French President Nicolas Sarkozy may have once been caught in an unguarded moment telling President Barack Obama he couldn’t stand Benjamin Netanyahu and branding the Israeli leader “a liar,” but Netanyahu would nonetheless lose …
Tehran
Iran Nuclear Talks: Hitting the ‘Snooze’ Button on the Alarm Clock of Confrontation
Staying within the “clock is ticking” metaphor favored by the Obama Administration when discussing diplomacy with Iran, Saturday’s talks in Istanbul could be said to have hit the snooze button. The doomsday alarm could yet sound, …
Must-Reads From Around the World: April 12, 2012
Pyongyang’s Plan – Despite mounting international pressure, a defiant North Korea appears poised to launch its Unha-3 rocket, viewed by the U.S. and others as a ballistic missile test that violates U.N. resolutions aimed at …
Diplomacy With Iran: Hey, What’s the Hurry?
Such is the chasm between Washington and Tehran that last week’s comments by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei on President Barack Obama’s recent speech verged on geopolitical flirting: “We heard two days ago that the …
Iran’s Elections: Conservatives Battle Each Other, While the Ayatullah ‘Runs’ Against the U.S.
For those seeking to understand Iran’s parliamentary elections, an unlikely analogy might be the GOP presidential primary race: Iran’s poll is a fiercely competitive, bare-knuckled fight for power. Like the GOP primary, the slate …
Why Netanyahu’s Visit to Discuss Iran Puts Obama in a Political Minefield
President Barack Obama’s reelection bid could face a stern test when he addresses the annual conference of the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Sunday, and then meets with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin …
Hamas Signals Break with Iran, But Is That Good for Israel?
A popular Washington illusion once held that the right combination of incentives and punishments might “peel off” Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad from Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” but nobody would have predicted that the weak …
What Iran’s Inspection Rebuff Says About Prospects for Nuclear Diplomacy
To those mesmerized by the drumbeat for war with Iran, Tehran’s rejection on Tuesday of an International Atomic Energy Agency request to visit a sensitive military site signaled grim prospects for diplomacy resolving the nuclear …
A Diplomatic Solution to the Iran Nuclear Standoff? That May Depend On Achieving Compromises
Sanctions on Iran are beginning to work, goes the argument from the Obama Administration, and they should be given more time to bring Tehran to heel. The primary audience for this argument is the leadership of Israel, whom the …
How to Interpret Iran’s New Nuclear Advances
The nuclear advances announced Wednesday by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are a prelude to an expected new round of talks between Tehran and Western powers — and also a moment of electioneering by a political faction …
Obama Seeks to Cool War Fever While Keeping Up Pressure on Iran
Nobody likely envies the challenge President Barack Obama faces getting his “messaging” right on Iran. He must meet the demands of election-year politics and continue to press Tehran’s back to the wall over its nuclear program, …
Israel’s Bombing Threat Helped Spur Iran Sanctions, How Will it Affect Iran Diplomacy?
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors are due to start three days of talks in Tehran, Sunday, “to resolve all outstanding substantive issues” over Iran’s nuclear work. They plan to hear Tehran’s response to questions raised in the most recent IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear work, which cited evidence of research activity — …
War with Iran: A Conflict Obama Hopes to Avoid May Be Imposed on Him
It’s unlikely that President Barack Obama intends to go to the polls in November with the United States engaged in a hot war with Iran, but there is a growing danger that events could conspire to make the decision for him. The …