Articles tagged with: Cover story
Barring Rafsanjani from elections could have serious implications for the Iranian regime
The Iranian regime’s presidential election, which is scheduled for June 14, took several dramatic turns late May when the Guardian Council disqualified former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who had surprised everyone by standing in for the elections. In the theocratic regime of Iran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei holds absolute power and ultimate authority on all matters relating to foreign policy and national security, including the nuclear file.
White House accuses Syria of chemical attacks
The White House accused Syria’s government for the first time, April 25, of using chemical weapons in its civil war, but administration officials called for a broader United Nations investigation and edged away from saying Damascus had crossed a “red line” that might trigger U.S. intervention.
Obama brokers Israeli rapprochement with Turkey but makes little progress on Palestinian issue
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized late March to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ending a nearly three-year-long feud in a phone call brokered by President Barack Obama. Obama said that “the timing was right” for Israel and Turkey to begin repairing diplomatic relations, which were frozen when Israeli naval commandos raided a Turkish ship, Mavi Marmara, that was attempting to break an Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip; nine Turkish nationals on board were killed.
Brinkmanship between Japan and China could spiral out of control
Both Koreas soon will be governed by the progeny of Cold War strongmen. China is in the hands of the son of one of Mao Zedong’s revolutionary comrades. The incoming prime minister of Japan is a long-standing hawk and the grandson of one of Japan’s war cabinet leaders. This month, when a two-engine Chinese oceanic administration surveillance plane flew near the disputed islands, Japan responded by scrambling F-15 fighter jets.
The forgotten man: Abbas
Abbas’ effort to get more backing at the United Nations may be the last, best hope to keep the idea of negotiations toward two states alive. Obama and Netanyahu would be wise to support it (and try to shape it) while taking the spotlight off Gaza.
In troubling times, troubled debate
The third presidential debate was supposed to showcase the candidates’ foreign policies. Instead, we saw two candidates tap-dance around the serious issues to appeal to voters who want their government to turn inward after a decade of conflict abroad.
Israeli PM calls for red line on Iran’s nuclear plans
At the United Nations General Assembly late September, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the international community to set a “clear red line” for taking action, by next summer at the latest, to prevent Iran from completing the second stage of nuclear enrichment necessary to make a bomb.
If Syria crosses red line, US may move in swiftly—Obama
The Pentagon has made contingency plans to send small teams of special operations troops into Syria if the White House decides it needs to secure chemical weapons depots now controlled by security forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, senior U.S. officials said.
Syria’s Aleppo reported tense… awaiting battle
Syrian aid workers said, July 28, that they had suspended their work inside Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, in anticipation of a bruising battle between rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar Assad in what would certainly be a climactic moment, if not the climax, in an increasingly complicated civil war.
NATO leaders endorse Obama’s Afghanistan exit plan
NATO leaders, late May, adopted President Barack Obama’s exit strategy from the nearly 11-year-old U.S.-led intervention in Afghanistan, cementing an “irreversible” pullout of foreign combat troops that will leave Afghan security forces with the leading role in combat operations by the summer of 2013.
