Agence France-Presse last Friday conveyed statements from Palestinian leaders rejecting U.S. bridging proposals, presented by Secretary of State John Kerry during several recent trips to the region, designed to balance Israeli security requirements with Palestinian demands for autonomy in the context of final status negotiations. After meeting Kerry in Ramallah, the Palestinian...

Turkey is preparing to exploit the reduction in Iran’s financial and diplomatic isolation, threatening to undermine Obama administration assertions that the relief granted to the Islamic republic under the recently announced Joint Plan of Action is “limited, temporary, targeted, and reversible.” Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense...

There is ‘no end in sight’ for talks aimed at implementing the Geneva interim agreement announced last month between the global P5+1 powers and Iran, according to an Agence France-Presse article that was published last week. “There are definite differences of opinion on the interpretation (of the Geneva text). Not that I...

Iran last Friday halted negotiations aimed at implementing the recently announced Joint Plan of Action (JPA) between the P5+1 global powers and Tehran, with reports indicating that the Iranians had walked out in protest of new Department of Treasury measures targeting companies and individuals in violation of U.S. restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear...

The United Nations late on Thursday confirmed that chemical weapons had been used in the almost three year Syrian conflict, with experts investigating more than half a dozen alleged uses of proscribed weapons and – in what CNN described as “the case that was most clear” – documenting an August incident...

The Washington Free Beacon late on Thursday published details of measures emerging from the House of Representatives seeking to – per the outlet – “reset the terms of a controversial nuclear accord reached between Iran and Western nations several weeks ago in Geneva.” The new bipartisan Iran measure, which was filed Thursday evening...

The New York Times reported late on Thursday that a bomb had exploded near Egypt’s Suez Canal, with one person being killed and dozens being wounded. Egypt has been hit with a string of car bombs and suicide attacks since July 3, when the military ousted President Mohamed Morsi. The military has pursued...

The Wall Street Journal this week noted that few programs funded by the European Union are marked by as much controversy as “EU assistance to the Palestinian Authority,” with the bloc having provided more than five and a half billion Euros to the Palestinians since the peace process began in the...

Islamist forces this weekend overran key facilities which until then had been controlled by the more moderate Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), seizing warehouses containing U.S. military gear sent to the FSA and forcing the group’s commander Gen. Salim Idris to flee the country. Buzzfeed had reported on Tuesday that Washington had...

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham earlier this week brushed aside statements from U.S. officials insisting that Washington can easily reverse the erosion in sanctions entailed by the recent Geneva interim agreement. “We think that based on the negotiations (held between Iran and the world powers) and the Joint Plan...