The United Nation’s special rapporteur on human rights in Iran has told the U.N. General Assembly that there have been no fundamental improvements in Iran’s human rights situation despite token but welcome gestures undertaken since the election of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special rapporteur on human...

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Iran has publicly signaled that the international community’s demands that it halt enrichment, codified in half a dozen United Nations Security Council resolutions, is a non-starter. The New York Times has explained that Iran has installed thousands of new centrifuges in the last year, many of them more sophisticated than...

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The White House today issued a statement marking thirty years since a Hezbollah suicide bomber attacked the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing 220 Marines, 18 sailors, and 3 soldiers in the “the deadliest single-day death toll for the U.S. Marine Corps” since World War II. New York Governor Andrew...

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Israel’s new ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer last week made his first speech since taking up his post. The speech took place in Los Angeles and among other things outlined the contours of what a deal over Iran’s nuclear program would have to contain to robustly assure that Iran...

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Saudi Arabia intends to scale back the degree to which it cooperates with the United States in arming and training Syrian rebels, a decision that comes amid what the Wall Street Journal describes as “a growing dispute between the U.S. and one of its closest Arab allies over Syria, Iran and Egypt...

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Turkish media outlets are reporting that Washington canceled the delivery of 10 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Turkey after Ankara deliberately burned 10 Iranian spies operating inside Iran on behalf of the Israeli Mossad. The Predators are important for Turkey to maintain its fight against terrorism. In previous years the US press...

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Russian sources are signalling that a potential deal between the international community and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program could allow Tehran to continue enriching uranium up to 5% purity. “In the absence of trust between the two sides, we have to concentrate on what causes the most concern,” Deputy Foreign Minister...

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Washington Institute managing director Michael Singh late last week sought to outline what a nuclear deal with Iran would look like if the Obama administration and its allies pursue a strategy that holds out sanctions relief until Iran takes long-understood steps to meet roughly a half-dozen United Nations Security Council...

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U.S. officials have confirmed to the Daily Beast the details of a Washington Post report revealing that Turkey last year deliberately burned roughly 10 Israeli spies who were working in Iran on the country’s nuclear program. The Daily Beast quotes former Israeli Mossad chief Danny Yatom describing the move as...

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There has been some confusion over the degree to which the Iranian regime has moderated its rhetoric in the aftermath of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s election. On October 1st there was something of a media dust-up regarding the possibility that some top Iranian officials had ceased publicly denigrating Israel as...

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