Israel's Former Intelligence Chief Blasts Bibi's Iran Strategy
Israel’s recently retired former intelligence chief launched a stunning broadside attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak Friday, saying he doesn’t trust...
View ArticleCould Iran Nuclear Talks Founder over Sanctions Relief?
As Iran ponders whether to accept curbs on its nuclear program, it worries less about the possibility of foreign military attack than about the relentless onslaught of economic sanctions that are...
View ArticleIranian Hard-Liners Send Positive Signals on Talks
Something unusual has happened in the wake of the recent Iran nuclear talks in Istanbul: Iran hardliners have taken to the Iranian media and Friday prayers to put a positive gloss on the talks and...
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Can Western Women Tame Iran’s Nuclear Negotiators?
Photos of the high-stakes Iran nuclear talks held in Istanbul earlier this month tell their own story. In them, the top two negotiators — European Union foreign policy chief Cathy Ashton and Iran’s...
View ArticleHow Iran Talks Were Saved From Verge of Collapse
New details on the Iran nuclear talks in Istanbul this weekend, which were largely touted as "positive," now show the meeting had, in fact, deteriorated. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine...
View ArticleAre the Iran Nuclear Talks Finally Headed in the Right Direction?
ISTANBUL—Six world powers emerged from the first nuclear talks with Iran in over a year on a positive note Saturday. “The discussion on the Iranian nuclear issue has been constructive and useful,”...
View ArticleNew Report Finds It Is Time To Upgrade US-Turkey Ties
President Obama, in an interview in January 2012, named Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan among the five world leaders with whom he enjoys the most trusted and effective relations on the global scene. But...
View ArticleKurdistan’s Man In Washington Preps For New Role Back Home
Qubad Talabani, the longtime Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) envoy to Washington, will move to Kurdistan this summer after a twelve-year run representing Iraqi Kurdistan here that has seen the...
View ArticleIran Economy Minister Warns: Sanctions 'Lose-Lose' Situation
Shamseddin Hosseini is one of the only senior Iranian officials to violate a taboo: Twice a year, Iran’s minister of economy travels to Washington for meetings of the World Bank and IMF. As such, he...
View Article'Intense' Iran Nuclear Talks End With Agreement to Meet Again
BAGHDAD — Iran and six nations ended two days of “intense” and difficult nuclear talks in Baghdad late Thursday with no breakthroughs but a plan to meet again in Moscow next month. Chief European...
View ArticleInfighting at the Iran Nuclear Talks
Baghdad — Recently resumed Iran nuclear talks almost collapsed in Baghdad, just a couple hours before the chief international negotiator announced that the parties had agreed to hold a third meeting...
View ArticleUS Mulls Seeking Broader Deal In Nuclear Talks With Iran
The Obama administration is considering putting forward a broader proposal to Iran, rather than the more incremental one presented at a meeting last month in Baghdad, diplomatic sources told...
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Egyptian Court Dissolves Parliament
Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court issued two momentous rulings Thursday that analysts in Washington and Cairo describe as amounting to a soft coup. The court ruled that one-third of Egypt's...
View ArticleFormer Obama Official Says US Should Put Cards on Table
Colin Kahl, a former top Obama Defense Department Middle East official tells Al-Monitor why the Iran nuclear talks in Moscow, scheduled for next week, should not be make-or-break for the P5+1. He...
View ArticleOn to the Next Round Of Iran Nuclear Talks
MOSCOW — After two grueling days of nuclear negotiations, diplomats from Iran and six world powers agreed on at least one thing: they were not yet ready to let the recently re-launched diplomatic...
View ArticleLatest Iran Nuclear Talks Reveal Wide Gaps, ‘Intense and Tough’
Iran for the first time on Monday, June 18, gave a point-by-point response to an international proposal on halting its 20% enrichment activities. But international diplomats said the presentation,...
View ArticleNATO Backs Turkey But Mute on Response Over Downed Plane
NATO ambassadors, meeting in Brussels Tuesday, expressed strong solidarity with Turkey, a member-nation, over Syria’s downing of a Turkish military reconnaissance plane last week (June 22). But the...
View ArticleUS Hardens Stance In Iran Nuclear Talks
Iran came to talks in Moscow last week (June 18-19) prepared to discuss stopping enriching uranium to 20% but refused two other conditions that could have led to a partial agreement in the nuclear...
View ArticleCrucial Round of Iran Nuclear Talks Begin in Moscow
MOSCOW — Diplomats from six nations and Iran arrived in Moscow ahead of a new round of nuclear talks Monday that some American diplomats consider pivotal to determining whether or not to pursue the...
View ArticleDraft Communiqué From Action Group on Syria
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday, June 30, downplayed the changes made to the text of a joint statement on what should be done in Syria that was issued by major powers meeting in Geneva....
View ArticleIran’s UN Envoy: We Will Not Initiate Confrontation
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad Khazaee said Tuesday (July 10) that Iran will not take actions that would escalate confrontation with the West and criticized the international...
View ArticleExclusive: Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee on War, Peace and Nukes
Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee’s spoke with Al-Monitor correspondents Barbara Slavin and Laura Rozen on July 10 2012. Read excerpts from the wide-ranging conversation. On the request of the P5+1...
View ArticleSyrian Defense Minister, Assad Brother-in-Law Killed in Blast
Syrian Defense Minister General Daoud Rajha and Bashar al-Assad’s powerful brother-in-law were killed in the suicide bombing of a cabinet meeting in Damascus Wednesday, Syrian state TV reported. “The...
View ArticleHezbollah and Iran May Need Plan B After Syria Bombing
A day after several members of Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle were assassinated at a cabinet meeting in Damascus, Assad’s allies may be beginning to re-evaluate his longevity and what comes next, some...
View ArticleUS Authorizes Financial Support For the Free Syrian Army
A US group that supports the Free Syrian Army has received a waiver from the US Treasury Department authorizing it to provide logistical and financial support to the armed Syrian resistance. The...
View ArticleConcerns Mount That Israel Is Losing Patience on Iran Plan
As the Obama administration doubles down on sanctions, concerns are mounting in Washington that Israel is running out of patience with the US approach and may move to strike Iran in the fall. The...
View ArticleUS Courts Emerging Leaders in Syria to Avoid Iraq Pitfalls
As the United States scrambles to establish ties with emerging leaders in the Syrian opposition, President Barack Obama's administration is trying hard to avoid an exile-centric strategy that risks...
View ArticleUS Iraq Envoy Sees 'Great Deal of Continuity' From Bush to Obama
James F. Jeffrey stepped down as US ambassador to Iraq in June, and retired from the foreign service, after serving two years in Baghdad overseeing the largest US embassy in the world during the...
View ArticleTake Israel Iran Threat 'Very Seriously,' Ex-Obama Official Says
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl traveled to Israel 13 times during his tenure as the Obama administration’s top Pentagon Middle East civilian policy advisor from 2009 to the...
View ArticleDennis Ross: Israel's Iran Threats Aimed at Spurring Global Action
Israel’s intentions on Iran are ambiguous, veteran United States-Middle East trouble shooter Dennis Ross says. “Part of the motivation for being as public as they have been is to motivate the rest of...
View ArticleUS Scholars: Designate Israeli Extremists as Terrorists
Amid a rising spate of Jewish extremist violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank, two prominent US Middle East scholars are urging the United States to officially designate as terrorists those...
View ArticleEric Cantor Tied to Rabbi Whose Aide Is at Center of Probe
UPDATE: This article was updated Aug. 26 to note that the top seven donors to Eric Cantor’s 2008 campaign are all followers or associates of Rabbi Pinto. An influential rabbi whose former aide is...
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