas projects for years.

Irans got just a huge amount of potential but I dont see anything major happening for some time, said Christopher Haines, head of oil and gas at BMI Research in London. We need a lot more trust between operators and the government and confidence in the political environment.

Then theres Trump. Through an executive order, the new U.S. president banned Iranians from entering the country for 90 days, citing the threat of terrorism. While that order was blocked by a court, he has said he will sign another one this week. He also put Iran on notice after it performed a missile test on Jan. 29, without clarifying what that meant.

Read here on what to watch in Trumps escalating confrontation with Iran

International politicking is delivering a temporary hiccup to investment, but Irans gas prize is big enough to motivate people to overcome their differences, Zamaninia said. The country has 56 gas fields with reserves of 33.7 trillion cubic meters, of which 40 are still undeveloped as a result of sanctions.

Hamid Soorghali, an energy analyst at Iran-focused consultant Energy Pioneers Ltd. in London, said that is probably true, and the country remains attractive to Russian and Chinese investors.

Trump will not have an impact on this macro trend, but rather can only affect the quality of achieved goals, he said by e-mail. Internal ambiguities and politicizations, such as over the price of gas for exports, can have more effect.

There are still debates within the country on how to make the best use of its natural gas. Using the fuel in oil fields or in power plants may benefit the economy more than exporting at current low prices, according to Ali Amirani, marketing director at the National Iranian Gas Export Co.

In terms of the international market, the price is not so attractive right now, at least until 2024, Amirani said in Frankfurt. This encourages us to think about these opportunities inside Iran.

With additional technology, Iran could export as much as 6 billion cubic feet (170 million cubic meters) of gas a day by 2030, mostly to Mideast countries, according to Siamak Adibi, head of Middle East gas at consultant FGE. That would make it the fifth-largest gas exporter in the world behind Russia and Norway, Canada and Qatar, according to 2015 figures in the BP Statistical Review.

Iran needs $70 billion to develop proposed oil and gas projects, and half of that could come through in a few short months, according to Zamaninia. The first pipeline to Iraq is ready to ship natural gas and a second to Basra is expected to start in two or three months, Zamaninia said. Haines of BMI Research agreed that timeline was possible.

Iran has huge potential to export due to its resources, said Adibi. The question is only where the market is.

Source: National Iranian Oil Company

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Money Talks Louder Than Trump for Iran in Natgas Push - Bloomberg