Even before the details of the temporary deal between Iran and the P5+1 group were released on Saturday, many Iranians were already celebrating. Just the idea of an agreement — any agreement — between Iran and the United States was enough to bring tears to the eyes of this Iranian-American, and I wasn’t alone. Iranians all over the world took to social media to express their elation at the first formal agreement between the U.S. and Iran in over 30 years. I received Facebook and Twitter messages from across the globe, all striking the same tone as this tweet from @PrrrsianKitten, who lists her location as “Wonderland”: “I’m so happy, I keep crying and laughing. This is such a great day/middle of the night/evening!”

I can’t stand people who blast books or movies without actually reading or seeing them. So, to be clear, this is not a critique. For one, I’ve heard great things aboutArgo — that it’s a gripping, well-acted and well-directed, edge-of-your-seat thriller (which is impressive, given everyone already knows the ending).

Assuming the so-called Islamic Republic of Iran is truly attempting to build a nuclear weapon (which I suspect is about as likely as it erecting a giant sculpture of a pig in the middle of Azadi square), who ought to be most afraid? The United States? Nope. Great Britain? By no means. Israel? Lo. Iraq? La. Afghanistan? Naah. Saudi Arabia? La. In short, not a single one of these nations need be afraid.

Like so many from the Middle East, I’ve followed recent events in Tunisia and Egypt with intense interest. Witnessing the Tunisian and Egyptian people topple long-standing, brutal dictators within weeks has filled me with joy and awe. But it has also filled me with another, less tender emotion: envy. Granted, as a rule, envy tends to be both unconstructive and unbecoming. But every rule has an exception, and this may be it.

Dear President Obama,

Many Iranians, including Iranian-Americans such as myself, were delighted to hear your address to the Iranian people on the Persian New Year this March. We sincerely appreciated your well wishes for the New Year, but we appreciated even more your comments regarding a new American commitment to helping the Iranian people.

Every year, I spend the first half of March hunting for the perfect hyacinth. A staple of the Persian New Year, Nowruz, hyacinths are notoriously hard to control. They’re painfully unruly, always leaning to one side or another, refusing to stand up straight, even when you tie a ribbon around them. Yet they smell like heaven and while their stalks are forever recalcitrant in the directions that they take, each of the tiny flowers that graces those stalks screams of symmetry, beauty and perfection.

With just over a week left in the current Persian calendar month of Bahman, three significant anniversaries promise to provide the Iranian pro-democracy movement with a massive shot of adrenalin. Thursday marks Revolution Day, the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution; the commemoration of the martyrdom of the revered Shi’a saint Imam Hassan falls two days later, and two days after that marks the anniversary of the martyrdom of yet another honored Shi’a saint, Imam Reza.

By pushing Russia to consider the option of greater sanctions on Iran in her meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may be endorsing a policy that will end up biting her in the back of her pantsuit. Apart from the fact that Moscow is unlikely to support such a policy given its strong trade relations with Tehran, there’s also the issue of effectiveness. If the past 30 years have taught us anything in Iran, it is that sanctions are not an effective way to change the so-called Islamic Republic of Iran’s behavior, nuclear or otherwise.