Testimony presented this week to the House Foreign Affairs Committee marked deepening doubts about the capacity and motivation of Iranian president-elect Hassan Rouhani to act as a moderate reformer. Karim Sadjadpour, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment’s Middle East Program, sought to temper expectations [PDF]: While the Iranian public...

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Last year, in response to accusations that it was allowing Iran to evade international sanctions, Georgia issued a flat denial. This morning, the Wall Street Journal evaluated that denial and came away… unimpressed: In recent months, Iranian nationals have taken the reins of a private Georgian airline, a major trade...

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Iranian president-elect Hassan Rouhani served on the Iranian government committee that approved the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina that killed 85 people. Former Iranian intelligence official Abolghasem Mesbahi, who defected from Iran in the late 1990s, testified that the decision to launch the attack was...

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A recent survey found that Yemenis consider Iran to be their country’s Yemenis “number one enemy,” outpacing national antipathy for Israel and the United States. There’s a good reason for that: An expanded roster of Yemen-based allies would give Tehran a lever against the U.S., which relies on Yemen’s government...

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Speaking at the fifth annual President’s Conference in Jerusalem, Quartet Representative Tony Blair ran through multiple scenarios under which Iran could be pressured economically and militarily, with varying degrees of success, regarding the opacity of its nuclear program. The former British Prime Minister declared that, of all the scenarios, an...

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A columnist for a Saudi website argues that Hezbollah hasn’t simply exacerbated tensions between Shi’ites and Sunnis, but has also opened a rift within Shi’ism. The opinion editor of Asharq Al-Awsat, Mshari Al-Zaydi observes in This repulsive war has just begun: Now, Sheikh Qaradawi, who once described Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah as heroes, describes...

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The United Nations has been declining to publish a detailed report – one which has already been approved by the U.N. Security Council sanctions committee – detailing the degree to which Iran has been able to dodge existing sanctions. Somebody somewhere wanted the report to see the light of day,...

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Observers are expressing concerns over the past activities and future intentions of Iranian president-elect and revolutionary-era cleric Hassan Rouhani, who won Iran’s Friday election after a purge of candidates by the country’s powerful Guardian Council, coupled with a subsequent drop-out by another candidate, left him as the relatively most moderate candidate....

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A G8 meeting today between President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the Syrian conflict ended without apparent progress. Reuters conveys the mood awkward: Both leaders looked tense and uncomfortable as they addressed reporters after about two hours of talks, with Putin staring mostly at the floor as he...

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The election this weekend of Iranian president-elect Hassan Rouhani has triggered debate in the foreign policy community. Some see his ascension as a “game-changer” that will open the door to engagement by the West. Others have expressing skepticism that the selection of a revolutionary cleric aligned with Iran’s conservative camp – especially...

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