The Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority is condemning the Gaza visit of Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa A-Thani. The much-publicized trip is a diplomatic victory for the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist organization, which has controlled the territory since 2007, when Hamas violently ousted the Palestinian Authority in a bloody coup. Qatari rulers have...

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Last night’s presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney, the third of three such debates and explicitly devoted to foreign policy, highlighted a bipartisan American consensus regarding the unacceptability of Iran attaining nuclear weapons. Iran was mentioned 47 times, more than any other country, and both candidates...

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Officials in the United States and Iran promptly and explicitly denied a bombshell New York Times report outlining a secret agreement between the two countries to engage in one-on-one negotiations after the American election. U.S. National Security Council Spokesman Tommy Vietor declared the report untrue and Iranian Foreign Minister Ali...

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Foreign Policy evaluates the latest round of European Union sanctions against Iran. While recognizing that “the economic toll that U.S. and EU sanctions have taken on Iran is breathtaking,” it finds that they “are still targeted, not broad-brush measures that could grind Iran’s economy to a halt.” The magazine links...

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A massive car bomb shook Beirut this morning, exploding in the predominantly Christian district of Ashrafiya and killing at least eight. The explosion threatens to reignite the sectarian tensions that were behind the country’s destructive civil war and which continue to plague the country. The security situation in Lebanon has...

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Western diplomats are declaring that Iran is expanding its uranium enrichment capacity at the underground IRGC military base in Fordow, near Qom. Reuters quotes a diplomat linked to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the effect that Iran is continuing to install centrifuges in the facility, describing the pace...

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Iranian-American Manssor Arbabsiar pled guilty yesterday to attempting to murder the Saudi ambassador to the United States. The plot, which would have constituted a “significant terrorist attack in the United States” was, according to Arbabsiar “directed by high-ranking” Iranian officials. The United States has linked the plot to a larger...

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The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental organization charged with combating money laundering and terrorist financing, may blacklist Turkey for “inadequate monitoring of bank transfers and unwillingness to freeze accounts” associated with terrorist activities. Turkey has responded by insisting that while the country intends to implement FATF rules, “parliament’s...

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A diplomatic spat between Sweden and Israel bubbled to the surface overnight in the aftermath of reports outlining how Sweden sought to block European Union sanctions on Iran in order to protect a business deal between Tehran and the Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt took to...

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A new cyber espionage tool has been uncovered targeting Lebanon, Iran, and other countries. Dubbed “miniFlame” by the security firm that discovered it, but apparently code-named “John” by its creators, it is related to the Stuxnet cyberweapon deployed against Iranian nuclear installations. Stuxnet is in turn closely related to the...

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