Canadian officials on Wednesday announced that Canada would cease all trade with Iran. At issue are a range of Iranian policies and atrocities, ranging from human rights abuses to Iran’s continued violation of U.N. resolutions demanding that it reduce the opacity around its atomic program: “The absence of progress …...

Hezbollah appears to be shrugging off a 24-hour ultimatum issued yesterday by Free Syrian Army chief Salim Idris instructing the Iran-backed terror group to withdraw from Syria, and is instead pouring extra fighters from Lebanon into the battle raging in the Syrian city of Qusayr: Government fighter jets early Wednesday...

An open letter signed last week by 72 congressmen is calling on United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to demand that Iran be removed from serving as the chair of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament. The bipartisan letter – coauthored by Peter Roskam (R-IL), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Mike Kelly (R-PA),...

Recent weeks have seen foreign policy analysis to the effect that further pressure on Iran ought not be imposed, because the regime may soften its stance in nuclear negotiations after the upcoming June elections. The eight hardline presidential candidates allowed to run in the election – some 670 other candidates...

Last week Iran’s Guardian Council – which is charged with vetting candidates who want to run for office, and from which there is no appeal – approved just 8 of some 680 candidates who applied to run in Iran’s June 14th election. Diplomats speaking to AFP were blunt about how...

Diplomats are beginning to react to a confidential IAEA report leaked this week that heightened concerns that Iran was using negotiations to stall for time and lock-in critical nuclear infrastructure. Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, of course dismissed the report’s significance. State Department Acting Deputy Spokesperson Patrick...