Khatami-era Nuclear Negotiator Explains why Iran doesn’t want the bomb

According to Ambassador Seyed Hossein Mousavian, the spokesperson for Iran’s nuclear negotiating team (2003-2005) and now a visiting scholar at Princeton University, an Iranian nuclear weapon “would provide only a short-term regional advantage that would turn into a longer-term vulnerability”. Arrested… Continue Reading

Gary Sick: Iran Nuclear Deal Requires Proper Political Will

From the English language transcript of a VOA interview with Columbia Professor Gary Sick, an acute observer of US-Iranian relations who served on the National Security Council staffs of President Ford, Carter and Reagan: SD: You’ve presented a deal in… Continue Reading

Brzezinski Lists Washington’s Iran Options if Talks Fail

Last week I attended an event hosted by the Arms Control Association and the National Iranian American Council on how to make diplomacy work with Iran. I wrote about it here. Keynote speaker Zbigniew Brzezinski was the last to speak… Continue Reading

In Search of a Strategy for the Middle East

by James Russell As suggested most recently by Stephen Walt, a regrettable and recurring theme of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy in the Gulf and the Middle East over the last four years has been the lack of any sense… Continue Reading

Israel, Gaza and Iran: “The Rockets’ Red Glare, the Bombs Bursting in Air”

The Gaza Strip, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt and the State of Israel, is 25 miles in long. At its narrowest point it is less than 4 miles wide, and at its maximum width, is 7.5 miles wide–a total area of 141 square miles. With a population of 1.7 million people, Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on earth.

Iran, whose borders include the Arabian Sea to the south, Iraq to the east, Pakistan and Afghanistan to the west, and the Caspian Sea and post-Soviet Muslim states of Central Asia to the north, has a total land mass of 636,000 square miles–about the same as Alaska or Mexico–and a population of 70 million. Yet Foreign Policy CEO and editor at large David Rothkopf recently quoted an Israeli “source close to the discussions” who claimed that an Israeli surgical strike Iranian on enrichment facilities conducted by air, utilizing bombers and drone support.“might take only ‘a couple of hours’ in the best case and only would involve a ‘day or two’ overall.” Continue Reading