via LobeLog
by Mitchell Plitnick
We’ve all seen it in movies and television shows. A man with a gun is pointing at an innocent, making demands of the “good guys.” When our heroes do not deliver, the man shoots the innocent and tells our heroes that it was their fault. Do we buy it? Of course not.
The international community witnessed a number of natural disasters in 2013. Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in November, caused extensive damage with about 8,000 people dead or missing and more than 16 million affected. Other countries, including India and Mexico, were also severely damaged by typhoons and hurricanes in 2013. The Solomon Islands, China, [...]
via LobeLog
by Marsha B. Cohen
Last week marked the 68th anniversary of the WWII destruction of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (Aug. 6) and Nagasaki (Aug. 9) — the first and only deployment of nuclear weapons in human history. Within moments of the nuclear explosions that destroyed these cities, at least 200,000 people [...]
via Lobe Log
by Jasmin Ramsey
Press reports about medical supply shortages in Iran, some of which have described devastating consequences, have been surfacing in the last two years, while debate rages on about who’s responsible — the Iranian government or the sanctions regime. Siamak Namazi, a Dubai-based business consultant and former Public Policy [...]
via Lobe Log
by Sara Vakhshouri
In the last week of April, the US Energy Department issued a report showing that Iran’s crude oil and condensate exports have dropped to their lowest level in the past 26 years. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that Iran’s net oil export revenue in 2012 was $69 [...]
The fledging Okinawa Movie Festival, which is now rapidly earning a name as a vital showcase for films from Asia and Japanese regional culture, concluded last week. A glittering array of Asian artists from countries as such as China, Taiwan and India, alongside aspiring young filmmakers from Japan, presented their wares for awards in categories [...]
via IPS News
Iran is unlikely to agree to curb its nuclear programme unless the U.S. and its Western allies are prepared to ease tough economic sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic over the past decade, according to a major new report signed by more than three dozen former top U.S. foreign-policy [...]
via Lobe Log
By Richard Javad Heydarian
A key foreign policy consequence of President Barak Obama’s reelection is the growing possibility of face-to-face talks between the United States. and Iran. Both the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi have expressed, albeit conditionally, their respective governments’ openness [...]
via Lobe Log
It’s not easy for a European observer of US politics to understand why the US Congress seems so much more concerned by Iran’s nuclear activities than by those of North Korea (the DPRK). Congressional pressure on the White House to put a stop to Iranian activities seems never-ending and Congressional majorities [...]
via Lobe Log
This past week a couple of articles have been published that hint at the central incoherence of the United States’ Iran policy. The arguments are not necessarily new, but they show in concrete terms how the stated objective of US sanctions, which is to change the calculations and behavior of Iran’s [...]
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