Tag: iran

Mideast Peace Key to Countering Iran, Arabs Told US Diplomats 

Gleeful Israeli leaders and their neoconservative supporters here have spent much of the past week insisting that the State Department cables published by WikiLeaks prove that Sunni Arab leaders in the Middle East are far more preoccupied with the threat posed by an ascendant and possibly nuclear Iran than with a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian … Continue reading “Mideast Peace Key to Countering Iran, Arabs Told US Diplomats “

Cables Belie Gulf States’ Backing for Strikes on Iran

The dominant theme that emerged in U.S. media coverage of the first round of WikiLeaks diplomatic cables last week was that Arab regimes in the Gulf – led by Saudi Arabia – shared Israel’s view that Iran’s nuclear program had to be stopped by military force, if necessary. The New York Times generated that narrative … Continue reading “Cables Belie Gulf States’ Backing for Strikes on Iran”

What the Media Does Not Say About the Anti-Iran Leaks

The most intensely debated documents released by WikiLeaks last week were about what some of the Arab rulers think of Iran and its nuclear program. According to the documents, many of the Arab leaders have been privately urging the United States to attack Iran while publicly claiming that they oppose such attack. In an April … Continue reading “What the Media Does Not Say About the Anti-Iran Leaks”

Thursday: 10 Iraqis Killed, 22 Wounded

Updated at 8:49 EST, Dec. 2, 2010 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the U.S. drawdown is making it harder for the U.N. to carry out it’s own operations. Meanwhile, the U.S. military is troubled by the porous Iranian border and lack of functioning security there, which allows for weapons and fighters to stream in. At least 10 Iraqis were killed and 22 more were wounded in the latest violence. An Arab man of unknown nationality was also killed.

The Myth of a Shia-Sunni/Persian-Arab Confrontation

Is there a Shia crescent threatening the stability of western Asia and northern Africa? Is there a historically coded Arab-Persian enmity driving the international politics of the region? Does it date back centuries, and is it now viewed as a battle for regional supremacy? If we are to believe the media comments on the latest … Continue reading “The Myth of a Shia-Sunni/Persian-Arab Confrontation”

Russians Refuted US Claim of Iranian Missile Threat to Europe

A diplomatic cable from last February released by WikiLeaks provides a detailed account of how Russian specialists on the Iranian ballistic missile program refuted the U.S. suggestion that Iran has missiles that could target European capitals or intends to develop such a capability. In fact, the Russians challenged the very existence of the mystery missile … Continue reading “Russians Refuted US Claim of Iranian Missile Threat to Europe”

US Intelligence Thwarted Attack on Iran

Why should George W. Bush have been “angry” to learn in late 2007 of the “high-confidence” unanimous judgment of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran had stopped working on a nuclear weapon four years earlier? Seems to me he might have said “Hot Dog!” rather than curse under his breath. Nowhere in his memoir, … Continue reading “US Intelligence Thwarted Attack on Iran”

US Influence in Iraq on the Decline

SULAIMANIYA – Iraq’s much-awaited recent power-sharing deal signifies a shift of influence on Iraqi politics away from the U.S. and its regional allies to domestic Iraqi political actors, most notably the Kurds, and eastward to Iran. In a matter of days, Kurdish-initiated talks did what Washington and Tehran and their regional allies could not do … Continue reading “US Influence in Iraq on the Decline”