To fete the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gleefully announced his nation will enrich uranium to 20%. The bombastic Ahmadinejad seems to delight in provoking howls of outrage from the West. They were not long in coming. Western media and politicians loudly denounced Iran's latest nuclear effort, claiming it would... Read More

The confusion over Iran's nuclear program mounts as accusations and denials intensify. In an effort to browbeat Iran into nuclear submission, the US, Britain and France staged a bravura performance of political theater last week by claiming to have just "discovered" a secret Iran uranium enrichment plant near Qum. On cue, a carefully orchestrated media... Read More

WASHINGTON — We keep making the mistake of dealing with each new foreign crisis as a distinct and unique event, rather than as part of a historical-political continuum. Here is a sad example: In 1982, my old friend and Georgetown University Foreign Service School classmate, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, was executed in Tehran after mounting a failed... Read More

WASHINGTON — Iran's political crisis continues to blaze. It's still impossible to say which leaders or factions will emerge victorious, but one thing is certain: the earthquake in the Islamic Republic is shaking the Mideast and deeply confusing everyone, including the US government. Highlighting the complexity of this crisis, Meir Dagan, the head of Israel's... Read More

As America struggles with its debt-ravaged economy and surging unemployment, Iran and its alleged nuclear weapons program have again become an issue of major contention. In recent weeks, Obama administration officials and the media issued a blizzard of contradictory claims over Iran's alleged nuclear threat, leaving one wondering who is really charge of US foreign... Read More

Iran is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its historic Islamic revolution after three decades of siege warfare by the western powers. To understand why relations between Tehran and the West are so bitter, we must understand their historical context. Iran's jagged relations with the West began during World War II. In 1941, the British Empire... Read More

GENEVA — The U.S., Israel and Iran are playing a very dangerous game of chicken that soon could result in a new Mideast war. U.S. intelligence has concluded that Iran is not working on nuclear weapons. But the Bush administration and Israel, recently joined by France, are issuing increasingly loud threats of military action to... Read More

"Merry Christmas, Mr. President" hissed the men in cloaks as they plunged a dagger into George Bush's back. America's spooks finally had their revenge. After being forced by the White House in 2002—2003 to concoct a farrago of lies about Iraq, and then get stuck with the blame for the ensuing fiasco there, the 16... Read More

In spite of being hopelessly bogged down in $700 billion wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush/Cheney administration appears set on a collision course with Tehran. In recent weeks, the White House's war of words against Iran has sharply intensified, and grown increasingly bellicose. What is the White House up to? Either trying to bluff... Read More

Iran's nuclear program is a danger to the entire world, U.S. President George Bush warned again last week as Washington pressed the UN Security Council to impose sanctions. The uproar certainly helped distract public attention from the Bush administration's mounting domestic and foreign policy woes. It also showed how few people understand the Iranian nuclear... Read More

It's both fascinating and dismaying watching the manufactured 'crisis' over Iran reach new intensity each week. Iran poses no real military threat to anyone, but listening to the Bush Administration or the US media one would think that Tehran was about to unleash a nuclear holocaust on the world. What we are seeing is a... Read More

The U.S. and Israel are preparing to attack Iran's nuclear infrastructure, according to U.S. and European intelligence sources. The U.S. and EU are exerting maximum diplomatic and psychological pressure on Iran to prevent it from enriching uranium in spite of its legal right to do so. Tehran remains defiant, but may yet compromise by shipping... Read More

Iran has thrown down the gauntlet to the US and EU by resuming uranium enrichment laboratory tests. Tehran is not heeding a mounting chorus of warnings from its foes in the west and even its friends in Moscow. "We won't be bullied," said Iran's Persident, Mahmoud Ahamdinejad, who denied Iran has nuclear ambitions and insisted... Read More