Analysts are piling on to the already expressed skepticism of U.S. lawmakers regarding optimistic claims being aired by Iranian officials. Newly inaugurated Iranian president Hassan Rouhani yesterday suggested that Iran is looking to resolve its dispute with the West within three to six months. Bloomberg columnist Jeffrey Goldberg had already on Tuesday aired...

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A pro-regime newspaper announced earlier this week that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem will lead the country’s delegation to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Muallem will reportedly speak next Monday. Political intrigue will swirl around whether and to what extent Muallem is treated as a legitimate representative...

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Newly inaugurated Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke to the United Nations General Assembly this evening. Expectations were high after a series of tweets written by Rouhani cemented conventional wisdom that Tehran was offering a new tone, while an op-ed written by Rouhani and published in the Washington Post promised new...

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Top officials from Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned Iranian diplomats over the weekend that they were courting danger by diplomatically engaging the United States. A statement issued by the IRGC was not very subtly directed toward “those who favor interaction”: “Historical experiences make it necessary for the diplomatic...

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Intelligence officials and world leaders are expressing renewed doubts about the potential for Syria’s chemical arsenal to be safely secured and destroyed, amid newly published figures describing Syria’s stockpile and political maneuvering by actors involved in the crisis. The Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,...

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is blaming Israel for – per Iran’s Fars news agency – being the “main cause of regional insecurity” across the Middle East. The recently inaugurated revolutionary-era cleric made the comments in an interview aired Thursday with NBC’s Ann Curry, blasting the Jewish state for bringing “instability...

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Confusion swirled throughout the day as to the nature and scope of a series of Russian-facilitated deals designed to defuse the international crisis triggered by what is widely suspected to be the use of chemical weapons by the Bashar al-Assad regime. NBC News reported that by day’s end Damascus “appeared...

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The Syrian conflict has driven tens of thousands of refugees into neighboring countries, triggering both general regional instability and country-specific crises in Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon. American and U.N. diplomats have described the displacement of literally “millions of people. Sectarian strife locked in by the conflict had already as of...

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A car bomb exploded in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli this morning, slightly wounding Sheikh Saadeddine Ghiyeh, a pro-Assad figure in the area and in the country. The Lebanese army responded quickly to contain the scene, and issued a statement describing the explosive as having been placed under the...

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Legislators in the U.S. of Representatives and Senate have begun to evaluate yesterday’s report from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, which showed that Iran is on track to lock in the technology allowing it to rush across the nuclear finish line undetected. The current projected timeline would have Iran achieving the...

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