Middle East
Iraq and UN agree on relocating Iran exiles
Sarah Shourd, One of the Three American Hikers Freed from Prison in Iran, Sounds Off
I did not intentionally walk across an unmarked border into a country whose language I didn t speak and history I'd never studied. Nor did I choose the most interesting and volatile time in the Islamic Republic's 31-year history to be captured, imprisoned, and psychologically tortured by the government. But it happened. Like a lot of the world, I was just beginning to wake up and pay attention to Iran in the weeks leading up to my captivity. The post-election protests were all over the news, and I was intrigued by what felt like a new breed of a nonviolent mass movement, with powerful use of imagery, props, and tactics. Call it fate or call it coincidence, even though I never intended to go anywhere near Iran, I found myself thrown into a small cell in Evin prison, while the Green Movement was raging in the streets.
Why a Strike on Iran Is the Least Bad Option
In early October, U.S. officials accused Iranian operatives of planning to assassinate Saudi Arabia s ambassador to the United States on American soil. Iran denied the charges, but the episode has already managed to increase tensions between Washington and Tehran. Although the Obama administration has not publicly threatened to retaliate with military force, the allegations have underscored the real and growing risk that the two sides could go to war sometime soon -- particularly over Iran s advancing nuclear program.
The winners and losers of US policy on Iran
In the same week that President Obama declared an end to the Iraq War, Congress brought Americans closer to confrontation with Iran. The whimper with which America's presence in Iraq ended was also drowned out by Republican presidential hopefuls beating war drums. This is America nearly four years into Obama's leadership. The President may have begun his term by trying to pursue a different path with Iran, but his acquiescence to domestic lobbying has made the results of his policies indistinguishable from his predecessor. Ironically, his attempts to appease pro-Israel advocates have only invited more onerous demands while leaving would-be supporters disillusioned.
America, Israel and Iran – no way out
An American and or Israeli attack on Iran would have some daunting unintended consequences: a regional backlash which would end Iran's isolation and generate popular political support for its clerical regime both at home and abroad; attacks against US military assets and interests in the region; and "severe economic consequences" - read: sharply increased oil prices - which would undermine fragile economies in the US and Europe. Finally, he said, initiation of hostilities could produce "an escalation... that would not only involve many lives, but ... could consume the Middle East in a confrontation and a conflict that we would regret (emphasis added)".
War on Iran has already begun. Act before it threatens all of us
They don't give up. After a decade of blood-drenched failure in Afghanistan and Iraq, violent destabilisation of Pakistan and Yemen, the devastation of Lebanon and slaughter in Libya, you might hope the US and its friends had had their fill of invasion and intervention in the Muslim world. It seems not. For months the evidence has been growing that a US-Israeli stealth war against Iran has already begun, backed by Britain and France. Covert support for armed opposition groups has spread into a campaign of assassinations of Iranian scientists, cyber warfare, attacks on military and missile installations, and the killing of an Iranian general, among others.
War drums are beating for Iran. But who’s playing them?
The retiring US president, Dwight D Eisenhower, famously took the opportunity of his farewell to the nation address in 1961 to warn his fellow countrymen of the danger in allowing too close a relationship between politicians and the defence industry. "This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience," he said. "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.
Lobbying by Iranian Group M.E.K. Reaches Across Party Lines
At a time of partisan gridlock in the capital, one obscure cause has drawn a stellar list of supporters from both parties and the last two administrations, including a dozen former top national security officials. That alone would be unusual. What makes it astonishing is the object of their attention: a fringe Iranian opposition group, long an ally of Saddam Hussein, that is designated as a terrorist organization under United States law and described by State Department officials as a repressive cult despised by most Iranians and Iraqis.
U.S. Treasury to brief UAE, Israel on Iran pressure
The U.S. Treasury will send its top national security official to the United Arab Emirates and Israel this weekend to brief government officials on new U.S. actions to increase financial pressure on Iran. The Treasury said David Cohen, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, will discuss the Obama administration's decision to declare Iran a jurisdiction of "primary money laundering concern" during the Nov. 26-29 trip.
The Iranian threat
The brutal clerical regime is doubtless a threat to its own people, though it does not rank particularly high in that respect in comparison to US allies in the region. But that is not what concerns the military and intelligence assessments. Rather, they are concerned with the threat Iran poses to the region and the world. The reports make it clear that the Iranian threat is not military. Iran's military spending is "relatively low compared to the rest of the region", and of course minuscule as compared to the US. Iranian military doctrine is strictly "defensive, designed to slow an invasion and force a diplomatic solution to hostilities". Iran has only "a limited capability to project force beyond its borders". With regard to the nuclear option, "Iran's nuclear programme and its willingness to keep open the possibility of developing nuclear weapons is a central part of its deterrent strategy".
Obama Dismisses Criticism of Approach to Iran
U.S. Hangs Back as Inspectors Prepare Report on Iran’s Nuclear Program
An imminent report by United Nations weapons inspectors includes the strongest evidence yet that Iran has worked in recent years on a kind of sophisticated explosives technology that is primarily used to trigger a nuclear weapon, according to Western officials who have been briefed on the intelligence. But the case is hardly conclusive.
U.S. Keeps Focus On Sanctions For Iran, Amid Speculation Over Israeli Strike
The Secret War With Iran
Iran may be the most challenging test of the Obama administration s focus on new, cheap technologies that could avoid expensive boots on the ground; drones are the most obvious, cyberweapons the least discussed. It does not quite add up to a new Obama Doctrine, but the methods are defining a new era of nearly constant confrontation and containment.
UK military steps up plans for Iran attack amid fresh nuclear fears
Britain's armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern about Tehran's nuclear enrichment programme, the Guardian has learned. The Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government.
Video Interview: Hillary Clinton with BBC Persian – The Unfortunate Decision of the Green Movement
US reaches out to Iranians, warns Iran government
The Obama administration is setting up an Internet-based embassy to reach out to Iranians hoping to broaden their understanding of the United States, while at the same time studying new sanctions to raise the pressure on Iran s government over its disputed nuclear program and alleged ties to terrorism.
Must America Accept A Nuclear Iran
The world learned to its horror the price of appeasement when, fearing war, it allowed Adolf Hitler to ignore the Treaty of Versailles in his quest to establish a Thousand Year Reich. More than 50 million people paid that price in death. Now the world is facing another mad dictatorship in an Iran bent on mass destruction.
The coming Republican push on Iran
The rise of the Arab masses has pushed Iran out of the headlines -- for now. Even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose theatrics rarely pass unnoticed, has lately failed to grab the attention of the U.S. media. America's attention has instead turned toward Egypt, Syria and Libya. This is likely to change in the next few months. Not as a result of any particular developments in Iran or between the United States and Iran, but because of the 2012 presidential elections.
Faster, Please! Khamenei Must Go (and Take Ahmadinejad too, Please)
According to several recent reports, the Obama administration is now considering more forceful action against Iran in Iraq. This is as understandable as it was inevitable; as I wrote many months before the invasion of Iraq, it is folly to expect to maintain decent security there so long as the current regime remains in power in Tehran. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his henchmen cannot tolerate the existence of a free, stable democratic society in its Shi ite neighbor to the West, nor in Afghanistan to the East.
Sanctions aren’t slowing Iran’s nuclear progress
ACCORDING TO a recent story in The Post, the Obama administration is quietly toasting the success of international sanctions against Iran. The Islamic republic is having increasing difficulty arranging imports, including food, and the central bank is reportedly short of hard currency. Billions of dollars in foreign investment projects have been canceled, and few banks, insurance companies or shipping firms are willing to do business with Tehran.
If we retreat from Iraq, will Iran take over?
One of the most curious features of the Obama administration s foreign policy is the contrast between the silky, non-confrontational public diplomacy it employs when dealing with dictatorships and adversaries, such as Russia, China and Venezuela - and the brusqueness with which it often addresses U.S. clients and allies.
U.S State Department Deteriorating human rights in Iran U.S. chief priority
Iran’s Nuclear Threat – Real or Not
Is Iran actively trying to develop nuclear weapons? Members of the Obama Administration often talk as if this were a foregone conclusion, as did their predecessors under George W. Bush. There's a large body of evidence, however, including some of America's most highly classified intelligence assessments, suggesting that the U.S. could be in danger of repeating a mistake similar to the one made with Saddam Hussein s Iraq eight years ago - allowing anxieties about the policies of a tyrannical regime to distort our estimates of the state's military capacities and intentions.
Obama aides dismiss Seymour Hersh’s Iran story
Iran’s Syria Strategy: Heavy Meddle
A top commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Chizari was hit with sanctions last week by the Obama administration. Given his nationality, one might assume that he was sanctioned in relation to the Iranian regime's nuclear pursuits or its crackdown on dissidents. In fact, Chizari, the Quds Force Chief Qasem Soleimani, and the organization itself were targeted for abetting oppression somewhere else: Syria.
Covert War With Iran A ‘Wilderness Of Mirrors’
No.1 US priority in Middle East regime change in Iran
Residents of Tehran give their thoughts on Arab protests and unrest
Hillary Clinton’s crucial choice on Iran
U.S. reacts to fear of Iran’s rising clout
White House concerns that Iran's hand is being strengthened by recent events in the Middle East is central to its response to the turmoil, say U.S., European, and Arab officials. President Barack Obama's decision last week to use military force against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces was made in part by his administration's fear that Western inaction could further embolden Tehran, these officials say.