“Diamonds for Peanuts” and the Double Standard

by Marsha B. Cohen The New York Times’ op-ed page headlined “Hopes for Iran”, which offers half a dozen cautious-to-negative views on Iran’s president-elect Hassan Rouhani, unexpectedly links to a “Related Story” published last year: Should Israel Accept a Nuclear Ban?… Continue Reading

Do Obama and Romney differ on Iran?

Two must-read analyses of the Iran portion from last night’s final presidential debate are brought to us by TIME’s Tony Karon and the Arms Control Association’s Greg Thielmann. (This TPM headline also sums up the entire debate quite nicely: “Romney’s Final Debate… Continue Reading

Expect High Human Toll from Robust Military Assault Against Iranian Nuclear Program

An excellent October 18 article, “The Myth of ‘Surgical Strikes’ on Iran“, by David Isenberg highlighted many of the conclusions of a sobering study by industrialist Khosrow Semnani on the potentially steep human cost of even a relatively selective attack against Iran’s diverse nuclear infrastructure. Semnani maintains… Continue Reading

After Dempsey Warning, Israel May Curb War Threat

By Jim Lobe and Gareth Porter via IPS News President Barack Obama’s explicit warning that he will not accept a unilateral Israeli attack against Iran may force Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step back from his ostensible threat of… Continue Reading

Notes from Freeman on WikiLeaks, Arab Leaders and Iran

Earlier this week, Ambassador Chas W. Freeman offered some invaluable insights on WikiLeaks, which Jim Lobe and I wrote about in this IPS piece and I shared here.  I thought I’d take another chance to empty my notebook of more of… Continue Reading