The logic behind White House efforts to delay a Senate push for new sanctions on Iran – that heightened pressure on the Islamic republic would cause Iranian negotiators to walk away from the table – had already drawn criticism in recent days from lawmakers, analysts, and journalists. Inasmuch as the...

Iraq’s domestic and foreign policies may complicate efforts by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to secure military assistance from Washington, with diplomats, journalists, and lawmakers increasingly urging the administration to condition aid on various reforms. October ended yesterday as the deadliest month in Iraq since 2008. There were 979 confirmed deaths...

Israeli Air Force (IAF) jets today struck a Syrian military base with advanced missiles that Israel may have thought were intended for Hezbollah, according to an Obama administration official who spoke to CNN. If confirmed the move would be the most recent of several times that the IAF has reportedly...

Top Republicans and Democrats from the House of Representatives are calling on their Senate colleagues to move forward with legislation to increase sanctions on Iran, brushing aside concerns being expressed by administration figures that new pressure will damage efforts to negotiate with the Islamic republic over its nuclear weapons program....

Iran has made significant progress in concealing components of its nuclear program, and is “getting better” at the construction and protection of potential undisclosed enrichment facilities, according to statements by senior intelligence officials and analysts published yesterday by the Daily Beast. “There have been successes in finding secret Iranian sites...

The IAF had for years trained with Turkey’s air force, until Turkey cut off relations with Israel and began making concentrated efforts to prevent the Jewish state from participating in security forums and multilateral military exercises. Ankara was criticized for seeking to isolate Israel at the expense of Israeli-European interoperability,...

Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi clarified today that Iran is continuing to enrich uranium up to 20%, denying widely conveyed reports that the Islamic republic has ceased adding to its stockpile of 20% purity uranium: “Twenty percent uranium and nuclear plates are being produced inside the country and there...

Egyptian security forces today arrested one of the few prominent Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood figures who have thus far escaped a decapitation campaign being waged against the Islamist group by Egypt’s army-backed interim government: The arrest of Essam el-Erian, the deputy leader of the Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice party,...

Members of Congress and a range of analysts are emphasizing the importance of existing and new sanctions on Iran, as the U.S. and the international community prepare to negotiate with the Islamic republic over its nuclear program, which is widely considered to have clandestine weaponization components. This morning’s Los Angeles...

In 2010 the State Department documented a range of Iranian government abuses against Christians. Between June 2008 and 2010 “115 Christians were reportedly arrested on charges of apostasy, illegal activities of evangelism, anti-government propaganda, and activities against Islam, among other charges,” and then in the second half of 2010 another...