Agence France-Presse (AFP) Monday conveyed statements from various Iranian officials laying out “red lines” in the context of upcoming nuclear negotiations, with top political and military figures ruling out a range of concessions on issues related to ballistic missile development, the status of atomic sites, and uranium enrichment capabilities. But on Monday,...

Israeli officials this weekend reemphasized Jerusalem’s insistence that Israeli security forces remain along the border with Jordan in the context of any final status arrangement with the Palestinians, a counter-terrorism stance that has reportedly been endorsed by among others Jordan, but that has been repeatedly rejected by Palestinian negotiators. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no intention...

The highly influential NightWatch intelligence bulletin on Monday underlined its assessment that despite rhetorical differences between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, their government’s respective stances “about Israel, peace in the Middle East, and the [United States]… do not differ.” The bulletin was evaluating the significance of a Friday incident in which Ali Larijani, the...

The Sochi Olympics have – quite famously, now – fallen somewhat short of being a showcase of tourism hospitality. The Telegraph, driven either by a desire to help readers or to leverage the Olympics for an easy “travel technology” story or both, today responded by publishing its list of the...

Turkey under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has developed something of a reputation – emphasized in what has become an annual tradition of watchdog criticism – for being the world’s top jailer of journalists. Turkey’s legislature recently passed a law institutionalizing mass censorship and surveillance of the Internet, triggering State...

Russian and Iranian media boasted last week about impending trade deals that may see Iran shrug off international sanctions, amid predictions from French figures that a trade deal between Paris and Tehran may be sealed within weeks. The Tehran Times Friday conveyed details from a Swiss-Iranian trade meeting. In a meeting with...

The Palestinian Hamas faction is content to let its rivals in the Fatah faction reach out to Iran – despite a decades-old proxy relationship between Hamas and its Iranian sponsors – according to a report published last week by Al Monitor. Hamas officials who spoke to the outlet emphasized that any rapprochement...

Statements recently made a top Hezbollah figure and published Friday by Hezbollah’s Al-Manar media outlet risk accelerating a wave of sectarian strife that, having been largely imported from the nearly three-year conflict in neighboring Syria, has increasingly generated open fighting between various factions and a wave of car bombs targeting Hezbollah in retaliation for...

The State Department Thursday condemned new Turkish legislation passed last week that places sharp limits on internet use and freedom. “We share the concerns recently expressed by the OSCE’s representative on freedom of the media – and there was a whole statement that I’d point you to – that these proposed measures...

Senators from across the political spectrum, including some who have largely stayed on the sidelines during recent debates revolving around Iran, on Thursday called on the White House to ensure that Congress is given a significant voice is shaping a comprehensive nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic. Politico conveyed a letter to White House and...