Congressional Quarterly (CQ) on Wednesday assessed that “groups on opposite sides of the Iran debate” were converging on the need to give Congress a strong voice in the Obama administration’s diplomacy with Iran, just days after bipartisan letters to the White House from both the House and the Senate were read as moves...

Analysts, journalists, and lawmakers on Tuesday continued to unpack the geopolitical consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – both in general and specifically in the context of Middle East crises the White House is scrambling to contain – with evaluations building on assessments that the impending U.S.-Russia chill will badly complicate the Obama administration’s strategy...

Iran is making moves to bring Western investors into the country’s energy sector, with Iranian media reportedly detailing efforts by the Iranian Oil Ministry to hold a conference next July that will include “experts from Europe and the United States.” Morteza Behrouzi, the secretary-general for the conference, told the Fars News Agency...

The White House’s reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is being read by Middle East hands against the backdrop of the ongoing crises in Syria and Iran, with both the Obama administration’s credibility and its ability to substantively address those issues both at stake. The administration had very publicly and very explicitly embraced...

USA Today last week catalogued a range of indications that “Iran [is] advancing its nuclear program despite [a] pact with West,” describing how the Islamic Republic was “moving ahead with a nuclear program that U.S. officials said would be frozen” even as the sanctions relief granted under an interim agreement was eroding Washington’s...

Descriptions of Iranian abuses in the State Department’s annual human rights review – unveiled at a Thursday press conference alongside particularly grim evaluations from Uzra Zeya, acting assistant secretary of State for democracy, human rights and labor – risk consolidating deepening concerns that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is either unable or unwilling...