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 […]
Military and civilian leaders on dangers of war with Iran
Apparently, having learned nothing from their wrong-headed push for going to war with Iraq based on questionable evidence, Bill Kristol and the gang is back once again banging the drums of war. In the wake of last Tuesday’s revelations about an alleged assassination attempt against the Saudi Ambassador in Washington D.C., a cacophony of calls […]
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, […]
New Legislation Targets Iranian Civilian Flights
When President Obama told Iranians this past Norooz, “though times may seem dark, I am with you,” NIAC presented several small but significant steps the President could take to support a brighter future for the Iranian people. Meanwhile, Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA) was busy working on legislation to turn out the lights on hopes of building goodwill between the […]
Paying for the US-Iran Feud With Blood
In the summer of 2009, in the aftermath of the elections, there was obviously a lot going on in Iran. But one of the things that I remember made everyone hold their breaths in those months is probably not what you’re assuming right now. On July 15 2009, an Iranian passenger jet – a Russian-made […]
Military Attack on Iran: A Combination of Ignorance and Naivety
As always, those who talk about what US policy towards Iran should look like, are already prepared for failure of current US policy. Now Senator Joe Lieberman is preparing to “up the rhetorical ante” on Iran and endorse military actions if sanctions fail In an excerpt of what his staff has labeled a “major policy […]
Clinton’s Rhetoric on Iran: Does It Match the Administration’s Actions?
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a wide-ranging speech yesterday at the Council on Foreign Relations on the current and future United States role in the international community. In addition to commenting on general trends and intentions, Secretary Clinton discussed many individual policy issues, one of which was Iran. She described how the United States […]
Shifting on 20% enrichment?
Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Permanent Envoy to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh relayed seemingly coordinated messages yesterday, hinting that Iran might consider giving up its 20% enrichment work, which is currently the biggest stumbling block for the fuel swap deal. While reiterating the usual assertion that uranium enrichment is allowed under the NPT, […]
And Yet Another Great Satan
Having made some important concessions on the proposed nuclear fuel swap with Brazil and Turkey, Iran now seems to have compensated by taking a harder line at home ahead of the June 12 anniversary of last year’s election. Iran signed onto the Brazilian-Turkish deal, marking a significant concession from Iran’s previous position which had demanded […]
Why Rafsanjani is so important for the Greens
Six months ago in Mashad, Iran, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani delivered a speech to a group of Iranian student activists saying: “If people want us, we will govern; and if they don’t, we will have to go.” This might have seemed like nothing new, but it wasn’t coming from just anyone — it was said by […]