One wonders how much longer Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons can be qualified with the word “alleged.” Here is an excerpt of a report by David Sanger and William Broad on the latest shenanigans at the International Atomic Energy Agency:
Archive for the 'nuclear proliferation' Category
A quick reminder about another AJC video, Point of No Return.
I’ve just written and directed a new video for AJC on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. You can watch it on YouTube here.
In his latest interview with Der Spiegel, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is by turns ingratiating (”By the way, thank you once again for coming. You are Germans, and we think very highly of the Germans,”) haughty (”You are journalists, not representatives of NATO, which is why I will not explain my position to you in this regard,”) petulant (”Besides, I didn’t even want to meet the Italian politicians,”) and conspiratorial (”Mr. Obama’s biggest problem has to do with domestic policy…the new US president is under pressure from these groups.”) And yet, for all those swings of mood and tone as well as those dark hints - no, he doesn’t specify which groups, but you can guess - an unmistakable clarity emerges.
As I’ve argued before, one of the problems in portraying Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons as a concern for Israel alone is that it ignores the panic in the Arab world. In the Gulf especially, the chorus for a direct confrontation with Iran is growing. Here’s the Kuwait Times:
Asked at a major press conference earlier this week about the prospects for talks with Iran, President Obama highlighted two issues which could likely derail any meaningful exchange. First, Iran’s nuclear program, and specifically the fear that it could trigger a regional nuclear arms race. Second, Iran’s funding of terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah.
Continue reading ‘Iran’s Nuclear Program: Don’t Forget the Arabs’
This is a guest post by David Adler.
I take no pleasure from the fact that right-wing pundits are lashing Helen Thomas, the veteran White House correspondent, over her two-part question to President Barack Obama last night. And yet Thomas deserves to be upbraided. The fact that she’s held up by liberals as a paragon of courage is an embarrassment. Drifting further toward the fringe every day, she certainly doesn’t speak for me.
In their book “The Israel Lobby,” John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt conceded that Israel was not alone in opposing an Iran armed with nuclear weapons. “Many of Iran’s Arab neighbors are also concerned about its nuclear ambitions as well as its growing influence in the region,” they wrote.
More than three hundred news outlets, including CNN, the BBC, the Associated Press and the other majors, have reported the Iranian regime’s closure of a human rights center run by Shirin Ebadi. But there’s one outlet which hasn’t done so, despite its attempt to pass itself off as a legitimate news organization.
Continue reading ‘Iran: Human Rights and Nuclear Escalation’
This is a guest post by Kenneth Bandler, Director of Communications for the American Jewish Committee.
One answer to Iran’s quest for nuclear capability apparently is for the United States - and other Western nations - to facilitate nuclear proliferation throughout the Gulf.
According to this story in Haaretz, the incoming Obama administration will offer Israel a “nuclear umbrella” to protect it against a nuclear attack from Iran.
Continue reading ‘Nuclear Umbrella More of a Comfort Blanket’
Over the last fortnight, speculation that the future of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s President, may be less than rosy has intensified. It now seems likely that his immediate predecessor, the (supposedly) reform-minded Mohammad Khatami, will be a candidate in the Presidential elections scheduled for June 2009.
The trend in Iran for outing networks of Israeli “spies” and executing them continues. A few days after the execution of Ali Ashtari, a 45 year old salesman, the regime has announced the cracking of “spy ring” involving three suspects - and it is seeking the death penalty for them.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in trouble, says The Economist. Citing two of his predictions that spectacularly backfired - that Obama would lose, and that oil would never drop below $100 per barrel - the paper argues that Iran now faces an economic crisis that will weaken the ultraconservative faction Ahmadinejad represents.
