IPS Writers in the Blogosphere

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Worrying Development Ahead of Resumed Talks with Iran

From On December 11, 2012 · Leave a Comment

via Lobe Log

Laura Rozen reports that the six world power negotiating team may not be revamping its package to be more generous with Iran as many were hoping (Russia has not even signed on to the new version yet) ahead of resumed talks which likely won’t take place until January.

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Iran and the United States: Ready, set, go?

From On November 16, 2012 · Leave a Comment

via Lobe Log

Former Iran-desk State Department staffer Reza Marashi and journalist Sahar Namazikhah remind us that Iran’s influnetial Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) has publicly recognized the benefits of negotiating with the US to avert a military conflict through a report that’s available on their website. “To that end, the Intelligence Ministry [...]

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Obama Denies Bilateral Iran Nuclear Talks Underway but doesn’t Reject them Either

From On November 14, 2012 · Leave a Comment

via Lobe Log

During his first Press Conference today following his successful second-term campaign, President Barak Obama emphasized that the United States wants to peacefully resolve the tense dispute over the Islamic Republic’s controversial nuclear program (the US is reportedly considering a more-for-more negotiating strategy) but denied that talks are “imminent”. Importantly, he didn’t reject [...]

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Does Tehran want Obama or Romney?

From On November 5, 2012 · Leave a Comment

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The answer to this question is simple: there is no such thing as one Tehran. Opinions vary and arguments to back up the case for either Barak Obama or Mitt Romney are sometimes unexpected. The way it looks now, the hardliners prefer Romney. Just listen to the argument made by [...]

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Will Disgraced Pres. Ahmadinejad Impede Diplomatic Window of Opportunity with Iran?

From On November 2, 2012 · Leave a Comment

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US-Iran relations expert Trita Parsi explains why diplomatic headway can be made with Iran in the time period after the US presidential election and before the Iranian election in the Daily Beast’s “Open Zion“:

Between November 8, 2012, and mid-March 2013, a unique opportunity exists to make diplomatic headway [...]

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No changes in Iran-US relations expected until after Iranian election

From On November 1, 2012 · Leave a Comment

via Lobe Log

This week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton indicated they wanted talks with Iran to resume even as the US’s dual-track policy of pressure and diplomacy (translation: more sanctions) continues:

HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ASHTON: As you know, in New York, I was feeding back to the P-5+1/E-3+3 ministers [...]

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Sanctions Continue to hit Average Iranians

From On November 1, 2012 · Leave a Comment

via Lobe Log

The US-led sanctions regime isn’t directly targeting Iran’s healthcare system but reports continue to suggest that critically-ill Iranians are being affected. The Al Jazeera English clip above squares with Najmeh Bozorgmehr’s Financial Times article from September about how  sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank are preventing critically-ill patients from getting crucial medical aid:

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What is Iran up to these days?

From On October 31, 2012 · Leave a Comment

via Lobe Log

Laura Rozen has an exclusive on alleged Iranian attempts to establish back-channel contacts with non-official Americans ahead of the (hopefully) resumed nuclear negotiations:

Mostafa Dolatyar, a career Iranian diplomat who heads the Iranian think tank, the Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), which has close ties to Iran’s [...]

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Former Mossad chief: Failure to negotiate with Iran would lead to war

From On October 23, 2012 · Leave a Comment

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Laura Rozen’s recent interview with former Mossad director Efraim Halevy focuses heavily on diplomatic options for the US, Israel and Iran in the impasse over the Iranian nuclear program. Halevy, like former Mossad director Meir Dagan and a number of past and present US and Israeli national security officials, opposes preventive [...]

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Former Israeli Mossad Director Gets Liver Transplant from Iran Ally Belarus

From On October 17, 2012 · Leave a Comment

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Meir Dagan, the former director of Israel’s Mossad, has received a liver transplant in Belarus. Reports from the Israeli press that have now made their way into western media sources state that Belarus’ president, Alexander Lukashenko, announced at a press conference on Oct. 16 that the operation had taken place [...]

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