The State Department acknowledged last week that the recently announced agreement widely described as freezing Iran’s nuclear program in fact permits Tehran to continue construction at its Arak complex, after statements by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif committed the Islamic republic to bolstering the plutonium facility during the agreement’s six-month interim period: The...

The Jerusalem Post, conveying a report from the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai, today described statements by senior British diplomatic sources revealing that London has been facilitating secret indirect talks between the Obama administration and Hezbollah, a group that is designated as a terrorist organization under U.S. law: Senior British diplomatic sources, quoted in...

The State Department acknowledged last week that Iran currently has a window of time during which it is allowed to continue its nuclear activity unrestrained by an interim agreement announced last month in Geneva, with State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki telling reporters that the six-month period during which the administration is precluding...

Iranian dissidents, U.S. lawmakers, and analysts have all in recent days criticized what Roya Boroumand – executive director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, a human rights group that monitors abuses in Iran – described to the Daily Beast as “the fact that human rights and democracy have not been the subject of...

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu declared today that renewed Turkish-Iranian ties will “become the backbone of regional stability” in the Middle East. “In my point of view, when Turkey and Iran join hands, this will not only benefit both countries, but also become the backbone of regional stability,” Davutoğlu said, pointing to...

Statements made today by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, which, per Reuters, committed Iran to making continued progress on its plutonium-producing facility at Arak “despite an agreement with Western powers to halt activity,” are set to fuel skepticism about White House assurances that the interim deal worked out in Geneva...

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham was quoted by Iranian state media today declaring that the White House is mischaracterizing the terms of an interim agreement signed this weekend between the P5+1 and Iran, a statement that threatens to deepen an already-pitched controversy over the degree to which the agreement conceded that...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Tuesday delivered a progress report describing his first 100 days in office, describing among other things his administration’s success in weakening the international sanctions regime against the country. One hundred days into his first term as Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani offered an upbeat progress report to the country Tuesday,...

Israeli leaders from across the political spectrum have begun echoing the deep skepticism expressed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding this weekend’s interim deal between the P5+1 and Iran. Netanyahu blasted the agreement as a “historic mistake” and committed Jerusalem to acting in the “diplomatic arena” and “in other...

A dispute over the degree to which Iran won enrichment concessions in this weekend’s interim deal has pitted Iran and Russia on one hand against the U.S. and Britain on the other, and is threatening to severely complicate talks aimed at achieving a comprehensive agreement over Tehran’s nuclear program. Iranian...