Iran’s recent sentencing of an Iranian-American pastor to eight years in prison for “evangelizing” is a sign of the increasingly radical nature of the regime and does not bode well for international efforts to pressure Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program. Republican senators are pressuring the Obama administration to speak publicly about efforts to free the pastor and the retired FBI agent who dissappeared in Iran in 2007, but the administration may be right to keep information about its efforts under wraps, and would not be setting a precedent by negotiating with Iran while the Americans are still imprisoned.
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