President Barack Obama’s vow to reassess U.S.-Israeli relations after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign remarks about a Palestinian state showcases his badly skewed views of Israel, its conflict with the Palestinians, its Arab neighbors and the true sources of regional instability. “We take him at his word,” Obama said of Netanyahu’s promise, which he walked …
From today’s diary entry of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: Ah, the Americans. When it comes to our nuclear weapons program, they leave us with only good choices! On the one hand, I can drag out the talks beyond this month’s latest deadline because the desperate Americans certainly will agree to keep talking. That’s …
Monday’s reported explosion at Iran’s secretive Parchin nuclear site – leaving two dead and shattering windows 12 kilometers away – is welcome news to those concerned about Tehran’s nuclear progress, but it’s likely a mere blip on what seems an increasingly smooth Iranian road to nuclear weaponry. For a host of reasons, Washington is growing …
The future path of U.S.-led nuclear negotiations with Iran, which have now reached a crucial stage, may be foreshadowed in the U.S. agreement with Syria to dismantle its chemical weapons program. Any U.S.-Iranian deal-making that follows the Syrian model, however, would prove nothing more than a pyrrhic victory, leaving the Middle East more dangerous and, …
The U.S.-led six-month agreement with Iran over its nuclear program reflects not just Washington’s limited aspirations for its relations with Tehran but also its affinity for the regional status quo over possible change. Throw in its policy toward Syria both before and after the start of its horrific civil war, and we see an administration …
Continue reading “Obama’s Narrow Focus On Iran’s Nukes Misses The Larger Point”
The casual observer of recent Middle East activities might as easily conclude that Washington and Tehran are gearing for war, rather than – perhaps – angling for an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program. The United States will participate in a two-week, Israeli-led military exercise this month with more than 100 aircraft and about 1,000 pilots …
Continue reading “U.S., Iran have to sell a deal, not just reach one”
The startlingly open breach of recent days between the United States and its once-solid allies in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere in the Middle East reflects region-wide concerns not only about President Obama’s current policy path but, more broadly, about what they regard as his sinking credibility and rising naivety. The breach is rooted less …
Continue reading “America’s allies are drifting thanks to Obama”