European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton announced Friday that nuclear talks between the P5+1 global powers and Iran will begin February 18th in Vienna. “We have agreed that we will start the talks on February 18 at the U.N. building in Vienna,” Ashton said after what she described as a “really interesting” meeting with...

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The Daily Beast on Friday conveyed analysis from a new U.S. intelligence report warning that North Korea may resume its export of nuclear technology and material, noting further that “the comprehensive nuclear deal Iran is negotiating with the West could be undermined by increased Iranian cooperation with North Korea.” Citing diplomatic and intelligence...

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Iran’s foreign ministry on Thursday brushed aside President Barack Obama’s claim, made on Tuesday during the President’s State of the Union address, that American sanctions had coerced Iran into negotiating over its atomic program. “The delusion of sanctions having an effect on Iran’s motivation for nuclear negotiations is based on a false narration of...

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The Swiss government yesterday fully suspended some trade bans on Iran and relaxed mandatory reporting requirements across a range of additional sectors, a day after news emerged that Iran intends to use banks in Japan, South Korea, and Switzerland to reestablish ties to the international financial system. Agence France-Presse reported on Tuesday that Tehran...

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A top official from the Palestinian Fatah faction declared on Wednesday that his organization may move to bolster ties with Iran, after years in which Tehran had largely eschewed backing Fatah and had opted instead to provide military, financial, and diplomatic support to the more radical Hamas faction. Speaking in an interview with...

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Analysts are expressing increasingly pointed concerns that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif may lack either the ability or the willingness to help secure a comprehensive deal between Iran and the West that would put Tehran’s nuclear program verifiably beyond use for weaponization, with his recently published memoirs and multiple recent...

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Turkey seems set to renew its diplomatic relationship with Iran and deepen its trade ties with the Islamic republic, even as top U.S. officials pleaded with Turkish officials on Monday to heed Washington’s insistence that remaining sanctions on Iran mean that the country “is not open for business.” Speaking in Turkey, which is looking...

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American voters from across both political parties and all demographics believe that Congress must have a voice in any final agreement with Iran, favor Congressional legislation that would impose new financial pressure on Tehran, and prefer almost virtually any scenario – including targeted military strikes – to allowing the Islamic...

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Reuters yesterday conveyed statements from State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf confirming that the first round of comprehensive nuclear negotiations with Iran will begin in New York in mid-February, amid both news and analysis reflecting unease over the willingness and ability of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani to offer meaningful concessions. “New York –...

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Obama administration officials continued to scramble last week to contain the fallout from recent statements by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif and President Hassan Rouhani, in which the officials respectively denied that Iran had made key nuclear concessions under a recent interim agreement and foreclosed what are widely believed...

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