As the P5+1 nations and Iran have negotiated to reach a deal by the June 30 deadline (recently pushed to July 7), a number of news stories were published that showed Iran to be outmaneuvering the West in the negotiations. Iran has sought advantages in the negotiations by violating past agreements, and benefited from the West...

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The $150 billion “signing bonus” in unfrozen funds that Iran would receive in a nuclear deal will strengthen the hold that its proxy terrorist group Hezbollah has over Lebanon, Lebanese politician Ahmad el-Assaad wrote Monday in an op-ed (Google link) for The Wall Street Journal. El-Assaad noted that Iran is stretched thin due to its support of the...

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The desperation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could prompt him to increase the regime’s use of chemical weapons, The Wall Street Journal reported (Google link) yesterday, citing sources in the American government. Last year, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad let international inspectors oversee the removal of what President Barack Obama called the regime’s...

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Human rights activists have added a new dimension of coverage to the ongoing nuclear talks in Vienna between the P5+1 global powers and Iran, despite declarations by top American officials that they would prefer not to let human rights issues interfere with sealing a nuclear deal. The families of Americans jailed in...

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Consulting a number of Israeli policy-makers and experts, the BBC explained in a report on Monday why Israel fears a nuclear Iran. A retired officer from Israel’s secret service, Mossad, told us that issues related to Iran take up most of the time and energy of Israel’s intelligence services. That...

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In the wake of admissions that the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran will pass the June 30 deadline, the Associated Press (AP) published an analysis today that explored a number of possibilities world powers could pursue should the talks fail. The analysis judges that a military response is unlikely, but...

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The windfall of sanctions relief that Iran will be granted as a result of the emerging nuclear deal will allow the Islamic Republic “to project its power into corners of the Middle East in ways that were never possible before,” Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations,...

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In an analysis (Google link) of the secret diplomacy between the United States and Iran that led to the nuclear talks, The Wall Street Journal today reported that in order to build confidence with Iran, the United States expedited the release of four Iranians, among them convicted arms smugglers, who were held...

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The United States must not allow Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s latest rejection of terms necessary for an effective nuclear agreement shape the emerging deal, an unsigned staff editorial today in The Boston Globe asserted. The United States must “hold Iranian negotiators to the terms they agreed to” in Lausanne in April....

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The experience of Hossein Alizadeh, a former Iranian diplomat based in Finland, raised questions over whether a regime that cheats its own people can be trusted to keep an international agreement, Sohrab Ahmari wrote in his profile (Google link) of the former diplomat Friday in The Wall Street Journal. Remembering the rigged elections that returned...

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