Citing “the manifest willingness of the Iranians to adopt their own pressure tactics,” the editors of The Washington Post today endorsed the proposed Senate bill authored by Senators Mark Kirk (R – Ill.) and Robert Menendez (D – N.J.), which would increase pressure on Iran if no nuclear deal is concluded by...

• Kindle

During a press conference Friday, President Obama vowed to veto the conditional sanctions put forward by the renewed Kirk-Menendez bill, a law that would place increased sanctions on Iran’s economy if there is no final nuclear deal by June 30. The president declared that he is “not suggesting that we...

• Kindle

The State Department on Wednesday faced a barrage of questions about the status of Iran negotiations after the Iranians announced that they would expand their nuclear program and take action against an American journalist imprisoned in the country. Iranian media conveyed reports that day President Hassan Rouhani announced that Iran...

• Kindle

Iran’s announced construction of two light-water reactors does not violate the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) signed between Iran and the P5+1 nations in November 2013, a State Department official told the Washington Free Beacon today. “We are aware of the announcement and are reviewing the details,” said the official, who was not authorized to...

• Kindle

Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.) on Tuesday warned that sanctions relief provided to Iran by the current interim Joint Plan of Action (JPA) had bolstered the Iranians’ negotiating position in nuclear talks with the West, and suggested that lawmakers in Washington would vote to boost the leverage of American negotiators in...

• Kindle

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced plans yesterday to build two more nuclear reactors near the one already operating in Bushehr, Iran’s Farsnews reported today. “Construction of two new power plants will increase the capacity of Bushehr province’s power generation to 2,000 megawatts,” President Rouhani said in a meeting with investors and...

• Kindle

Why was Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal’s visit to Tehran unexpectedly postponed until further notice? This question is the focus of a new position paper (Arabic link) written by the Iranian Institute for Diplomacy think tank. The answer, according to them, is that “there are still a lack of confidence and...

• Kindle

A series of boasts by Iranian officials in recent weeks is deepening concerns that Western negotiators now lack the necessary leverage to extract meaningful concessions from Tehran. The comments, which range from boasts about Iranian military power to its relations with the Western countries it is currently engaged in negotiations with,...

• Kindle

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is preparing to reintroduce legislation in the coming weeks that would impose further sanctions on Tehran and call for a greater congressional voice in Washington’s negotiations with the Islamic Republic. The legislation, first introduced in December 2013, was not at the time brought to the...

• Kindle

In the lead article of the January 2015 issue of Commentary, Omri Ceren writes that despite assurances from the Obama administration that the nuclear negotiations with Iran would halt Iran’s progress towards a nuclear bomb, the Iranians have instead been “protected from new pressure and allowed to pursue their work toward obtaining...

• Kindle