Tehran’s military capabilities do not match its ambitions for recognition and status. It is cautious, defensive, and prudent in resorting to force, due as much to experience as to realism about its own limits.
Russia’s annexation of Crimea and possible future incursions into eastern Ukraine could reshape the geopolitical map of Europe and derail cooperation between Moscow and the West for years to come.
The political impasse of Bahrain is a festering wound in the Gulf. If left unaddressed, it will eventually threaten U.S. assets and people.
The idea that the assurances given twenty years past by three permament members of the UN Security Council are worth naught today is extremely dangerous.
The Obama administration and Congress should divert a fraction of the time and energy now spent debating whether to add sanctions on Iran to the more difficult challenge of figuring out how to cooperate in removing them if a final agreement is reached.
Putin’s annexation of Crimea may be a victory at home, but it will harm Russia’s interests in the Middle East. If Iran could get sanctions removed, it might benefit from selling gas and oil to Europe.
Russia and Iran are conferring about the supply of new nuclear power plants at the Bushehr site on the Persian Gulf. Iran operates one Russian reactor there and building more could contribute to a comprehensive agreement between the six powers and Iran.
Today, many countries have to fight against terrorist organizations, which have roots in the Soviet war in Afghanistan. However, this lesson is still unlearned: in Syria, fighters under Islamic flags have gained support of several countries, but this support will recoil upon the supporters’ own heads.
When Tehran agreed in November to the interim deal and the U.S. Senate moved to increase sanctions, it reinforced the idea in Iran that no matter they do, good or bad behavior, the same answer comes out of the United States.
For Iran to admit that it worked on nuclear weapons would be more significant than Iran’s 2003 statement that it failed to declare to the IAEA a flurry of nuclear activities which could be justified by Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.
















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