All the focus on whether the United States and Iran will resume talks over resurrecting the 2015 global nuclear deal obscures an issue of equal importance: escalating skirmishes between Washington and Jerusalem on the one hand and Tehran on the other that raise the risk of miscalculation and, in turn, war. In recent days, the …
Continue reading “Iran’s not feeling the pressure to change”
Iran’s impending entry into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Eurasian bloc that China and Russia lead, has great potential to limit U.S., Israeli and Western leeway in confronting Tehran’s nuclear and hegemonic aspirations, sponsorship of international terrorism and efforts at regional de-stabilization. Iran’s SCO entry comes as the Institute for Science and International Security, …
Continue reading “Iran’s SCO Entry Could Complicate U.S.-Israeli Strategic Options”
With Tehran making significant progress on the nuclear front, Washington and its European allies seem engaged in an increasingly desperate effort to revive the 2015 global nuclear agreement with Iran, mirroring the earlier eagerness that helped produce the problematic agreement in the first place. The operative question is whether – in reversing President Donald Trump’s …
Continue reading “U.S., Allies Too Eager to Resume Nuclear Deal with Iran”
“If they want Iran to return to its commitments,” Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, declared this week about the 2015 global nuclear agreement, “the United States must lift all sanctions in practice.” Hours later, President Biden told CBS News that he will not lift sanctions until Iran agrees to abide by the agreement’s restrictions on …
Continue reading “Iran nuclear program presents new challenges”
Even the closest of bilateral relationships have their ups and downs, and that’s surely true of the vibrant ties that the United States has maintained with Israel since the latter was established more than 70 years ago. As President-elect Biden prepares to assume office, however, he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be wise …
Continue reading “Biden and Netanyahu can carefully nourish U.S.-Israeli ties”
No one knows for sure how Israel’s assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist will shape prospects for U.S. relations with Tehran under President Joe Biden—whether a cowed regime will seek accommodation or a defiant one will double-down on its nuclear pursuits and regional mischief. America’s presumptive president, however, has made clear that he plans to …
Continue reading “Iran Trap: Why Biden Must Avoid Tehran’s Tried and True Tricks”
The news that Bahrain’s foreign minister is meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel this week highlights the predicament that president elect Joe Biden faces in the Middle East: he wants to restore a U.S. approach to the region that relies on increasingly out-of-date assumptions. For starters, Biden promises to rejoin the U.S.-led global …