Iranian MP Mehdi Sanayee, a member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, has foreclosed the possibility that the administration of president-elect Hassan Rouhani will agree to suspend uranium enrichment in the context of negotiations with the West. “The point raised by President-elect Rouhani in his press...

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Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has again clarified that – contrary to analysis in some corners of the foreign policy community, and despite expressions of optimism by some Western diplomats – his organization will not recognize Israel: Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday that Palestinians would not recognize Israel,...

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Asked how he could continue negotiating with Yasser Arafat even as terrorism against Israeli civilians continues, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin famously insisted that “we shall negotiate peace, as though there were no terrorism, and we shall fight terrorism as though there is no peace.” The Obama Administration and its...

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Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird has warned Iran that the Islamic republic only has two to three months to demonstrate to the West that it is committed to resolving the crisis surrounding its atomic program through negotiations, declaring that talks are “nearing the end.” Baird rejected suggestions, which have recently...

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The State Department yesterday posted that Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne C. Richard will be in Amman through tomorrow meeting with government officials and humanitarian workers. Richard’s visit comes as the country’s refugee crisis – triggered by the war in neighboring Syria – threatens to...

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Iranian Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi spoke to a national gathering last week about the prospects that he sees for fruitful negotiations between the Washington and Tehran. The recent election as president of regime-linked conservative cleric Hassan Rouhani – which came after elements in Iran’s government arranged for his opponents...

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After pledging early Monday to “finish with” a Sunni sheikh who the army blames for stoking sectarian violence in the southern city of Sidon, the Lebanese army stormed the mosque where Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir was holed up with 200 to 300 of his followers. Assirr had vowed to stay barricaded...

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This weekend’s Palestinian rocket fire into Israel, after which Israel responded with airstrikes, can be traced to the war raging in Syria and, by extension, to Iran. The attack broke forty days of relative quiet. While Palestinians in Gaza have fired several rockets against Israel since Israel’s Operation Pillar of...

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In the days since Iranian president-elect Hassan Rouhani won an Iranian election that analysts fear was stacked for him by the regime, Western journalists and analysts have called attention to his history of conducting violence and terrorism against regime opponents domestically and abroad. Iranian proxies and clients in Lebanon and...

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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a few weeks left as president of Iran. In the meantime, he spent time this week in criminal court facing unspecified charges brought by parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani. Ahmadinejad had tried to theatrically accuse the powerful Larijani’s brother of corruption from the floor of Iran’s parliament in...

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