Nuclear fishing boats and further proof that Congress is losing it on Iran
It is no secret that some of the most hawkish U.S. policies and positions towards Iran over its disputed nuclear program have come not from the Executive branch, but from Congress. Spurred on by AIPAC and other powerful pro-war lobbies and organizations, Congress has become a cesspool for blatant and often bizarre war-mongering Iran resolutions. […]
Reuters Corrects False Claim Iran Enriching Weapons-Grade Uranium
In response to a request from NIAC as part of our Iranfact.org project, Reuters has corrected two articles containing inaccurate, misleading statements regarding Iran’s nuclear program. A December 6 article by Reuters claims, “Washington says Tehran is enriching uranium to levels that could be used in nuclear weapons.” And on December 10 Reuters wrote, “The West suspects Iran […]
Kristol’s Push for Military Strikes Against Iran
William Kristol and Jamie Fly, neoconservatives who were instrumental in orchestrating the War in Iraq, are at it again. While their previous war advocacy shop, the Project for a New American Century, is now defunct (after a job well done), they have reconstituted their pro-war efforts in the form of the Foreign Policy Institute. This […]
If ECI, AIPAC, and Senate hawks think it’s time to launch a war, they should say so
Yesterday, the Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI) released a new ad (see the J Street response, above) rejecting diplomacy and calling for an immediate “action” with regard to Iran, further adding to the list of pro-war efforts to sabotage diplomacy and limit Obama’s maneuverability at the upcoming Moscow sessions. Although they never directly call for […]
Panetta Says It Would Take Iran 2-3 Years to Build Nuke
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta described how close he believes Iran is to building nuclear weapons in an in-depth interview that aired over the weekend on CBS’s “60 minutes.” “The consensus is that, if they decided to do it, it would probably take them about a year to be able to produce a bomb and then […]
Dysfunctional Congress Threatens Iran Talks
As the United States and Iran look for an exit ramp off the road to war, they may find a surprising new obstacle: the very sanctions legislation that many credit for bringing Iran back to the negotiating table. As a result of that sanctions bill, Congress now has the de-facto power to block any diplomatic […]
Is Iran Building a Nuke?
What new information has the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report revealed concerning Iran’s nuclear program? What next steps should the Obama Administration and Congress take towards Iran? These questions and more are answered in the 11th episode of Let’s Talk Iran with Ali Vaez, Director of the Iran project at the Federation of American […]
Akbar Ganji: “The Worst Scenario for Iran: A Different Look”
On June 15, 2011, Akbar Ganji published an article,”The Worst Scenario for Iran: A Different Look,” on BBC Persian, examining the economy of Iran and the effects of the international sanctions on it. NIAC’s Ali Tayebi and Sahar Fahimi have translated this article from Ganji’s original pen, Persian, to English. “The Worst Scenario for […]
Stop talking war, start talking…
We’re slowly reaching a critical point in the nuclear impasse with Iran. If you listen to Iran hawks on the right, Iran is hell bent on getting a nuclear weapon. They just know that’s what Iran wants, despite, as Roger Cohen suggests, no evidence or logical basis supporting their conclusion. Unfortunately, there’s been little to […]
Are Iran hawks pushing Tehran’s narrative?
Reading Seymour Hersh’s latest piece in the New Yorker, I can’t help but get déjà vu. Hersh reports that the recent (classified) 2011 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear weapons program reaches the same conclusion as the 2007 NIE that Iran had a nuclear weapons program but halted it in 2003. Despite the two conclusions, […]
Putting pro-people lipstick on a pro-war pig
Neoconservatives behind the propaganda film Iranium continue to mask their pro-war, pro-sanctions agenda as being somehow supportive of the people of Iran. The producers of the film, which has been criticized as “using the struggle of the Iranian people to push for their war-agenda,” recently released a clip arguing that Iranians need communications technology in […]
Leverage Through Sanctions Not a Long-Term Strategy
Last week, the U.S took a page out of its well-worn foreign policy playbook and imposed new sanctions on North Korea. The similarities between the U.S approach to North Korea and Iran are striking, centering on a strategy of sanctions, isolation, and containment. It can be argued that the U.S has had more success isolating North […]