The U.S. and EU’s response to the crisis in Ukraine may induce Russia to “raise the stakes” by revising its stance on nuclear talks with Iran, per statements by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov conveyed on Wednesday by Reuters. “We wouldn’t like to use these talks as an element of the game...

The Associated Press yesterday quoted a European Union official describing renewed talks between Iran and the P5+1 global powers as getting into the “nitty-gritty,” after weeks in which top Iranian officials had repeatedly underscored their red lines against dismantling their uranium infrastructure, downgrading their plutonium-producing Arak reactor, or limiting their ballistic missile program. Obama administration...

Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon stunned both domestic and international observers yesterday when he signaled that he now leans in favor of a unilateral Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to multiple reports. This comes in the wake of months of failed Western efforts, through the P5+1 states, to...

Analysts and journalists worked yesterday to unpack a weekend interview between Reuters and Vann Van Diepen – the U.S.’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-Proliferation – in which Van Diepen bluntly declared that there has been no change in Iran’s efforts to illicitly procure components for its nuclear...

Eighty-three senators—split almost evenly between Democrats and Republicans—sent a joint letter to President Obama today calling for increased pressure on Iran and the dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program. Among other things, the letter called for the “rapid and dramatic” expansion of sanctions if talks with Iran fail: Most importantly, Iran must...

If talks break down between Israel and the Palestinians, who will be to blame? In a scathing op-ed today, the Washington Post’s deputy editorial-page editor Jackson Diehl suggests that while Abbas will drive the failure, at least part of the problem may be in the tactics employed by President Obama....